Paper Mario: Thousand-Year Door remains a treasure, 20 years on

20 years after its original release, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door remains a treasure. With a refreshingly un-Mario-like script, a memorable and lovable cast, engaging turn-based gameplay, and more variety than your average Taylor Swift concert, the GameCube title is regarded by many as a classic entry in the plumber’s RPG lineage.

It’s no surprise then that it feels right at home on Nintendo Switch via this remake. While some of its level designs have aged somewhat, a significant visual glow-up and smart quality-of-life improvements ensure that it’s otherwise a robustly modern experience, and an easy recommendation to new and old fans as arguably the definitive Mario RPG.

Just like last year’s similarly excellent SNES remake, Thousand-Year Door marries traditional, turn-based RPG features with a comedic script and colouful cast of characters you really wouldn’t expect to see in a modern Mario game – partly due to franchise branding decisions we explained in detail in our earlier preview.

It’s a wonderfully weird – and often surprisingly dark – adventure, cushioned by the comfortingly familiar mechanics of a turn-based battler. Mario is once again out to rescue Princess Peach and discover magical Stars, but that’s where the similarity to his previous adventures ends.

The game’s opening area, which is a seedy town bustling with thieving goombas, criminal Piantas, and a literal hangman’s noose as its centrepiece, immediately sets the tone for the twisted, tongue-in-cheek satire to come. Just here, you’ll help a gangster boss capture his runaway daughter – who begs Mario to let her escape – and deliver an old sea pilot his deceased lover’s final message, in between hearing about an NPC’s stolen credit card or views on climate change. The Super Mario Bros. Movie, this isn’t.

What follows is a 30-hour adventure of consistently surprising and amusing scenarios, with Mario becoming an unlikely wrestling star, cursed ghost, pirate captain, and more in his quest to find the