Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (2004)

I promise this review is shorter than Luigi's Waffle Kingdom adventures (400 words or less)

Right of the bat, Paper Mario’s presentation is something to behold. The entire world looks carefully crafted from paper and cardboard, giving it this palpable feel to it. The developers kept finding new and interesting ways to use the paper style to their advantage, keeping it fresh throughout the 30-hour story.

The writing here is one of the funniest I’ve experienced in any game. The witty humor is not only present in the writing, but within the core of the game. My favorite example is how abilities are technically “curses” bestowed upon Mario by dark beings. They feel so proud of cursing you, and even give you a tutorial on how to use “the curse”. Simply hilarious.

Paper Mario is an RPG that does a lot to keep you entertained during battles. Every attack is accompanied by a button prompt, and enemy attacks have the chance of being blocked with timed button presses. Encounters aren’t particularly difficult for most of the game, but the button prompts make sure you’re never bored during them. Battles here are “a performance”, placing you and your enemies on a theater stage, with lights, curtains and all. It’s almost like wrestling, where you also use the energy of the crowd to your advantage. Yes, there’s a crowd during battles, did I mention this game is funny?

The story is divided into 7 worlds, each with its own unique theme. Your goal is obtaining all 7 Crystal Stars, but each world offers something different to reach said goal. On one world you’ll find the standard ‘green field - castle - boss fight’, while others can happen entirely within one train, à la Murder on the Orient Express.

Progression in this game is so fascinating; once you learn a new ability, er, curse, you immediately start seeing the world through a different lens. Suddenly those out-of-reach places open up because something that looked like an innocent crack on the wall becomes the key to progress.

There’s never a dull moment in Paper Mario. The story is so whimsical, the gameplay so engaging and the presentation so unique. While it has so many dated elements, such as slow tutorials, limited inventory space and constant backtracking, the positives do more than enough to make up for it. Regardless of your taste in video games, I guarantee you’ve never played one like this before.