Back in the glory days of the Super Nintendo, Squaresoft released a peculiar game by the name of Super Mario RPG, which instantly gained a huge cult following. The demand for a follow-up was high for years and gamers never really got one until the RPG-meets-side-scroller Paper Mario hit the Nintendo 64 in 2001, at the end of the console's lifespan, becoming Super Mario RPG's spiritual successor. In trademark Nintendo fashion, we had to wait for another Nintendo console to get the third game in the line of Mario RPGs, the obscurely titled Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door.

Fans of the original Paper Mario will feel right at home; Intelligent Systems have outdone themselves in creating a very unique and inspired game, jam-packed with memorable and recognizable characters, beautiful visuals and absolutely superb writing. To make things even better, the game is quite long and sometimes very challenging.

First off, this is a Mario game and I'll give you one guess it starts… that's right folks… Princess Peach has gone missing! Last seen in the game's central location, Rogueport, it is rumoured that the Princess left to find a hidden treasure, the map for which she sent to Mario so he could lend a hand, or, er, glove. Rogueport has plenty of secrets to uncover and as you begin your quest for this ancient treasure and the thousand year door, the game takes an episodic structure, each chapter having you find one of seven star artefacts. Different chapters and star pieces take you to a new part of the land, as well as throwing new characters and enemies at you, each with different personalities and abilities. To the surprise of myself and probably everyone else, one of the game's best aspects is the writing itself and it better be because there's a lot of reading to do here. The conversations are superbly crafted and even hilarious at times; in fact I don't think I've had a text-based game make me chuckle as much as this one has.

The gameplay itself is addictive, nostalgic and amazingly unique. Mario and all the other characters have been reanimated and look incredible; it's just a joy to walk Mario around and then with the push of a button see him turn sideways into just a thin piece of paper or a paper aeroplane. Mario's many paper abilities don't come at the start of the game and you'll have to unlock them via an evil character that places what he thinks are curses on you. I can't express how much joy I got out of watching this creature yell at Mario and explain how bad these "curses" are; absolutely fantastic writing all around.

Classic Mario players will see a lot of throw-back features here, such as the fact that the save point is a levitating block you'll have to jump to activate, or the many invisible blocks hidden around the world, just like in the original Super Mario Bros. game and even one level has you playing through a level almost identical to the original level in that game. Don't forget, however, that this is an RPG as well, so let's discuss the battle system. Like the original Paper Mario, this game takes place in two systems. There's the field screen where you walk around, explore and interact with other characters and the battle screen, which always takes place on a theatre stage with an interactive audience. Throughout the field you'll see enemies wondering around that, once touched, toss you into a battle. However, you still have the option to attack the enemy before you enter battle to gain the upper hand, though if he attacks first and strikes, he'll have the immediate bonus attack.

Like most RPGs and the original Paper Mario, the battle system is a turn-based, menu driven affair in which you have a variety of options. For Mario you'll see Jump, Hammer, Items, Special and Tactics. Mario receives a great deal of extra attacks (also known as badges, more on this later) but almost all are modifications of his original jump and hammer abilities. The items menu consists of attacks, potions and other odd items that will certainly aid you in battle. Available tactics consist of running away, defending, crowd appeal and a few other expected options.

Now, aside from the ever-increasing HP display you'll see FP, or firepower, and your star power. FP points are required to pull off special attacks you'll gain throughout your quest and this metre can also be increased when you level up. It's almost as important as your HP, because standard moves won't always get the job done. Also of equal importance is the star power display, which is basically a circle that fills up every time you do something the audience likes. Once it fills up you can pull off a special attack, though some moves require two full circles or more. All the party members you meet have specific abilities and moves as well, though you can only take one at a time onto the battlefield (however you can switch between them at any time for a turn).

As I mentioned earlier, throughout the game you'll come across what are referred to as badges. Equipping a badge takes up a certain amount of badge points, which you have a limited supply of until you increase it. Badge abilities include powerful attacks, FP increaser, HP recovery and even making your attacks sound like a cricket! Happy hunting...

If you hear the words "turn-based menu system" and instantly cringe, don't fret! Each attack has some sort of button game associated with it, very similar to the game Gladius. Some have you pushing A as fast as possible, while others challenge you to hold the left analog stick and release it at a specified time; almost all attacks and abilities have a unique button game with them, right down to the run away command.

Whilst Paper Mario 2 is a simplified RPG, like it's previous instalment, it has a surprising amount of strategy involved at times, both on and off the battlefield. Characters you meet that join your party bring a plethora of new abilities to the game, allowing you to reach previously unreachable areas in fun and unique ways. Though with this feature comes the dreaded backtracking and there's a lot of it here. It's not so bad, as you can travel through the areas relatively quickly, but some gamers will want something fresh, new and linear the whole way through and you won't get that here. That's not to say you don't traverse new and exciting areas; you'll just have to go back and do something else in a familiar area beforehand. That's also not to say that the game isn't linear, because it is very much so but not to the point where you feel constrained and have no freedom to look around.

Again as I mentioned previously, the graphical style of Paper Mario is very charming and extremely well done. There are so many little touches that really make this game one of a kind, such as when you hit a switch that brings a bridge out and you'll see part of the screen fold over or tear to reveal a bridge underneath it. When you enter a building, all the outside pieces like the wall and door actually collapse and fall down. Mario turns paper thin to squeeze through hard to reach places and you can fold him up into different shapes to help you on your journey. Mario and his friends all move beautifully and have lively animations as they walk, run, fight and do everything else. The environments, which all look superb, are littered with interactive characters that you can tell the personalities of just by how they're designed and move. Overall, the graphics are incredibly unique and look fantastic, easily outdoing the original Paper Mario.

Any Mario fan knows that Mario has a trademark voice and sound, though he never actually says anything and it couldn't be more true here. Mario's little grunts and oh's sound perfect and are actually kind of cute but not overdone. You'll also get one of about five different sounds when you jump, avoiding annoying repetition, even though all of them sound very good, as do the rest of the sound effects right down to the clapping of Mario's brown shoes and the text scroll sound. The music is charming and fits every location very well, too. Whilst there is no voice acting (this is a Mario game after all), the abundance of text you have to read is so exceptionally well written that it really isn't that big of a deal. In fact, voice acting would probably have made the experience worse due to poor acting and voices that just didn't match. The writing in this game has truly impressed and surprised me.

Mario is a true renaissance man; he can do it all from tennis and golf to racing and RPGs. Though I wish the game's environments were a little bigger, perhaps longer and not quite as monotonous, they are good as they stand and feature a variety of obstacles to overcome, including enemies and puzzles. Fans of Mario RPG will enjoy this and those who loved the original Paper Mario will feel right at home with this very faithful follow up.

A simplified RPG at its core, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door is just too charming, funny and unique to dislike and you'll probably be smiling and feel good the whole way through. It's one of those games that you may get tired of and turn off after only an hour or two, but it's hard to go for too long without craving some more and going back over and over again. Like one of my all time favourite games, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, once you beat this you'll start missing it and want to revisit those colourful worlds once more.

Reviewed by Christopher Martin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).