Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door is an RPG game created in 2004 for the Nintendo GameCube. It was developed by Intelligent Systems and released on November 12th. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door is the fourth in the Mario RPG series, and the second in the Paper Mario series. Its sequel, Super Paper Mario was released in 2007 for the Nintendo Wii.

The Thousand Year Door is closely related to the original Paper Mario, in that it has the same turn-based fighting system. The basis of it is also similar, in that Mario must collect seven Crystal Stars in order to save Peach. The characters are all two-dimensional, as if they are made of paper, and Mario can utilize this to his advantage at several points throughout the game (e.g., turning into a paper airplane, paper boat, turning sideways and squeezing through bars).

For the most part, the player controls Mario as the character, but at certain points he controls Peach, and even Bowser. The plot follows Mario as he collects the Crystal Stars (as stated above), fights off X-Nauts, and opens the legendary Thousand-Year Door.

In Battle
Just like Shakespeare said, all the world's a stage, and now Mario and friends are the players. That's why the battles take place in a theater. As Mario gains Star Power, audience members will appear to watch the battles. Because it takes place on a stage, certain... occurrences might happen that affect the battle in some manner. These can range from lights falling on Mario or the enemies, and possibly electrifying Mario (direct attackers take damage if Mario is electrified), or just pots and other assorted items landing on Mario or the enemies, inflicting damage. Sometimes things fall into the audience, scaring them off. Occasionally, the backdrop may start to wobble as someone is about to attack, and they may land on Mario or the enemies (not to say this is limited to happening once in a battle; there can be multiple sets of backdrops, such as trees, then ruins, then a harmless fence). The scenery may be more likely to fall if a forceful attack is used, such as Flurrie's body slam, which usually shakes the stage. Unlike unseen objects such as stage lights, this is predictable. If background is wobbling, it means the scenery is about to fall. It is easy to guard at the right time when the backdrops fall (this only does one damage, so guarding protects you). If the backdrops are behind the enemy and not Mario, then the scenery may defeat the enemies if they have one HP.

The audience is just as important as HP, as without an audience, it is impossible to gain Star Power. Each Crystal Star (plus the map after seeing the Thousand-Year Door), gives Mario a point of Star Power. The audience will replenish this if Action Commands are performed correctly and if Stylish Moves are performed. If Stylish Moves are performed, Mario receives much more Star Power than without the Stylish Moves. Some attacks have multiple Stylish opportunities. For example, when using Mario's basic jump attack, (make sure you hit the Action Command by pressing A right before he lands on the enemy) press A at the height of his rebound (there should be a message that says, STYLISH!). Then press A when he hits the enemy again, and once more at the height of his second rebound (STYLISH!). The audience gets bigger as Action Commands and Stylish Moves are performed correctly, and when first strikes are performed. The audience maxes out when you get a Bingo from the roulette that plays occasionally. Some of the audience will leave when Mario succumbs to a first strike from an enemy, attacks an enemy without doing any damage (i.e. when the enemy has defense higher than Mario's attack power), takes damage when attacking an enemy (jumping on a fire enemy or an enemy with a spike on its head), runs away, misses an action command, or when something affects the audience directly, like objects landing on them, or if a boss messes with them.

Occasionally the audience might throw objects at Mario. Sometimes, these objects are coins or items, but they also may be rocks, hammers, or soda cans. If X is pressed when an audience member is about to throw something, Mario or his partner will attack the audience member. If X is not pressed, the audience member will proceed to throw his or her object. If the item is good, X shouldn't be pressed so you will receive the coin or the item. If the item is bad (rock, soda can, hammer), then X should be pressed because if the object is thrown, Mario will take damage.

The audience is very limited at first, and is usually made up of Goombas and Toads. But as more enemies are fought and as Mario meets new people, more characters start to watch, such as X-Nauts and Punies. Farther into the game, the audience members will be able to affect each other, like Crazee Dazees might put the audience to sleep with a song, or Big Bombs (who take two seats) may light their fuses and blow up the audience around them. If there are many Big Bombs in the audience and one blows up, they will make the other bombs blow up too if they are close enough. If the audience is all bombs, the whole audience will disappear as they have all exploded.

Rating
It was well rated by critics, receiving an average of 88 in |Game Rankings.