Originally released on the Nintendo GameCube in 2004,Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Doorcelebrates its 20th anniversary in North America today, October 11, and is in one of the best positions that retro gamers could ever hope for. The fan-favorite title found new lifeas a Nintendo Switch exclusivelast year, surprising many long-term fans with its extremely faithful remake.
It’s incredible that this memorable turn-basedMarioRPG gets to celebrate its second decade since release as a Switch title because it spent its tenth and fifteenth anniversaries lost to the GameCube era, only playable though the original GameCube and Wii through backwards compatibility. That’s only if players managed to somehow either keep their original copy working or purchase it at the high retro gaming scalping pricesTTYDwas known for, but now, all kinds of players can easily getPaper Mario: The Thousand-Year Doorto experience its greatness, with it feeling familiar yet completely new at the same time.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Absolutely Deserves its Renewal
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Has Remained in Players' Hearts For 20 Years
The fact thatPaper Mario: The Thousand-Year Doorhas been a requested portby fans of Nintendo for decades isn’t without merit. As a sequel, it fleshes out important concepts fromPaper Mario64 while delivering on a bigger world to explore, new partners, a more in-depth story, and so much more that truly heightened the experience.The Thousand-Year Doorwas so uniquely whimsical and lighthearted, yet a proper adventure all the same, so it makes sense as to why players would want to experience it again and again as the years went by.
A combination of factors, from Nintendo missing several porting opportunities over the last twenty years, as well asPaper Mario’s overall treatment shifting with each and every gameafterward to be different from the first two titles, made fans dream of the series making a return to form, or forPaper MarioandPaper Mario: The Thousand-Year Doorto be remade (or at least ported) so that they’d be easily playable again.
The Switch Version of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Improves Everything Players Could Ask For
By the time the Switch remake ofPaper Mario: The Thousand-Year Doorcame around, fans had almost given up hope that any potential rerelease wouldn’t truly beTTYD. Even now, as the Switch version sits on shelves with its updated HD graphics, dynamic lighting, and a few new quality of life features that go a long way, many players still can’t believe that the remake would be given so much detail in such an unlikely scenario.Even the transgender nature of Vivian’s character was fixedin the Switch release, which fans were hoping for, and were pleasantly surprised to see happen after so long.
To be fair, depending on what players enjoy doing in the game,Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door’s remake isn’t perfect. With new timing for several Action Commands, among other things like item prices being adjusted, there’s a bit of a learning curve that players familiar with the GameCube original need to adjust to. However, beyond that, there really isn’t much reason to play the first release over the Switch version, especially since it’s such a cheaper and more accessible option for players these days.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Won’t Be Forgotten For a While Yet
Thanks to the Switch version, the original twenty-year-old version of the game can justify its currently high price tag as a collectors' item, while future fans who are interested in finally playing it can and arguably should pick up the updated version from their storefront of choice. While the original most certainly has its charms and place in players' memories, the remake improves on every aspect of that whimsy, wonder, and more. Since theupcoming Nintendo Switch 2 console is rumored to have backwards compatibility, there’s also a high chance that the Switch version will remain easily accessible for a long time to come, ensuring this classic keeps players happy for the foreseeable future. After years of remaining a stranded title, this relevancy being secured is honestly the best anniversary present long-termPaper Mario: The Thousand-Year Doorfans could have ever asked for.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (2024)
WHERE TO PLAY
Join Mario and friends on an epic paper adventure: A classic story unfolds on the Nintendo Switch system.Collect the Crystal Stars before the bad guys do: The X-Nauts are after the treasure behind the Thousand-Year Door! With a map from Princess Peach—and the help of a few locals—Mario must journey through a colorful world made of paper to find it first.Surprises abound in this deep and engaging tale, where everyone’s got something to say and it’s often not what you’d expect! Here are just a few of the colorful characters you’ll encounter along the way.Master your badges and timing-based attacks to impress the audience in a theatrical twist on turn-based RPG combat. Make use of all the abilities that come with being cursed—er, conveniently made of paper—like folding into a plane to cross big gaps or turning sideways to slip through narrow openings.
