Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Reviews May Break A 23-Year Record For The Series

The first reviews for the Switch version of have been released, and they paint apositive picture of the upcoming remaster/remake. What might excite many, though, is that the praise for the game could lead to an impressive aggregate grading that the series hasn't achieved since the original on the Nintendo 64.

On Metacritic, 64 reviews (at the time of writing) have labeled as positive. The overall score of the game stands at 89. The 2004 version on the Nintendo GameCube scored 87 on an aggregate of 55 reviews. Thus, the upgraded Switch version has already passed what the original game did. However, if it were to get a 90 on Metacritic, it would be part of an elite company and receive the site's "" label. Only the original has attained Metacritic Must-Play status, doing so with a 93, and it's possible that late-coming reviews for on Switch could push it over the threshold.

With new remakes coming out for classic Mario RPGs, the future of the Paper Mario series could hold a return to the gameplay style of TTYD.

Specifically, is already one of the best-reviewed games of 2024, and recieved a 4.5/5 score from 's review – a must-play in our own metric. As of now, the game is tied for sixth place in Metacritic's aggregate rankings of best-reviewed titles for the year so far. It’s currently tied with, and. Just as impressive, the only games with scores higher than it are and The latter three are only one point above the Nintendo title in score.

Despite being a remaster of a 20-year-old game, Nintendo did add several new features to . One of the biggest is the ability to switch between companion characters more simply via the Partner Ring. Furthermore, as players gain Star Pieces and Shine Sprites, they’ll unlock special galleries for concept art and music that they can play via the menu screens. Perhaps most importantly, the game’s visuals have been heavily updated, including the sprite quality, animations, VFX, and more.

However, at its core, remains the same as the