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One of the top 3 Cube adventures

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Paper Mario : The Thousand Year Door.

Some reviews I have read have said that this is a roleplaying (RPG) game more than anything else. In fact, Paper Mario is just as much of a platform/puzzle adventure game. You can hate Final Fantasy or Dungeons and Dragons and love this. I think that fans of epic but essentially light-hearted, witty adventure games such as the Monkey Island series, Beyond Good or Evil or The Wind Waker, or fans of 2D platform puzzlers such as Viewtiful Joe, will enjoy this game.

Your quest is to obtain all the crystals from various lands in order to open The Thousand Year Door, that lies beneath the central land, Rogueport. You need to rescue Princess Peach too, of course.

The visuals may seem underwhelming to start with - certain parts show a lack of colour such as the sewers. However, small touches such as the leaf patterns on the walls serve to emphasise the splendour of the town that used to reside there. The lighting effects, when you place a crystal in front of The Thousand Year Door or hand a Star Piece to the wizard, for instance, are neatly done too.

Elsewhere, Boggley Woods is beautifully monochrome, furnished with dove-white snow and interspersed with rich purple and charcoal grey. The train to Poshley Heights is rendered in gleaming black and gold. There are also parts when hundreds of sprites are on the screen at the same time, like the Mario 128 demo.

Although Mario gains the ability to roll himself up to slide under things, make himself paper thin to fit through narrow bars or turn into a paper aeroplane or boat, the levels themselves don't look that papery. (Yoshi's Story on the N64 looks more so, with a cardboard look). However, the look is very bright and clean and the first boss you meet, Hooktail, a fire-red dragon whose bark is worse than his bite, is carefully constructed like a 3D origami model.

During your adventure, you will meet many other characters, some of whom will join you. You will need them in order to traverse lands or open up some new lands. For example, Flurrie, the ghost of an actress, can blow away parts of the scenery, that peel away like wallpaper, Bo-oomb!, an old sea captain, can blow up solid rock to open up passageways and a tiny Yoshi-like dragon, can run in mid-air to get you across to an otherwise out-of-reach platform. You can use these abilities, and others, in battle.

Battles are, not surprisingly, instigated when you attack an enemy or they attack you. The action changes to a stage, with an audience. The audience may throw rubbish at you if your moves are boring, so you will need to press A quickly to avoid losing health. The battles are turn based (it doesn't matter how long you take to decide your move) but, as soon as you take your go, the move becomes real-time. (eg. you can do multiple attacks or defend with good timing). You always have two goes (Mario has one and one of your ally characters has another, then the enemy or enemies have one go each.)

There are all sorts of moves you can do. You can defeat many foes with normal attacks but others will require more. On harder enemies, you may wish to use some of your FP (firepower) to perform a stronger attack. Or you may use one of the items you have collected as the winnings of a previous battle (or have bought from a shopkeeper) such as a bolt of lightning. On bosses, in particular, you may wish to use a special move, using points accrued from audience applause. These points can be increased if you appeal to the audience but this uses one of your moves. There is usually more than one way to win a battle- a battle against some of the bosses is a true test of tactics.

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door has 7 worlds and most don't seem particularly big in terms of area but somehow you find that you have spent 40 + hours before you have reached the final boss and, what's more, it's flown by. There is a lot of variety between levels- at Glitzville (like a floating Las Vegas in the sky) you will work your way up to a boxing champion, whilst having a compelling story unfurl at the same time. Keelhaul Key sees you hunting for pirate treasure. The moon level is uninspired, though. (they always are, such as in Beyond Good and Evil.) I also wish that you could skip the intermission scenes once you have played through them once. Even worse, you have to press A repeatedly for over 5 minutes to scroll through cut scenes before you battle the final boss. You can't even take your eyes off the screen because if you press A too many times the battle will start. The accomplishment of the game's design, though, and the sheer fun you will have playing this game, is akin to the exuberance of Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and it washes over any minor criticisms.

Like The Wind Waker , there are side quests that you can do and, like WW and Beyond Good and Evil, you can just play games instead, in the amusement arcade. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door is one of the 3 best Cube adventure games, alongside these. (I'm counting Metroid Prime as a FPS shooter for the purposes of this review even though an adventure.)

Overall score: 93 %

An Absolute Masterpiece!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: February 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is my favorite game ever! I have about 50 games, and this is my favorite by far. The graphics suit the game very well, though they are slightly aimed at young kids. That's one of the only flaws that I can find in this game. The plot is excellent, with quite a few side quests that are just as fun and addicting as the main adventure. The fun factor is incredible, I just can't put this game down! Nintendo has created an absolute masterpiece with this game, it's incredible!

Dialogues and more dialogues

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: December 20, 2005
Author: Amazon User

LOTS OF READING

There is a lot of dialogue through out the game, thus, a lot of reading! I think is a good thing to have a game that actually makes children read... Small kids will want to play the game, but they will need somebody to read the dialogues for them.

GRAPHICS

They are not 'excellent' but is colorful. Little kids will love to watch the older kids play the game.

SOUND

Sometimes a little annoying for our adult ears...

Overall is a way cool game!

My God(dess)!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: July 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I have played Paper Mario, and I must say that it is my favorite Mario game. I am not a big fan of turn-based RPGs, but Paper Mario involves you in the action with the action command. I like this much better than just watching the characters do something. What I am really excited about is the fact that you will have an audience as you battle. They can throw power-ups if they like you, but help your enemy if they don't like you. The fact that your partner has HP and FP too, just adds to the fantastic gameplay. I couldn't put the first one down for 15 hours, and I am hoping that PM2 has even more gameplay hours than the first.

superyoshi1234567

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: January 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I loved this game from the moment I bought it to this very day. Its storyline intrigued me and it was difficult to leave the screen.
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door was wonderfully done with extremely impressive graphics. I was suprised they could develop a game and just using paper-like characters and backgrounds. The game has a wonderful story line that is just as impressive as all the other Mario based games (and many other games for that matter). The characters and enemies increadably thought out with their different personnalities and skills.
I absolutely loved the game, and since the story line is long and thought out, I continued to love the game even after a won. The dialogue is witty and describes the different characteristics of your partners (and enemies) wonderfully. I highly recommend this game to many players and I guarantee that this game will keep you glued to the screen whether you like it or not, even for those who are not fans of Mario.

Paper Mario 2 will be INCREDIBLE!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 12
Date: August 05, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I have played Paper Mario a lot, and when I was going to buy it, the Gamecube was released! Now, the sequel looks spectacular (see nintendo.com for a trailer and screenshots), with new badges, people, and ways to really show a Paper Mario. For example, he can now fold into a paper airplane and soar across gaps. The battles take place on a stage with an audience, who either cheer you on, or throw things at you, giving you damage. Paper Mario was my favorite video game of all time, and I have no doubt Paper Mario 2 can take its place. Also, I don't know if this is confirmed, but it is now called Paper Mario 2: Thousand Year Door.

pretty hard but good to play

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 12
Date: November 08, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I have to say that this game is pretty hard. I rent it once and man, theres a lot of words to read for old tony. I like the part with the princess though and I hope she gets help by the end. The part I like the worst are the reading parts but it is still mostly a good game. Thats why I say 5 stars! so i think you should BUY IT FOR THE HOLIDAYS!

tony

A REAL review from a BIG Mario fan

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 16
Date: October 22, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I think this is a great game!The first one was excellent and this one just builds on what the original did.The dialogue is hillarious,the partners are great,and everything else is awesome too!I definately recommend it!

Best Mario Game Yet!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: November 01, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This is the all time Mario game that you must own. Definetly worth the money. It's so addicting and challenging. Right now I'm near the end of chapter 2 and it's the only game I ever play. The only part that isn't good is the long conversations you must have throughout the game.

Paper Mario and the Thousand Lines of Dialogue

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: November 05, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The actual game play of this game can be very entertaining. The paper-like powers of turning into a boat, tube, airplane are all great additions. When you're actually moving around and engaging in battles, or exploring and finding hidden secrets, this game is great. There are other times, however, where the game purposely sends you on wild "goose chases" that just eat up time and are extremely dull to complete.

One example is where you are looking for a character and have to travel to over 7 destinations to find him, just walking around and being told "Oh...he's just left". Nothing exciting about that at all. You'll be surprised how many times you have to walk back and forth for long periods of time, instead of the game designers creating new areas for you to explore.

My biggest problem with that game was the insane amounts of dialogue that the game uses. There is SO much talking in this game, and very little of it ever has to do with progressing the story. The worst part is that there is not way to skip through the long passages of dialogue as in most games. You must scroll through everything. NO SKIPPING EVER!

The same goes for what can be very long extended scenes in the game where you just have to sit back and watch something happening...and often it is not very interesting. There is no way to skip it, even if you've lost at some point and have to go right back and play it again. This is a major failure of the game.

At one point in the game, you have to press a button 100 times just to get a character to say "I Love You" 100 times. Things like that may have been intended to be entertaining, but I found it very tedious and dull.

Overall I enjoyed the game, it can be really fun, but also be prepared to be annoyed or bored 30% of the time...just sitting and pushing buttons to get through the talking.

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