Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Nintendo Switch)

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Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
For alternate box art, see the game's gallery.
Developer	Intelligent Systems
Publisher	Nintendo
Platform(s)	Nintendo Switch
Release date	Template:Release[?]
Language(s)	English (United States) French (France) French (Canada) German Spanish (Spain) Spanish (Latin America) Italian Dutch Japanese Simplified Chinese Traditional Chinese Korean
Genre	RPG
Rating(s)	ESRB: - Everyone PEGI: - Seven years and older CERO: - Twelve years and older ACB: - Parental Guidance USK: - All ages SMECCV: - All ages GRAC: - All ages GSRR: - Six years and older FPB: - Thirteen years and older Gmedia: - Seven years and older MRO: - Seven years and older
Mode(s)	Single player
Format	Nintendo Switch: Game Card Digital download
Input	Nintendo Switch: Joy-Con Nintendo Switch Pro Controller

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is a Nintendo Switch remake of the 2004 Nintendo GameCube game of the same name, and the first remake in the Paper Mario series. It was first announced during the September 2023 Nintendo Direct, and released worldwide on May 23, 2024.

The title features visually enhanced and updated graphics along with new gameplay features. However, it remains faithful to the style of the original game: the characters still use their designs from the original release (for example, Princess Peach keeps her pre-Mario Party 4 dress design), rather than the updated designs used in the following Paper Mario games. Many voice clips from the original game are also reused, in spite of voice actor changes since the original game's release, including Charles Martinet, Jen Taylor, and Scott Burns, former voice actors of Mario, Peach, and Bowser respectively.

Differences

New content

• The Nostalgic Tunes badge, resembling a Nintendo GameCube, can be bought from the Lovely Howz of Badges for one coin. Equipping it will revert the music to the original soundtrack. The game still plays tracks exclusive to the remake, however.
• Like in Paper Mario: Color Splash and Paper Mario: The Origami King, a concept art gallery, the Art Gallery, is available. It can be viewed from the menu, with more pieces unlocking throughout the game. The gallery includes concept art from the original game along with concept art specific to the remake. Art galleries are sorted by the story's chapters' locations, and are unlocked after collecting every Star Piece from that chapter's locations and taking the chapter's Crystal Star to the Thousand-Year Door.
• An in-game music player, the Sound Gallery, is now available from the menu. Music tracks are sorted by the story's chapters' locations in which they play, and are unlocked after collecting every Shine Sprite for that chapter and taking the chapter's Crystal Star to the Thousand-Year Door.
  • Equipping the Nostalgic Tunes badge allows the player to listen to the GameCube versions of the tracks as they're unlocked. While the badge is still equipped, tracks exclusive to the remake are disabled.
• A Purple Toad called the Battle Master can be found around the world. When talked to, he allows Mario to practice his attacks, in a similar fashion to the Action Command Dojo and Battle Lab from previous games. During his battles, Mario fights cardboard Goombas called Goomboards.
• A Little Mouser named Ian Foomus appears in the Trouble Center, offering advice to help with different troubles.
• The Hottest Dog recipe has been added and can made by mixing a Hot Dog with Hot Sauce.
• In the Glitz Pit, there is an exhibition match option when reserving a match. Exhibition matches allow Mario to select and fight any Glitz Pit team that he is currently ranked above (whenever or not he has fought them), and these battles do not have any battle conditions, nor do they affect Mario's ranking. As a result, the player can now easily obtain Tattle entries for enemies exclusive to the Glitz Pit if they failed to do so earlier. As a note, if the player wants to do a specific exhibition match after the chapter is complete, they'll have to rank up again, except for Prince Mush's battle.
• Upon completion of the Pit of 100 Trials at least once, a Mover outside the entrance provides fast-travel to the 50th floor for 300 coins.
• Two new bosses have been added:
  • Prince Mush can be challenged at the Glitz Pit. To unlock him, the player must complete Jolene's trouble "Help wanted!", and then wait some time to receive an email from her talking about new Exhibition Matches and that Mush is training. After waiting some more time the player will receive another email, this time from Prince Mush, issuing a challenge. By heading back to the Glitz Pit and selecting Exhibition Match in any league, the player can then challenge him to a fight. Mario will receive Prince Mush's Belt if he defeats him.
  • Whacka can be found in the Pit of 100 Trials and can be defeated to receive the Gold Whacka Bump. In order for it to appear, the player needs to defeat Bonetail, hit Whacka in Keelhaul Key enough times to make it disappear, receive an mail called "RDM Extra Issue" saying a mystical creature has been seen deep in the pit, and traverse to floor 100 of the Pit again. Returning to the Pit and fighting Whacka again yields a regular Whacka Bump.
• The Creepy Steeple Boo can be found in the storeroom after beating Doopliss the first time and becoming a shadow, where he will quiz Mario on various parts of the story. There are six quizzes in all, with the last quiz having 15 questions in total and only being available during the post-game.
• Three trophy items have been added as rewards for Journal completion:
  • The Cooking Trophy for obtaining all recipes
  • The Badge Trophy for obtaining all badges.
  • The Tattle Trophy for completing the Tattle Log.
• Mario is awarded with a Gold Medal for obtaining all three trophies. It has the effect of visually turning him gold, and the effect will stack with the L Emblem and W Emblem.
• There are ten more Tattle Log entries compared to the original game. Amongst these include the Goomboard, the Fuzzy Horde in Shhwonk Fortress, the X-Naut horde in Lord Crump's second fight, and the two new bosses, Whacka and Prince Mush.
  • The second fights of Bowser, Doopliss, Beldam, and Marilyn, and the 2nd phase of the Shadow Queen now have separate Tattle Log entries. As a result, if they were Tattled in their first battles, their HP is not immediately shown in their rematches until they are Tattled again.
• A few new emails have been added, such as one from Professor Frankly informing Mario about the First Attack badge, or the Toad Bros. Bazaar informing Mario when the Contact Lens have been restocked.
• A Notes tab has been added to the menu. This lists the active Trouble Center requests, and any of Merluvlee's predictions that are still relevant.
• A red Toad who was outside the shop in Petalburg is now inside the shop and gives advice about POW Blocks on your first visit.

Gameplay changes

Menus and controls

• The player's play time for their save file appears only on the file select screen; it can no longer be seen in the game's menu.
• The player can longer scroll through their list of items and badges using the and buttons as that is used to scroll through the menu screens instead.
• Conversations can no longer be sped up, nor can the player view previous messages in the conversation. The message can be sped up only if it plays out a second time, however, and the entire set of messages has been seen before, or if it is being read.
• The Mailbox SP mail system has been reworked to function similarly to the notifications system from Paper Mario: The Origami King, where alerts no longer affect the player's ability to navigate in-game.
• Like Paper Mario: The Origami King, the last saved point can be accessed from the Game Over screen, and the current scene can also be played again. This time, it no longer limited to certain situations and any scene the player was last in can be played again.
• When levelling up, the player has to press a direction with the to select an option, rather than HP being the default.
• If the player is wearing an FP Plus or HP Plus, increasing their FP or HP respectively, when levelling up, the higher numbers for increasing FP or HP will take into account the badges worn.
• The Nintendo Switch system keyboard is now used when prompted to name Yoshi Kid instead of an in-game one. However, all other text input prompts, such as the ones for Doopliss' name and the access code in X-Naut Fortress use an in-game one.

Field

• On the field, Mario can swing his Hammer forwards and backwards like in entries since Paper Mario: Sticker Star.
• On the field, bushes can no longer be interacted with when near them, however they can be crumpled with the Hammer for the same effect, as with Paper Mario: Color Splash. Incidentally, Bowser can still interact with bushes in the same manner as in the original game.
• Like in later entries, there is now safeguarding on the edges of areas to prevent the player from accidentally falling into areas, such as water.
• On the field, and have new functions. Pressing opens up the Partner Ring which Mario can use to switch between partners while makes a partner provide hints (whether or not they are active) to direct players to their objective. In the original, was only used to navigate menus.
• The Paper Plane mode stays at a fixed distance from the ground until it has transcended the horizontal width of the activation panel.
• The player can now use the Hammer to locate flippable panels on the ground containing Star Pieces, though the Hammer cannot flip them. In the original game, this is not possible with any Hammer; the only way to locate panels is to use Spin Jumps.
• When using Koops's partner ability on the field, a green circle marker with an arrow is created where Mario jumped off Koops, the arrow indicates the direction Koops's shell will launch.
• Breaking large blocks using the Super Hammer or the Ultra Hammer now requires Mario to charge beyond the minimal amount to break them.
• When the player levels up, all party members are fully revived instead of just the current one in the lead.
• When riding on Yoshi, the player now loses momentum when riding off edges, making traveling down them slower than in the original game.
• The player can now talk to NPCs while riding on Yoshi, although he gets off Yoshi to talk.
• If Mario is riding a Yoshi as he falls on a spring, he will stay on Yoshi after bouncing off, unlike in the original.
• A prompt to check interactable elements in the scenery and talk characters was added, hinting on what the player can do with them.

Warp Pipes

• Warp Pipes are now entered by pressing , and a prompt appears above one to tell the player to do so. In the original game, entering them requires tilting down on the .
• When emerging from a Warp Pipe, Mario automatically jumps out and forward.
• A new warp room similar to the "One World, One Pipe" room in Musée Champignon from Paper Mario: The Origami King appears, replacing the original pair of warp rooms across Rogueport Underground. When entering this room after taking a Crystal Star to the Thousand-Year Door, the Magical Map is held up in a similar fashion, and unlocks a pipe leading to a locale for that Crystal Star's chapter. There are seven pipe slots instead of four, and a pipe leading from this room to Rogueport plaza can also be opened. The door leading to it on the right side is hidden and requires Flurrie to reveal.
  • Pipes 1, 2, and 6 lead to the second area of Petalburg, the outside of The Great Tree, and the fountain in Poshley Heights in the same spots as the original game.
  • Pipe 3 leads to Glitzville, southeast of the juice shop.
  • Pipe 4 leads to the second area of Twilight Town.
  • Pipe 5 leads to the campsite of Keelhaul Key, instead of the jungle in the original game.
  • Pipe 7 leads to the second area of Fahr Outpost.
• New Warp Pipes were added in the game:
  • One was added behind the Last Stand P badge in Hooktail Castle that takes the player back up without having to backtrack.
  • One was added from Creepy Steeple's basement to the right-most house Twilight Town to cut backtracking in Chapter 4. It can be unlocked by heading right from the room with the parrot.
  • One was added in the Palace of Shadow, leading from the Depths room before the Shadow Queen back to the entrance of the palace. It appears if the player loses to the Shadow Queen and restarting the scene over, or after clearing the game.

Save and Recovery Blocks

• Just like Paper Mario: Color Splash onward, when hitting a Save Block, the game now saves immediately instead of asking whether to save the game or not. This also applies when the game transitions to each character segment and when the game is completed.
• New Save Blocks have been added or relocated:
  • The one near the pedestal of The Thousand-Year Door is moved to the entrance of the Pit of 100 Trials.
  • The one in the first area of Boggly Woods is moved to the second area, allowing the player to save before the Three Shadows fight.
  • One appears in the third area of Twilight Trail, past the fallen tree.
  • The Save Block in the Creepy Steeple's main room has been moved to the room with the spiral stairway.
  • One appears outside the derelict ship that houses a Black Chest in Pirate's Grotto.
  • One appears on Sublevel Two of the X-Naut Fortress, just east of the elevator doorway.
  • One appears in the Palace of Shadow, in the round room, replacing the ? Block left of the Badge Block that contains only one coin.
• New recovery blocks have also been added:
  • One appears in the third floor of Hooktail Castle and costs 10 coins to use.
  • One appears at the entrance to the Pit of 100 Trials, next to the new Save Block.
  • One appears in a tall chamber in the Pirate's Grotto next to the Save Block.
  • One appears in the outdoor section of Riverside Station.
  • One appears at the easternmost part the Fire Bar section of the Palace of Shadow, costing 20 coins to use.
• The Save Block and recovery block in the Palace of Shadow's courtyard have switched spots, such that the recovery block is now on the west side of the canal and the Save Block is to the east of the canal.
• The cost to use the recovery block in the factory of X-Naut Fortress has increased from 10 coins to 20, matching the cost of the one at the front entrance.

Pianta Parlor

• The minigame machines have been changed from slot minigames to sliding minigames similar to that of the Spade Panel minigame from Super Mario Bros. 3.
• The player is no longer required to beat certain highscores from the minigames as they now keep track of the player's own instead of the defaults.
• Pianta tokens are no longer given or taken by Lahla at the Pianta Parlor.
• All but 3 of the prices in the redeem shop have been changed: Refund and Super Appear now costs 60 Piantas instead of 34, Power Jump and Power Smash now cost 80 Piantas instead of 34, FP Plus and HP Plus now cost 150 Piantas instead of 100, Multibounce now costs 100 Piantas instead of 50, HP Plus P now costs 160 Piantas instead of 200, Gold Bar x3 now costs 600 Piantas instead of 234, Power Rush and Power Rush P now cost 100 Piantas instead of 34, Hammer Throw now costs 120 Piantas instead of 50, Tornado Jump and Quake Hammer now cost 150 Piantas instead of 67, Jammin' Jelly and Ultra Mushroom now cost 80 Piantas instead of 67, and Money Money now costs 450 Piantas instead of 234.

Trouble Center

• The Newsletter... Trouble is available after clearing Chapter 7 instead of Chapter 4.
• For the Important thing! trouble, Frankie's Wedding Ring is now on top of the wall beside Frankly's house (where it is in the Japanese GameCube version) instead of on the ground near Garf's house.

Skippable cutscenes

• Scenes that have already played out before can now be skipped with .
  • Zess T.'s cooking sequences after the player's first recipe.
  • Resting sequences only if the player has previously rested at a particular spot.
  • At the beginning of a Glitz Pit match.
  • Boss cutscenes if the player had a Game Over from that fight.
  • Powering up with Merlon and Chet Rippo.
  • The effect of a charm spell in a battle.
  • Sailing the Black Skull.
  • The Excess Express starting, and also stopping.
  • Entering and leaving the Palace of Shadow through the Thousand-Year Door.

By chapter locations

Rogueport

• Hitting cockroaches with Mario's hammer or jumping on them now awards one coin. In the original, they were unable to be crushed at all.
• After the prologue fight, Lord Crump appears on the right side instead of the center of the X-Nauts.
• Flavio doesn't stop singing when Mario approaches him anymore, and has a new animation for it as well.
• The garbage pail in Professor Frankly's house is interactable from the beginning of the game.

Chapter 1

• When exiting the pipe to Petal Meadows, Goombella no longer stays on the pipe but jumps down and the camera stops further from them.
• In the first area of the Path to Shhwonk Fortress is a large bush from which a Koopa Troopa emerges, initiating an ambush battle, serving as a tutorial for audience thrown items in battle and stage props falling on party members or enemies. If the player equips a badge that affects battle, either one from Dazzle or the Pretty Lucky badge in a hidden block in the Rogueport Underground, the game will softlock after the tutorial.
• Inside the mini fortresses in the Path to Shhwonk Fortress, the player fights the Bald Clefts and Bristles by using the Hammer to knock them off their pedestals instead of interacting with the pedestals.
• The ceiling spikes in Hooktail Castle no longer kills Mario before the timer reaches 0.

Chapter 2

• Koops can grab the Blue Key early due to a glitch which results in possible softlocks and glitched cutscenes.
• It is now possible to make bubbles with the hammer in the bubbles room.
• There is always a panel that shows where to place the Punis instead of being there in only some locations. A indentation to indicate Mario where to stand to blow the Puni is added too.
• The Puni Orb now falls off the trap pedestal once the cage is lowered on Mario and the Punis in The Great Tree.

Chapter 3

• The hot dog cutout standee next to the Hot Dog Stand in Glitzville can now be interacted with for photo ops.
• In the Glitz Pit, Mario no longer goes down a rank if he loses a match. Because Mario no longer deranks, exhibition matches are the only way to fight the Wings of Night and the Destructors in Chapter 3.
• When chasing the jumping egg by the Hot Dog Stand, the camera now locks into place rather than continuing to track Mario.
• The hologram screen in the Glitz Pit lobby is now functional as a menu, listing every fighter in the Glitz Pit.
• No battle conditions are given when battling Rawk Hawk. In the original game, Mario would always be given the condition of performing at least one Special Move, and fulfilling it or not this would not affect the outcome of the battle.

Chapter 4

• There is now a large movable stone that blocks the entryway to the shed in Twilight Trail.
• The first secret hole in Twilight Trail's last area is now off center to make navigation easier.
• When encountering Doopliss in Twilight Trail subsequent times after failing to guess his name the first time, an option is given to guess again or immediately run past him.
• In the Japanese version, the keyboard no longer has the option to switch between hiragana and katakana when the player is prompted to guess Doopliss' name, instead only having a katakana keyboard.

Chapter 5

• There is now a switch at the top of a cliff in Keelhaul Key that makes a jump pad appear as a shortcut for this area.
• A new ambush enemy battle in Pirate's Grotto occurs when the player reaches the eastern exit of the Bill Blaster corridor room after having obtained the Boat transformation.
• A Toad shopkeeper with orange spots on his cap is found at the end of Pirate's Grotto, and can also be found just outside the shore before the player fights Lord Crump.
• After completing Chapter 5, the barrels in the area where the player rescued shipwrecked Toads respawn, allowing players to access the other areas of the Grotto instead of having to backtrack to the entrance.
• The lost Wedding Ring makes a bush in Keelhaul Key sparkly, making its hiding spot obvious.

Chapter 6

• The note that Beldam leaves on the Excess Express is now an inventory item, called the Threatening Note.
• After obtaining the Garnet Star, the player no longer needs to exit the Poshley Sanctum entrance to trigger the Peach intermission; it is triggered after the conversation with Pennington after emerging from the Warp Pipe from the painting there.
• After clearing this chapter, when riding on the Excess Express, the player is now given the option to stop at either Riverside Station or directly to the destination point. In the original game, the player was forced to stop at Riverside Station first.

Chapter 7

• When Professor Frankly finishes his research on how to go to the Moon, Goombella notifies it to Mario.
• When jumping on General White (and in the Delivery, please! trouble), he gets more crumpled with every jump.
• The X-Naut Fortress now has four Security Keys and card terminals for Sublevel Three instead of three in the original game. A new purple Security Key replaces the blue one originally there, the latter now appearing in the restroom of Sublevel Four.
  • The lone Elite X-Naut battle in the restroom is now an ambush battle instead of a regular battle; it must be won to obtain the blue Security Key.
• and now operate the crane controls. The GameCube original uses and .

Chapter 8

• The camera now pans over the edges of the first lake bridge in the Palace of Shadow, revealing items to the player.
• In the torch maze room in the Palace of Shadow, the torches on the left side can be lit, requiring the player to backtrack several times for the puzzle to be solved.
• The doors inside the Palace of Shadow Tower cannot be opened until the player inserts the Star Key into the slot at the top of the tower.
• In the hidden stairs Flurrie is required to reveal, Mario's silhouette is now visible when the player moves Mario behind the wall.
• The block the Ultra Hammer is required to smash is more obviously hidden.
• The speech bubbles that appear, cheering on Mario and co., look different. The one from Pennington is all written in one box, rather than requiring several.

Pit of 100 Trials

• Should the player get a Game Over on any floor in the Pit of 100 Trials, they are now given the option to repeat that floor rather than be forced to start from the beginning.

Intermissions

• When pausing during Bowser's intermissions that involve traversing a level, the player can now resume gameplay or retry. Selecting retry restarts the level on the next life.
• In the Chapter 5 intermission, when Peach goes back to drink the potion to turn visible again, she changes back into her clothes just before drinking the potion, instead of after hearing the instructions.

Items

• The player can now hold fifteen items in their inventory by default instead of ten in the original game. The Strange Sack item still increases the item capacity to twenty, however.
• The coin limit has increased from 999 coins to 9,999 coins. In addition, Hooktail makes a false offer to grant Mario 10,000 coins instead of 1,000.
• Charlieton now appears in Boggly Woods to sell his wares: Mushrooms, Honey Syrups, Fire Flowers, Sleepy Sheeps, POW Blocks and Mini Mr. Minis.
• There is now the option to use items if the inventory is full.
• In the Happy Lucky Lottery, the top prize badges Lucky Day and Power Plus are switched.
• Item shops now show the quantity of the player's consumable items, and their shop points when talking to a shopkeeper.
  • Multiple items can now be stored/withdrawn at once.
• Charlieton's prices in Rogueport have increased: Double Pain now costs 60 Coins instead of 36, Hammerman and Jumpman now cost 240 Coins instead of 180, Mega Rush now costs 96 Coins instead of 60, Slow Go now costs 60 Coins instead of 12, Timing Tutor now costs 180 Coins instead of 120, and W Emblem now costs 432 Coins instead of 360.
• Some of Charlieton's items in the Pit of 100 Trials have changed: he now sells Ultra Mushrooms instead of Super and Jammin' Jelly instead of Maple Syrup.
• The First Attack badge now costs 0 BP to equip.
• Any Zess T.-made items the player obtains outside Zess T.'s kitchen, such as Trouble rewards, are added to the Recipes list regardless whether the player has aready made them or not.
• To accommodate for the addition of the Pipe Room, the Shine Sprite and the FP Plus badge from the original rooms are now located behind a large yellow block and a large stone block respectively at the back of the Pipe Room.

Regular items

• The Life Mushroom also now revives Mario on the field if he loses all his HP.
• Some regular items have changed:
  • Glitz Pit: The Ice Storm item in the major league locker room is now hidden inside one of the western lockers instead of behind them.
  • Keelhaul Key: Keel Mangos can now be obtained during Chapter 5 rather than after its completion, like the Japanese GameCube version. However, they cannot be used to trade for the Chuckola Cola.
  • Riverside Station: The Dried Mushroom in the maze room was moved in a box to the right.
• Regular items have been added on the field:
  • Glitz Pit: A Hot Dog, on top of a ladder in the back corridor.
  • Glitz Pit: A Power Punch, in the major league locker room is hidden inside one of the western lockers.
  • Glitz Pit: A Dizzy Dial, inside one of the western lockers in the minor league locker room.
  • Glitz Pit: Single coins, in the blue minor league locker room inside three different lockers. They cannot be obtained after the player uses the toilet to leave the blue major league room.
  • Glitz Pit: A Life Mushroom, in the blue major league room inside one of the east lockers. It cannot be obtained after the player uses the toilet to leave the blue major league room.
  • Twilight Town: A Fire Flower, in the first scene, from the lowest leftmost bush.
  • Pirate's Grotto: A treasure chest containing a Super Mushroom, in the room with the Black Chest.
  • Riverside Station: An Ice Storm, behind a blowable poster in the scene, east of the entrance.
  • Riverside Station: In the maze area, a Super Mushroom inside the garbage can on high ground, replacing the Dried Mushroom originally there.
  • Riverside Station: An Ice Storm, a Super Mushroom, a Spite Pouch, and a Thunder Rage, behind blowable posters in the lower part of the Deck.
  • Poshley Sanctum: A Boo's Sheet, on the east side in the hidden area, at the highest level.
  • The Moon: An Ultra Mushroom, in a breakable rock in the first screen right of the landing site, in the northeast.
  • The Moon: A Maple Syrup, in a breakable rock in the second screen right of the landing site, in the west.
  • The Moon: A POW Block, in a breakable rock in the screen with the X-Naut Fortress in the background, in the southwest.
  • The Moon: A Maple Syrup, in a breakable rock in the second screen left of the landing site, in the east, replacing a Ruin Powder originally there.
  • X-Naut Fortress: An Ultra Mushroom, in the scene to the right of sublevel 3, on the right high platform.
  • Palace of Shadow: A Shooting Star, at the eastern end of the first bridge room.
  • Palace of Shadow: A ? Block containing an Ice Storm, in the third (non collapsed) corridor to Gloomtail's lair. Becomes unobtainable after activating the orrery in the tower.
  • Palace of Shadow: A Thunder Rage and a Mr. Softener, in the corners of Concealed Path Four.

? Blocks

• Riverside Station: In the Deck with the sunshine, a lone ? Block that was previously empty and only served to reach a hidden block was given a single coin.
• Palace of Shadow: The ? Block containing a Repel Cape is now on the ground instead of originally being in the air.
• New ? Blocks have been added.
  • Shhwonk Fortress: Two ? Block containing a Mushroom and a Fire Flower, to the leftmost and rightmost areas, respectively.
  • Twilight Trail: Two ? Blocks containing a Mushroom and a Super Mushroom, in the second area.
  • Riverside Station: A ? Block containing an Ice Storm, above a gear in the gear room.
  • Riverside Station: A ? Block containing a Maple Syrup, near the bottom of the room with the sunset, before the hidden door.
  • Poshley Sanctum: Two ? Blocks containing a Thunder Rage and a Mystery, in the first room.
  • Poshley Sanctum: A ? Block containing one coin below the Boo's Sheet.
  • Palace of Shadow: Three ? Blocks containing containing a Fire Flower, an Ultra Mushroom, and a Jammin' Jelly, in the antechamber of the Palace of Shadow.
• Some ? Blocks have replaced some items in the original game.
  • X-Naut Fortress: A Ultra Mushroom replaces the Super Mushroom in the ? Block in the Level One trap room.
  • Palace of Shadow: A Mr. Softener replaces the Shooting Star in the ? Block in the first descending starway room.
  • Palace of Shadow: An Ice Storm replaces the Jammin' Jelly in the ? Block right of the red ? Block.
  • Palace of Shadow: Three ? Blocks containing a Gradual Syrup, a Shooting Star and a Mystery, replace the two blocks containing an Ultra Mushroom and Jammin' Jelly, in the secret room east of Gloomtail's lair.
  • Palace of Shadow: A ? Block containing a Power Punch replaces the Life Mushroom, in Gear Room One.

Hidden Blocks

• New hidden blocks have been added:
  • Pirate's Grotto: A second support block east of the sluice gate controls, in the area with the Save and recovery blocks; used to create a two-block bridge with another hidden block for reaching an out of reach Shine Sprite.
  • Pirate's Grotto: One containing a Super Mushroom in the second lower stone platform near the Black Skull. This item becomes unobtainable after Cortez decides to help Mario and his friends fight the X-Nauts just after completing Chapter 5.
  • Riverside Station: One containing a Super Mushroom in the Records Room, at the end of the middle ledge on the right.
  • Rogueport Underground: Two on the top of Herb T.'s building: one containing a Power Plus P badge on the northeastern part of its roof, and one containing an Ultra Mushroom on the northwestern corner of the roof.
  • Palace of Shadow: Two in the courtyard, at the tower's entryway: one containing a Jammin' Jelly on the left side of the tower's base, and one containing an Ultra Mushroom on the right side of the tower's base.

Star Pieces

• Some Star Pieces were moved:
  • Rogueport: The one behind the pipe that leads to the blimp was moved to the right, under a panel to be uncovered with a Spin Jump.
  • Creepy Steeple: The Star Piece in the back of the treasure room behind a hole to the north of the entrance as moved behind a barrel to the left.
  • Excess Express: The panel containing the Star Piece in cabin 004 was moved to the center.

Shine Sprites

• Pirate's Grotto: A Shine Sprite was moved since Mario can now hammer directly towards the player's position. In the next room, coins were added on the boat panel.

X-Naut Fortress crane game

• Upon returning to the X-Naut Fortress in the post-game, there are four batches of items that randomly appear in the crane game. To make the next batch appear, the player must collect every item in the current batch, leave the X-Naut Fortress, and return to it.
  • The first batch contains a POW Block, Sleepy Sheep, Courage Shell, Mr. Softener, and five coins.
  • The second batch contains a Volt Mushroom, Dizzy Dial, Power Punch, Mini Mr. Mini, and five coins.
  • The third batch contains a Slow Mushroom, Super Mushroom, Maple Syrup, Gradual Syrup, and five coins.
  • The fourth batch contains a Ruin Powder, Stop Watch, Gold Bar, HP Drain, Spite Pouch, and four coins.

Battles

• Mario and partners no longer walk in place when selecting to attack, instead they have a fighting stance.
• Mario no longer drops coins when running away from regular battles.
• After winning a battle, the enemy's dropped coins appear in a smaller area, more circular, rather than spread out.
• There is an option on the bottom right corner of the screen known as "Tattle Check" that is accessed with . Tattle Check allows the player to view Tattle entries for enemies in the current battle that have been previously Tattled, and does not waste the player's turn doing so.
• Getting hit by enemy projectiles in the field no longer initiates a battle, instead damaging Mario on the spot like in entries since Paper Mario: Sticker Star. Likewise, getting hit by enemy projectiles while equipped with the Bump Attack badge does not defeat enemies, either. Thies doesn't count Last Stand or P Down, D Up badges or Chill Out.
• A fainted party member gets 1 HP back after a fight is won, or when Mario runs away.
• It is easier to jump on a Pider or Arantula, gaining a First Strike.
• In some FP-costing attacks, the player can see the FP drained from the FP meter just before doing the attack.
• Opening the Special Menu in a battle before the player has enough SP to perform an attack shows it unable to be performed, even if they gain SP with the menu open, until they close and re-open it.
• Enemies now initiate their turn after any Star Power accumulation from the player's turn is finished. In the original game, the enemies' turn begins during this.
• Falling scenery in battles now pierces defense.
• Mario and his partner can now Guard and Super Guard at any point during an enemy's turn.
• The frame window for Power Bounce and Multibonk is changed to make it harder to make big combos with them. The frames to hit it now is 7, 7, 6, 1, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, etc. Even Simplifier does not change the frame perfect 4th hit window which is hardlocked to 1.
• It is now possible to skip the cutscene before a boss fight after losing once and returning to the boss room.
• If the player performs Earth Tremor while their partner is afflicted with the Sleep status effect, or additionally in the case of Koops, he is flipped, a Shy Guy stage hand carries the partner off the stage for the duration of the attack.
• Like the first Paper Mario, Frost Piranhas can use an ice breath attack to freeze Mario’s party.
• The Buzzy Beetle family is now immune to explosions even when flipped upside-down.
• During the second fight with Doopliss, badges that affect Mario's partner function as normal, unlike in the original where they are disabled.
• Stage hazards (including the fog) can now affect only one side. The fog now also floats over a higher area.
• When the player or the enemy uses an attack that act similar to an item, the icon of that item appears briefly in the animation to better indicate the change (i.e. Boo's Sheet when a Boo becomes invisible).
• Dark Bristles can no longer be hit by a First Strike with the Super or Ultra Hammer.
• Power Lift now requires 4 panels matched for each point of attack or defense increase, down from 5 in the original.

Specific battles

• Blooper: In the fight against it, the animation of the water is animated instead of standing still. There's also a new animation for water splashes on its defeat and its eyes are crossed from the dizziness.
• Doopliss: He can now damage Mario during the battle that occurs in the shed area of Twilight Trail (but Mario still cannot damage him).
• Doopliss: If he is KO'd during the second battle (before Vivian joins mid-fight), he uses a Life Mushroom to revive himself.
• Hooktail: The last part of the fight against her is fought in front of the seats instead of in the middle of them.

Battle rewards

• Bosses now award the player coins after being defeated.
  • Blooper, Atomic Boo, Smorg, Gloomtail, Sir Grodus, and Bowser with Kammy Koopa reward 50.
  • Hooktail, Magnus Von Grapple, Macho Grubba, Doopliss (both fights in Creepy Steeple), Cortez, Magnus Von Grapple 2.0, and Whacka reward 100.
  • The Shadow Queen rewards 200.
  • Bonetail rewards 999.
• The player can earn coins for winning battles in the Pit of 100 Trials.
• Shadow Queen: The battle no longer rewards the player with a single Star Point.

Text changes and localization

• The game has now been translated into Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Dutch, Canadian French, Latin American Spanish, and Korean. The original was not available in these five languages since, at the time, Nintendo of Europe did not do Dutch localizations, Nintendo of America localized games into English only (not French or Spanish), and Nintendo of Hong Kong and Nintendo of Korea did not yet exist.
• Several translation errors, typos, and continuity errors from the original game have been fixed:
  • Kooskoos to Koopa Koot.
  • Mushville and Mushroom Town to Toad Town.
  • Goomstar Temple to Crystal Palace.
  • Bubu to Li'l Oinks.
  • The Spiny Eggs Sky-Blue Spinies come out of are correctly referred to as such instead of as "pipes".
  • The Tattle for Paragloomba states it is a stronger version of a Paragoomba instead of a Parakoopa.
  • An instance of "Chomp Chomp" in the Tattle for Chain Chomp has been corrected.
  • Any instance of Yoshi Kid calling Mario by his actual name instead of Gonzales before the ending has been corrected.
  • Ghost T.'s dialogue after completing his quest has been updated to green as opposed to red, which was likely a translation error given his cabin, like all cabins on the train, has wood paneling and not wallpaper.
  • Peach's emails have been slightly altered to better align with the actual story developments in her intermissions:
    • In her first email, Peach now states that the X-Nauts "may be aware" that Mario has the map rather than that they "are already aware", and she does not encourage Mario to collect the Crystal Stars, as she has already learned that Mario collected the first.
    • In her third email, Peach now states that the X-Nauts are seeking the Crystal Stars to claim the legendary treasure, as she had learned this from Grodus (she previously stated that she did not know what the Crystal Stars did).
    • In her fourth email, Peach now states that the X-Nauts plan to "unseal" the demon's spirit held behind the Thousand-Year Door, rather than "revive" it.
  • The Iron Adonis Twins are now correctly referred to by this name in all dialogue in English. In the original game, certain instances of dialogue incorrectly refer to them by their descriptor "The Armored Harriers".
  • The Goomba Bros. are consistently titled "the Meteorite Hardheads"; in the original game, they were mistakenly titled "the Hoppin' Hardheads" when first introduced.
  • Little Mousers are now called by this name, rather than being called Squeeks like in the original game.
  • Gloomer is always referred to by his proper name instead of as "Freddy" when he is first met.
  • The "Special Final Issue!" section in the final regular RDM email is included in the English localization, which had been lost in translation in the original game.
• The descriptions of many usable items and badges have been clarified or had false information removed.
  • In the original game, the descriptions of the Thunder Bolt and Thunder Rage falsely claimed that they could stun enemies. In the remake, this was fixed and changed to say that they deal 5 damage to enemies.
  • The description for the Shooting Star no longer says it can confuse enemies, with this being replaced with specifying how much damage it does.
  • The description for the Earth Quake now says it can also hit enemies on ceilings and that it does 5 damage.
  • The Hot Sauce's description now specifies what effect the item has when used.
  • The Cake Mix's description now says that it can be consumed to restore FP.
  • The Fright Mask's description has been changed to mention that the item does not always succeed.
  • Any instances of red or red referring to an item's effect has been changed to green since they apply to either Mario and his partner.
  • The wording of "red" has been changed to "green" to be more clear.
  • The Power Bounce now lists how many recorded bounces in a row Mario has.
  • Tornado Jump's description is more specific, saying "can deal additional damage to all midair enemies" rather than "can damage all midair enemies."
  • Hammer Throw's description now mentions that it can pierce Defense.
  • The new descriptions now specify when an effect is temporary.
  • The description for the Up Arrow now says it should be given to green rather than merely red, giving a clearer hint toward its purpose (that it should be given to Merlon to allow him to upgrade partners from Super Rank to Ultra Rank).
  • Badges now have a longer description that appears in the Badge List.
• Instances of excessive punctuation marks have been reduced. Most heart and star icons in dialogues are no longer present.
• TEC-XX now has a red eye in all regions rather than only in Japan.
• The game's logo in international regions has been redesigned to resemble the Japanese logo of the original game more. Conversely, the Japanese logo is now primarily written in English, matching the design conventions of the series's Japanese logos from Super Paper Mario onward.
  • The title screen and the shot of the boat in the ocean now use a horizontal logo in international regions, similar to entries since Super Paper Mario.
  • By extension, the box art in international regions is now based on the Japanese box art of the original game.
• There is a green or green text pop-up that appears when the player successfully performs a Guard or Superguard. The original game displayed the standard red or red text instead.
• During the Bowser intermission levels, a list of controls for Bowser is now displayed in the bottom left corner of the screen.
• Text is now vertically centered within text boxes; in the original game, text was aligned to the top of the box. Also, some text has been reformatted due to the higher screen resolution allowing for more text per line.
• Some portions of dialogue now incorporate icons on the right side, such as icons for Star Points and Professor Frankly.
• Some English character dialogue has been altered slightly from the original game. For example, in the original, when Mario enters the town square of Rogueport for the first time, Goombella states that she is merely a "Student at the University of Goom", while in the remake, she specifically states that she is a junior at the school.
• The use of the term "airhead" in the original has been omitted.
  • Lord Crump's insult to Goombella in the prologue has been changed from red to green.
  • In another example, the insult Bowser uses to address Kammy Koopa is changed from red to green during his interlude after completing Chapter 1.
• Some other dialogue in the script has been altered. For example, the line "To find the treasure of yore, take the seven Crystal Stars to the Thousand-Year Door" was said by Goombella in the original game, but in the remake, it is said by Professor Frankly instead.
• Professor Frankly no longer says red but instead green in case the player is playing in handheld mode.
• A scene from both the original English and Japanese versions of the group of enemy Goombas encountered early in Rogueport Underground cat-calling Goombella (saying red, and her defending herself saying red), has been omitted. The dialogue now instead has the enemy Goombas insult Mario for being from the surface.
• In both the original English and Japanese versions, Goom Goom describing that the girl he wants would be younger than him (red) which university student Goombella ends up meeting, has been omitted. He now describes his criteria as green.
• Every instance of red has been changed to green.
• Zip Toad's email is sent from <span style="color:"Zip Toad (Verified)";background:none">green rather than red, and the subject line is green rather than red.
• When meeting Ms. Mowz in Chapter 1 in Hooktail Castle, Goombella originally saying red and red has been omitted. She now says green and green.
• Goombella calling Ms. Mowz a "floozy" in the original has been omitted. In the original she frequently referred to her as such.
  • When encountered in Chapter 2 in The Great Tree, Goombella previously said red. She now says green.
    • When using tattle in the encountered room, Goombella previously said red.
  • When encountered in Chapter 3 in the Glitz Pit, Goombella previously said red. She nows says green.
• Dialogue referring to body weight in the original has been omitted.
  • The Black Chest Curse in Hooktail Castle that gives Mario Paper Mode originally said red. He now says green.
  • Bowser originally insulting his minion saying red, now says green
  • In the original, when Grubba expressed disbelief at his loss, he said, red In the remake, he instead says, green
  • Issue 4 of Rogueport Today describes the Healthy Salad as green rather than red
  • After falling through the floor in the Palace of Shadow, Bowser now blames it on green rather than suggesting he put on weight (red). Kammy Koopa then refers to him as green rather than red in the original game.
• Dialogue referring to mental states in the original has been omitted.
  • Goombella's insult to Lord Crump in the prologue has been changed from red to green.
  • In Chapter 2 inside the The Great Tree, Lord Crump's insult to the Puni elder has been changed from red to green.
  • In Chapter 3, after Mario defeats Bowser, Grubba's commentary, red was changed to green
  • Instances of "insane" used as an intensifier are replaced with synonyms. For example, Goombella's description of Shhwonk Fortress, red is changed to green As another example, her description of The Great Tree, red is changed to green
  • A sentence in Goombella's Tattle on the connecting passage between the bottom of Creepy Steeple's well and the steeple itself has changed to green from red.
  • Frankie calls Francesca a green rather than a red before saying "I love you" 100 times; similarly, Don Pianta calls Francesca and Frankie green rather than red when the duo return to Rogueport before Chapter 6.
  • A sentence in Goombella's Tattle on the connecting passage between the moon and X-Naut Fortress has changed to green from red.
  • The Yoshi Kid's reaction to Bonetail was changed from red to green.
• Hooktail is now consistently referred to with feminine pronouns. Up until the battle with Gloomtail in the original game, Hooktail is referred to with male or neutral pronouns.
• When Hooktail offers to let Mario smell her feet after defeating her first phase, she no longer states that red
• When Koopley emerges from Hooktail's gut, he states Hooktail green when she swallowed him instead of simply stating red.
• Bonetail is now female in the English version as with other localizations.
• Lahla now wears cat ears in the Japanese version like in all other regions, rather than bunny ears like the original in that region.
• Hooktail's weakness is stated to be frogs instead of crickets, like in the original Japanese script. As a result, the Attack FX R badge found in Hooktail Castle, used as a weakness for Hooktail when equipped, has been replaced with Attack FX G, which now makes frog noises.
  • Due to the changes in names, Attack FX P can now be purchased from Charlieton for 120 coins and the sound of Mario's attack changes of Princess Peach giggling, and Attack FX R can be purchased from the Lovely Howz of Badges after Chapter 6 for 100 coins and it changes to the sound of Bowser growling.
• The Yoshi is now referred to as Yoshi Kid in areas such as the name of his theme in the soundtrack.
• In the German and Spanish versions, the translation error where Toadette was incorrectly referred to using the name of Vanna T. from the first Paper Mario (which was likely due to the two characters sharing the same name in Japanese) has been corrected.
• The red have been renamed to the "Three Shadows," a more accurate translation of their Japanese name, the Shadow Trio. Also, Vivian now accidentally refers to the group as the green instead of red in the original game. This is also a more accurate translation of the Japanese text. After this occurs, Beldam states green.
• Vivian's portrayal as a transgender woman is more overt, with the Japanese version adding in dialogue where she says green (green) Her party member description is changed from red (red) to green (green) This portrayal is also reflected in the remake's English localization, whereas the English release of the GameCube version omitted all references to the subject.
  • The Japanese script removes lines that refer to Vivian as male; for example, Beldam's line red (red) is replaced with green (green) Goombella's tattle about Vivian also removes any mention of her gender. This means that she is not stated to be transgender until the moment that she reveals it to Mario.
• The red text that displays when collecting a Crystal Star has been replaced with green.
• Enemies originally written with abbreviations now have their full names displayed at all times.
• The names of the Blooper's red and red have been swapped to match their positions from the viewer's perspective rather than that of the Blooper, and are now referred to in full as the green and green.
• The 65th Super Fun Quirk Quiz is renamed to the 65th Trivia Quiz-Off, matching the 64th Trivia Quiz-Off from Paper Mario. Likewise, the 66th Annual Quirk Quiz is renamed to the 66th Trivia Quiz-Off.
  • For the second question of the 65th Trivia Quiz-Off, the Thwomp now asks how much a Mushroom and Fire Flower cost total at Petalburg instead of a Mr. Softener and Fire Flower, matching the original script.
• The message for the Star Points earned after winning a battle is now shortened to green (green when earning a single Star Point) with the amount earned separated in its own graphic to the right of the Star Points. In the original game, the message reads, red
• Ghostly characters possess a unique speech bubble when they speak. The bubble appears to be in an indigo-blue colorization with swirly and asymmetrical textures. This is used for Boos, Ghost T., and Cortez (prior to him stating that he isn't a ghost).
• Locations, and sub-locations thereof, now have their names shown on the bottom-right corner of the screen such as "Rogueport Sublevel One" or "Creepy Steeple Sublevel Two".
  • Level numbers in the X-Naut Fortress are now spelled out instead of written numerically.
• New files are now labeled as "green" than "red".
• Rather than Jerry being traumatized over seeing Luigi in a dress, he says that Luigi wore stilettoes and kept tripping over them and knocking people over, so he wants to prevent that from happening again.
• Any Shroom-based recipe has been renamed to use green instead of red.
• The Black Chest Curse in Hooktail Castle that gives Mario Paper Mode originally insults him saying <span style="color:"You idiot! Press and hold ! Press and hold and be ashamed!";background:none">red, the line has been omitted.
• Grodus has a new line before reviving the Shadow Queen stating that the Crystal Stars will undo the seal placed on her coffin. His final line has been changed such that he is struck down by the Shadow Queen mid-sentence: "Or I will send you back to the depths—"
• The "Excellent" rating is now yellow colored rather than gold and silver.
• Several Important Items have been renamed:
  • The red has been renamed to green.
  • The Orange Potion in the X-Naut Fortress has been renamed to Yellow Potion.
  • Card Keys have been renamed to Security Keys, each having a different symbol in their name. The graphics for each have changed as well.
  • Palace Keys obtained in the Palace of Shadow Tower are now called Tower Keys.
  • The Goldbob Guide has been renamed to Goldbob's Pass.
  • The Lottery Pick has been renamed to Lottery Ticket.
  • The two Elevator Keys in the X-Naut Fortress now have color distinguishers in their names.
• The Castle Keys are now distinguished by color, which is included in their names.
• Some places have now been given more descriptive names.
  • red has been renamed to green.
  • The areas between Petalburg and Shhwonk Fortress are now collectively called Path to Shhwonk Fortress, instead of red.
  • The path between the Warp Pipe to Rogueport Underground and Fahr Outpost has been called Path to Fahr Outpost.
  • The tower inside the Palace of Shadow is called green.
• In the Japanese script, Rawk Hawk's title has been changed from red (red) to green (green); this is likely due to nuclear power generation being a controversial topic in Japan after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Likewise in the English script, his title has been changed from red to green.
• The Glitz Pit match conditions now show up onscreen throughout the entire duration of the battle, and now indicate whether they have been met or not.
• The Allergic status effect's description has been changed from red to green, which more accurately describes its effect.
• Certain dialogue was altered in the Chapter 5 intermission. When Peach is made invisible, TEC-XX states that her dress still being visible is a "tactical error"; unlike in the original game, he does not explicitly ask for Peach to remove her dress. Because of this, Peach does not object to being forced to undress, and instead does so by her own volition.
• In the Italian version, the name of the University of Goom is changed to accommodate its rename in Paper Mario: Sticker Star.
• In the Italian version, chapters were called "Scena", this was corrected in the remake to "Capitolo", the numbers are now arabic instead of romans, and the chapter 4 is now called "Capitolo 4: Per chi suina la campana", to reflect the reference to the pigs in the chapter.
• In the Castilian Spanish localization, Rawk Hawk is now named "Halcomán" rather than "Hawk Hogan" (this also carries over to the new Latin American Spanish localization). Also in Castilian Spanish, his line red (red) is changed to green (green).
• The Chuckola Cola is now magenta-colored in Japan, like all other regions.
• Wonky's tale "Z Button" has been completely removed, pursuant to the removal of being able to view previous dialogue messages. As a result, Wonky has one less tale than in the original game.
• Enemy tattles now list the first place they were tattled on rather than their natural habitats.
• The Palace of Shadow Tower now recites the passages from its signs after all Tower Keys have been used: "The stars up in the heavens shone; Carrying the lore of the sky; Carrying secrets from on high; By skill and might, engraved in stone. Stones to rival the celestial spheres; The seven hewn by a fell hand; Feared far and wide across the land; Master of shadow, queen of fear."
• When the Bandit steals Mario's coins, Goombella no longer tells the player they've been robbed. Instead, the coin counter visibly reduces on-screen as the Bandit passes by.
• A few of the Trouble Center requests have been renamed or have different descriptions:
  • Troubles with title case names have been changed to sentence case.
  • red to green
  • red to green
  • red to green
  • red to green
  • red to green
  • "Get these ingredients!" had part of the description changed from red to green and the formatting on the list of ingredients is different.
  • Troubles that reward Pianta Parlor cards now say so in their description, when the reward went unmentioned in the original.
  • "Help wanted!" now specifies that Mario needs to talk to Jolene in the promoter's room, rather than just "in the Glitz Pit."
  • The description for "I need my magazine." now states where Toodles is in Poshley Heights.
• Ages for characters are now omitted in RDM e-mail messages.
• The Spanish phrases in Cortez's dialogue are more varied, rather than simply calling Mario "amigo". For example, instead of red, he says green
  • The Spanish words in his dialogue now have their proper accents, such as red being corrected to green
• Yellow Blocks, Stone Blocks, and Metal Blocks are now written in title case rather than sentence case. The bigger versions are now called the Big Yellow Block and Big Stone Block.
• The ? Blocks that hold badges are now called Red ? Blocks.
• The separate Latin American and Castilian Spanish translations mean some characters have different names between the two versions. For example, Swindell is named Fraudio in Latin American Spanish and Serrallonga in Castilian Spanish.
• Charlieton's Castilian Spanish name, Ahmed, has been changed to "M. Baucador" (a pun on embaucador, "trickster"), likely due to the negative implications behind giving a shady salesman character an Arabic name.
• Dupree's Castilian Spanish name has been changed from Afro to Rolfunk.
• Many of Merluvlee's predictions have been modified slightly to change how she refers to the place. For example, Fahr Outpost goes from "the cold village" to "the snowy outpost" and "the train-refueling depot" to "a midpoint station where a beautiful train frequently stops." Minor corrections have also been made, such as referring to an "archway of roses" instead of a "rose hedge" in Poshley Heights, or the "chests and barrels" instead of the "chests and boxes" in Hooktail Castle's treasure room.
• Obtaining a new item now says "You got [item]", to avoid typos such as "You got a Super Boots".
• The Bob-ombs at Fahr Outpost no longer incorporate "Da" into their explosion catchphrases, possibly in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine at the time of the game's release.
• Some move descriptions have been changed:
  • "Spin-Jump" has been changed to "Spin Jump" whenever used.
  • Super Hammer and Ultra Hammer was changed from "Strike an enemy, knocking it into the enemy behind it." to "Strike an enemy, knocking it into all enemies positioned behind it."
  • Rally Wink was changed from "Wink at Mario to give him the courage for an extra attack." to "Wink at Mario to give him the courage for an extra action."
  • Shell Toss was changed from "Throw a shell at one enemy on the ground." to "Ram Koops's shell into an enemy on the ground while he hides inside it."
  • Power Shell was changed from "Throw a shell at all enemies on the ground." to "Ram Koops's shell through all enemies on the ground while he hides inside it."
  • Shell Slam was changed to say "piercing their Defense" instead of "piercing their defenses."
  • Gulp was changed from "Inhale an enemy and spit it out at another enemy." to "Inhale an enemy and spit it out at another enemy on the ground."
  • Veil was changed from "Hide in the shadows with Mario to avoid attacks." to "Hide in the shadows with Mario to avoid attacks for one turn."
  • Bomb Squad was changed from "Throw three time bombs that will explode one turn later." to "Throw three time bombs at foes that will explode when the next turn ends."
  • Love Slap was changed to capitalize "defense."

Graphical changes

• The entire game has a higher-resolution, more crafted appearance similar to recent entries starting from Paper Mario: Sticker Star onward, though it keeps the original game's smoother animations, rather than the choppier animations seen in those entries. For example, the characters now have a slightly thicker paper texture similar to cardstock, while the pigs have visible seams on them, and coins are fully modeled rather than sprites. As another example, the Crystal Stars have a more realistic shiny texture than the original game. To go alongside these changes, dynamic lighting is now present extensively in many areas.
• The game now runs at 30 frames per second, which is half of the 60 frames per second that the original game runs at.
• The curtains now open to reveal the title screen, which does not happen in the original game. They also now remain closed when accessing the file select screen.
• Mario's front-facing head now uses its appearance from Paper Mario: The Origami King, rather than its appearance from the original game and all subsequent entries up to Color Splash.
• Mario no longer salutes when speaking to other characters. Two new animations replace the salute, with both appearing in different contexts; he may either give a thumbs-up, or hold his hands out with his palms facing upward.
• Characters are generally more expressive, having new graphics for them. Some examples include the more shocked expressions from participants during the kitchen mystery on the Excess Express, the Rogueport merchant's cloak billowing when Princess Peach opens the chest containing the Magical Map, and enemies laughing at Mario and partners when hit with ceiling debris during battles.
  • Mario shrugs his shoulders when unable to push heavy objects or missing in the crane game in the X-Naut Fortress.
• More characters can be seen from behind, such as Mario's partners, unlike in the original, where they are shown in a frontal profile regardless of the camera angle.
• Due to the widescreen resolution, the HUD elements, transitions, and some interiors have been redesigned to accommodate the extra horizontal space. Framing in several cutscenes and some background scenery has also been readjusted to go alongside these changes.
• The character artwork in transitions is now shaded. The transitions themselves also go by much faster compared to the original game.
• More visual aids for points of interest have been implemented, such as a sign that displays an icon with tacked papers above the door to the Trouble Center building, and the pipe leading to Petal Meadows now resting on a grassy platform.
• Areas with a dotted background, such as the backgrounds surrounding partners when they join Mario's party and the area where the black chest face resides are now fully 3D environments, rather than static backgrounds.
• When a black chest face curses Mario, he gets struck by lightning, while in the original, the screen flashes white while Mario is cursed.
• The effect of the entire screen segmenting and rippling outwards from the magical map after a new Crystal Star location is recorded is no longer present.
• When in paper boat mode, a screen indication appears when a player can "Unboat" themselves.
• Pa-Patch's eyepatch now always appears over his left eye, while in the original, it would appear on the right eye if he was facing right.
• Bowser now has a rainbow effect instead of flashing yellow when becoming gigantic in his levels.
• A loading icon appears in the bottom-right corner of the screen when loading scenes, depicting miniature icons of the Crystal Stars arranged in a ring similar to the Big Paint Star ring used in the loading icon for Paper Mario: Color Splash and the streamer ring for Paper Mario: The Origami King.
• The transitions when going through Warp Pipes now depict the paper rotating before traveling into the pipe.
• After dying, the screen fades into the Game Over screen through a silhouette of Mario's face, rather than simply fading to black.
• The Peekaboo badge has a slightly different design, with yellow lines in its pattern instead of dark green.
• Super Luigi Volume 5 is now coral-colored instead of yellow in the Japanese version and orange in international regions.
• Star Pieces no longer have a flashing animation.
• If Mario is wearing the L Emblem and/or the W Emblem when Doopliss copies him, the copy of Mario will reflect his appearance. The dialogue of the Twilight Town residents will also change to accompany this.
• Buckets can now be entered by both Mario and companions.
• Items out of blocks no longer bounce all over the place, instead jumping out vertically and ending up at Mario's feet.
• The chapter medals are now 3D instead of flat, and the chapter text has a new animation.
• Mario takes three times as long to fall asleep when idle.
• The Point Swap item is now colored light red and orange to match with the HP and FP HUD bars instead of green and red in the original game.
• In the Trivia Quiz-Offs, Mario and his partners stand taller on the quiz booth so they're more visible instead of being covered by the booth front part.
• A silhouette of Mario and partners appears when he's behind something, for example outside the window in Hooktail Castle.
• When Mario stands on top of a plane panel or boat panel, it glows differently from the original and a prompt with the button to press to activate it appears.
• Some walls including the ones in the X-Naut Fortress are now reflective.

By chapter locations

Rogueport

• The pictures on the wall in Frankly's house are more detailed, one of them depicting him standing in front of the K64.
• The whole party is visible while riding the Cheep Blimp.
• Admiral Bobbery now falls asleep during Luigi's stories like the rest of Mario's partners.
• Trash and puddles of water (that can be splashed with the hammer) appear around Rogueport.
• Graffiti in Rogueport's back alley was changed.
• Don Pianta, when lying down in the Chapter 5 interlude, is paper-flat, as with King K and Bandy Andy in Chapter 3.
• Flies in the Bandit house behind Podley's Place were removed.
• The player can now see through Merlon's house windows, showing the purple background.
• Signs were edited or added to the doors in east Rogueport.
• When going upstairs at Rogueport Inn, the camera shifts upwards only when the player reaches the top, not hiding Mario any longer.

Rogueport Underground

• The panels revealed by Punio for the secret passage no longer disappear but are barely visible on the ground.

Thousand-Year Door

• Rogueport Underground, Shhwonk Fortress, the Excess Express, Riverside Station, and the Palace of Shadow (represented by the Thousand-Year Door) are now added to the map.
  • In the Palace of Shadow's case, the Thousand-Year Door radiates with energy until the game is completed.
• All of Mario's partners are now present each time he holds the Magical Map before the Thousand-Year Door.
• The Magical Map now starts off in a sepia tone, with each location filling in with color as its corresponding Crystal Star is located by holding it aloft before the Thousand-Year Door. New details that are added to the map also now unfold like a pop-up book.
• The order of the stars being lit up on the Door is different.
  • Rogueport Underground, Shhwonk Fortress, the Excess Express, Riverside Station, and the Palace of Shadow (represented by the Thousand-Year Door) are now added to the map.
    • In the Palace of Shadow's case, the Thousand-Year Door radiates with energy until the game is completed.
• The Thousand-Year Door itself and the pedestal now display colored silhouettes representing the Crystal Stars the player has brought to the latter. In the original game, star outlines would appear on the Thousand-Year Door once the player breaks its seal with every Crystal Star.

Pianta Parlor

• The upper set of "Pianta" boards seen in the background of the Paper Airplane minigame at the Pianta Parlor have been moved downwards from the logo next to the other set of boards.

Petal Meadows

• All Candy Pops now blink (and more frequently) instead of just stare, instead of just a big one being the only one that does.
• When hit by the hammer, Instead of going underground, the Candy Pop wobbles and shuts its eye.

Petalburg

• The bridges have raised railings so Mario can't fall in the water unless he jumps.
• In the house of the Koopa Troopa obsessed with Princess Peach, more items of the princess were added. He also becomes upset if the player destroys his belongings.

Hooktail Castle

• The castle has more of a paper look than a scribbled one.
• The sunlight in the first room covers the sky in the background of the windows.
• There is fog under the bridge.
• The cobwebs are more prominent.
• The blocks are made of paper instead of looking like blocks, same for the ball and chain.
• The spikes in the room before the Up Arrow are 3d.
• The animation on the bridge on higher floor being ripped apart is different.
• The golden arches at the top blend in the walls.
• As Mario progresses up the tower it gets darker.
• Giant clouds cover the windows of Hooktail lair, where in the original she doesn't appear until you enter the room.
• During the battle against Hooktail, the clock is now visible.

Boggly Woods

• The picture of Mario's face during the Three Shadows' introduction has been redrawn and is now more closely based on Mario's left-facing sprite from the first Paper Mario.
• The vine patterns on the ground in Boggly Woods now have an iridescent sheen than the gradient of colors used in the original game. Its sky also has a golden hue and glow compared to its beige gradient from the original game.
• The first triangular flower pattern is flipped.
• The pavement underneath the panel in Flurrie's house that contains the Star Piece is now correctly black like all other Star Piece panels.
• Mario averts his eyes when Flurrie grabs the Necklace.
• The flower pots in Flurrie's house are moved from near the stairs to near the door.
• Flowers now appear even by walking or using the hammer, instead of just by jumping.
• The trees in the room with the plane panel to Flurrie's House are more vibrant and visible instead of all black and have white patterns on them.
• Petals now fall from the trees all over the screen.
• Like Hooktail Castle, The Great Tree has more of a paper look than a scribbled one.
• In The Great Tree, the Puni Orb pedestal no longer has an identation to place it, but it has a shape of the orb instead.
• In the fight with the Punis, their antenna becomes glowing red like it happens to Pikmin on using an Ultra-Spicy Spray.
• After the fights, the pieces of the Jabbi hives appear broken on the ground instead of disappearing, sirens included.
• In The Great Tree, the cutscene where the X-Naut gets knocked down by Ms. Mowz happens when the player enter the room, instead of before entering the room with the cells holding the Punis.
• In The Great Tree, the locks to the cells are color coded to the cells instead of being generic locks.
• The Puni counter is now positioned on the upper-left corner of the screen instead of the lower-left, colored yellow instead of white, and now flashes when Mario is separated from the Punies.

Glitz Pit

• Crowds now appear in minor league matches in the Glitz Pit.
• When drained, King K and Bandy Andy no longer have flies hovering over their bodies.
• The text in the Wrestling Magazine has been replaced with a more stylized interpretation resembling text.

Creepy Steeple

• The environment graphics of the areas now have a distinct painted style in contrast to the rest of the areas in the game.
• Doopliss is now seen rocking in his chair upon his introduction at the Creepy Steeple.
• The Letter "p"'s design is now a coral-colored "p" from the Seurat font, rather than the classic Paper Mario series typeface.

Keehaul Key

• While Frankie says "I love you" 100 times to Francesca, Mario and his partner fall asleep while Frankie becomes gradually tired.
• The Gate Handle has a red handle instead of a brown one.
• When Flavio gives Mario the Chuckola Cola, he now pulls out the Skull Gem by mistake before pulling out the cola.

Excess Express

• When reading Ghost T.'s diary, the scene now has a black-and-white grain filter on it and now fades to black slowly rather than spinning around.
• The Galley Pot is now gold-colored instead of silver.
• The magenta Smorgs are not visible in the cutscene before the battle.

Fahr Outpost

• The Moon is now seen when Mario and his party are launched from the cannon in Fahr Outpost.

The Moon

• There is now black fading on the edges of the screen that is not present in the original game.

X-Naut Fortress

• The elevator is no longer all white but you can actually see its interiors.
• Mario's 8-bit sprites when he comes out of the shower in X-Naut Fortress sport a slightly different design compared to the original game.
• The light above the door to TEC is now a bar light like the other X-Nauts doors, instead of a generic light.

Palace of Shadow

• The Palace of Shadow Tower now has glistening star patterns on the ground. The eight doors now have yellow star patterns above them that change to blue when the player obtains Tower Keys from their rooms. There is also a graphic that shows when the player passes through a wall in one of the rooms.
• The Shadow Queen's design has earned minor, lucid changes; her star-filled body and hair are coated in a darker purplish hue with her crown now bearing a shiny, glossy light reflection.
• The dark flames from the Coffin Hall's candles now have glowing white tips instead of having an all-dark purple coloration.
• When the candles flames change color, the color of the rug changes to blue instead of remaining red in the original game.
• Hand-like shadows cover the world when the Shadow Queen awakens instead of regular shadows, in a similar vein to the "Night on Bald Mountain" segment from the Disney film Fantasia.
• Mario now goes first to check Peach after the Shadow Queen is defeated instead of his partner.

Intermissions

• The order of the heads appearing before and between chapter and intermission is now Peach, Bowser and Mario, to better show who the player is going to control next.
• The screen used by Grodus to talk to his minions is now projected by his chair instead of just standing in midair.
• TEC no longer scans the whole fortress before focusing on Peach the first time, probably to avoid spoilering the facility and where she's kept (one of the shots showed stars and the Moon surface).
• The toilet seat in Peach's bathroom is down instead of up and the mirror now has reflection.
• Bowser's Castle's candles on the chandeliers and the torches by the door are now lit.
• At the end of the Bowser stages, fireworks are fired, just like the Japanese GameCube version.

Battles

• Attacks that deal no damage now display "0" for the damage; in the original game, only a small star graphic was shown.
• Current HP numbers for Tattled enemies now have them center-aligned beneath their health bars instead of being aligned to the right.
• Upon the start of non-First Strike battles, enemies that enter the stage now steel themselves for battle.
• You can no longer hold A to have a faster battle ending theme and skip to the end faster.
• Dark Craws now clench their fist, and no longer have splayed fingers for their sprites.
• The way Doopliss and Mario's transformations are undone is different from the original game.
• Black Shy Guy stagehands now adjust the stage nozzles during battles.
• When using an attack that has no effect, such as a fire-element attack on Clefts, an icon with that element crossed out now appears over the enemy instead.
• Ms. Mowz now walks backwards after performing Love Slap rather than walking forward in the original game.
• At the end of boss fights, the winning hit goes into slow-motion and the screen flashes white.
• The Shadow Queen's lightning spells are no longer black and pink; they are now red when striking Grodus, and yellow in battle.
• The Shadow Queen's strongest attack no longer makes the area darken as a sphere of purple energy now manifests from her body instead. The waves produced afterwards now glow purple instead of appearing all black.
• The Shadow Queen's breath attacks now glow and have more curving patterns.
• Shadow Queen's defeat is very different from the original game, slowly disintegrating instead of exploding.

Cutscenes

• The storybook intro sequence is now animated. If all four save files currently are empty, the intro also now comes after the title screen after starting a new save file rather than before it..
• In the opening shot of Mario's house, Parakarry has his arms raised to the mailbox as he delivers Peach's letter, as opposed to the mailbox just rattling with him next to it.
• The Mario Bros.' House has a group picture of Mario's partners from the first Paper Mario, and during the ending cutscene, the group picture of Mario's partners from The Thousand-Year Door, as a call-forward to Super Paper Mario featuring said pictures. The map inside the house has also been changed to the world map from Paper Mario, and the exterior of the bedroom was sectioned to match its design from that game.
• When Peach's letter is being read in the opening cutscene, it is now displayed over a black background before cutting to the first view of Rogueport, where the letter itself no longer becomes visible at the bottom of the screen.
• Flurrie's cutscene is different as it pans up from below and she sends the petal to Mario with a kiss. The cutscene is also one of the few pre-rendered cutscenes in the game.
• In Princess Peach's post-Chapter 3 intermission, the conversation between Sir Grodus and the disguised Peach now plays out as a cutscene, whereas in the original game, Peach had to walk up to Grodus to talk to him.
• Before the fight with Doopliss at the top of Creepy Steeple, the bell now rings.
• Just before the start of Chapter 5, the X-Naut reporting the infiltration is no longer standing behind a wall but behind the barrels behind the ship.
• In the beginning cutscene of Chapter 5, when the S.S. Flavion is surrounded by Embers, the Embers now attack the ship by pushing it, causing Four-Eyes and Admiral Bobbery to be thrown overboard, followed by the ship being turned over on its side. In the original game, Four-Eyes abandons ship, and the S.S. Flavion eventually sinks.
• When the Excess Express arrives at Riverside Station, Doopliss (in his Zip Toad disguise) is being shown tied up in ropes before breaking free.
• The entire post-Chapter 7 ending sequence in the X-Naut Fortress is significantly modified:
  • During TEC's last speech to Mario, his dialogue gradually begins to tremble (at first just the ellipses, and then the entirety of the text).
  • Rather than the standard X-Naut Fortress music, the cutscene is at first silent. When TEC mentions that he will cease to function, a somber arrangement of Peach's theme begins playing. This somber arrangement continues to play as Mario makes his way to the teleporter room.
  • The line "TEC system failure reported," has been removed. Instead, when TEC shuts down, the red hazard lights immediately turn on with an accompanying sound effect.
  • The elevators no longer say "Choose your destination," after TEC shuts down, instead simply showing the floor prompt with no dialogue attached.
  • After Mario takes the teleporter, the lights in the fortress shut down, followed by an alarm, signaling the fortress's impending destruction.
  • TEC's line "Peach...Goodbye..." is no longer displayed in a text box, and instead appears in the center of the screen. The somber arrangement of Peach's theme plays one last time over this scene, instead of ambient sound effects as in the original.
• In all regions, the bad ending shown when Mario accepts the Shadow Queen's offer reflects the Japanese version of the original game. Mario takes on the appearance of Doopliss's copy (retaining the Emblems he has equipped), rather than simply having an angry expression. Additionally, the music fades out, and the ending text in this scene now takes up the whole screen, rather than being confined to a text box.
• Several characters are added to most areas during the scene where they encourage Mario through the Crystal Star in his battle with the Shadow Queen:
  • Several residents of Rogueport, including Flavio, Don Pianta, Frankie, Francesca, Zess T., Mousimilian, Charlieton, Podley, Ishnail, Gus, Goose, Plenn T., Swindell, Vinny, Tony, and Goomther, plus Luigi and Toadsworth, now appear when the Crystal Stars appear in the town.
  • Prince Mush in Glitzville. An error from the original game is also corrected where Shellshock appeared speaking like King K, now King K himself appears in Shellshock's place.
  • The shopkeepers in Twilight Town.
  • The Traveling Sisters Three and Dupree in Keelhaul Key.
  • Excess Express conductor, Excess Express engineer, Excess Express waitress, and Chef Shimi in Poshley Heights.
  • General White in Fahr Outpost.
• In the prologue, after escaping from Lord Crump and the X-Nauts, Mario and Goombella now turn around to acknowledge the fight between Tony/Vinny and Gus/Garf.
• In the final battle, Frankly is shown from a different angle in his cutscene.
• In the epilogue after the final boss, a curtain no longer descends before showing Flurrie in the "Paper Mario" stage play.
• Instead of the camera zooming towards Mario in the ending cutscene, a snapshot of the scene now shows, which then transitions into an illustration of a page in the storybook seen in the opening cutscene, in which it then closes and the desk lamp the book was next to shuts off.

Audio changes

• The game's music has been rearranged with new instrumentation and in a similar style to later entries in the Paper Mario series. Furthermore, several songs are extended with new melodies. The original soundtrack can be played via equipping the aforementioned Nostalgic Tunes badge.
  • Several areas have dynamically changing songs. Each level of Rogueport Underground now has its own music, as does the X-Naut Fortress.
  • Similar to Paper Mario: Color Splash and Paper Mario: The Origami King, the main battle theme changes to different arrangements specific to each area. Also like in the final areas of both games, the field theme continues playing during battles in the Palace of Shadow (except inside the Tower).
  • Similar to Paper Mario: Color Splash and Paper Mario: The Origami King, each battle theme has its own unique victory theme to go along with it. However, the unique version of the victory theme that plays when Mario's current partner has run out of HP has been removed, and does not play even with the Nostalgic Tunes badge.
  • Like the first Paper Mario, as well as all games since Paper Mario: Sticker Star, each battle theme's intro changes depending on whether the player or the enemy gets the first strike.
  • Like in Paper Mario: The Origami King, each battle theme changes to a quieter "thinking" variant if no action is made for some time.
  • The regular battle theme begins with an arrangement of the Ground Theme motif from Super Mario Bros..
  • Bowser's theme in this game now incorporates parts of "Bowser's Castle" from Paper Mario: The Origami King.
  • The track that plays in the room where the Thousand-Year Door dwells now has variations in which different instruments join each time a Crystal Star has been collected, similar to the world map in Paper Mario: Color Splash and Toad Town in Paper Mario: The Origami King.
  • When Peach waltzes with TEC, there are now various different versions of the music that can play. If Peach messes up her steps and performs worse, the music becomes off-key, and eventually a metronome is added to make the rhythm easier to follow.
• New music tracks have been added.
  • When Parakarry delivers the Magical Map to the Mario Bros.' House and when talking to Lady Bow in the post-game, an arrangement of the title theme from the first game can be heard.
  • As Luigi reads Princess Peach's letter at the beginning of the game, an arrangement of "Inside the Castle Walls" from Super Mario 64 plays.
  • A new ambient theme plays while lingering on the chapter introduction screen.
  • All of the partners, as well as several other characters such as Goldbob and Flavio, now have their own themes that play when they are being focused upon.
  • New battle themes have been given to several of the game's bosses, with certain bosses that originally shared boss themes, such as Magnus von Grapple 2.0, Gloomtail and Bonetail, receiving new renditions of their original themes and Atomic Boo receiving its own unique theme. Bowser's first battle in the Glitz Pit also uses a new theme instead of his overworld theme.
  • The Peach intermissions have more unique music, such as a "stealth" theme when she is sneaking around in the Chapter 3 and Chapter 5 intermissions, and a "tense" theme in certain moments that had no music in the original.
  • The credits theme has been replaced with an entirely new one incorporating leitmotifs from various tracks throughout the game.
  • When Koops reads what he thinks is his father's letter there's a new music that plays.
  • When reading Ghost T.'s diary, a new horror track plays alongside it.
  • When leveling up, there's a new jingle every 10 levels corresponding to Mario's Rank improving.
  • Music now plays when Mario and his partner lose to the Iron Clefts in the Glitz Pit.
  • The terminals in the Glitz Pit that resemble the Game Boy Advance now make the sound of an actual GBA turning on when activated.
  • During the time in Chapter 4 when Mario is reduced to a shadow, three new, eerie ambient tracks play in place of the Twilight Town, Twilight Trail and Creepy Steeple themes.
  • The intro portion of Doopliss's theme music now plays when he removes his Zip Toad disguise.
  • A new track now plays when exploring the back entrance and underground portions of Riverside Station. In the original game, the Riverside Station theme plays in the former and no music plays in the latter.
  • The ending montage with Goombella features each partner's new theme rather than the standard music of each location.
• Sound effects are of an overall higher quality.
  • In Boggly Woods, the leaves make a chime when trees are hit by the hammer and the sound is different on the tree itself.
  • In Boggly Woods, the hammer has a different sound when hitting the paviment.
• There is more voice acting.
  • In place of the sounds of message balloons appearing and disappearing, characters are now given unique talking sounds during dialogue, similar to the Mario & Luigi series and the Paper Mario series from Sticker Star onward. Luigi, Princess Peach, and Bowser, for example, have talking sounds similar to their voices; Kammy Koopa uses talking sounds similar to Kamek's current voice.
    • NPCs of other species use vocal effects from other games in which they appear. For example, Koopa Troopas (including Koops), Thwomps, and Bob-ombs (including Admiral Bobbery) speak with the vocal effects used for them since Super Mario 64. Piantas' vocal effects are taken from those in Super Mario Sunshine, and Boos' vocal effects are taken from those in New Super Mario Bros.
    • Characters of the same species can have variants in their speaking pitch; for example, Francesca speaks in a higher pitch than other Piantas, and Admiral Bobbery speaks in a lower pitch than most Bob-ombs.
  • Audience members now use voice clips of their respective species. Consequently, the audience's screams when leaving the theater in panic, or when attacked by certain bosses, is a lot quieter, barely audible.
  • When the Boos escape the box in the Creepy Steeple, they can be heard laughing.
  • Chain Chomps now use their signature barking sound when they lunge at Mario on the overworld. Likewise, the "talking" Red Chomp of Chomp Country now uses a portion of said bark as its talking sound.
  • Atomic Boo uses King Boo's voice samples for its sound effects.
  • Flavio's "singing" during Chapter 5 is now audible (performed by a kazoo).
  • Princess Peach's scream when being possessed by the Shadow Queen is audible.
  • Mario makes no vocal sounds while he is a shadow during Chapter 4.
  • Mario now whistles in his sleep, similar to Super Mario 64.
• There is a sound effect when the player presses A to start a chapter.
• When Mario stands on top of a plane panel or boat panel, a sound effect reminiscent of Magic Circles from Paper Mario: The Origami King can be heard.
• There is a sound effect when Mario uses Paper Mode between two walls.
• The sound effect when enemies are defeated is reminiscent of the one heard in Paper Mario: Sticker Star and Paper Mario: Color Splash.
• The healing sound effect is the same as the one from Paper Mario: Sticker Star onwards.
• The sounds the coins make when collected are now the same sound from Super Mario 3D Land, just like in Paper Mario: The Origami King.
• The spiked damage sound effect is the same as the one from Paper Mario: The Origami King.
• The Ground Theme and the Family Computer Disk System startup jingle are now reused from the original console, rather than being remixed like the original game.
• Lord Crump's theme now plays when Lord Crump is talked to during the post-Chapter 5 Bowser segment, as well as the epilogue scene with the X-Nauts. In the original game, this theme only plays during two cutscenes in Chapter 2.
• The train bing bong sound is now a variation on the Excess Express theme.
• Pennington's theme plays when he confronts Bowser in Poshley Sanctum.
• The eerie howling sound that periodically plays in Creepy Steeple is no longer present; neither are the choir voices in the Palace of Shadow.
• When Peach is undressed during the Chapter 5 intermission, the sound of bare feet on tile can be heard as she walks. In the original game, a quieter shuffling sound effect was used instead.
• Princess Peach's theme no longer plays when Mario explores the western rooms of Sublevel Four of the X-Naut Fortress.
• The second theme of the Palace of Shadow now plays in the corridors leading to Gloomtail's lair even if the orrery in the Palace of Shadow Tower has not yet been activated.
• The Chapter 8 introduction theme is replaced by continuing the current theme for the Thousand-Year Door room.
• There is no music after Grodus escapes from his battle.

Miscellaneous

• Save files can no longer be named, much like entries from Paper Mario: Sticker Star onward.
• On the file select screen, the player now uses to copy files and to erase them. File 1 and 4's colors have also been swapped, with 1 being blue and 4 being yellow.
• Save files now depict Mario (including his alternate colors) and his current partner on the right of them and the date and time the game was last saved below it.
  • Completing the game results in a medal appearing on the top left of the save file.
• Only Mario is present on the title screen when the game is started for the first time; Mario's partners will each be added to the title screen when they join him, including Vivian, Admiral Bobbery, and Ms. Mowz, who were not present in the title screen of the original game. The characters and the hills on the background also now animate.
  • After Goombella joins the team, the curtains open earlier on the title screen.
  • Peach, Bowser, and Kammy Koopa appear on the title screen after clearing their segments in Chapter 1.
  • Completing the game now results in Luigi appearing on the far left of the title screen, with confetti getting launched.
• Like in Paper Mario: The Origami King, any button can be used to start the game, whereas in the original, only was used.
• A settings page is available in the menu list, allowing the ability to adjust the rumble and brightness settings and exit to the title screen.
• The credits have been overhauled to now be modeled after a curtain call of a stage play, with the carousel of character silhouettes being replaced with the characters walking on the battle stage alongside various skits that occur during it. The credits now end with a wide group shot of the major characters and the audience.
  • Parakarry is the first character in the credits rather than Luigi, who is an audience member instead.
• Copyright information is not present at the end of credits.
• The game's European and Japanese age ratings have been raised to PEGI 7 and CERO B, up from PEGI 3 and CERO A of the original game, respectively.

Controls

Overworld

• — Move
• — Bring up Partner Ring
• — Bring up stats
• — Get a hint from partner
• — Turn into Paper Mode
• — Select / Jump
• — Cancel / Hammer
• — Use partner ability
• — Turn into airplane or boat
• — Pause
• — Partner menu
• — Items menu
• — Badges menu
• — Journal menu
• — Skip sequence (if already seen)

Battle

• — Move cursor / Action Commands
• — Select / Action Commands / Guard
• — Cancel / Action Commands / Superguard
• — Tattle Check
• — Attack audience member / Action Commands
• — Change attack order / Action Commands
• / — Action Commands

Bowser intermissions

• — Move
• — Jump
  • + — Ground Pound
• — Fire Breath

Promotion

The battle stage diorama from the European My Nintendo Store

By pre-ordering the game through the My Nintendo Store in Europe, customers would receive Mario, Goombella, and Yoshi Kid keychains. A bundle containing the game and a buildable diorama of the battle stage including several enemies and characters from the game was also made available on the store.

In Australia, an A5 magnet sheet and a set of foldable Mario paper planes were included as pre-order bonuses for the game from EB Games and JB Hi-Fi, respectively.

In GameStop Canada, a slipcover for the Nintendo Switch case depicting the original GameCube cover is included as a pre-order bonus.

Prior to the game's release, Nintendo of Europe e-mailed a survey about the role-playing games of the Super Mario franchise to a select number of newsletter subscribers. The survey asks participants to state their opinions on topics such as the gameplay and characters of the Paper Mario series, the Mario & Luigi series, and Super Mario RPG. A different survey was temporarily released by Nintendo of America via the Qualtrics website, which asked participants about their general gaming experience as well as featuring questions specifically on the subject of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door for Nintendo Switch.

On May 26, 2024, Nintendo of America issued a printable paper airplane template with a design featuring elements from the game. As well, they published a video tutorial wherein John "ThePaperAirplaneGuy" Collins, holder of the Guinness World Records title for the farthest flying paper airplane from 2012 to 2022, explains how to fold the template. On May 30, 2024, Nintendo of America promoted the game with yet another paper plane–related product in the form of a Snapchat Lens that folds a user's photograph into an AR paper plane in a fashion reminiscent of the game's Plane Mode.

Descriptions

North American Nintendo eShop

Join Mario on an epic paper-adventure to collect the Crystal Stars before the X-Nauts do!

The nefarious X-Nauts are after the treasure behind the Thousand-Year Door! With a map from Princess Peach, and the help of a few locals, Mario journeys through a colorful world made of paper to find them first. To prevail in this quest, you’ll have to level up Mario and his friends, master timing-based attacks and badges to impress the audience on the stage of combat, and make use of all the abilities that come with being cursed—er, conveniently made of paper—like folding into a plane to cross big gaps or turning sideways to slip through narrow openings.

Leaf through a storybook world with charming characters in every fold

Surprises abound in this deep and engaging tale, where everyone’s got something to say and it’s often not what you’d expect. Mario will meet all kinds of interesting folks on his journey, like the upbeat and studious Goombella and the shy but determined Koops. Some of these characters will need your help with their own quests, or even join your party. Others, like Peach and Bowser, have stories of their own that you’ll play between Mario’s chapters!

A classic turns the page, bringing fresh visuals and updated features

Twenty years after the original game on the Nintendo GameCube™ system, this version for the Nintendo Switch™ system has revamped graphics, and a suite of additional changes that make the game easier than ever to enjoy.

Pre-release and unused content

Various badges that also went unused in the original game have graphics in this game, complete with a few having names. These include Mega Jump, Mega Quake, Mega Smash, Triple Dip, Triple Dip P, Lucky Day P, Pity Flower P, and unused alternate designs for Damage Dodge and Damage Dodge P.

Staff

Main article: List of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Nintendo Switch) staff

Gallery

For this subject's image gallery, see Gallery:Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Nintendo Switch).

• 

  Mario

• 

  Goombella

• 

  Yoshi Kid

• 

  Sir Grodus

• 

  Princess Peach

• 

  Bowser

• 

  Group artwork

References to other media

• Super Mario Bros.: The regular battle theme begins with an arrangement of the Ground Theme motif from this game.
• Super Nintendo Entertainment System: The colors of the button icons in combat correspond to those of the Japanese and PAL controller buttons.
• Super Mario 64: An arrangement of "Inside the Castle Walls" from the game plays when Luigi reads Princess Peach's letter at the beginning of the game. The Thwomp from Shhwonk Fortress and Bob-omb NPCs' vocal effects are taken from the game.
• Paper Mario: The world map from this game appears on a wall in the Mario Bros.' House. An arranged version of this game's title screen theme plays when Parakarry delivers the Magical Map to the Mario Bros.' House, and when talking to Lady Bow in Poshley Heights. Kooper is an incorrect answer in one of The Creepy Steeple Boo’s quizzes.
• Game Boy Advance: The terminals in the Glitz Pit that resemble the Game Boy Advance from the original game now make the sound of the actual system turning on when activated.
• Nintendo GameCube: The Nostalgic Tunes badge resembles the titular console, and its description mentions the console itself.
• New Super Mario Bros.: Boo's voice clips are taken from this game.
• Super Paper Mario: The Mario Bros.' House now has the pictures of Mario's partners from Paper Mario and The Thousand-Year Door as seen in this game. Garson is an incorrect answer in one of The Creepy Steeple Boo’s quizzes.
• Paper Mario: The Origami King: Bowser's leitmotif from this game has been incorporated into his rearranged theme in this game.

References in later media

• Super Mario Run: An event based on the game was released from May 23, 2024 to June 27, 2024, featuring nine missions with three completed missions allowing for the acquisition of statues modeled after Paper Mario with a hammer, Goombella, and Koops. The icons representing the missions are based on Star Points.

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Japanese	ペーパーマリオＲＰＧ[?] Pēpā Mario Āru Pī Jī	Paper Mario RPG This naming method is similar to Super Mario RPG and the Japanese name of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga.
Chinese (simplified)	纸片马力欧RPG[?] Zhǐpiàn Mǎlì'ōu RPG	Paper Mario RPG
Chinese (traditional)	紙片瑪利歐RPG Zhǐpiàn Mǎlì'ōu RPG	Paper Mario RPG
Dutch	Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door[?]	-
French (NOA)	Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door[?]	-
French (NOE)	Paper Mario: La Porte Millénaire[?]	Paper Mario: The Millennium Door
German	Paper Mario: Die Legende vom Äonentor[?]	Paper Mario: The Legend of the Aeon Gate
Italian	Paper Mario: Il Portale Millenario[?]	Paper Mario: The Millennium Portal
Korean	페이퍼 마리오 1000년의 문[?] Peipeo Malio Cheon-nyeon-ui Mun	Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Portuguese	Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door[?]	-
Spanish (NOA)	Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door[?]	-
Spanish (NOE)	Paper Mario: La Puerta Milenaria[?]	Paper Mario: The Millennium Door

Trivia

• This is the second Super Mario game after Super Mario Odyssey to receive a B rating by the CERO in Japan.
• Despite being released in 2024, the copyright text on the bottom of the title screen and some promotional material only says 2004 for unknown reasons.
• Just like in the original game, the intro to the title theme has a different melody if the system language is set to Japanese. The Nostalgic Tunes badge also accounts for this difference.

External links

Nintendo of America Inc. / Nintendo of Canada, Ltd.

• Official North American game page
• Official Canadian (French) game page
• Official Mexican/Latin American game page
• Official Brazilian game page

Nintendo Co., Ltd.

• Official Japanese game page
• Official Singaporean game page
• Official Malaysian game page
• Official Filipino game page
• Official Thai game page

Nintendo (Hong Kong) Ltd.

• Official Taiwanese game page
• Official Hong Kong game page

Nintendo of Korea Co., Ltd.

• Official Korean game page

Nintendo of Europe AG

• Official United Kingdom game page
• Official Belgium (Dutch) game page
• Official Belgium (French) game page
• Official German game page
• Official España game page
• Official French game page
• Official Italian game page
• Official Dutch game page
• Official Austrian game page
• Official Portuguese game page
• Official Swiss (German) game page
• Official Swiss (French) game page
• Official Swiss (Italian) game page
• Official South African game page

Nintendo Australia Pty. Limited

• Official Australian game page

Bergsala AB

• Official Danish game page
• Official Finnish game page
• Official Norwegian game page
• Official Swedish game page

CD Media S.E.

• Official Greek game page

ConQuest Entertainment A.S.

• Official Czech game page
• Official Hungarian game page
• Official Polish game page
• Official Slovak game page

TorGaming Ltd

• Official Israeli game page