Paper Mario – Going back to the Beginning

About a year ago I finally got my paws on Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door. Having never played the original I did not know what I was in for, but what I would later find out on what I was missing out on.

About the time I was a quarter through TYD, I come home after a LONG day of work and my wife is glued to the tube. She started her own game and was already on the boss I just beat! After she got more than halfway through I decided to go ahead and let her take care of this game. She felt bad for stealing my game so to speak, but I was never terribly upset anyway. That game was pretty damn hard.

Having beaten Partners in Time I had a pretty good idea about TYD going into it, but I never played the original so I did not know what advances it had made from the original Paper Mario. I sat in with a friend in high school while he tore up Super Mario RPG on SNES, but that was more like Final Fantasy than a Paper Mario title. More after the jump.

So now I have picked up, or downloaded so to speak, the original Paper Mario. This game is the first N64 game I have played that the controls felt great while using the Classic controller. The graphics are actually pretty crisp and the sound is great.

Right off the bat I realize this game is much easier than TYD. In fact, its really effin easy. Compared to N64 title Majora’s Mask to Game Cube title Wind Waker , for this series the difficulty change was the opposite. The Game Cube title added a lot of extra obstacles to make the game damn hard compared while also adding another level of abilities.

For example, in Paper Mario, all of your abilities aside from ass pounding and hammering are added trough your extra party members. In TYD, you get the party members abilities as as your own “Paper Curse” abilities. Nap houses and Heart boxes are “on the house” (free) in Paper Mario while in TYD they cost yah some bling.

The formula is still there however. Peach kidnapped. You go and try to save her. At the end of each chapter you play a Peach mini level. The story line has a lot of great humor in it as do all of the Mario RPG titles. A whale suggest I should be called Dr. Mario for example.

Only 4 Star Sprites down I know I still have a long way to go. I plan to hit up TYD again from the begging and then get Super Paper Mario in my sights. I am waiting a while on Galaxy since I expect another drought after Smash Brothers hits. I still consider Super Mario Sunshine my favorite 3-D Mario adventure and am content enough to wait a while.

My wife got all the way to the end of Thousand Year Door earlier in the year and after losing to the boss 4 times gave up. It has 2 cut scenes that are 5 minutes each. You have to tape A the whole time too. She has picked it back up since then and keeps trying to beat it. She always falls short at the end. Maybe she will beat it soon. It’s been a long time since I have had time to play games. It’s good to be back.

–
Charlie Frisby