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

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is an upcoming role-playing game for the Nintendo Switch. It is a remake of the 2004 Nintendo GameCube game of the same name. It was first announced during the September 2023 Nintendo Direct, and it is set to be released sometime in 2024.

The title will feature visually enhanced and updated graphics. However, it remains faithful to the style of the original game: the characters still use their designs from the original release (notably, Princess Peach keeps her pre-Mario Party 4 dress design), rather than the updated designs used in the following Paper Mario games. Voice clips from the original game are also reused, in spite of voice actor changes since the original game's release.

Gameplay changes

 * During battles, there is an option on the bottom right corner of the screen known as "Tattle Check".

Text changes and localization

 * The game has now been translated to Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Dutch, and Korean, three languages that the original was not available in.
 * 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.
 * There is a "SUPERGUARD" text pop-up that appears when the player successfully performs a Superguard. The original game displayed the standard "GREAT!" text instead.
 * 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 English character dialogue has been altered slightly from the original game. For example, when Mario enters the town square of Rogueport for the first time, Goombella states that she is a "Student at the University of Goom", while she instead states that she is a "Junior at the University of Goom" in the remake. Another example involves Bowser using the insult "Lunkhead" in place of the word "Airhead" during the Bowser interlude after completing Chapter 1.
 * Some other dialogue in the script also seems to have 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.
 * In the Italian version, the name of the University of Goom is changed to accommodate the renaming that was done in Paper Mario: Sticker Star.

Graphical changes

 * The entire game has a higher-resolution, more crafted appearance similar to recent entries starting from Paper Mario: Color Splash 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. To go alongside these changes, dynamic lighting is now present extensively in many areas.
 * Characters are generally more expressive, such as during the kitchen mystery on the Excess Express.
 * The Mario Bros.' House has a group picture of the partners from Paper Mario, as a call-forward to Super Paper Mario featuring said picture along with one for the Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door partners. 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 said game.
 * When Rogueport appears for the first time when Peach's letter is being read in the opening cutscene, the letter itself is no longer visible below.
 * A few new character designs have been added, such as a purple, martial artist-themed Toad in Glitzville dressed in a coat and a guapi mao cap.
 * The vine patterns on the ground in Boggly Woods now have an iridescent sheen than the gradient of colors used in the original game.
 * The whole party is visible while riding the Cheep Blimp.
 * 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.
 * 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, the pipe leading to Petal Meadows now resting on a grassy platform, and a set of easily visible footprints in eastern Rogueport that leads into a hidden alley.
 * The area the black chest face resides is now a fully 3D environment, rather than being a static background. When a black chest face curses Mario, he gets struck by lightning, while in the original, the screen flashes white while Mario is cursed.
 * 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 when becoming gigantic in his levels.

Audio changes

 * The game's music has been rearranged with new instrumentation, and now sounds similar to later entries in the Paper Mario series.
 * Characters are given unique talking sounds during dialogue, similar to the Mario & Luigi series, and entries from Paper Mario: Sticker Star onward. Luigi and Princess Peach, for example, have talking sounds similar to their voices, while Koops has talking sound identical to modern Koopa Troopa vocal effects.

Miscellaneous

 * 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.

References to other media

 * Super Nintendo Entertainment System: The colors of the button icons in combat correspond to those of the European Super Nintendo Entertainment System's controller buttons.
 * 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 in the reveal trailer.
 * Super Paper Mario: The Mario Bros.' House now has the same picture of Mario's partners from Paper Mario as seen in this game.