Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Switch Review

As someone who barely played the 12th best selling game on the GameCube because I was too edgy playing Halo on Xbox, or even Metroid Prime, the common sentiment is that Paper Mario: TTYD is the best entry in the series.

After rekindling our love for the series after Paper Mario: The Origami King, which was an absolutely fantastic game, which was likely because we didn’t bring baggage and expectations that many brought to the game, the time had come to find out what all of the fuss was about and if Paper Mario: TTYD, a game that originally released twenty years ago in 2004, should still be considered the best in the series?

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GOOD

The first and most obvious thing is that the visuals are absolutely stunning. Not only has the art style of Paper Mario stood the test of time, but somehow it looks on par or better than The Origami King, which was released just a few short years ago.

As far as remakes go, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door has everything you could ask for from Nintendo. It’s visuals have moved into the modern age, there are some smart quality of life changes and there are some additions that that might not seems like much, but add up to a greater package.

The remake even goes above and beyond what is expected from Nintendo when it comes to ports and remakes with the inclusion of art and sound galleries. If you find all the start pieces on each level you will unlock that levels art gallery that includes some very cool concept art. If you find all the star sprites you will unlock the audio galleries that let you hear the music from each chapter. There are also certain badges that allow you to hear the original audio. Inclusions like this make the remake the definitive edition and also give an added incentive to find all of the collectibles.

NOT SO GOOD

There isn’t much to complain about with Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door other than some pacing issues. First, the game starts off a little slow with a lot of reading and a lot of repetitious battles with familiar enemies and familiar weapons. As the game progresses, it picks up plenty of variety with the combat, but large amounts of dialogue, too much back tracking and sections with other characters that felt unnecessary.

One of the biggest pacing offenders in the game was Chapter 3 and how it felt overly long for no reason. You need to work your way up the ranks of a wrestling league, but to make people complete 19 fights just felt tedious by the time you finally climbed your way hip the ranks.

VERDICT

It’s easy to understand why so many people adore Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. It’s a near perfect family friendly RPG loaded with different lands to adventure to, larger than life bosses, levelling, a badge system that allows you slightly tailor the game to your style, fun quests, plenty of side quests, cheeky writing, and most importantly a iconic art style that still looks amazing today.

Based on the cadence of the series, the success of The Origami King, and the almost guaranteed success of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door remake, we should be getting an original entry soon and maybe even Paper Luigi and the Waffle Kingdom. If you own a Nintendo Switch, Paper Mario TTYD is a must buy for both newcomers and stalwart supporters of the series

Until next time, remember to be nice to your fellow gamer, but more importantly, be nice to your fellow human

9/10