Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is a game I've waited decades to play.
I loved Super Paper Mario when it graced the Nintendo Wii in 2007.
I had never played Paper Mario before and amidst a sea of reviews lauding the game's humour and ability to switch between 2D and 3D, I paid little attention to the small number of fans lamenting the loss of the turn-based combat from earlier entries.
But as Nintendo stifled storylines and creativity with the subsequent release of Paper Mario: Sticker Star and Paper Mario: Colour Splash those complaints grew louder.
YouTubers like Arlo have since made careers out of bashing Nintendo's attempts to push combat in dramatically new directions, campaigning for a return to franchise fundamentals.
And as much as I enjoyed 2020's Paper Mario: The Origami King, many fans were put off by its puzzling take on combat and rules that limited its cast of characters to existing faces from the Mushroom Kingdom.
Enter Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.
It's taken 20 years but the Gamecube classic has finally been remade and fans are hoping it sells like hotcakes on Nintendo Switch for the sake of the franchise's future.
Understanding why took all of five minutes.
The Thousand-Year Door (TTYD) is far darker than any Mario title I've ever played.
Yes, there's a princess to rescue, but it's really a race to prevent an apocalypse that's threatening to swallow the town of Rogueport and its residents whole.
A hangman's noose looms in the Rogueport town square, bustling with ruffians, pirates and thieves ready to shake you down for ten coins if you want to travel to different parts of town.
But there are friends to find too and Mario quickly bumps into Goombella; a female Goomba with a knack for research who guides you on a quest to collect seven crystal stars from different corners of the world to seal The Thousand-Year Door - and the demon behind it - away for good.
Rogueport - fascinating as it is - is merely your gateway to some of the most memorable areas and encounters in any Mario game ever.
In the quaint town of Petalberg, you'll convince a shy Koopa to help you avenge his father's death at the hands of the dragon, Hooktail.
To score a ticket to Glitzville, where Mario must rise through the ranks of an evil promoter's fight club, you'll need to do favours for a mob boss whose consigliere ran off with his daughter Francesca.
And after securing a ship to a Pirate Island, Mario must help an old captain overcome grief with a love letter from his late wife, who died while he was at sea.
These are but a handful of the wonderful subplots layered throughout TTYD and almost all are told through compelling characters with gravity or humour.
That nuance extends to Mario's partners. Like Goombella, along your journey you will collect a handful of companions to help you fight and solve puzzles.
Koops, the shy Koopa I just mentioned, can absorb damage with his tough shell and be kicked to collect unreachable items.
Flurrie, an inappropriately busty cloud spirit, can summon winds from her powerful lungs to send enemies flying and reveal hidden passages.
A newborn Yoshi with an attitude - who I named 'Galactus' - can swallow enemies whole and carry Mario around at greater speeds.
Vivian, who was once a member of the evil Three Shadows, can help Mario hide and Bobbery the Bob-omb sailor can blow up cracked walls.
Each is unique and useful in the open world. You'll find yourself swapping between them regularly to solve puzzles and the developers have done an excellent job at balancing their abilities in combat - even if I found myself gravitating to Yoshi for most fights.
Like all turn-based strategy games, you get a chance to attack or defend, then it's your enemy's turn. The challenge comes in selecting the right partner for the right enemy and in managing Mario's health.
Mario can either attack with his hammer or stomp on enemies. Enemies with spikes can't be jumped on, some with shells need to be flipped before they're vulnerable and others can only be damaged by each other!
Mario has 'Flower Points' (FP) for him and his partner to spend on special moves and 'Star Meter' which builds during battles - if the crowd likes you - to unleash even more devastating attacks and buffs.
Every battle takes place on a theatre stage and if you're not paying attention, a piece of the set could fall on you or Mario could be hurt by a rock thrown by someone in the audience. It's a truly unique take on combat that demands players stay on their toes if they want to win the crowd and the battle.
Attacks require different combinations and perfect timing if you want to deliver the most damage and players can swap moves in and out by managing which badges they have equipped.
There are more than 80 badges to find on Mario's adventure and while I didn't tinker with mine all too much, I understand why fans appreciate the freedom and creativity that comes with extra layers of customisation.
I'm almost 1000 words into this review and I still don't feel like I've done TTYD justice.
I haven't even mentioned the parts where you play as Princess Peach; who feeds Mario information on her captor's plan with the help of a computer system who learns to feel and falls in love with her. How amazing is that as an idea!
That's not to say the game is perfect. At times, TTYD slows to a crawl.
Repeatedly running up and down the train to Poshley Heights while playing detective, checking in on every passenger and member of the crew to solve mysteries is tedious at best.
Grinding through 20 different battles for a shot at the heavyweight title in Glitzville can feel like a chore.
And don't even get me started on the pain of tracking down the one Bob-omb with the skills to blast Mario and friends to the moon.
That last challenge is designed to be more abstract. Goombella offers a few vague hints but, without a more explicit set of instructions to follow, I would have put down the game in frustration had I not found a few helpful guides online.
I've since learnt that the original TTYD didn't even have a handy room of warp pipes below Rogueport to quickly transport Mario to different regions. I can only imagine how painful this sequence was in 2004!
It's a style of gameplay that feels outdated in 2024 but (thankfully) those sequences are few and far between excellent challenges, engaging characters and a steady stream of fun powerups that allow you to explore more of Rogueport and its surroundings.
The Thousand-Year Door is by far the best Paper Mario game I've ever played and I hope Nintendo sees its success and leans into what made it special in future games.
