Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Overview

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is a 2004 role-playing video game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. The Thousand-Year Door is the second game in the Paper Mario series following Paper Mario, and is part of the larger Mario franchise. In the game, when Mario and Princess Peach get involved in the search for a mystic treasure that holds great fortune, Peach is kidnapped by an alien group called the X-Nauts; Mario sets out to find the treasure and save the princess.

The Thousand-Year Door borrows many gameplay elements from its predecessor, such as a drawing-based art style, and a turn-based battle system emphasizing correctly timing moves. For most of the game, the player controls Mario, although Bowser and Princess Peach are playable at certain points between chapters. The game was announced at the 2003 Game Developers Conference, and was released late July 2004 in Japan and late 2004 worldwide.

The Thousand-Year Door was acclaimed at release and has since been cited as one of the greatest video games ever made. It won the "Console Role-Playing Game of the Year" award at the 8th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, and is often considered the best game in the series. A remake was released for the Nintendo Switch in 2024. The game was followed by Super Paper Mario, which was released for the Wii in 2007.

Official trailer

Game intro. Watch on YouTube

Gameplay

Full Game Walkthrough - Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door - GameCube Version, Retro Longplays. Watch on YouTube

Screenshots

Game details

Genres

Role-playing (RPG), Adventure

Developer

Intelligent Systems

Publisher

Nintendo

Series

Paper Mario

Engine

In-house engine

Platforms

Nintendo GameCube

Age rating

ESRB E

Modes

Single player

Yes

Local multiplayer

No

Online multiplayer

No

Co op

No

Age ratings

PEGI

7

ESRB

E

ACB

PG

USK

0

CERO

A

Release dates

Editions

Check out the store

Space and patches

Update patchNo patch

DLC

No DLC. GameCube games had no downloadable content.

Playable today

Playable offline todayYes

Single player only, with no online features. The disc runs on a GameCube or a Wii with GameCube ports.

Online

Plays offlineYes

Reception

Aggregates

Outlet	Platform	Score	Scale
Metacritic	GameCube	87	100
GameRankings	GameCube	88	100

Critics

Outlet	Score	Scale
GameSpot	9.2	10
IGN	9.1	10
Electronic Gaming Monthly	9	10
Eurogamer	9	10
Nintendo Life	8	10
Nintendo World Report	8	10
Game Informer	6.75	10

Staff and cast

Staff

Role	Name
Developer	Intelligent Systems
Publisher	Nintendo
Director	Ryota Kawade
Producers	Shigeru Miyamoto, Ryoichi Kitanishi
Programmer	Tadao Nakayama
Artist	Chie Kawabe
Writers	Hironobu Suzuki, Misao Fukuda
Composers	Yoshito Hirano, Yuka Tsujiyoko

Notes for collectors

• Won Console Role-Playing Game of the Year at the 8th Interactive Achievement Awards.
• The best-selling game in Japan in its first week, with about 159,000 copies.
• Sold 1.23 million copies in North America and 1.91 million worldwide by December 2007.
• Reissued as a Player's Choice title in North America on 24 April 2006.
• Remade for Nintendo Switch in 2024; the remake sold 1.76 million copies in its first month.

Credits

Publisher

Nintendo

Developer

Intelligent Systems

Director

Ryota Kawade

Released

2004-10-11

Age rating

ESRB E

Region

US

Time to beat

about 24.9 hours