[This review contains spoilers!]

Recently I was discussing with some friends what was the best remake ever made, and I genuinely struggled to think of an answer as to what would be my pick. However, that has now become the easiest question in the world for me: the best remake ever made is Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door for the Nintendo Switch. It’s hard to understate how hyped I was for this game ever since its first announcement, having watched its reveal trailer for over 200 times in the span of a month. It was one of my top 3 favorite games of all time, finally being brought back seemingly in the most faithful way possible.

And after finishing it 100% I can confirm that it was indeed brought back in the most faithful way possible. Even more so than the recent Super Mario RPG remake! It didn’t change a single character design, any gameplay element, any story beat, NOTHING! Everything was kept intact, just like it was in the original, even characters that had their designs altered in the years that followed. Not only did they keep everything intact, but they also managed the unthinkable feat of enhancing the charm of a game that already overflowed with charm, thanks to the improved presentation, with every single character (be it main or NPCs) having new animations when they speak and the cutscenes having a much more robust camerawork.

Speaking of presentation, the game looks stunningly gorgeous! The new dynamic lighting brings all the areas of the game to life in a way that’s a real treat to the eyes, be it the vibrant areas such as Petal Meadows or Glitzville, or the more moody locations, such as the predominantly pale Boggly Woods or the frigid Fahr Outpost. I always wondered how TTYD would look with the papercraft aesthetic of recent games in the series and, as expected, they’ve realized it flawlessly here. Some people complained about how every ground is overly shiny and reflective, but it doesn’t bother me at all.

As for the new quality of life changes, they remedied the biggest issue most people had with this game: the backtracking. While I myself never found it egregious, the changes they made surely make the game even more enjoyable, such as the new fast travel pipes in Rogueport to help with the side quests and the infamous General White hunt, and the pipe from Twilight Town to Creepy Steeple to alleviate the back and forth between both areas. There are other smaller tweaks scattered across the whole game that help to trim down the fat to improve the pace of the game even further.

The new UI looks CLEAN, too! It feels surreal to see a modernized version of the badge inventory in 2024, how I missed it so much... The badges are what truly make the battle system of the first two games so special, since you can make your own playstyle with them, offering huge variety for repeated playthroughs. And speaking of battles and UI, that’s one of the few complaints I have about this remake: navigating the menus during battles does feel a tad clunkier than in the original game. The battles themselves also play out slower, with more waiting time between each turn and changes like everything coming to a stop when the audience wants to throw something. I feel they also tweaked the stage hazards to disrupt the enemies much more often than Mario, which makes the game a bit easier.

That sluggish feeling is also present with the textboxes, since you can no longer speed through dialogue by mashing a button, unless it’s a dialogue you’ve read already, which, like, what’s the point then? That does impact a bit on the replayability of the game, but it’s such a minor blemish on a remake that I can say with 100% confidence makes the original nearly obsolete. It pains my heart to write that sentence given how TTYD is one of my favorite games ever, but that’s how phenomenal this remake is.

The other big new addition is the brand new soundtrack. While the recent Mario RPG remake opted to re-record its songs as faithfully as possible to the original game, the Paper Mario TTYD rearranged the entire soundtrack in the style of Origami King, with a bigger emphasis on live instruments and a more rock-oriented sound. Not only that, but they basically TRIPLED the length of the soundtrack, with a bunch of new songs added to each chapter to further enhance the impact of many scenes or areas, like variations of the main battle theme, new themes for bosses that used to share the same theme as another, each partner now having their own theme, new songs for several cutscenes in the game, etc.

Since the game’s release, the reception to that soundtrack has been sorta positive, but I’ve seen a bunch of mixed comments as well. As for me, I love it. Yeah, as someone who has played the original countless times there’s some songs I feel the OG versions are better, but there’s many that I feel are on par or even an improvement. They all feature additional sections at the point they’d originally loop, so it’s evident the arrangers put a lot of care and effort into injecting more life into all these songs. That can be said about the whole game, really: it’s a beautiful labor of love of the developers for this game that’s clearly as treasured by fans as it is by themselves.

My favorite new arrangement is the one for Fahr Outpost. The original song is this very experimental synth track, kinda alien, kinda erratic, but the new arrangement transforms that weirdness into this moody and atmospheric piece, almost foreboding in a way, with a new section added at 0:44 that gives me chills everytime I listen to it, which fits perfectly thematically with this small isolated village covered by snow for socially recluse Bob-ombs that want to bury their war past. Fahr Outpost was never a particularly memorable area from the game, but this new arrangement for its theme transformed it into one of my favorite areas. When I first got there in the remake I just stood motionless for some minutes, mesmerized by this song, contemplating it.

My only small complaints regarding the soundtrack are related to the new compositions they made for this remake. They’re all solid songs, but some can feel a bit out of place in the segments they play, and they mostly go for new melodies instead of taking inspiration from songs from the original game, so they give this “Origami King scrapped track” vibe. A big example would be the new theme they made for the Atomic Boo fight, which is a banger yeah, but it just feels like a Origami King boss battle track, without any TTYD-ness injected into it. This game is also chock-full of references to Paper Mario 64 and I gotta admit I was expecting some remixes from it after seeing the main title theme get a new arrangement, but no, that’s literally the only remix from that game in this remake.

Now something new that was clearly inspired by the N64 game are the credits. In the original TTYD they were honestly kinda bland, being simply some screenshots accompanied by the silhouette of the characters walking around in the background. Not even the song stood out. I kinda wish they’d make a new credits sequence like the parade from Paper Mario 64, but knew it was unlikely... BUT! Turns out I was wrong! Because they did EXACTLY THAT! It was a treat to see a bunch of fun interactions between the lovely cast of this game, to the sound of a new medley inspired by the songs of each chapter. That got more than a few tears of happiness from my eyes, gotta admit :’)

There’s very little brand new content in the remake, but what is there is INCREDIBLE, such as the two new bosses. Both of them feel like the devs trying to explore new grounds with the combat system of the game, introducing fun and unique mechanics like attacks that drain your FP, having to alternate between jump and hammer attacks based on the stance of the enemy, using stage hazards to their advantage... It almost feels like a tease of what we can expect from a next game in the series that’ll finally bring it back to its roots, which has been a dream of mine for some years. And on that end...

Paper Mario TTYD being remade means much more than simply that, because the Paper Mario series became something completely different after the release of this game, with several interviews confirming that it wouldn’t return to the RPG format, how they couldn’t create unique characters or modify pre-existing ones anymore, and yet, here we are! The game that is the complete antithesis of everything the Mario brand stood for for over a decade now got a remake that didn’t sanitize a single thing about it, with an intense marketing campaign focusing on those aspects that make it such an unique game in the Mario canon and that were completely absent from recent games.

One could say “but it’s just because it’s a remake! that doesn’t mean the mandates are over!”, but you gotta remember even the Mario & Luigi remakes for the 3DS had some elements sanitized, even though they’re considerably less bolder than TTYD, so I do believe there has been a change of mindset inside Nintendo when it comes to allowing the Mario brand to be more creative once again. Mario Wonder and the Peach game are also proof of that, with both of them trying a bunch of new things, especially when it comes to character designs.

The credits of this remake even say “...AND YOU!” in the Special Thanks section, so they’re listening. They know what the fans have been yearning for all these years. The fact they chose this game to be the final announcement of a Nintendo Direct shows how much they’re aware how important this game is, not just to fans, but to the Mario franchise as a whole. And more than ever it fills me with hope to see a brand new Paper Mario game in the same vein as the first two, with the same marvelous combat system and no more restraints when it comes to creative characters, locales and dialogue.

I imagine if Paper Mario indeed follows that route, it won’t have the technical limitations of the first two games, such as the segmented areas with loading zones between each screen, it’ll probably be a more expansive world like in The Origami King, which is completely fine by me, since the exploration of that game is a blast. That will make this remake feel even more special, because we got to see the classic Paper Mario format modernized in 2024. Yes I know this is a weird tangent that might not even make sense for some people, but it is extremely fascinating to me.

With all that said, the Paper Mario TTYD remake is a dream come true that not even the most optimistic side of me could have ever dreamed of. I genuinely felt emotional many times playing this game, in awe that I was playing a modern version of one of the games that’s most dear to my heart. I know they thanked us in the credits of the game, but if there’s anyone who should say thank you it's me. Thank you SO MUCH for remaking a masterpiece into a new masterpiece, Intelligent Systems <3