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Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Review - Gamecube

Indeed Your tale through Rogueport and its surroundings begins here. Paper Mario was released on the Nintendo 64 several years ago and received mixed reactions. Most fans wanted a Mario 64 2, and missed out on a pretty good game in ignorance. Paper Mario now makes its way over to the GameCube with its quirky yet obvious subtitle: The Thousand-Year Door. Evidently, your quest will at some stage bring you to this Thousand-Year Door, where behind it lays treasure, or so you're told. Join Mario on another quest to rescue Princess Peach and save the world, in true Nintendo style.

Gameplay

Paper Mario has a lot to offer, much like any RPG you pick up these days. What separates it from other RPGs is the fact that you can play as Mario. You'll find a lot of familiar characters are fitted in throughout the game, with of course Princess Peach. Much like in the Final Fantasy games, other characters will join you on your quest on the way, and most of them will help you fight. This creates more diversity in the fighting, and an entertaining way to work your way through the various nooks and crannies of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.

If you've ever played an RPG before, even a Pokemon game or any sort of game similar to that, you'll pick up the combat system in Paper Mario: TTYD very quickly. Basically you go around any place that isn't occupied by people you can chat to, and you'll be confronted with various enemies that will swoop in your direction. You can run through and dodge them, or you can wait for them to come to you and battle, or you can charge at them. If you manage to hit them before the battle begins, say if you jump on them or whack them with your giant hammer, then you get a head start in the battle, however be careful because if they hit you first then they get the head start. Most of the enemies around can be destroyed quite easily, and they usually drop some items when they die.

There are plenty of items to learn in Paper Mario: TTYD. Coins, Mushrooms, and plenty of other old items are back again, however there are new items such as badges, honey syrup, and a world of items to use in battle. You use your coins as currency, unlike the normal Mario games where they're used to receive a life or a star. You only have one life in Paper Mario, and once you die its game over. You do however have health which can be increased. As you get more points for beating enemies, you'll gradually build up a nice tally and once you reach 100 you can go up a level. When you go up a level, you can choose between increasing your (continued next page)