Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (2004)
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is a 2004 role-playing (rpg) video game made by Intelligent Systems and Nintendo.
Mario arrives in the run-down port town of Rogueport chasing a treasure map, then gets pulled into a hunt for the Thousand-Year Door and the secret sealed behind it. The whole world is folded from paper, and the turn-based battles play out on a theater stage, complete with an audience Mario can win over with well-timed button presses. A cast of oddball partners joins him, from a bookish Goomba to a wrestling-obsessed cloud. The writing is sharp and funny, the dungeons inventive, and the paper gimmick shapes puzzles as much as looks. Many still call it the best Mario RPG.
Quick answers
What is Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door about?
Mario arrives in the run-down port town of Rogueport chasing a treasure map, then gets pulled into a hunt for the Thousand-Year Door and the secret sealed behind it. The whole world is folded from paper, and the turn-based battles play out on a theater stage, complete with an audience Mario can win over with well-timed button presses. A cast of oddball partners joins him, from a bookish Goomba to a wrestling-obsessed cloud. The writing is sharp and funny, the dungeons inventive, and the paper gimmick shapes puzzles as much as looks. Many still call it the best Mario RPG.
When was Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door released?
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door was released on 22 July 2004.
Who made Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door?
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door was made by Intelligent Systems and Nintendo.
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A few thoughts on Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Players who love its stage-play battles and warm humor have plenty of Mushroom Kingdom left to explore. The Super Mario Bros. Movie brings the same bright, affectionate take on the characters to film. For more turn-based Mario with a comic streak, Super Mario RPG and the original Paper Mario carry the same spirit.
Funny, family-friendly adventures with real heart
The Thousand-Year Door pairs sharp jokes and a genuinely warm cast with real stakes underneath its paper-craft charm. The Super Mario Bros. Movie brings that same colorful, all-ages sense of fun to the big screen. The Simpsons has spent decades mixing comedy with real family warmth, and Doraemon and Crayon Shin-chan do the same for generations of readers, silly on the surface and sincere underneath.
Sharp writing that never takes itself too seriously
Paper Mario's turn-based battles play out on a literal stage, complete with an audience won over by good timing and better jokes. Portal and Portal 2 built entire games around that same kind of dry, quotable wit. Tenacious D and Frank Zappa's Apostrophe (') bring that same absurd, self-aware sense of humor to music, proof that funny and genuinely well-crafted are not opposites.
Whimsical magic with a sense of humor
Rogueport is a world folded from paper where oddball partners and a talking book share the joke with Mario. Dr. Slump and Sabrina the Teenage Witch turn everyday magic into pure comedy rather than danger, Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir keeps its secret identities light and playful, and The Girl Who Drank the Moon finds real warmth inside a fairy-tale premise.