Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is a 2004 role-playing video game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. The Thousand-Year Door is the second game in the Paper Mario series following Paper Mario, and is part of the larger Mario franchise. In the game, when Mario and Princess Peach get involved in the search for a mystic treasure that holds great fortune, Peach is kidnapped by an alien group called the X-Nauts; Mario sets out to find the treasure and save the princess. The Thousand-Year Door borrows many gameplay elements from its predecessor, such as a drawing-based art style, and a turn-based battle system with an emphasis on timing moves correctly. For the majority of the game the player controls Mario, although Bowser and Princess Peach are playable at certain points. The game was announced at a 2003 Game Developers Conference and was released late-July 2004 in Japan and late 2004 for the rest of the world. The game was praised by critics, generally lauded for its engaging plot and gameplay. The Thousand-Year Door won the "Role Playing Game of the Year" award at the 2005 Interactive Achievement Awards, and is commonly called the best game in the series. The game was followed by Super Paper Mario, which released for the Wii in 2007. Gameplay The Thousand-Year Door is a role-playing video game (RPG) with other nontraditional RPG elements. The player controls a two-dimensional version of Mario and explores a variety of worlds designed to look like paper. In these locales, he is tasked with retrieving seven Crystal Stars which involves Mario completing puzzles and defeating enemies to proceed. In the overworld, the player can find items that can be used in and outside of combat. The effects of these items range from healing Mario or his partner to damaging the opponent. Mario can also purchase "badges" from non-player characters (NPCs), find them hidden in the environment, or occasionally obtain them from defeated enemies; each badge requires a certain amount of Mario's badge points (BP) in order to be equipped. When equipped, these badges can permanently enhance a particular skill or aspect, or, in some cases, give Mario new abilities. Throughout the game, up to seven characters are permanently added to the player's party; one character is present alongside Mario at any given time and can be switched out at any point. Each character has a