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"Beautifully constructed, Wickedly entertaining"

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. What can I say? It was everything I wanted and expected after the wonderful first installment hit stores. The story in these games are almost unbelievable, everything is so detailed, and the overall game was perfect. I rarely give tens on games these days, but this game deserved every last decimal of it. Whether you were jumping, battling, or turning into a paper airplane, every frame had wonderful transitioning. This folks, is a game that gives you that long lost "warm fuzzy feeling."

To begin, during this chapter in the Paper Mario series, Princess Peach is in a small, dirty town called Rogueport. This town is the bottom of the barrel here guys. I mean, pick pocketing, fighting, mob bosses. Whatever nasty, terrible, mind boggling crime you can think of probably has been committed at one point in this town. Anyway, Princess Peach finds a treasure map that is supposed to lead her to "The Legendary Treasure." Of course she invites her beloved hero Mario to join her on her quest, and of course she ends up getting kidnapped. This time, however, it is not by Bowser, but by the X-Nauts. The X-Nauts are entirely new villains introduced to the Mario series, and they certainly live up to the nastiness you can expect from them. Like the first Paper Mario, to rescue the princess, Mario must find seven items. In the Thousand Year Door, they are the Crystal Stars. Once all seven are united, they will open the Thousand-Year-Door, a door that was lost with the old Rogueport city and buried under the town. Mario bravely goes on this quest and journeys to many remarkable places. For example, Mario visits a floating city in the sky, a rich town by which he travels on a mysterious train, a castle belonging to a dragon, a pirate island, and.... Darn, If I would tell you every place it may spoil some of the storyline for you, but you get the picture. Anyway, the plot doesn't revolve around where Peach is and how you are going to save her, but what lies behind the Thousand-Year-Door, legend states treasure, but there is something more...

Well you probably by now want me to shut up and just tell you what is so "spectacular" about this game that revolves around... well... paper. Well here it goes. In this installment in the Paper Mario series, the graphics have improved immensely from what we had on the Nintendo 64. The colors are now brighter, clearer, and cleaner. The dialogue throughout the game was simply hilarious and it had some nice twists to it. The battles were a lot more exciting than in the first, due to the fact that they take place on a stage with a live audience. Every time you defeat a level you get star power like you did in the first Paper Mario, however, your star power increases when your audience is more excited. All the cheering even excites you when you are whooping a boss's sorry buttocks.

The music in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door was also top notch. The music was corny at times, very suspenseful and creepy at other times, and exciting and fast during others. The music in Glitzville from the "Mysterious X" even creeped me out!

There are many differences between the first game and the second. The characters of course changed entirely, and I believe the ones in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door grow more attached to you. Every one of them has a different peculiar personality, and it makes you sad you aren't going to see any more of them in the future Mario games. Next, once you defeated the game in the first Paper Mario, there wasn't much left to offer. That is entirely changed in this Paper Mario. You can complete your tattle log, collect all the badges and star pieces, cook up delicious foods, read Luigi's Novels (yes he actually wrote one when he was going on his "side quest"), defeat the Pit of 100 Trials, and solve everybody's troubles. A lot of characters in the game posted a problem they had in a building, and they are all accessible and able to be solved by you whenever you want. These problems are called "Troubles." For example, you may need to go and find a combination to a locked briefcase or buy somebody a certain item. All in all, no matter what you choose to do in this game you will have a blast. Lastly, you are no longer subjected to staying in your 2D form. You apparently get "cursed" by some weird laughable black thing in a box thinking he is doing you harm, and since that point forward you can change. The first time to a paper airplane, the second time to a roll, the third time to a paper boat, and so on. Changing forms enables you to reach different areas throughout the world, and that even adds more to the already perfect re-play value.

I believe the best part about this game is the fact that you have a whole entire world to explore. Every place you went is accessible after you beat the game, and every character is ready for action. There is hidden items, badges, and star pieces scattered about the world, and they are all waiting for you to find them. Also, there is so many people to talk to, and so many people are seen several times during the main storyline (talk to Luigi, he has a new story after every boss you defeat). I personally do not like it when you defeat a game, and then it is over, you can't go back and explore, you can't revisit anyone. That is what I believe is the best part about Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, the way you can just explore. I don't think anybody has, or will talk to every last person in that game because there are so many! Some are hiding below the town, and some are in locked doors that (2 years later) I still can't even open!

I have to admit, this was probably the first game that I was actually sad to beat. Every other game I am ecstatic. Don't get me wrong, I love getting that proud feeling when you finally beat a stupid game even though they throw all these obstacles at you, but this game was amazing, and I was sad to watch the screen fade to black on the last scene. This game was absolutely perfect on so many levels, and probably will hold its spot as a favorite game for years to come.

To conclude, this game was not good, nor great, but excellent! I believe anybody who was a fan of the first Paper Mario will love this game, and everyone who is looking for a long, entertaining game that offers great re-play value to look into buying this game as well. I believe the game is worth every penny, and is an instant classic. I look forward to the next RPG in the Paper Mario series because I know it will be as good as the last.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/20/07

Game Release: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (US, 10/11/04)