Hello all! Welcome back to Play It By Ear, a column where in each instalment I discuss my thoughts on a different video game’s soundtrack.
Today’s game? Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door.
Release Date: July 22, 2004
Platform: Nintendo GameCube
Developer: Intelligent Systems
Composers: Yoshito Hirano, Yuka Tsujiyoko
Availability: YouTube
‘Essential’ Playlist Link (This playlist contains only my ‘Top Tracks’ and ‘Other Essential Tracks’)
Number of Songs: 147-ish
Approximate Total Time: ~ 5 hours
Played the Game? Yes.
What Kind of Game Is This? Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, the first sequel to the Nintendo 64 classic Paper Mario, is a turn-based RPG with a papercraft aesthetic. The game (shockingly) follows Mario who, having received a mysterious map from the recently disappeared Princess Peach, heads off on a new adventure in the distant city of Rogueport to find the seven Crystal Stars necessary to open the ancient Thousand Year Door. Along the way he runs afoul of the enigmatic X-Naut Society who are also on the hunt for the Crystal Stars with a more nefarious purpose. The game takes the gameplay of its predecessor and expands it in pretty much every way with the addition of an audience during battles, new paper-y moves like turning into a paper airplane or boat, and even the ability to play as Bowser during short segments between chapters. A remake for the Nintendo Switch is set to release sometime this year.
Top Songs (in Track Order):
Intro Story
The mysterious, melancholy vibe of this opening track, combined with the way it builds with the introduction of the drums near the end, serves to make this a very special song that has always stuck with me.
Main Theme
Such an upbeat, almost-chaotic-at-times theme that really helps you get excited to start the adventure.
Rogueport
As the theme of the main hub city of the game, this is a track you end up hearing quite a lot over the course of the game. Luckily it is a pretty great one, with strong use of percussion and a melody that is at times almost majestic (despite the seedy nature of the actual town).
Professor Frankly
Such a wacky theme for a wizened Goomba professor, but it works well and is one of the tracks that immediately springs to mind when I think of this game.
Battle Theme
An iconic RPG battle theme, and one that rarely got old for me despite hearing it roughly a million times.
Petal Meadows
A really pleasant level theme, and one of my favorite Mario ‘meadow’ tracks.
Magnus von Grapple Battle
This has always been one of my favorite boss themes in the game. I just love its industrial sound.
Rawk Hawk Battle
The closest the game comes to straight-up rock music. A great theme for an arrogant wrestler.
Doopliss Battle
Like ‘Magnus Von Grapple Battle’, this has long been one of my favorite boss themes in the Paper Mario series. It has an almost circus-like atmosphere at times, and the use of the tolling bell (important story-wise) is excellent.
X-Naut Fortress
An interesting choice to essentially have disco music for the main antagonist’s hideout, but it works and is quite catchy to boot.
Riddle Tower
I just love how mysterious and otherworldly this one feels.
We’re Counting On You Mario!
This is a track I’ve long considered to be one of my favorite video game songs of all time (despite the interminably long cutscene it plays during). There’s just something so triumphant, invigorating, and kind of melancholy about it. Plus, it uses one of my favorite motifs from the game, one that isn’t used very much outside of ‘Intro Story’ and ‘Adventure Begins’.
Final Battle
One of my favorite final boss themes. It manages to be so epic and ominous, but there’s also something kind of….I don’t know, lonely-sounding about it at moments, like it really is just you and your partner between the world and the apocalypse.
Credits
I love that the credits have their own melody that isn’t just a retread of an earlier track. The song is surprisingly atmospheric, as well.
Other Essential Tracks: Event Battle, Rogueport Sewers, Learning a New Skill, Hooktail’s Castle, Hooktail Battle, End of Chapter, Peach’s Theme, Shadow Sirens Battle, Cheep-Cheep Blimp, Glizville, Macho Grubba Battle, Sadness and Happiness, Cortez Battle, Excess Express at Dusk, Grodus’ Theme, Fahr Outpost, Blast-Off to the Moon, Grodus Battle, Shadow Peach Battle, Peach is Saved, Farewell Rogueport
Overall Thoughts: I don’t think I’ve ever been as excited to play a game as I was for Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. I was very young when I played the original Paper Mario, so this series was already an important part of my childhood – and, luckily, TTYD delivered. The gameplay was great. The characters were great. The story was great. And, most relevant to this column, the music was great. The boss themes in particular stood out to me, with their catchy melodies and variety of styles, but there are few weak links in general in this OST. There are some wonderful location themes – like ‘Rogueport’, ‘Petal Meadows’, and ‘X-Naut Fortress’ – as well as rousing cutscene tracks like ‘Blast-Off to the Moon’ and ‘We’re Counting on You, Mario!’ There’s also an interesting strain of melancholy (or, at least, that’s how it feels to my nostalgic mind) that pops up here and there, especially in the main motif of ‘Intro Story’, ‘Adventure Begins’, ‘We’re Counting on You, Mario!’, and ‘Farewell Rogueport’, that really helps give the game a unique vibe among the myriad of Mario games out there.
And there we have it! Thanks so much for reading and listening to this soundtrack with me.
Next Time: Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling