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Intelligent Systems 2004 - GCN
The oh-so-long awaited sequel to the incredible Paper Mario, The Thousand-Year Door is everything I expected. You didn’t have to play the first one to understand the plot of this one (however, it does help you understand a few of the jokes). The game was fun to play through, the bosses were awesome, and the partners you get are...interesting, lets say. Ahem. Anyway, the game begins with a story-book narrator...guy...thing...telling you the story of the “Thousand-Year Door!” The door is supposed to have lots of cool junk locked inside. Unfortunately, the ancient city that contained the treasures, sunk during a horrible storm. To quote the game, “...and in but a single night, the town had fallen into the depths of the earth.” God damnit. It’s the same thing as Atlantis! Except for having a movie made by Disney. ANYWAY, after we learn what’s happened to the little town, a new town called “Rogueport” gets built on top of it, and Princess Peach happens to be on vacation there. She comes across a shady merchant who gives her a box that can only be opened by pure hearts and so she manages to open the box AND THEN... That’s where you start to play the game. The controls a very easy to get used to, and battles are great fun. The unique system used in the last game is rehashed to make it a bit more challenging to pull off some bigger moves. The way you level up partners is also the same...sort of. Now you have to find THREE shine sprites (they’re putting in SMS stuff everywhere, I tell ya) to level up your partner once, which gives them a new move and more HP. Oh, did I forget to mention that? Now, your partners don’t get stunned if they get hit. They actually take damage. Another interesting (and possibly most unique thing in this game) is that all battles take place on a stage with an audience. Depending on how you “perform” your battles decides how many people you have in the audience. Why are they so important? Well, when you get the Crystal Stars (you’ll figure that out), and start needing to use Star Points, they get drained. A happy audience gives you Star Points. Also, with a bigger audience, you have a better chance of getting items from them, like mushrooms. Of course, there’s always an asshole in the crowd who likes to throw hammers or cans. But by pressing X in the middle of a battle, you can run into the crowd and beat the crap out of em’. And badges -tons of badges. Badges make the world go round. What liked: How this game had so many new ideas that worked so good. What disliked: Text. Everywhere. What to expect: Plenty of interesting characters, bosses, and the occasional “Super Bowser Bros.” mini-game. What not to expect: Mario & Luigi. What's so different from this and other games of it's genre: Everything. God damned everything. The battles, the story, the characters...it goes on. Ratings on: Control - 9: Everything responds as it should, and the attacks are pretty simple to execute. Of course, there’s always some kinda annoying moment. Graphics - 8: The graphics, while you may think they’re not a lot to expect, are exceptional. All are crisp and colorful, and the backgrounds (the real 3D) are done blocky...but for the situation, it goes very nice. Sound - 10: I want the soundtrack. Now. Style - 10: To quote my Fable review...”This game oozes style from every crack in my Xbox.” Except...it’s a Gamecube and not an Xbox. Difficulty - 6: Despite this being an awesome game, it’s fairly simple to run through. Although my 10 year old sister has trouble with it. Then again, she was the one who wanted “Elmo’s Alphabet Adventure.” 1st hour: Only about 1 hour in and I’m already nearing the first boss! 5th hour: Holy crap! I get to NAME my character? Hot damn! 3rd day: Good thing I’ve been reading detective novels lately. This whole chapter is a detective story! 1st week: What a game...I want to run through it again...but that means more reading. #1 reason why I hate this game: I had to help my sister with this game on parts, and having to read through all the text TWICE gets really annoying. by |
