Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Gets Rated By ESRB

It will be an interesting year for Nintendo Switch fans in 2024. At this point last year, there were numerous 1st party games, and even 3rd party titles, that they could look forward to that would “ring in the new year” in the proper way. However, with 2024, the pickings are a bit slimmer. Currently, there are only three 1st party games known about for 2024 as a whole, and each of them is within the Mario family of titles. Furthermore, one of them doesn’t have a release window. That would be Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, which is easily the most anticipated title of the three.

The good news is that the ESRB has dropped its official rating for Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, and unsurprisingly, it’s being rated “E For Everyone.” That’s not surprising because the game has a very adorable look and gameplay feel to it, and the only “violence” is “paper thin.” Here is what the ESRB had to say about the game:

“This is an adventure role-playing game in which players help Mario rescue Princess Peach from an alien group. As players traverse whimsical worlds, they interact with characters and engage in turn-/puzzle-based combat against paper creatures. Players use various attacks (e.g., boot stomp, hammer strike, fire balls) against cartoony enemies that disappear into stars and coins. A handful of characters engage in brief flirtatious dialogue (e.g., “Aren’t you a fine specimen of a man”; “Perhaps if I…grabbed you and gave you a little sugar”), and/or are designed with large chests/exaggerated proportions.”

So, yeah, it’s not the most violent game you’ll play in 2024, but it might be one of the most fun games you’ll play. Fans are excited for this “remake/remaster” because it’s arguably one of the best RPGs ever made. It came out during the Nintendo Gamecube era and has been praised ever since, especially when the franchise kind of “fell off a cliff” after it diverged from what this title set up.

Something that many are hopeful for with this ESRB rating is that we’ll get more details from Nintendo about a release date or window soon. Traditionally, if you get an ESRB rating, it means that the game will get its release date announced soon. Then again, Nintendo has always followed the beat of its own drum, and thus, it could release it at any point in 2024.

The next Nintendo Direct isn’t coming until next month at the earliest, so we’ll just have to wait and see.