One of the 2024 releases that has been making a rather consistent buzz is Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, the up-and-coming return of one of the most fondly remembered Mario RPGs. This is a big deal for many of the game’s older fans and newer prospective players as the game has been trapped on the Nintendo GameCube for almost twenty years exactly, and the excitement for The Thousand-Year Door‘s return has left it sold out on most physical shelves.
Indeed, the big reason as to why Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is an important part of this year’s titles is that it’s not just a port or basic rerelease like many fans have been asking for. To the surprise of many, not only is TTYD returning, but it’s making its way back to the limelight with an updated look and feel that brings it into the modern era either as the best Paper Mario release to date, or just as fans’ nostalgic eyes have made them remember it for the past two decades.
Nintendo Appears to Be Betting the Farm on Remakes
Nintendo has several remakes in the works, making it look like the company is staking a lot on reviving games from historical systems.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Takes Fans on a Classic Treasure Hunt in a Whole New Way
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is Being Treated Like the Epic Players Know It Is
Classic games such as Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door are often given more credit than some late-game adopters may believe they’ve earned because of nostalgia goggles. While Paper Mario: TTYD is certainly deserving of its praise, looking at the newer 2024 release against the original helps show its age. The new Switch version is perfectly modernized without losing what made Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door great to begin with; it is the game that everyone remembers, nostalgia googles or otherwise.
Updated HD assets and new detailed sprites go a long way to tie The Thousand-Year Door to modern expectations. One strong example is foil being used to create the unique rainbow floors of the Boggly Woods. However, the aim has clearly been focused towards leaving TTYD exactly as fans remember it, more than fixing what doesn’t need to be. One could easily explain the changes to the overall character sprites and locations as the Super Mario RPG approach. That is, the art style remains carefully in-tact as the environment is rendered in meaningful detail with mood lighting bringing out emotions and immersion all throughout the experience.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Has Been Rebuilt Over the Treasure That Came Before
Not everything is changed, however, and that helps it keeps its charm. The crinkling and spinning transitions when using Warp Pipes remain, which both dates the art direction but keeps the newer Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door familiar and humble. There are adjustments to cinematic cutscenes and dramatic shadows, but more often than not, these serve in preserving the nostalgic title instead of overriding those memories.
Many fans may also be excited to know that the trailers’ localization changes are only the beginning and that these adjustments aren’t left at cosmetics. Hooktail’s weakness, for example, is changed back to being frogs after the original international release of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door changed it to crickets. In terms of these changes, keen-eyed fans should be on the lookout for any other localization adjustments, as these may make this old game feel new again.
Understanding Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door’s New Features
With many of Nintendo’s remastered and remakes, the inclusion of new features and mechanics is almost a given. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door also has new features, which shouldn’t surprise anyone. Star Pieces and Shine Sprites are given a secondary collectible purpose for starters, in which players who collect all of them in each chapter will unlock an art gallery with Star Pieces and a sound test with Shine Sprites.
The entire soundtrack for TTYD has been updated, and fans are given a “Nostalgic Tunes” badge in the shape of a GameCube that allows players to switch between soundtracks whenever they want. New NPCs have been added in the form of a Battle Master that serves to help players learn the exact timing of Action Commands by telling them when things are too early or too late, including the still painfully difficult Superguard ability. Another new NPC is “Ian Foomus,” a mouse that will help fans keep track of Troubles side quests if they get distracted or lost.
Smaller changes help improve the overall experience, such as a partner quick-select with the L button, and the ability to use ZL to hear advice from Goombella no matter if she’s the active partner or not. The Yoshi players hatch will remain that color on the start screen, presumably depending on the last save file used, and titles are given to each separate area that show up in the bottom left corner to avoid fans getting lost.
There are plenty of other new features that will need to wait until Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door arrives to be discovered, such as potential new fast-travel mechanics and post-game content. For all the players aiming to pick this game up, it’s shaping up to be everything they remember and then some.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (2024)
A modern version of the classic 2004 RPG, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door for the Nintendo Switch features upgraded graphics along with other changes intended to make the game as accessible as possible.
- Released
- May 23, 2024
- Developer(s)
- Nintendo
- Publisher(s)
- Nintendo
- ESRB
- E For Everyone Due To Mild Fantasy Violence, Mild Suggestive Themes
