That Goombella's such a babe.

Game Info.

Genre Action-oriented RPG

Publisher/Developer Nintendo/Intelligent Systems

Release 10/11/04

Those Nintendo bashers out there don't understand that while Nintendo likes to make games like Mario Party, Mario Tennis, Mario Golf, and Mario Pinball, there are still wholly original adventure titles coming out of the franchise every year. The first Paper Mario in 2001 was a fantastic example of this. Those who played it more often than not came to understand Nintendo's bold new style of video game making. It was really the last masterpiece on the N64, and appropriately so, it made room for this generation's very different adventure games like Pikmin, Luigi's Mansion, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, and finally its sequel, Paper Mario: the Thousand-Year Door.
I think this new game makes as bold a statement about Nintendo's interesting style as the first Paper Mario, however in a time when innovative games are surprisingly common across most platforms. How this affects its reception is hard to place at the moment, but as you'll see in this review, I believe it deserves some credit as a freakin' fantastic RPG experience, at the very very least.

Gameplay
Paper Mario and TYD are, in case you're unfamiliar with them, of a very different breed of RPG. The most notable gameplay feature outside of battle would be Super Mario Bros.-esque platforming. It's really everywhere you go. Unlike many RPGs in which talking to characters or collecting a key are the only ways to get past an obstacle, the Mario RPGs often let you use your characters' physical abilities to do so instead. Somewhat like EarthBound, you approach enemies to initiate battles, and depending on how you approach them, the battle could begin with your turn or with theirs. In battle, several badges that you can collect throughout the world help you out by giving you a boost of HP, making you slightly more "dodgy" (as the game puts it), or lowering your jump attack in favor of raising your hammer attack, and so on - there are dozens more.
New to this game is the idea that Mario is performing on a stage for an audience when he's in battle. During the game, this feature seems odd in the context of the plotline, but is helpful in letting you perform special moves (the crowd's cheering raises your star power). Then at the end of the game, after the credits have rolled by, the whole thing is explained, and it's delightful. I won't spoil it for those of you who may end up playing it.

While the first Paper Mario stuck to familiar Mario/Yoshi-related territory for the most part, TYD gives players a taste of more unique worlds and characters, closer to 2003's Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga for GBA. As in the last title, Mario's joined by a sidekick that he can switch out between a number you can collect. Rather than very basic characters joining you like in Paper Mario, TYD offers several very cool additions to the Mario family. My personal favorite is Vivian, the shadowy pyromaniac who can slip Mario underground. She's just something totally new for the franchise and the series, and once you get to the game's finale, you'll see just how crazy cool her race can get. It's a twist I'm sure you won't have seen coming.
Of course, you still have boos haunting a mansion, a town where peaceful koopas live, and goombas playing both sides of the battlefield, but TYD adds in enough new locales and situations to make the gameplay feel much more fresh than the last Paper Mario. A race of tribble-like folk living in a black-and-white tree whose guardian is a wind god/theater diva. A combat tournament not unlike the WWF gone Mario, in which you have to work up the ranks to square against a half-bird, half-man wrestler known as "the Rawk". A federation of evil aliens who want to take over the world, and AREN'T related to Bowser, playing the main enemies in the adventure. It's precisely the kind of stuff Nintendo needs to introduce more into the Mario series to keep it fresh the way Zelda is (especially if they continue to expand those two franchises and all but forget about their less popular ones, such as Metroid and EarthBound).
9/10

Control
As in the first game, timed hits aren't just a bonus (like in Square's Super Mario RPG) - they're all but required for Mario and his partners to make any progress in battle. TYD introduces many new techniques, most of which feel a bit more natural than those in the N64 game. No longer is it frustrating trying to time a dodge or a defensive move. This has become arguably the strongest, most refined feature that makes the Mario RPG series stand on its own.
This game throws in a lot of wacky new techniques to the Paper Mario gameplay. Mario's new abilities to turn on his side and fit through slits in the wall, roll up into a paper tube, and fold into a paper airplane or origami boat to reach certain areas all make perfect sense in a paper-themed game and add a certain air of freeness to the action-RPG. Although, as in the first Paper Mario, judging the depth at which Mario is standing can be anything from mildly unnverving to downright annoying in puzzles where keeping track of this is key. Perhaps a slightly less dead-on camera angle would fit at times like these.
The number of items you can carry at any given time is way too limited. It hurts. Not that items are incredibly useful in this game, but there being such an interesting variety of them (such as mushrooms that make you electrifying to the touch), choosing one to throw away can be difficult.
8/10

Graphics
TYD features lush worlds with beautiful design and characters whose looks are instantly memorable. I'm not here to put any of that down. The graphics are the main gimmick of these Paper Mario games, and while I definitely dig the style, I've gotta' admit that the GameCube can technically do better. It's not like I care about graphics so much as to consider it a flaw for this game to have "merely" great graphics (as opposed to "damn near perfect" or "awe-inspiring"), but I have to point out in this short section my honest opinion of them.
Yeah, it's "Paper" Mario, but to the eye of the boy in the Target electronics section, it just looks like "Sprite Mario". The paper thing could honestly stand to be used more. This game does add effects like Mario turning into a paper airplane or having to blow away sheets of scenery covering secrets beneath, and I really like these. But when they only show up once or twice in a chapter, it almost makes the gimmick stand out MORE as a gimmick than as a dedicated graphics style. So if the decision comes between adding more "paper stuff" or taking it away, I'd say Nintendo could stand to really go all out with it next time. Show the uninterested why you're Nintendo, the creators of crazy-ass games - not just the creators of cute-looking games.
Because the game's characters are all done in sprites, up to a few hundred of them can be on the screen at once. This effect is rather impressive at first, but I don't think I'm being too picky when I say it's a bit overused. There are places where it even seems unnecessary and is just thrown in to add "zing" to a scene. Rather than 4 or 5 dry bones coming in to ruin your day, hundreds of them will show up out of nowhere, as if they've all been waiting there for you, and it just seems excessive.
8/10

Sound
Like the graphics, the music's great, but there's nothing really left to be desired here. Many themes are attached to certain charactes, and in such a text-heavy RPG, these can help you recall certain events or details you were told to remember.
The sound effects aren't fantastic, but they fit. Not to say the game could use full-on voice acting, cause while I liked that a lot in Final Fantasy X, I don't exactly feel like it fits with Mario (Sunshine comes to mind). But when Mario says "wahoo!" or makes that shaking your head "no" noise ("mm-mm" is the only way I can write it), I feel like every character should at least have little sounds like this thrown in. Fans of Wind Waker should know what I'm talking about. It would be perfect in Paper Mario.
8/10

Replay Value
Unlike pretty much any RPG ever, Paper Mario: TYD lets you save after you've beaten the game and sat through the credits. While it doesn't sound like much on paper (hahaha), there are hundreds of hidden star pieces to collect to buy all the awesome badges, which you can then play with while you level up practically indefinitely. If any one RPG should have this feature, Paper Mario: TYD is it.
9/10

Overall
(Once again I've written a review that does more to pick at a game's tiny flaws than to point out its greatness. Someday I'll get it right. :P)
The overall cheery mood of this and the first game doesn't come off as annoying or "babyish" - it lets you take the games less seriously and just have fun, which is rare in RPGs. Not to say that Final Fantasy and Xenosaga are inherently unfun cause they're serious and moody, but I'm one of those players who's felt some variety has been desparately needed for all games in general, and RPGs in particular, for years. I'm glad to see the four years since I first said this has seen releases like Kingdom Hearts making room for this exciting new brand of RPG.
All in all, Paper Mario 2 makes me happy to be a gamer. I could've spent 20-some hours playing recycled trash if this game were just like any other RPG, or for that matter, if it weren't much of a departure from the first Paper Mario. Actually, it delivers a fantastic and rich gaming experience that deserves to be played by many thousands more players than it has been. I also believe I'm not the only reviewer who thinks so - GameSpot called it "GameCube Game of the Year", as well as "RPG of the Year" across all platforms. So give it a try and be ready to surprise yourself. This charming mustachioed man still has a few tricks up his sleeves...

FINAL SCORE: 9/10
=Amazing=
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