Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, an unmissable remake
by Simon Larocca·April 25, 2024
The flagship saga of the Kyoto-based company, dedicated to the mustachioed plumber in overalls, the most famous in the universe, is packed with chapters, spin-offs, special appearances within other titles, and a myriad of video games ranging from the sports genre to puzzle games, before forcefully returning to its first great love, the setting that made Mario an icon and starting point for any gamer: the platformer.
Con Paper Mario, originally released for the Nintendo Game Cube in 2004, a pivotal year for the console “grandmother” of the Switch, the legend of the Italian expert in pipes and bad mushrooms expanded, turning toward the role-playing game genre, which it had in fact already explored thanks to Super Mario Rpg: Paper Mario proved to be a gem, fresh and enjoyable, in which Nintendo’s best ideas came together in a varied, colorful, and fun title.
In a bid to bring back the iconic titles of the last twenty years, a campaign that also includes the spooky Luigi's Mansion 2, Nintendo is about to bring back to our screens Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, the official remake for Nintendo Switch, eagerly awaited in Japan judging by the hype that has built up and that will have us Western players jumping and leveling up too from May 23, 2024.
Why is this title so special?
It’s easy to say: just take a look at the game’s concept itself, where the levels we will face are structured to be three-dimensional; however, we will interact with them through versions of our bouncy heroes reimagined in a two-dimensional key! If all this already seems crazy enough to you, know that Mario’s powers are also inspired by paper and everything we can shape with it: imagination takes power, as they say in these cases, but it doesn’t end there.
The Thousand-Year Door that gives the saga's "paper" title its name is at the center of the narrative, and as often happened in the past, Princess Peach has disappeared. Kidnapped? Caught in some trap during the search for a treasure? We'll find out by playing.
Paper Mario brings with it the typical baggage of RPGs, with characters equipped with hit points and a turn-based combat system that replaces the frenetic immediacy typical of the more classic Super Mario games: no jumping and stomping, then, but planning and strategy, naturally reworked so as not to bore players who approach this peculiar spin-off series by migrating from the original platform games.
The objective of the game, besides getting to the bottom of the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the beloved blonde princess, is to find and collect the Crystal Stars, keystone keys to open the legendary Thousand-Year Portal and discover an incredible truth.
Obviously, we will be dealing with a roundup of the series’ most emblematic characters, both villains and supporting ones, which will make us feel right at home, something fundamental when launching a marketing operation that plays on the nostalgia factor and the desire to stroll down memory lane; Nintendo has always been at the forefront in this regard, and we are sure that this time as well it will not miss the mark.
The graphical rendering on the Switch greatly enhances the visual impact of Paper Mario, twenty years in the video game world is an enormous span of time, and dressing a title like this with modernized effects and an almost total cleanup of the graphics engine, the environments, and even many details related to the characters on screen makes this title a new must-have for those who have never played it.
Whoever appreciated it back then (how time flies!) will certainly find an engaging gameplay that can bring back the game's "ancient" and, it is truly the case to say, millennial charm.
Simon Larocca
Mi chiamo Simon Larocca, e sono un videogiocatore, collezionista e amante della cultura pop in tutte le sue forme. Vado al cinema ogni volta che posso, leggo da quando porto gli occhiali, quindi da sempre, e ho la passione per lo storytelling in tutte le sue forme, così dirompente da farla diventare una professione. Ma come direbbe Doc di Ritorno al Futuro, non ci sarebbe presente se non si guardasse al passato con rispetto e ammirazione, ed è il Simon bambino di più di trent’anni fa, anno più anno meno.
Simon Larocca
Mi chiamo Simon Larocca, e sono un videogiocatore, collezionista e amante della cultura pop in tutte le sue forme. Vado al cinema ogni volta che posso, leggo da quando porto gli occhiali, quindi da sempre, e ho la passione per lo storytelling in tutte le sue forme, così dirompente da farla diventare una professione. Ma come direbbe Doc di Ritorno al Futuro, non ci sarebbe presente se non si guardasse al passato con rispetto e ammirazione, ed è il Simon bambino di più di trent’anni fa, anno più anno meno.
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