Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is a top Mario RPG, and that probably won't change
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Nintendo Switch Review – Is It Worth It?
by Michael McWhertor
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door originally launched on the GameCube in 2004 to great acclaim, and the upcoming Nintendo Switch re-release won't touch perfection. Nintendo and Intelligent Systems' remaster of the landmark role-playing game – which also represented the Paper Mario franchise at its peak – will instead give Mario fans a sleeker version of the original game, with some welcome tweaks. It will also give the massive Switch audience a chance to experience this classic Nintendo game for the first time.
Unlike the major graphical overhaul of Super Mario RPG, which was released on Switch last year, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door will look more like your memories of the GameCube original, based on a hands-off demo that Nintendo revealed to Polygon last week. Characters like Mario, Peach, and Bowser are still rendered as flattened 2D paper cutouts, and the game's world is still constructed with thick cardboard objects. But everything looks sharper. Scenes are bathed in warm, realistic lighting, and characters cast shadows and reflect realistically in pools of water. There's also updated music, along with streamlined controls and menus. That's all well and good for Switch players, but fans of the GameCube original also get some new toys to play with.
