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Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Gamecube Nintendo  If you're familiar with Paper Mario on the N64 then you're not in for any surprises here. 'The Thousand-Year Door' features more of the same cutesy RPG action that the N64 title provided. This isn't really a bad thing, but it would be nice to see Nintendo giving Mario a new format (aside from Sunshine) instead of revamping the 64 classics. Whining aside, 'The Thousand-Year Door' is an incredibly fun game that'll appeal to both the kiddies and the older Nintendophiles. 'The Thousand-Year Door' begins with Mario meeting up with Princess Peach to discover a hidden treasure. But of course, before Mario can reach the Peach, she's been kidnapped and hence Mario has to track down the treasure (using the map she sent to him) to find the Princess. As the title suggests, Mario is made of paper - which has its benefits. Mario's special abilities include rolling up into tube, turning sideways to slip into small spaces, twisting into a spiral to smash objects with a hammer spin attack, and folding into a plane to fly to distant objectives. Mario is also joined by a host of sidekicks including Goombella, Koops and a Yoshi baby, among others. Each character comes with a number of unique abilities that can be used to unlock secrets and gain access to hidden areas, as well as provide special moves in battle. The battles in 'The Thousand-Year Door' feature all the classic elements of an RPG, but with a few interesting twists. The battles are turn based, HP (heart points) provide health and FP (flower points) are necessary for certain attacks. Mario's main attacks are Jump and Hammer, but within these two main categories, there are a bunch of new attacks that can be learnt (from acquiring badges). There are also many different items that can be used in battle for either attacking or curing status ailments. One of the most interesting additions to the battle system is the Audience. Depending on how you're performing in battle, audience members will fill up the seats in front of the battle stage, and when they cheer you on, you'll earn Star Power that can be used to perform special moves. The audience will also be active participants during battle, throwing stuff at you or your opponents, and it may be something useful or something painful depending on who they're rooting for. When you win battles you'll receive Star Points and when you accumulate 100 Star Points, you'll get to level up either your HP, FP or BP (Badge Points, which will allow you to wear more badges for more attacks and abilities). While searching for the Stars that'll lead him to the treasure and Princess Peach, Mario will venture across many different worlds. Each world has its own distinct style and while some of them don't work as well as they should, most of them use the paper theme successfully. Overall 'The Thousand-Year Door' is a very entertaining game that'll never feel like a chore (which is impressive for an RPG) and will have you smiling throughout. Highly recommended for all Gamecube owners.  |
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