Retro corner - Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Gamecube)

I received Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door as a Christmas present shortly after  it was first  released some years ago.  I completed it at the time and thought it was one of the best games I'd played in years.  Engaging characters and locations, excellent graphics and spot-on gameplay, coupled with a genuinely funny script.

Such is the speed of the  progression of games technology, games that were thought ground-breaking when released, or of having eye-popping graphics, a few years later can play like the Burnley back four and look like Shane MacGowan after a night on the town.  I think videogames' speed of change is unique in popular culture - it took years before people realised the Charlie Chaplin's films were dreadful, for example  - and there's always the risk, when returning to an old favourite, that it's not actually that good.  I loved Gran Turismo on PS1 when it was released (an engagement present from my wife!) and the graphics blew me away; going back to it today is like someone has thrown grit into your eyes.

I've recently played through Paper Mario TTYD again, this time in tandem with my daughter, and there was no such problem as it had stood the test of time very well, both with the graphics (which look better, to me, than those in the Wii update, Super Paper Mario) and in gameplay (similarly, better than the update).

Paper Mario TTYD is an RPG with turn-based battles, itself a follow up to the N64 game Paper Mario (and kind-of a progression from  Super Mario RPG on SNES).  It also shares a lot in common with the 3 Mario & Luigi games on GBA and DS.  RPG staples such as amassing experience/levelling up, equipping status-altering items (known as 'badges' in the game), wandering monsters and accumulating party members are all present but with none of the po-facedness often present in RPGs.

Mario finds out the hard way that Peach is a Twilight fan

The 'Paper' of the title refers to Mario's (and everyone else in the gameworld) status as, well, 2D paper characters in a 3D world (appropriate, given Mario's 2D origins, I suppose).  As the game progresses, Mario gains powers (or 'curses', as they are referred to), to utilise  his 2D shape to turn into, among other things,  a paper dart, a tube and a boat.  Each curse allows Mario to reach previously inaccessible areas.  Additionally, as the game goes on, Mario collects a motley band of characters to join his party, each with unique powers (only one fights alongside Mario at any one time though) that need to be used to solve puzzles and also to access new areas.

It probably won't come as a surprise to read that the story revolves around Princess Peach being kidnapped.  Not by Bowser though - the big bad this time around is called Lord Crump, who has an army of X-Nauts but, to be honest, if you read that as 'Bowser' and 'army of Koopas', you would have a good idea of their role in the story. Bowser does appear, sometimes as a (giant) playable character,  as a kind of comic relief.  And 'comic' is the right word to use - as I said above, Paper Mario TTYD is genuinely, laugh out loud, funny.  Whoever did the translation from the Japanese original did an excellent job.

Rogueport - you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.  No, wait a second - that's somewhere else

The game is a bit of a slow starter - there's far more 'Press 'A' to continue' than active gameplay in the first hour or so - as the storyline is laid before the player.  This revolves around the Thousand-Year Door of the title and how it imprisons a demon who, a thousand years ago,  despoiled Rogueport, the town that acts as the game's hub.  Lord Crump wants to open it and Mario, aided by his band, wants to keep the demon locked up.  This being a Mario game, this involves  collecting stars, with both sides trying to get  the seven available.

Both my  playthroughs took around 48 hours - this is a long game - but is well worth the effort.  As I said in my introduction, this time around I played it with my daughter (following up our play through of the N64 Paper Mario on Wii Virtual Console) and she thoroughly enjoyed it, often badgering me to play it with her (on occasion, waking me up to do so). After initially being upset - there were tears -  that Paper Mario TTYD had different party members than its predecessor, she quickly became engrossed in the story and in the new characters.  Like any Mario game though, don't be put off by the cartoon visuals - it is not an easy game - and a young child would have difficulty in playing it solo (I did all the battling).

It didn't sell many copies back in the day - an RPG on a not particularly successful console isn't going to set any sales records in Europe - but it is reasonably simple to pick up a copy on eBay, usually for around £20.  As with all Gamecube games, it can be played on the Wii and is easily better than 95% of all games released on that console to date (and I'm being charitable to the Wii with that proportion).  After all, what would you rather spend £20 on - Paper Mario TTYD or Just Dance?