Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

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Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, is a role-playing video game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo GameCube video game console and released on October 11, 2004. It is the third game in the Mario RPG series, second in the Paper Mario series. It is the sequel to Paper Mario and uses the same gameplay and visual style but with improved visuals, and is also the predecessor of the Wii game; Super Paper Mario. It frequently plays on the "paper" aspect of the universe and its characters, in a sort of fourth-wall breach.

Contents

Storyline

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door opens with a short introduction about a prosperous seaside town which was damaged by a cataclysm and then sunk into the depths of the earth. After the site of the town was completely purged of all evidence of its existence, another, new town called Rogueport, was built there. A legend about a mysterious treasure soon spread through the town. Princess Peach, who was on vacation, visits the town and meets a merchant; the merchant gives her a small box, which is said to only open for one with a pure and noble heart, and says that if Peach can open it, she may have whatever is inside. Peach is able to open the box, and gains possession of the magical treasure map. She then sends it to Mario, accompanied by a letter telling him to meet her in Rogueport to join her for a treasure hunt.

Unbeknownst to Mario, Princess Peach has actually been kidnapped by a group known as the X-Nauts, led by Sir Grodus, who had heard that she was in possession of the map, and kidnapped her only to find that the map was gone. Despite this, Grodus refuses to release her — claiming that he needs her for an undisclosed purpose. During her confinement in the X-Nauts' fortress, Peach encounters a computer called TEC. Though a computer, TEC seems to have an affection for Peach and gradually provides her with information about the X-Nauts' plot and allows her to send e-mail messages to Mario. It is eventually revealed that the "treasure" hidden behind the Thousand-Year Door is actually a demon known as the Shadow Queen. Grodus seeks to recover the Crystal Stars and resurrect the demon, whose power he desires to use to conquer the world. Unknown to him, however, the seal placed on the demon's palace would only last for a thousand years (hence the door's name) and that this time limit had nearly expired.

Throughout his travels, Mario eventually succeeds in finding all seven of the Crystal Stars and uses their power to open the Thousand-Year Door, intending to enter the Shadow Queen's palace and destroy her. Upon reaching the entrance to her chamber, he encounters Grodus with Peach as his hostage and engages him in battle. He is defeated, but Mario is attacked by Bowser; who at last manages to find him and Peach. With Bowser distracting Mario, Grodus manages to escape with Peach into a corridor leading to the area where the Shadow Queen is imprisoned. The final battle begins in which Mario and the group prevail. After their victory over the Shadow Queen, Mario and Peach return to the Mushroom Kingdom, although the player can choose to go back to Rogueport and continue gameplay.

Gameplay

Unique elements

The Thousand-Year Door has some unique elements which owe to its very singular visual style. The graphics consist of a mixture of three-dimensional environments and two-dimensional characters, who look as if they are made of paper. At different points in the game, Mario is "cursed" with abilities that enable special moves in the overworld, all of which are based on the paper theme. These include:

  • Becoming a paper airplane and flying for short distances.
  • Turning sideways to become as thin as a piece of paper and slip through cracks.
  • Rolling into a tube to duck under low-hanging objects.
  • Folding into a boat to cross water.

A variety of other visual effects in the world also play on this theme. Illusory objects that conceal secret items or switches can be blown away by a gust of wind, as they are actually pieces of paper with the object drawn on them stuck onto the page of the game world. Some switches cause changes in the world in ways that match the paper theme, such as a bridge appearing by way of a flipbook-like animation or stone stairs being folded out from a single piece of stone-colored paper.

Another feature this game includes is the ability for the player to control Bowser in certain parts of the game. These segments have the player control Bowser in a true side-scrolling environment (reminiscent of the original Super Mario Bros. levels, with a new arrangement of the Super Mario Bros. theme music). The only Power-up of these minigames is a cut of ham, which increases Bowser's size. Several of these can be collected until Bowser becomes gargantuan and invulnerable.

Battle system

Battles in The Thousand-Year Door borrow heavily from the original Paper Mario and Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. The turn-based system, in which players select an attack, defense, or item from a menu, is augmented by timed button presses that, when performed correctly, can result in substantial attack or defense bonuses. This system later carries on to Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga.

In The Thousand-Year Door, Mario's party members now each have their own Heart Points (HP) and they may receive any attack that Mario can receive. When a partner's Heart Points are reduced to 0, the partner becomes inactive for the rest of that battle and later battles until at least one of its Heart Points are restored. If Mario's Heart Points are reduced to 0, however, the game ends even if partners are still available (the only exceptions to this rule are when Mario is defeated during a fight in the Glitz Pit, or if the party has a Life Shroom in their inventory, which restores 10 Heart Points when either Mario or his partner falls). Flower Points are shared between Mario and his party members.

Defeating enemies awards various numbers of Star Points to Mario; for every 100 Star Points, Mario is able to level up, choosing between three character statistic enhancements. Selecting Health (HP) adds the specified number of points to Mario's maximum Heart Points, allowing him to last longer in battle; opting for Flower Points (FP) gives Mario and his partners additional ability to perform special moves; and finally selecting Badge Points (BP) increases the number of badges Mario can equip at any given time. In The Thousand-Year Door, Mario's maximum level is 99, as opposed to 27. Also, there is a limit to Heart Points (200), Flower Points (200), and Badge Points (99) as in the original Paper Mario.

Eventually, individual enemies may give him no Star Points; however, Mario will gain at least one Star Point after winning a battle.

Items

Items are power-ups that help Mario in battle and/or gameplay, such replenishing Heart Points, replenishing Flower Points and attacking enemies. Most of these items can be bought at shops.

Badges

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door retains the "Badge" system introduced in Paper Mario. Equipping a Badge can do various things; some Badges provide boosts in offense and defense, some provide additional attacks, some increase the player's character statistics, and others only cause aesthetic changes to the game. There are many Badges in the game, and each one has a unique power. Each Badge (besides the ones that only have aesthetic effects, such as the Attack FX Badge series, or detrimental badges like Double Pain) takes a certain number of Badge Points, or BP, to equip; as noted above, players can increase Mario's total BP when he levels up. There are also "P" Badges, which have the same name as their standard counterparts but with a "P" tacked to the end (e.g. "Pretty Lucky P"), which affect Mario's partners rather than himself. In The Thousand-Year Door, Badges can be bought and sold at a badge shop, a change from Paper Mario, where you could buy but not sell badges. You can also find Badges in Red ? Blocks.

Audience and Stage

In contrast to both Paper Mario and Super Mario RPG, battles in The Thousand-Year Door happen on a stage in front of an audience. As the characters perform more advanced attacks, the audience grows, and Star Power is awarded based on the size of the audience. Having Star Power in turn lets the player perform special moves. However, when the player fails to execute a timed button press in time, some of the audience members may run away. Also, by performing a second timed button press, the player can get a "Stylish" action, which triples the amount of Star Power they gain.

Reception

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door received mostly positive reviews from critics, and the game currently holds an average score of 88% on Game Rankings. [1] IGN gave the game a score of 9.1 out of 10, calling it "an absolute blast to play." [2] GameSpot gave the game a score of 9.2 out of 10, calling it "the product of some incredible talent in game design." [3] GameSpy gave the game a score of 4 out of 5, saying, "if you have a soul, then this game will make it feel all warm and fuzzy." [4] Others were more critical, such as Game Informer; the magazine's two reviewers gave the game scores of 6.75 and 6.00 out of 10, calling it "the million-year bore" and criticizing the game's lengthy dialogue screens and lack of appeal for adults. [5] Gaming websites Game Revolution and Videogames NZ also criticized the game, the former accusing it of having a "lack of serious innovation" [6] and the latter saying "it’s just too boring and aggravating to bear." [7] In 2007, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door was named 16th best GameCube game of all time in IGN.<ref name="16th">Template:Cite web</ref>

Awards

The game had won The Console Role Playing Game at the 2005 Interactive Achievement Awards

Trivia

Template:Trivia

  • Textures for the partners from the first Paper Mario were found in the coding for the game.
  • If the L Emblem badge is equipped, it turns Mario's clothes into Luigi's clothes. If the W Emblem badge is equipped, it turns Mario's clothes into Wario's clothes. However, if both the L and W Emblems are equipped, Mario's clothes will be the same as Waluigi's.
  • The tune that plays when Mario receives an email other than that from X is the intro to Super Mario World. When Mario receives an e-mail from X, it plays the Ice Land overworld theme from Super Mario Bros. 3.
  • The character Vivian was a male in the Japanese version.
  • Humorously, both Professor Frankly and Lord Crump break the Fourth Wall by talking directly to the player. Frankly tells the player to pay attention and Crump threatens the player not to tell Mario of his disguise or else. Afterward both moments, Mario's partner gets confused of what they mean by "out there in front of the TV."
  • Jr. Troopa from the first Paper Mario can be seen flying outside a window in one of the emails from Zip Toad.
  • In Super Paper Mario, One of the gate keepers in world 6-1 is named "Thousand-year Roar". An obvious pun off of this game's title.

See also

External links

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