NESpresso: Game Reviews \ GCN \ Paper Mario II: The Thousand-Year Door

Game Stats
System: Gamecube
Genre: RPG
Players: 1
Memory used: 17 Blocks
Playtime: 00:15 / 45:00
ESRB Rating: Everybody (6+)

Mario's back in paper form as he starts another adventure to save the world & Princess Peach (Toadstool) as he searches the land for the crystal stars & discover the mystery of the Thousand-Year Door.

After Paper Mario, Princess Peach decided to go on a personal vacation. However, her personal assistant Toadsworth had to come along for personal protection. Once they got to Rogueport, Princess Peach ditched Toadsworth at the inn & went on a little personal sightseeing. She then found a small street shop with a strange lady with a chest that could only be opened by a pure heart, which she did. By opening up the chest, she found a mysterious treasure map in which she sent off to Mario.

After Mario received the letter & the map from Princess Peach, he headed off to Rogueport (like he had a choice w/ Peach) a whole bunch of strange occurances happen.

If you haven't played the original Paper Mario on the N64, you may experience a little graphical shock as it's a mix of 2D characters in a 3D world. Paper Mario 2 is pretty similar to the original Paper Mario, but the graphics are a lot more refined as there's more depth in the game. One downside is that you have to be pretty observant in the game as there's optical effects that may fool you since the 2D looks may give you the effect that's something is solid when it's actually not.

As for the battles, unlike the original Paper Mario w/ diaramas stages, Paper Mario II treats each battle with an area-appropiate performance stage complete with an audience. One thing that you'll have to expect is that the battle stage isn't perfect & parts of the stage may fall on you. Some of the incidents happen randomly, but you can see if the backdrop is going to fall (by it's wobbling).

The graphics are functional, even though they may not be in total 3D (pseudo-3D is more like it) & you'll definately learn to love the paper feel of the game as you play it.

The music in the game is generally appropiate for the area that you're in. You'll definately hear some of the classic Super Mario Bros. tunes in the game, although remixed a bit to suit the game. You'll hear the classic underworld music while you're under the town of Rogueport & the Super Mario World tune remixed for the normal battles. Boss battles have a darker & more dramatic tune to add to the battle.

You'll enjoy the music in the game that it would be a shame if you drowned it out with your own.

The controls of the game have been modified to accomidate the Gamecube controller more. The D-pad is used as a quick-access to paused items like items, badges or even partners so you don't have to hit start & then go to the area you want. This does take some time to get use to, but you can hit the Z button to display the pages for the D-pad as well as your current status. The A & B buttons do the same thing as their did in Paper Mario. The Y button is used for special "launch pads", R is used to access special areas & X lets you use your partner's abilities. One downside in the game is that they removed the dash feature, but it was made up with a more expansive run/walk capabilities.

As for gameplay, if you haven't played an RPG (much less Paper Mario), you run around the world trying to solve the puzzles in each chapter as well as fighting any enemies that you encounter. Unlike other RPG's, you can see the enemies & you can actually get an early start by attacking your enemies beforehand. Be careful, however, your enemies can attack you before the battle as well. The battles (unlike Paper Mario) are now in front of a crowd so you really have some pressure on your to fight well by hitting all your action cues (which inflicts even more damage than normal). You can also add style to your attacks by pressing A at the appropiate time, which drives the audience crazy & attracts more people (or keep people, if your attack is ineffective). The crowd plays an important part of the battle as they affect how fast your Star Meter fills up. The larger the crowd & the more entertained they are, the faster it refills. On hazard with the crowd is that they will occasionally throw something at you, but the item that throw at you could either be good or bad. You can attack the offending audience member by hitting X before they throw it, but you will only want to attack them if they're throwing a bad item (like a rock, an bone, ect.) & NOT if the item is helpful (like a coin, a flower or even honey syrup).

There's four things that original Paper Mario fans will have to get used in Paper Mario II. First of all, your partner now have their own HP. This means that they can take damage & still be able to fight instead of sitting out for a few turns, but they can get knocked out & they can use up your Life Shrooms. The second change in the game is that all the inns & the "Recharge Blocks" now cost money. You'll have to manage your money a lot more as it'll cost you to rest or recharge yourself. On the flipside, you can find inn coupons that are good for a free night's stay. The third change is that you can sell your badges, now you can get rid of the badges that you never use for coins. The downside is that you may regret selling a badge that you might want later. The final change is that there's no post office in the game, but since we live in a modern electronic world, Paper Mario II gets a little modern by using e-mails & a device called the Mobile SP... it's the 21st century, get used to it!

Paper Mario II is an excellent sequal, even though the replay value seriously drops once you complete the main storyline. However, there's plently of side quests & some minigames to keep you busy. The Pianta Parlor is the place where you can entertain yourself with 5 minigames (4 must be unlocked to play them), but expect to spend a lot coins here since it costs 3 coins per pianta token & the major minigames cost 10 piantas a shot, but the slots only cost 1 pianta.

The trouble center is the place where you can assist others, which varies from the mundane (like picking up a lost key) to helpful (like finding a cookbook). Each trouble you solve rewards you with something like coins or an item. The trouble center's list will grow as you progress through the game & open up new areas, so you will want to check back periodically. You can only take care of one trouble at a time & if you cannot solve a person's trouble, you have to pay the trouble center around 30 coins to bail out.

You will also run into Luigi from time to time with his own adventure & you'll see the one Rogueport shop carry books of Luigi's adventure (without all the negative stuff in there... which can be a hefty snow job), but the story of Paper Mario II is a game that you'll enjoy, even if you're not a traditional RPG player.