tommy_lop's Full Review: Paper Mario 2: The Thousand Year Door for GameCube
I got Paper Mario and the thousand years door a few weeks ago when I saw that it was 20 bucks at game stop and decided to buy it. I had rented the original paper Mario once back in the days of the N64 and thought it was an enjoyable game but never bought it. I decided time to give Paper Mario and the thousand years door a try. So is it a good RPG the answer is yes.
Story.
Princess Peach has gone on vacation and during one of her stops at a place called Rogue Port she finds a legendary treasure map and sends it to Mario so he can find it. Mario goes to Rogue Port and finds out that the Princess has been kidnapped again; this time by a band known has the X-naughts a group of evil doers after the treasure behind the thousand year’s door. The only way for Mario to rescue her is to gather 7 crystal stars and take them to the door, the map points to each one of the stars.
The story is that of a typical Mario RPG there isn’t really any epic story line and each of your partners never do get any real development outside of the chapter in which you meet them. Like the original Paper Mario after each chapter there is a sub chapter involving Bowser and Peach. Bowser stages play a lot like spoofs of the original Super Mario Bros stages while Peach does some sneaking around the base and Nintendo does a few perverted jokes with her this time around (one of the scenes has her drink an invisibility potion and take off her dress to sneak around the base, don’t worry it’s not x rated all you see is a round shadow of where she is).
Graphics.
The graphics in the original Paper Mario where unique and they stuck to the style with the exception of updating some of the colors and backgrounds the character sprites stay the same has the previous Paper Mario (and you can tell because Peach has your classic look to her). If you never played Paper Mario then I should tell you it’s a 3d game with 2d character sprites, hence the name Paper Mario. The worlds in the game all look like they come out of a pop up story book.
Sound.
The sound is the usual cheery sounds you find in the Mario games nothing you wouldn’t really be expecting in a Mario game. The game has no voice acting from any characters except for Mario and Peach and even then it’s just a few of the same old voice clips.
Gameplay.
The gameplay is pretty simple and like pretty much all the Mario RPG’s there is an action element to the battle system. Like in all the Mario games there is an attack or be attacked system when it comes to encountering enemies. You can see enemies in the action areas and if they hit you with an attack they get to attack you, if you stomp on them, hit them with a hammer, or one of your partner’s abilities then you will attack first. Like all Mario games when you attack an enemy you will have to time something right, either A the second Mario hits an enemy on the head, or swing the hammer when the star light grows. The same thing happens when an enemy attacks but Paper Mario unlike the Mario and Luigi series does things a bit different. In Mario and Luigi you have to time your dodge in order to counter attack. In Paper Mario it goes like this pressing A will give your defense a boost, pressing B will counter attack but in order to counter attack your timing has to be more precise then pressing A. It’s a gamble on how well you know your enemies techniques.
After battles you win coins and star points, star points are a lot like EXP in most other games, when Mario hits 100 star points he levels up and can increase his HP to give him more hits, FP for special abilities, and BP for badge points which lets Mario equip special badges to give him more abilities and increase stats. The stronger Mario is to an enemy the less star points he receives, in others a level 1 Mario going against a goomba on the first stage may net 5 star points for beating him as a level 10 Mario would get 1 star points for the same battle. To level up your partners you have to find and collect shines and take them to the fortune teller in rogue port.
Also each chapter Mario receives will give him a special move that will require him to use his star meter. Unlike other RPG’s Paper Mario is done in front of an audience. Whenever Mario use of these specials to get an edge in a battle it will cause his star meter to go down. It gradually refills for each attack that is done right or for appealing to the audience. The bigger crowd you have the easier it is to fill up the meter. But the crowd has its disadvantages as a lot of times a lot of Mario’s foes sit in the seat. And while sometimes they will chuck coins and mushrooms at him, sometimes they will chuck cans and rocks at him to. You have to watch the audience and if you see one of them about to attack you have to quickly press X to counter attack, it keeps you on your toes in case your to busy thinking about what your next move might be.
Now outside of battle Mario will have to solve puzzles like in every Mario RPG. He will learn moves from items he collects and from opening curse boxes. For example one of the earliest moves Mario gets is the ability to turn paper thin and go through bars on doors. Mario will also have to depend on partners he finds during his traveler, Goombella the Gommba will give Mario advice on how to solve the puzzle, Flurry the wind sprite will be able to blow fake walls away, and Yoshi will be able to float over long distances.
Now while the game is pretty entertaining I do have to say there is one bad thing about it. It’s on a bit of the easy side, besides the final few bosses none of this game really gave me a problem. While it’s a bit harder then the original Mario RPG, it’s not by much and so therefore hard core RPG fans by be disappointed when they sail through the game.
Final Recommendation.
I liked Paper Mario and it’s definitely worth the 20 dollars that I paid to get it. But it is a bit on the easy side and the story is a bit lacking. Still if you like the unique spin that Nintendo gives to it’s Mario RPGs then Paper Mario and the thousand years door won’t disappoint you.
Timing Action Commands help you dodge or inflict damage and impress the crowd, giving you power for super attacks Use your paper body to your advantag...More at Amazon Marketplace
Timing Action Commands help you dodge or inflict damage and impress the crowd, giving you power for super attacks Use your paper body to your advantag...More at Amazon
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