It’s a crime that it’s unplayable Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door for more than a decade. The only way to experience the original Gamecube title from 2004 was on that console or the Wii, which thankfully supported Gamecube discs (something that now feels like a miracle). Unfortunately, there was no Gamecube hardware support on the Wii U and The Millennium Gate it never appears in his online store. Here we are, 20 years later, with a complete remake on the Switch. It’s fantastic, befitting a game that was already a masterpiece – it’s just a shame that Nintendo took so long to revise the game.
Here’s some sobering perspective: It was my first time playing The Millennium Gate as a senior in college where my roommates and I turned it into a shared adventure. Now I’m married with two kids, but I still lament the loss of Gamecube titles almost every day. Where is Eternal darkness, one of the best horror games ever made? Where is Heavens of Arcadia, an RPG I adored on the Dreamcast that was later re-released on the Gamecube? I realize that re-releases take work, but there is certainly an audience for these beloved titles!
Anyway, back to the remake of The Millennium Gate: It’s great, you should play it. It’s an accessible RPG for newcomers with a cute setting: Princess Peach has been kidnapped (of course), but this time by aliens! It’s up to Mario and a group of friends – including a Goomba treasure hunter named Goomba and Coops, a cowardly Koopa – to save her by solving the mystery of an ancient civilization.
like Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario before him, Millennium Gate is sort of a hybrid action role-playing game. You can explore worlds and level up characters like an RPG, but the battles also involve some button mashing to keep you on your toes. A well-timed button can allow you to jump on top of an enemy’s head more than once or counter incoming attacks. It’s an innovative approach to RPG mechanics that I wish more games would adopt – excellent A sea of stars was a rare exception.
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door also worth revisiting for oldies nostalgic for the original. Graphics are richer and more detailed, with sharper sprites and lighting that makes environments feel alive (reflections, in particular, are often stunning). The game score has also been revived to feel less MIDI-like – don’t worry, there’s also an in-game perk that can change everything back to the original Gamecube tunes.
It’s a shame that Nintendo had to drop the framerate to 30fps from the Gamecube’s smooth 60fps, but it’s not the end of the world. If you can enjoy some of the greatest games ever made at 30fps like Breath of the wild and The tears of the kingdom, Millennium Gate it is no different. The remake also adds enough new graphical elements to make it look better than the original. I’m sure I hit the game’s time-based moves more often at 60fps, but they’re still pretty easy to do (except for those damn counters).
Had Nintendo released this remake earlier in the Switch’s life cycle, I’m sure fewer gamers would have complained about the 30fps drop. But at this point the Switch is on its last leg and we await news on its successor. Both Sony and Microsoft have had “next-gen” consoles for so long that they’re considering mid-cycle upgrades. It’s just weird to see a game running slower today than it did on the Gamecube 20 years ago, especially when Nintendo is charging $60 for a lesser experience.
Maybe the Switch 2, or whatever Nintendo’s new console is called, will be able to work Millennium Gate at 60 frames per second. But it really doesn’t matter. It’s still a masterpiece, even at half the framerate.
