Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Reviews May Break A 23-Year Record For The Series

Summary Paper Mario: TTYD for Switch ranks high on Metacritic with an 89 score, one away from attaining the site's "Must-Play" status.

The original Paper Mario is the only one in the series to have achieved an aggregate score of more than 90.

The TTYD remaster includes quality-of-life changes and new features like Partner Ring.

The first reviews for the Switch version of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door have been released, and they paint a positive picture of the upcoming remaster/remake. What might excite many, though, is that the praise for the game could lead to an impressive aggregate grading that the series hasn't achieved since the original Paper Mario on the Nintendo 64.

On Metacritic, 64 reviews (at the time of writing) have labeled Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door as positive. The overall score of the game stands at 89. The 2004 version on the Nintendo Gamecube scored 87 on an aggregate of 55 reviews. Thus, the upgraded Switch version has already passed what the original game did. However, if it were to get a 90 on Metacritic, it would be part of an elite company and receive the site's "Must-Play" label. Only the original Paper Mario has attained Metacritic Must-Play status, doing so with a 93, and it's possible that late-coming reviews for TTYD on Switch could push it over the threshold.

Related Super Mario RPG & TTYD Remakes Are Great News For The Next Paper Mario Game With new remakes coming out for classic Mario RPGs, the future of the Paper Mario series could hold a return to the gameplay style of TTYD.

Paper Mario: TTYD Ranks High Among 2024 Lineup

Quality-Of-Life Changes Help Gain Praise

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Specifically, Paper Mario: TTYD is already one of the best-reviewed games of 2024, and recieved a 4.5/5 score from Screen Rant's review – a must-play in our own metric. As of now, the game is tied for sixth place in Metacritic's aggregate rankings of best-reviewed titles for the year so far. It’s currently tied with Mullet Madjack, Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, and Horizon Forbidden West: Complete Edition. Just as impressive, the only games with scores higher than it are Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Animal Well, Balatro, The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, and Tekken 8. The latter three are only one point above the Nintendo title in score.

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Despite being a remaster of a 20-year-old game, Nintendo did add several new features to Paper Mario: TTYD. One of the biggest is the ability to switch between companion characters more simply via the Partner Ring. Furthermore, as players gain Star Pieces and Shine Sprites, they’ll unlock special galleries for concept art and music that they can play via the menu screens. Perhaps most importantly, the game’s visuals have been heavily updated, including the sprite quality, animations, VFX, and more.

However, at its core, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door remains the same as the GameCube version. The story of Mario trying to find a way to unlock the mythical door beneath the town of Rogueport remains intact, as does the turn-based RPG system that made the game fun back in 2004. Multiple reviews noted how the game was more accessible via the quality-of-life changes that Nintendo made. Furthermore, based on the pre-order issues that many people have experienced, it’s clear that many are eager to get Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door once again, or for the first time.

Sources: Metacritic, Nintendo of America/YouTube