Paper Mario The Thousand-Year Door Review (2024)

Paper Mario turns back to an earlier chapter to redeliver the best in the series.

Paper Mario The Thousand-Year Door gets a reprint 20 years after the whimsical storybook dazzled on GameCube. It expanded upon what made the Nintendo 64 original such a treat and perfected a turn-based combat formula we’ve missed ever since.

RPG fans have been eating good over the past few years, with a flowing pipeline of varied remakes, rebirths and original roles to play. But it hasn’t always been this way. Cast your mind back two decades, when JRPGs were almost exclusively for seasoned players and a daunting proposition for the rest of us.

Paper Mario changed all that for me. It took the makings of a Japanese RPG and forged a welcoming game with simpler mechanics, an easy-to-follow story, and a cast of light-hearted larrikins with a healthy dose of imagination. Its sequel, The Thousand-Year Door, took it all to another level that’s yet to be surpassed.

Truth-be-told, The Thousand-Year Door is one of those games I remember fondly, but don’t really remember playing. That’s a fair indication we’re ready for a remake.

Whereas other GameCube classics have recently been called upon to prolong the Switch’s retirement with varying degrees of enhancements – a great remaster of Metroid Prime, and upscaled ports of Pikmin 1 and 2 – Paper Mario The Thousand-Year Door is a proper remake from original developer Intelligent Systems. And yet, it’s one of the simplest remakes I’ve ever played with as little touched as possible, closer to the remit of a remaster – and that’s exactly what I wanted.

The obvious comparison is Super Mario RPG, and the two have launched surprisingly close considering their similarities. But whereas that’s a comprehensive overhaul that still exudes the ‘90s, Paper Mario TTYD has been so faithfully restored that anyone unfamiliar with the GameCube original would be hard pressed to recognise that it’s not a fresh sequel. Yet, it feels vintage, so if you introduced it as a game from 2004, those same newcomers would probably think it looks great for such an old game.

While I daresay most reviews will be influenced by the nostalgic lens of GameCube enthusiasts (guilty), the larger audience will be those playing for the first time. TTYD has finally been unshackled from a console of barely 20 million and unleashed on a juggernaut that’s surpassed 140 million units.

Its modernised look is more aligned to the recent Paper Mario games, which delved further into the arts & craft aesthetic, while being careful not to tarnish memories. It does a commendable job delivering an old game on current-gen hardware how you remember it, not as it actually was.

Paper Mario The Thousand-Year Door remains beloved for its entertaining story outside the bounds of the Mushroom Kingdom, delightful sense of humour with genuinely funny quips full of personality, and rewarding combat system that forms the backbone of its 30-odd hours.

For those returning, the core game underneath the glow up, while rebuilt, is exactly as you remember it. There are a handful of quality-of-life improvements and probably some dialogue tweaks (it’s been 20 years, I can’t remember, but the vibes are the same). Otherwise, Mario’s tale across Rogueport remains true to the source material.

TTYD is still how I see Paper Mario as a series, even though the franchise moved away from turn-based combat for its Wii sequel to focus on action, platforming and puzzle-solving. The latest new arrival, The Origami King, partially restored balance somewhere in-between.

While a pure RPG, TTYD did lean more into its paper world than its predecessor, so I can see why future games went in that direction. The beginnings of the paper-based puzzle-solving are on full display here, as Mario often has to roll-up or turn side-on to slip through a paper-thin gap. Exploration across linear paths is important, but it’s the combat that makes TTYD so compelling.

When you enter combat, Mario and one of his seven sidekicks take to centre stage to do battle in front of an audience. Each of his allies has their own unique abilities to complement Mario’s familiar arsenal of head-bopping, fierce hammering, and Kooper shell tossing. There are also special moves, powered by the audience’s adulations, a bevvy of items that attack directly or buff stats, and a range of unlockable moves that require Flower Points.

It’s turn-based combat at its finest, but also timing-based, as most attacks require accurate inputs to deliver their maximum potential. The parameters are plain to see – you don’t want to jump on a spiky enemy and it’s pointless trying to ignite an enemy naturally ensconced in flames.

It’s an elegant system that has a hidden depth across the board. Strategically appealing to the audience instead of attacking directly can be crucial if those abilities form a key component of your playbook. Equally they can be left largely unused, leaving your special meter with ample supply and of little consequence.

Likewise, as you explore, you’ll unlock a collection of badges that initially have minimal bearing on Mario’s fortunes. Across the opening hours, the badge system seems a little superfluous, especially since one of the first badges you can purchase is a mini-GameCube, which switches to the original soundtrack. Certainly nice to have, but not necessary for combat – and the remade tunes are totally banging.

However, the more you play, the more you can choose to delve into the world of badges, which unlock increasingly powerful moves or improvements to existing abilities. By Chapter 3, my active badges completely changed my approach to combat. But there are only so many Badge Points available, which dictate how many badges can be active at once.

It forces you to ponder each time Mario levels up as to if he needs more HP, FP or BP. Do you want to have more badges, thus abilities, active or extra FP to be able to use more of those enabled? As a Mario game, HP is the least of your concerns, but still shouldn’t be neglected too long.

It’s an intrinsic battle system that’s easy to learn and a little harder to master; only because there’s far more to it than you initially see. It’s very welcoming for more casual RPG players, yet still highly engaging for all but the most diehard JRPG fans. It’s a combat system that appeals to a wide audience in a way only a Nintendo game can deliver.

The art style lends itself to the ageing Switch, and while a reduction to 30 frames per second is disappointing, it doesn’t really matter in such a slow-paced game. Timing is everything in battle, so it does feel different. But unless you’ve recently played the GameCube version you’re hardly going to notice. For the most part, it runs well enough but expect noticeable slowdown when the heat is on or while transitioning to battle.

Beyond the visual and audio overhauls, there are some small quality of life improvements. The Battle Master helps players practice timing-based combat but can be bypassed if you know what you’re doing, and a mouse helps you keep track of side quests you might have started and forgotten about.

Jumping into TTYD after Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, on the opposite end of the remake spectrum, I’ve enjoyed playing such a linear RPG. There are light puzzles and some backtracking, but Mario’s quest to find the Crystal Stars to open the Thousand-Year Door, and ultimately rescue Princess Peach, is decisively chapter based. It’s always leading you along the right path, and while there are collectibles and side quests, you need to intentionally divert from the main storyline.

While it’s an older style of RPG, I’ve found it refreshing to play such a well-paced game. Everything happens exactly when it’s meant to. It feels like you’re reading a book through a balanced beginning, middle and end without getting lost along the way. While the more open Paper Mario games introduced clever puzzles and exploration, they got bogged down with backtracking and sluggish combat. They lost some of the storybook magic of the original Paper Mario games, which returns in full with The Thousand-Year Door.

The Thousand-Year Door remake is a triumphant return for Paper Mario. It turns back to an earlier chapter in the series that knows exactly what it’s trying to achieve and does it masterfully. It’s built upon a welcoming RPG structure with a hidden depth that delightfully unfolds the more you play. As far as remakes go, The Thousand-Year Door stays as true as possible to its inspiration, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. This is the best way to play the best Paper Mario game.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door was reviewed using a promotional code on Switch, as provided by the publisher. Click here to learn more about Stevivor’s scoring scale.