Bingo!
A Bingo! is an in-battle event that can occur in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. The process is initiated from successfully executing Action Commands. The results can provide the player with a strong positive boost or endanger them during battle.
Mechanics[edit]
When an Action Command for Mario's Hammer or Jump attacks, or a partner's attack, is successfully executed, a symbol will appear in the upper-right corner of the screen: either a Flower, Mushroom, Star, Shine Sprite, or Poison Mushroom. The next time an Action Command is successfully executed, a second symbol will be drawn. If the symbols do not match, they are immediately discarded. If the symbols match, they remain until a third Action Command is successfully executed. Special Moves do not trigger symbols to be drawn, even if the Action Commands for them are successfully executed.
After the third move is performed, the two symbols will move to the middle of the screen. A third symbol slot will appear and rapidly scroll vertically, like reels on a slot machine. The player must stop the reel with 
. If the resulting symbol makes for three-in-a-row, this is classed as a Bingo! and an event occurs based on the symbols that were matched. If the third symbol does not match the other two, nothing happens and the symbols are discarded.
When successfully matching three Flowers, Mushrooms, Stars, or Shine Sprites in a row, the word "B I N G O !" will appear in large letters across the screen. When matching three Poison Mushrooms, no text is displayed in the Nintendo GameCube version of the game, but the Nintendo Switch version will show "B I N G O …"
Symbols cannot be carried across battles; those that appear are immediately discarded when the battle ends. Earning a Bingo! does not affect the number of audience members that will be present in the next battle - if the audience is nearly empty, it will still be nearly empty at the start of the next battle even if a positive Bingo! was obtained.
Results[edit]
All of the possible results can affect Mario and his partner's Heart Points (HP), Flower Points (FP) and Star Power. They can also affect the rate that Star Power is accrued, and the size of the audience in the auditorium.
| Result | Effect |
|---|---|
 Poison Mushroom |
|
 Flower |
|
 Mushroom |
|
 Star |
|
 Shine Sprite |
|
Scripted results[edit]
There are two specific battles where successfully executing Action Commands will have a 100% chance of generating two matching Shine Sprite symbols, with the third symbol being a guaranteed match to ensure a successful Bingo!
- The tutorial battle with Professor Frankly, where the player is first shown how to play Bingo! He does not teach this in the Nintendo Switch remake.
- The beginning of the final phase against the Shadow Queen. In the previous phase, the audience's souls are absorbed by the Shadow Queen, rendering the audience empty; the successful Bingo! completely fills the auditorium to capacity.
Gallery[edit]
Star match
Poison Mushroom match
A Bingo! in the Nintendo Switch remake
