Groovy Kid Stuff

Overview
While visiting the coastal town of Rogueport, Princess Peach happens upon a mysterious map. She sends it to Mario and requests that he meet her there. When he arrives, she’s nowhere to be found. Princess Peach has been kidnapped… again! Mario learns from a local scholar that the map will reveal the location of seven Crystal Stars when looked at in front of the Thousand-Year Door, which can be found in the ancient ruins beneath the city of Rogueport. Somehow Peach’s disappearance must be connected to finding the Crystal Stars needed to open the Thousand-Year Door so Mario sets out to find them.

PMTTYD is a role-playing adventure with turn-based battles. It’s very much story driven and dialog heavy, but with a light tone and a fantastic sense of humor. The game is divided into “chapters,” each featuring a different setting and culminating in the location of one of the Crystal Stars. Along the way Mario meets several key allies who have unique sets of abilities that prove necessary for solving the game’s many puzzles. He also gains his own special powers. Since he is for some reason like a piece of paper, these include being able to fold up into an airplane or boat and rolling into a cylinder. Mario game veterans will recognize a host of Mushroom Kingdom regulars, such as koopas, goombas, boos, bob-ombs, and of course, Bowser.

The Good
Each chapter has a unique feel and can almost seem like a game within a game. Mario explores ruins, castles, and a tropical island. He solves mysteries on a train and leads a horde of snail-like creatures around the inside of a cavernous ancient tree. My favorite part had him fighting his way to the top of the arena wrestling rankings in a floating city called Glitzville.

There’s a lot of depth to the battle system, involving both strategy and twitch reflex. Attacks are either jump or hammer based and require pressing buttons or releasing the control stick with precise timing to cause damage. There also item attacks, special attacks gained through levels and badges, and attacks linked to the Crystal Stars collected. One partner always fights alongside Mario and can be switched out if a different one’s skills are more advantageous. The battles take place on a stage and audience members will throw helpful/hurtful items or cheer to replenish certain points. It’s as crazy as it sounds.

When Mario levels up, you can choose to add points to either his Heart Points (how much “life” he has), Flower Points (depleted for each special attack used), or Badge Points (equipped badges add more special attacks or boost attack/defense). Since you can only choose one category to add to each time, you have to choose carefully to maintain a balance that allows for strong attacks but providing enough life to survive each battle.

As fun as it is to battle and explore, perhaps the best part about PMTTYD is that it’s truly funny. Laugh out loud funny even. The writing is sharp, with inspired wackiness ranging from crows talking about network connections to Bowser complaining to his underlings. Ongoing gags like different characters constantly referring to Mario by the wrong name never grow old. It wonderfully satirizes Mario’s world within the confines of a Mario game.

One last bit of awesomeness- the music. Themes match the moods of the various locales and there are excellent variations on traditional Mario compositions. The ultra catchy battle music was so thoroughly lodged in my brain that for a while there it served as the soundtrack to my dreams.

The Bad
It’s a really long game that took me nearly 40 hours to finish. That’s not a bad thing, especially since the levels are varied and the story is so well done. What was slightly irritating were a couple of mundane fetch quests near the end. One of these required revisiting all of the game’s previous settings in order to find a particular character. It just felt like unnecessary padding to make a lengthy game even longer.

I also had trouble with the final boss. That’s not a big deal because bosses are supposed to be tough. This particular battle was preceded by over five minutes of cut scenes though. That meant having to sit through the same lengthy part each time before getting another chance fight. And it wasn’t like you could start it and then go have a cup of coffee or something. There was a lot of dialog that depended on the player to press A before moving on to the next part. I understand it was all part of a dramatic build-up but that didn’t make it any less annoying.

Bottom Line
One thing to keep in mind is that the dialog is text-based. If you are considering buying this for a child, he or she probably needs to be reading independently at the the fourth grade level or above. You could of course do the reading and let your child play, but again it’s a very long. My kids actually watched me play while I read everything out loud. They were actively engaged in the story and came through several times with ideas that helped me solve puzzles.

Overall, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is an excellent game and highly recommended to Gamecube / Wii owners.

Rating: 9 / 10