Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
Editor review
Mario saves the land again...but turn-based?
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Mario has been in many games, and in fact, this isn't Mario's first RPG. On the SNES, there has been Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, on the GBA we now have Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and there has even been another Paper Mario game on the N64. But I can say with assurance that Mario´s newest game is the best game of all four of his role-playing adventures. The game starts with Mario getting a letter from Peach. She has found a magical map and Mario has to help her find the treasure. But when he arrives in the town where they would meet, Rogueport, she is nowhere to be seen. Now Mario has to use the treasure map to find the princess of Mushroom Kingdom. The graphics in this game are simply amazing. The whole game is set up as if it is some sort of book, with sometimes pieces of background being ripped off to reveal a hidden staircase, or a bridge being revealed by flipping 30 pages. The characters themselves are also as thin as paper, hence the name. These things are used to their fullest extend, making the game experience a whole lot different than all other RPG's. Where in games such as Megaman Battle Network or Secret of Mana music can get really repetitive, the music, graphics and gameplay in Paper Mario are of nearly equal quality. Most of the themes aren't memorable, but they do fit the area's really well. The road to one of the villages is accompanied by a heavily modified version of a Mario theme. As you walk through the grassy landscape and you listen to the well-fitting music, you suddenly recognize those 5 tunes of that old Mario Bros. 3. All the little things like the one I just mentioned make sure you get that feeling of playing a real Mario game. Of course, most of the music is new, which most of the people will appreciate. The sound-effects are very well done, since footsteps, thuds of your hammer, your jump and many others can all be heard really well while playing Paper Mario. Graphics: great. Music: just as good. Gameplay: even better. Typical in RPG's is the use of turn-based battles. Paper Mario also makes use of this traditional style of fighting, only with a few twists. For example, you are in possession of dozens of badges. Their effects vary from enabling new attacks to increasing stats and setting traps. Another change is that there are simply no random encounters in Paper Mario. Thank you! It is quite a relieve that you can now simply evade your enemies, instead of knowing that after every 15 steps, you get another fight. But this is only one aspect of many which make this game different from all others. It is not the story itself that makes it stand out so much, but the side-quests and the jokes that you encounter almost everywhere you go, dungeon or town. The first time I entered the biggest town, I started walking through an alley, only to be yelled at by someone. Apparently, a little lady was looking for a missing contact lens. All I had to do was simply not to move, while she searched the alley. So I thought by myself: "Well, I'll leave her to it, I'll just take a few steps back and head to the main square...and CRACK!" There it was, a contact lens under Mario's shoe. I didn't expect to step on it, while taking the same path back as I entered the alley. The whole game is loaded with these sort of unexpected jokes. Even Luigi makes a few appearances, telling you of his own adventures and escapades. There are just too many humorous things to mention, but I can assure you, if you have a little humor, you'll more than once laugh out loud, and the rest of the time you'll probably just put up a little smile. Of course there are negative aspects to the game. The battles can get a little repetitive after a while, and sometimes the battles themselves can get too boring to hold your attention. You'll also have to do quite some backtracking, especially if you want to complete the side-quests. If it comes to the graphics, there's only one flaw I've seen, and that would be that some of the characters' animations go through walls and doors. | |||||||||
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