Nintendo and its fans usually get a long pretty well, with the Paper Mario franchise being an unusual bone of contention. For many years Nintendo has stubbornly attempted to dial down the quirky stories, unique characters, and RPG elements that defined early entries in the series, much to the chagrin of a particular cadre of fans. As perhaps the last true RPG in the series, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door has taken on a certain symbolic importance to those spurned fans even though it was never a particularly big hit, selling fewer than 2 million copies on Gamecube.
After decades of divisiveness, most had come to expect Nintendo would stick to their anti-RPG guns forever, so it came as a bit of a shock when they announced a full HD Switch remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door last year. That made some long-suffering folks very happy, but is the game still a cut above in 2024? I’ve had the opportunity to go hands-on with the new version of Paper Mario TTYD and can comment on roughly the first third of the game (up until the end of Chapter 3). Hop on down for my initial impressions...
While I'll admit don’t have an encyclopedic memory of every line in the original version of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, the writing in the remake seems to be largely unchanged, down to NPCs making now-very-dated references to hot new games like Fire Emblem on the GBA. That said, the dragon Hooktail does retain her dislike of frogs (rather than crickets) from the original Japanese version of the game now, so perhaps some tweaks have been made to certain aspects of the translation.
As before, Princess Peach has decided to take off on a holiday, but gets sidetracked in the sketchy town of Rogueport. There she’s given a map which points to the Thousand-Year Door beneath the town that is said to contain a powerful and ominous “treasure.” Peach invites Mario to dig into this mystery, but by the time he arrives in Rogueport, Peach has been kidnapped by a mysterious group. It’s up to our mustachioed hero to find Peach and unravel the secret of the Thousand-Year Door while fending off threats both new and old (Bowser certainly isn’t going to let somebody else kidnap the Princess and take over the world while he’s around).
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door’s intro, which drops you right into the middle of a town full of chatty weirdos, is certainly a blast from the past after years of Nintendo moving the series away from ambitious storytelling and singular characters. The game’s setup is unique and the writing has that clever snap you remember, although it doesn’t quite stand out like it once did. While the kind of self-deprecating meta humor found in The Thousand-Year Door was an outlier back in 2004, 20 years later it’s bled into most Mario products, with even the likes of Super Mario Odyssey and the Super Mario Bros. Movie delivering plenty of tongue-in-cheek moments. Don’t get me wrong, there are still some charmingly weird moments in the game -- a computer falling in love with Peach after spying on her in the shower is still one of the most bonkers plot developments Nintendo has ever served up – but none of it feels quite as daring this time around.
In terms of gameplay, this is Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door as you remember it. If you’re afraid Nintendo may have secretly cut out the RPG bits, breathe easy. Leveling up by earning Star Points and customizing your play style with badges is still very much a thing. As before, combat combines turn-based decisions with well-timed button presses that either increase your offense or reduce the damage you take from enemies. The UI during battles is significantly cleaner and more readable now, but beyond that, not much has changed.
Level design also seems to be largely identical, perhaps to a fault at times. While more recent Paper Marios arguably backslid in terms of story and combat, they offered undeniable improvements in terms of level design. By contrast, most areas in The Thousand-Year Door consist of a series of very straightforward linear paths littered with enemies and the occasional simple puzzle with players frequently having to backtrack. As far as I can tell, little has been done to alleviate or modernize this, and as early as TTYD’s first chapter I was starting to feel the grind a bit.
When it comes to actual changes, it seems Nintendo and developer Intelligent Systems have mostly focused on Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door’s presentation. While this may look like a simple remastering at first glance, the game has actually been fully rebuilt from the ground up. In addition to generally looking shaper, the paper theme is pushed harder, with almost everything in the game now looking as if it’s made of cardboard and origami. Improved lighting makes certain areas and scenes feel more moody and little touches like reflective cobblestones in Rogueport or the background scenery during battles folding out like a popup book add some extra razzle-dazzle.
Beyond the pretty new visuals, you have to dig into The Thousand-Year Door remake’s menus to find any new additions. While I didn’t get to tinker with it much, there’s a new “Notes” section where you can keep track of Trouble Center tasks, Star Pieces, Shine Sprites, and fortunes. There are also new Art and Sound Galleries, although I haven’t been able to unlock anything in the former just yet.
Current Thoughts on Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
The new Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door doesn’t look to be as ambitious a remake as the Switch version of Super Mario RPG, with the focus largely being on (admittedly sharp) visual upgrades and not a ton else. On the flip side, fans concerned Nintendo may have decided to unduly tinker with one of their favorites needn’t worry – this is the same quirky, full-fledged RPG you remember. I still have more to play before I can render a final verdict, and there may well be some surprises to come, but so far Nintendo and Intelligent Systems are cutting along familiar lines.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door launches on Switch on May 23. You can expect a review from Wccftech prior to launch.
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