Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door GameCube Review

Final Fantasy. You're either sick of this franchise or can't get enough of it. There isn't much room for middle grounds, here. Unless, of course, you are a Nintendo fan, because we all know Square Enix and Nintendo haven't been the best at sharing. Sure, the GameCube saw Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, but that was more of an action/adventure game, and not a very good one at that. The RPG is a genre that has seen a serious drought on Nintendo systems since the Nintendo 64. But Nintendo always manages to fill the void with its own IPs, and Paper Mario does just that.

If you're unfamiliar with the original Paper Mario, the series gets its name due to its artistic direction. Mario-- is-- paper. Everything is made of paper. All of the characters are flat, 2D shapes. Houses will fold out like a pop-up book when you enter them. Parts of the scenery will peel away to reveal a hidden staircase. It's a fun premise, and much of the game's charm stems from watching Mario fold into a paper airplane or turn sideways and slip through a crack. It's sad, then, that the paper idea wasn't taken "to the extreme." Many of the 3D objects just don't look like they were constructed out of paper, and the lack of textures would make this game more appropriately titled Shiny Plastic Mario. But hey, that shiny plastic also creates one of the cleanest-looking video games ever made. 2D always looks cleaner than 3D, and Paper Mario has a polish to it you just don't see anywhere else. Because it's so simple, too, the game can get away with more on-screen action. In some instances, there are over 200 characters in one area. That may not sound so impressive when you realize these characters are all flat, one-dimensional objects, but when was the last time you saw 200 characters on the same screen?

The music is as you would expect, too: cheery, kooky, and heavily nostalgic. Some of the remixes manage to surpass their original roots, and the entirely new music ranks as some of the best in the Mario universe. One thing sorely missing, however, is voice acting. Nintendo is so insistent on keeping everything to text, and its games are hurt because of it. Paper Mario requires a lot of reading, and I found myself frequently and unnecessarily bored and tired. Nintendo games like to talk you through just about everything, and the amount of speech you have to trudge through is preposterous. For every little thing you do, there is always a character that has to elaborate on it. Sometimes you end up sitting through long conversations that don't even play any important part to the story. On one occasion, you watch a cutscene, are asked to save, watch another cutscene, are asked to save, watch another cutscene, are asked to save, and now can finally start playing again. Yes, stories play an important part in RPGs, but when you have to read the story, it gets pretty tedious. It helps that the writing is funny (with some surprising, underlying adult humor), but either let up on the dialogue or start paying Charles Martinet more!

And, honestly, that's my biggest gripe with this game. Everything else is great. This may not be your typical "hardcore RPG," but it's just as fun and entertaining. The reason why Paper Mario is so successful is that it doesn't limit itself to standard RPG conventions. Traveling across an overworld isn't a means to an end. In the overworld, the game plays out much like a platformer. Mario can jump, smack things with his hammer, and butt stomp blocks, and new moves are gradually learned over time. At least half of the game consists of platform-based puzzles that rely on these abilities. You may need to climb across the rooftops and sneak into somebody's house or, when in a dungeon, roll into a paper tube and dodge out of the way of spikes. There's a lot of variety to what you have to do, and rarely does the game feel like it's treading water. There are even sequences with you playing as Princess Peach and Bowser, including a retro Super Mario Bros. level with the big koopa. The developers obviously had a lot of ideas for this game.

Mario doesn't go about his adventure by himself, though. Several quirky and unique characters will join you along the way, including a goomba and a koopa. All of them have a special ability which can help you in the overworld. For instance, Goombella can tell you about your current location while Koops can hit switches and grab out-of-reach items. But it's in battle where their roles really become important. Mario can't get far on his own. His various hammer/jump attacks aren't always effective against certain monsters, and when Mario's HP drops to zero, it's game over. But whichever supporting character is on screen can faint without halting the fight. The whole idea is to avoid this, of course, because they're not only useful fighters but can also act as a healer or stand in front of Mario to receive the brunt of the damage.

Battles in RPGs are usually tedious and annoying, but Paper Mario's battle system is incredibly fun. It doesn't feel random or unfair. You don't periodically miss for no apparent reason, nor are you severely punished if you try to run. And, more importantly, you feel like you are playing an important role in the outcome instead of just selecting commands and hoping for the best. Paper Mario stresses interactivity. To deal the most damage, you will have to time button presses perfectly, fling the analog stick, and even balance a cursor inside a reticule. There is one special power you can execute which would technically allow you to jump on an enemy's head forever as long as you time every button press just right. On the flipside, you can lessen the damage you take by pressing A at the right moment, and if you're really good, you can turn that around and damage the enemy with their own attack. Another little touch is pressing A after you've already attacked in hopes of getting "stylish" points. Battles also take place on a stage where all kinds of crazy things can happen. Maybe the scenery falls down or someone in the audience throws a hammer at you. In these battles, you always have to stay alert, and it's so much more involving.

The way "leveling up" is handled isn't too typical, either. After every battle, you are rewarded with star points. This works like experience points except that you don't have to win 2,345 of them to reach the next level. It's always 100. But reaching a new level doesn't instantly boost all your stats. There are three options to choose from: +5 health, +5 flower points, and +3 badge points. Flower points are a necessity if you plan on using a lot of special attacks, which you should, because they deal the most damage. Badge points let you wear more badges, and badges do many different things for you. Some badges will grant you new special powers. Other badges will raise your defense or slowly refill your FP meter. Mario may not be able to wear armor, and he may not even be able to carry many items, but the badge system more than makes up for it.

Paper Mario is surprisingly difficult, too. Many solutions to necessary puzzles can be quite subtle and easily overlooked. Battles, also, aren't just handed over to you. Though I've only gotten Game Over a couple times, there have been matches where my teammate fainted, my FP ran out, and I only had two HP left before I won. It's nice to play an RPG that doesn't help you win every step of the way, but it can also be frustrating for younger gamers who may have mistaken Paper Mario as something they could enjoy just as much. Leveling up is misleading, and I know several kids who went about it all wrong. To them, maxing out the HP seemed like the obvious choice. More health means a better chance of staying alive... right?! But when it came time to fight a big boss, it was impossible for them to win. Without a lot of FP and badges backing them up, they didn't stand a chance no matter how good their HP meter was. When this happens, the only option now is to spend five hours trying to level up by fighting monsters that don't give you very many star points. For as accessible and family-friendly as Paper Mario tries to be, the leveling up system will manage to frustrate anyone who isn't already familiar with the RPG genre and its hidden strategies.

Younger gamers will end up spending a good 40-50 hours with Paper Mario while older gamers can probably beat it in 25-30. And that's still a lot. Fortunately, it remains fun and fresh the entire way through. This was a game I could have spent all day playing. The only thing that prohibited me from doing so was not the need to get some homework done but that I just got too tired reading all that dialogue. Seriously, it's a bit much. But Paper Mario has so much to offer, it's hard to get sick of it. The variety is great, and there's a lot of hidden content for those who venture off the main road. Star shards to find. Badges to collect. Recipes to make. If you have to complete every RPG you play 100%, this one's going to last you a long time.

Final Comments:
Let me put it this way: If you liked Paper Mario on the Nintendo 64, you will like Paper Mario for the GameCube. And if you like RPGs in general, well... you know the rest. Paper Mario is huge. It's a lengthy adventure packed with charm and humor and is diverse enough to keep things fresh 'til the end. And who doesn't enjoy these interactive battles? They make me love the RPG genre again. My only gripe with this game is just how heavy it is on text. When I play a video game, my objective is to read as little as possible, and yet this has more "pages" in it than Crime and Punishment. It makes it hard for me to recommend this game to younger gamers, those who don't yet understand the art of "skimming." But the bottom line is: if you can read, you should play Paper Mario.