Paper Mario - The Thousand Year Door is the latest in the Mario RPG series and tells the typical Mario tale: Princess Peach has gone off exploring at the unsavory port city of Rougesport while on vacation. At one point she ducks her toadstool chaperone and runs across a shady and mysterious merchant in the town's square. The merchant gives her a box that only one of pure heart can open. Luckily, Peach happened to pack her pure heart that day, so the box is opened and a very valuable, mysterious old treasure map is found. Princess Peach does the obvious thing and puts this extremely rare and valuable map into the hands of the postal service and sends it to Mario, with a letter telling him to join her at Roguesport.

Mario, of course, jumps at the chance to help Peach, even after over 25 years of saving her royal hide and still not proposing marriage. And of course, once Mario rolls into town he finds the Princess has gone missing. Again. And Mario had to go save her. Again. No game besides a Mario game could ever get this much mileage out of the exact same plot for so many titles.

This time though, there is more to life than the Princess, as the map also tells the location of the Thousand Year Door and, more importantly, the location of the seven crystals needed to open the door. The Door has been buried in the ruins of an ancient city under Roguesport, and no one knows what lies beyond it. Sounds like an easy couple of hours for the most heroic plumber in history. The story continues pretty typically from there. Mario must learn more about the map and find the crystals needed to open the Door, while at the same time doing what Mario does best: help out the local townsfolk along a number of sub-plots and quests while mercilessly stamping (or hammering) out the baddies in the way.

Game-play is a mix of 2.5D platformer and a turn based combat system, with occasional jaunts into in-game cut scenes. I call it 2.5D, because Mario and the world are neither 2D nor 3D but thin as a sheet of paper. However, everyone moves in 3D and around other items and characters on the screen. The best way to describe it is like you were playing a moving, video, pop-up book. While this sounds extremely strange to those you haven't tried it, it’s actually a very cool design and it’s implemented extremely well throughout the game; in fact, this paper uniqueness is probably the most interesting part of the game and sets it above all other RPG's starring Italian plumbers. Entering and leaving buildings is one of the best examples - when Mario opens a door, the building's front and sides fold down to let you see inside, which makes for an extremely cool effect. Another example is the first boss dragon Mario has to fight, which is so beautifully created it looks like someone actually sat down, drew, painted and cut out a dragon, glued it together, then filmed it for the game. The paper effect, combined with fantastic art and ideas, make some of the more memorable characters I've seen in a video game.

The paper effect is practical too, and a core part of the game design. As Mario travels on his journey, he discovers new powers that take advantage of his paper thin-ness. Early on, Mario learns how to fold himself up into a paper airplane and throw himself across long distances. Later, he learns he can turn sideways and slip between obstacles on the map, such as between the rails of a fence. By gently exposing Mario to these powers as the game progresses, the designers help open up the world a little at a time, until Mario can reach everything. You will spend a lot of time going back to places you've already visited, looking for new paths that you weren't able to visit before. I call this the "Metroid-effect", named after another classic Nintendo franchise, and it’s a more natural way to open up the game and not get the player lost at the beginning in a world too big to handle. My only complaint is that the use of these powers is very much designed into the game levels, and I'd rather be able to use the powers whenever I wanted, instead of just in certain areas. Of course, that also opens up a Pandora's Box for level designers, having to account for every enterprising player, so I understand the compromise.

Combat in Paper Mario is not your usual run, jump and squash. Instead, it’s a turn-based system that I closely relate to the Final Fantasy games, with the combatants going into a special screen and taking turns using various strategies and powers to overcome their enemy. In Paper Mario, you or your enemy engage in combat by running into the other on the exploration "platformer" screen. Once combat is initiated, you are placed on a stage, complete with area-specific backdrops and a stage for spectators. You then cycle through Mario and the other character in your party, and take turns invoking combat moves like "Hammer" or "Stomp," or your special abilities (known in the game as "Badges"). Each side takes turns until all of the opponents are killed off, whereupon you are granted experience (if you win) and sent back to the platform screen.

While combat is fairly simplistic, there is depth in its resolution. Strategy reigns supreme, as you must learn which character and ability to use at the right time, and know as much about your enemy as possible. The audience and stage metaphor is important as well, because the more exciting the moves you complete, the more your audience enjoys the show, and the more star power they give you to be able to use your special abilities. Unfortunately, everyone's a critic and some baddies will hang out among the crowd, only to rush the stage and drop lights or parts of the set on you. Do exceptionally well, and your crowd will swell as more spectators rush in to see the excitement, giving your characters more power. Play boringly and you'll end up with a few yawning spectators yawning in an empty theatre.

While there is some complexity and truly unique aspects to the combat system, the uniqueness wears off quickly and becomes routine and boring for anything but the boss battles. As you move through the platform view of the world, you'll continually run into low-level koopas or other baddies that are barely worth your time. After a couple of combats, you'll know exactly who to attack, in what order, with what weapon. After a few dozen combats, you'll be able to do handle these guys in your sleep and, while you do gain gold, health and experience, sometimes it’s just not worth the trouble. In fact, I found myself actively avoiding combat with the low-level enemies, just so I could get through the world faster. I'm sure some people, especially those who like Final Fantasy, really enjoy the strategy involved, but I feel this is the worst part of the game.

Going back to the game design, artistically this game is spot on. Everything about the game says "Mario," and anyone who is a fan of the series will enjoy seeing all of the familiar characters and races all over again. Graphically, everything is brightly colored and designed in the same cartoony style as Mario Sunshine. The sound and music fit right in as usual, and work along with the story to help set the mood as you would expect from a Mario title. However, every bit of dialog is written on the screen and not an word is spoken. Occasionally characters will make an exclamation noise to punctuate the text, but otherwise they are just silent movie actors. While I completely understand this decision - this game is just too massive to do voice acting - it is a lot of reading, and I do mean a lot. In between levels with long cut scenes, you can spend five to ten minutes just clicking the button to run through the text. The game tries to make this chore easier by making the dialog amusing and active, based on what's being said. For example, if a character is shouting, the text will BE VERY BIG and will shake on the screen. While this helps and is entertaining, it’s still a lot of text to plow through, and I'm afraid that this puts the game out of the reach of younger children who might otherwise really enjoy it. You could probably get by with not reading the text, but it would make the game a lot harder to complete.

If you are looking for a Mario platformer in the old school style, you shouldn't touch this game - it won't be satisfying at all. If you love Final Fantasy-type titles or have played previous Mario RPG games, then you'll feel right at home. I would definitely suggest that if you are unsure, go rent the game first and play with it for a night. If you get hooked, go buy it, because it will take a while to complete. If you find yourself bored through all of the dialog or combat like I was, go back to Mario Sunshine. The game is a beauty and a worthy addition to the Mario genre, but won't be the same cup of tea for all players.