Topic: Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door!!!!!!!

It has been well over 7200 days since TTYD originally released (according to when I looked it up). Now we’re only 5 days away from the Remake’s release.

It’s still crazy that Nintendo is bringing this game back. This is pretty much the weirdest Mario game and should probably be one of their last choices to bring back. But they did bring it back, and I can’t wait to experience it again and for others to play it too, especially those who have not been able to play the original.

@PikminMarioKirby I think the Switch lasting so long is what allowed it to happen as the more that gets ported/remastered/remade, the fewer options there are for future ports/remasters/remakes.

@Grumblevolcano I honestly didn't think about that. That's a very good point. In that case, I am very thankful that the Nintendo Switch has lasted this long.

I imagine it went down somewhat like this:

Nintendo: "The Switch will last a several more years, and you guys just finished Paper Mario: The Origami King. We don't want another mainline Paper Mario game until Switch's successor, but there is time left in the Switch's life for you to make another game."
Intelligent Systems: "So, what are you thinking? A remake? side/smaller scale game?"
Nintendo: We think we could make a return of an older game. We're planning on adding Paper Mario 64 to NSO next year so let's not do that one."
Intelligent Systems: "How about The Thousand-Year Door? Fans have been begging for a rerelease, and will bring a whole new gameplay experience for those who played Origami King."
Nintendo: That sounds like it would be a good idea. We are making some changes to remove some limits for the Mario series, so we will allow this game. These changes will effect upcoming games such as the next 2D Mario."

I mean obviously it didn't happen like this, but those definitely seem to be some key reasons for this game's return.

Yeah, I think the fan interest combined with no previous system having more than one Paper Mario (barring re-releases of the first game) is the main reason why. They don't want redundant Paper Mario releases, I assume. Even if Switch was ending sooner, maybe they would've decided on a simpler remaster instead.

@kkslider5552000 One per console is probably the right decision, so filling in the gap with a remake just made sense.

Certainly possible that it would’ve been a remaster or enhanced port if the Switch got replaced earlier. They probably just tried to do what they had time to, and in this case they had enough time to remake it.

Games with Mario are all about what Nintendo is about. I think this one. Will be interesting.

All this discussion caused me to dust off my Wii and play some Super Paper Mario. Still great game but I so do not enjoy the Wii controls anymore; I would happily re-buy that game if it gets ported.

@FishyS Super Paper Mario is a good game! Super Paper Mario and TTYD easily have the best plots of any Mario game. I personally like TTYD better, but they are very different games.

I wonder if TTYD reviews will release on Tuesday or Wednesday. I think it'll be reviewed pretty high!

We know they had a review copy, so I'm sure it will drop within a few hours of whenever Nintendo allows them to. And, yeah, I'm guessing it will get a 9, but it will definitely be in the 8-10 range.

@FishyS Definitely deserves a 10/10, so I don't really care what people review it. This game was already considered one of the best games of all time, and this is seemingly fixing pretty much every complaint from the original and adding some cool content and other QoL features. I'm expecting mostly 9s and 10s similar to Pikmin 4 or TOTK

@PikminMarioKirby At least on this website, giving a remake a 10 is a little questionable since they define 10/10 as genre defining game and specifically call out the current generation. There was even argument about whether TotK should get 10/10 simply because it was a sequel with some re-used assets. Granted they also surprisingly gave Metroid Prime Remastered 10/10, so who knows.

But I agree average ratings such as metacritic will likely be pretty high. Super Mario RPG remake got 9/10 here and 84 on metacritic which is similar to the 9/10 and 87 Pikmin 4 got (TotK was higher of course).

@FishyS I'd say that TTYD is a genre defining game, which is calling out modern Paper Mario. Usually if Mario RPGs are talked about, TTYD will find its way in the conversation. If a remaster of a Metroid game can get a 10/10, a remake of Paper Mario can get 10/10. Obviously the new TTYD is more of an upgrade from the original than Metroid Prime is.

Not to mention TTYD is the highest ranked GameCube game (above Metroid Prime) and the 13th highest ranked game overall on the user ratings. https://www.nintendolife.com/games/browse?sort=rating
(It has 9.3 same as MP, however TTYD is ranked higher on this list so I assume that the rankings only show to the nearest 0.1) Not saying that this list is completely accurate (because I strongly disagree with a lot of it), but just thought I'd include that.

Giving it a 9 out of 10 would be surprising to me, but I guess it's ultimately up to the reviewer's opinion!

@PikminMarioKirby Personally I have 100s of games on Switch and have only rated 3 of them 10/10s. 😆 NintendoLife also has pretty high standards for handing out 10/10s, but they're also a bit inconsistent, so who knows.

Although NL user ratings are better than most (Steam user ratings seem berserk to me) , I still tend to be a bit skeptical of them because the majority of them tend to get put there in response to certain articles written in certain ways. Note that NintendoLife didn't even exist yet when TTYD came out, so many of the user scores aren't 100% 'fresh'. One criteria I always find interesting is metacritic reviewer average versus metacritic user average. For most games, the user scores are below the reviewer scores, but the original TTYD is one of those games that go the opposite way with users rating it higher than reviewers (Peach Showtime is like that too).

Anyways, we'll see soon. My guess is 9 but with 10 pretty plausible. If there is some unexpected performance issue etc. I bet 8 would be the lowest NL would go.

@FishyS Just out of curiosity, what Switch games do you give 10/10?

Yeah TTYD had time to sink in, however it is still above all other GameCube games on that list which is an amazing feat. I don't think critics fully appreciated TTYD at it's time (however 87 metacritic is still very high), however now it seems that both journalists and fans alike both hold this game in higher regards than ever.

Yes I think it's very likely it'll get a 9 or 10. I think that Nintendo/IS chose 30fps to avoid any major performance issues, so hopefully there won't be any problem with that.

Animal Crossing New Horizons, Mario Maker 2, and Mario Wonder. For me, the difference of 9 and 10 is often impact, both for myself personally and society-wide/the gaming industry. ACNH had both of those. The Mario Maker games as a unit clearly affected Nintendo itself since they discussed how it effected Wonder development. Those are also the only two games on Switch I've spent 100s of hours on. Mario Wonder I was really indecisive between 9/10 and 10/10 but I had realllly been looking forward to new mainline 2D Mario. I reserve the right to lower it to 9/10 during my second playthrough, but I'm really hoping we will get DLC which will cement it as 10/10. Although some of the art and animation decisions are phenomenal, still unclear if Wonder will have a real impact, but I had the most personal fun playing it as I had any game for ages.

@FishyS Mario Maker 2 is a great game, it's one of the first Switch titles I was looking forward to, and now it's a really good game to play from time to time.

Mario Wonder is really good. Hopefully at the June Direct we see some DLC. I think it's fine without DLC, but it would be nice to potentially fill a small gap in the year and generate more hype for the game. I'd love any new content (as I enjoyed playing through the game a LOT), whether it be a new character, new levels, mini-games, or something else.

For TTYD, I'll probably give it a 10/10 myself. The original is a 10/10 for me, the QoL stuff, and the new music/art galleries are all reasons why it'll likely be a 10/10 for me personally.

In my opinion I would just about give everyone a 10. I haven’t really found a bad game or one I didn’t like. Considering I actually haven’t had a switch all that long.

@Atomic77 That’s awesome! Glad you’re enjoying the games you have!

UPDATE: The Target store (US) seems to have completely run out of pre-order copies of TTYD.

Since the game is unavailable on Amazon US and will only be in-stores in Walmart US now (both cancelling preorders for the game), the options for getting the game in the US are lowering. If you’re considering getting this game, probably a good idea to get it before it potentially sells out at other places.