THE LONG GAME
A progress report on the games we just can’t quit
Developer Intelligent Systems Publisher Nintendo Format Switch Release 2024
Strolling into Rogueport, the first thing you see is a noose. Putting a gallows front and centre in the hub area of a Mario game is some signal of intent, only partially offset by the high-spirited tone struck by its bustling (and now brass-inflected) town theme, a classic of its kind. It speaks to a major reason why The Thousand-Year Door is so beloved: from running errands for a mafia don to an Agatha Christie-style locomotive mystery, the game takes Mario outside his Mushroom Kingdom comfort zone, into a world of criminality, corruption and championship wrestling.
Even after its successors (and AlphaDream’s Mario & Luigi RPGs) established a more irreverent tone, it still feels subversive, as does the way it embraces the theatricality of turn-based battling. This remaster leans into the unpredictability of live performance with more frequent stage effects. Dry ice covers heroes and enemies alike in fine mists that reduce attack accuracy. Shy Guys become stagehands and saboteurs, fixing faulty rigs or adjusting pulleys to make prop buckets fall. Hammer attacks cause background flats to collapse forward, dealing bonus damage. And there’s more audience participation: as spectators prepare to throw items, Mario or his partner can hop into the crowd and eject troublemakers from the auditorium.
Otherwise, these battles are straightforward. But then winning without flair is not your aim; star points powering special moves are your incentive to put on a performance. So y
