Rumors are swirling around the potential remaster of the beloved 2004 GameCube title, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. A user named PikminSnezkov on Famiboards claimed to have been in contact with three sources, allegedly employees of Intelligent Systems, via LinkedIn. These sources have hinted at the remaster, and two of them have provided release date information, which remains undisclosed pending confirmation from the third source. Following the success of Paper Mario: The Origami King, it is highly likely that the Paper Mario team is working on this remaster.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is the second installment in the Paper Mario series and shares several RPG elements with the original game. The game features turn-based battles, puzzles, platforming challenges, and a party of friendly characters known as partners. The story follows Mario’s quest to collect the seven Crystal Stars and rescue Princess Peach from the evil X-Nauts.
The Thousand-Year Door introduced numerous enhancements to the battle system, including more in-depth partners with their own health pools and the ability to negate all damage via Superguarding. Battles now take place in front of an audience, whose reactions can either help or hinder the player. Additionally, Mario can fold into various paper forms to explore and solve puzzles in the overworld. The game features intermissions between each chapter where players control Peach and Bowser, whose stories intertwine with the main plot.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door remains the only game in the series to share the same battle system as the original Paper Mario, as subsequent installments shifted their focus to different gameplay mechanics.