Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Taking a page from other RPGs, Nintendo removed the HP/FP/BP limits in this chapter of Paper Mario, adding much more flexibility (and fun) to character customization, finally allowing players to draw Mario in their own image. The dialogue and story is even funnier than before, and almost had me rolling all over the floor. Note also that the combat mechanics have also been expanded: beating enemies to a pulp has never been more fun. Part of this is the heavier weight given to the "paper" theme itself in this chapter, planting a more complete and distinct identity for the series than before. The game world itself is a lot more interesting too, even if the different areas seem too cut apart from each other, and only bound to each other by warp pipes. Overall, The Thousand-Year Door stacks up well to its predecessor, but it is so much more a recycling or copy-and-pasting of old ideas, as sequels so often are.