Summary

• Amazing presentation and funny dialogue enhance the great battling experience of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.
• However, backtracking and poor pacing plague the game, while the lack of voice acting is a missed opportunity for immersion.
• Despite its flaws, the game is a swansong for the Nintendo Switch, showcasing Nintendo's progress and offering a nostalgic experience for fans.

Who came up with the concept of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Paper Mario? Who decided that what the Italian plumber really🔯 needed, in the year 2000, was to be ♛squashed even flatter than he already was? Someone let me know, because I wish to shake their hand.

As I mentioned in my 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Paper 🥂Mario: The Thousand-Year Door ꦰpreview, I’ve never played Paper Mario before. I own a GameCube, but prices of the cult c♔lassic are sky high. I refuse to pay three figures for a video game, no matter how good people tell me it is. With the Thousand-Year Door remake as my first foray into Paper Mario’s adventures, I was im𒁏mediately blown away.

As I also mentioned in my preview, Paper Mario blew me away like a paper aeroplane in a hurricane. The writing is funny, the turn-based battling is exciting, and the first three levels are visually and mechanically distinct. However, the remake seems very faithful, and while it does introduce the game’s transgender character to Western♊ audiences for the first timꦅe, it doesn’t do anything to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:solve all the backtracking.

My feelings were amplified across the whole game. I’m not going to reiterate any more of the points from my preview, tho🗹ugh. I want to talk about paci🧜ng.

Paper Mario’s various levels and mechanics are a great way to disguise that the missions are largely similar throughout. Like most RPGs,♈ especially those of the ‘00s, you’re drip-fed new mechanics to use to solve each subsequent level. Like everything else in the game, these are incredibly stylish plays on Mario’s two-dimensional nature. He folds himself up into an origami boat or plane, rolls up like a poster ready to be slid into a tub🐷e, and turns perpendicular to the screen in order to slide through paper-thin gaps.

These creative and original mechanics bring the game to life. You suddenly don’t care that you’re doing another fetch quest, revisiting an area you’ve walked through three times alr𓆏eady, because there’s a slightly new path that’s opened up, and your shortcut is rewarded with a Shine Sprite or health-restoring mushroom.

The distinct levels help here, too. Mario goes from stealing pirate treasure from a haunted Spanish skull, to solving an Agatha Chri🅷st♐ie-esque incident on an opulent train ride. He’s a wrestling superstar, fighting his way through the ranks to challenge the champion. He’s a shadow of himself as a ghost steals his body. However, as all good wrestlers know, not all gimmicks are created equally.

The wrestling level in particular was a slog. Despite the excellent presentation (and the fact I’m a massive wrestling mark), fighting 20 battles in a row to win the Championship belt just isn’t enough. The mystery of the story through this section ܫisn’t balanced well enough to carry the dull fights, which quickly become samey and boring as you mash through them. The battle system is good, but it thrives in bosses and tactical matchups, not defeating countless grunts over the course of an hour or two.

To contrast, the next level has you infiltrate a haunted church in order to lift a curse that turns villagers into pigs. It’s giving Majora’s Mask, and the fact that it doesn’t end with the boss 🔯battle – the twist here is great – gives it life and vibrancy, despite the dim corridors you explore. The platforming puzzles are clever, but it’s all over too quick. After spending such a long time in the wrestling ring, I was excited to get back to the game proper, and felt shortchanged.

Despite some awkward pacing, the story still shines. Mario is battling against various villainous forces to try to stop the Thousand-Year Door from being opened, and the ✅switches in perspectives keep you on your toes. Time spent playing as Peach and even Bowser make a refreshing change from the constant Mario levels. However, there’s a lot of dialogue. It’s well written and funny, but it screams out for voice acting.

Between levels, you usually get a cutscene with Mario, another with Peach, and another with one or☂ more of the villains. It’s a lot of reading and mashing ‘A’, whereas voiced characters, just for the main protagonists and antagonists, would do these sections more justice, especially for a remake designed to improve the game’s quality of life features♔ and introduce it to a whole new audience.

I’d like to reiterate a couple of the points from my preview, just in case you still haven&r🍒squo;t read it. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door looks great, and the gameplay has withstood the test of time as well a🔜s the art direction. Party members have different skills that you’ll need to utilise to fully explore the levels and beat different foes in battle.

Quality of life changes from the original game make it easier to switch between companions o☂n the fly and add a hint system 🔴if you get stuck.

Badges keep fights exciting, and allow you to mould Mario and his allies to your playstyle. I went hard on badges, at the expense of my HP, and while I was knocked out in a few brutal boss battles, enjoyed deploying all manner of devastating commands to turn the tides on other occasions. The turn-based combat remains fun throughout most of the game, and the challenge🧜 follows a consistent gradient without many big difficulty spikes or unfair fights.

Most of all, Paper Mario feels like a swansong for the Switch. Nintendo’s flagship console is on its way out, and The Thousand-Year Door is a showcase of how far Nintendo has come. If more classics had been brought to the Swꦜitch in this way – I’m looking at you, Wind Waker, Majora’s Mask, and Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness – it would secure the title of the best console ever made.

P♈aper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door will probably be the last Mario game to release (solely) on the Switch. While Wonder will take the plaudits, porting this cult classic means that a new generation of players can experience it. New fans will have a ball, laughing along with Mario & co., even if their experience will be slightly marred by the backtracking and pacing. Old fans will enjoy the quality of life improvements and some new additions. Whether you’re a Paper Mario veteran or this is your first time entering his origami world, this is the definitive way to experience The Thousand-Year Door.

Next: Paper Mario Remake 🌠Has Made Hooktail Even More Obsessed With Feet