Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is by no means Mario's first appearance in a role-playing game, but it's certainly one of his best. While 2004 saw many solid RPG releases, Paper Mario stands out among them for its excellent execution and its sheer undeniable charm. This game glows with a lighthearted cheer that pervades all its aspects, from the battle system, to the storyline, to the many memorable characters you'll meet along your way. The care that developer Intelligent Systems lavished on this title is at all times very much evident, and Paper Mario's high level of quality makes it an easy choice for the best role-playing game of this year.

The game unfolds like a living storybook, with Princess Peach once again facing dire peril, and plumber-turned-hero Mario once again rushing unquestioningly to her rescue. But far from coming across as a clichéd rehash of an old Nintendo staple, Paper Mario comes alive on the strength of its witty storytelling, carried by a memorable and endearing cast of characters and great, well-written dialogue. The storybook qualities also pervade all of Paper Mario's great visuals, which overlay the paper-thin 2D characters on similarly colorful and detailed backgrounds in pop-up-book-style 3D. Everything in this game looks sharp and animates beautifully, like a children's story brought to life in lovingly detailed video.

Far from being just a pretty face, Paper Mario also features a tight battle system that takes traditional turn-based elements and couples them with real-time button timing for both extra attacks and defensive maneuvers. Your choice of party member to accompany Mario also has a definite effect on the course of battle, as each of his friends will have different abilities that you'll want to leverage at different times. The audience-participation system that sometimes triggers as your battles unfold onstage adds extra charm to the proceedings. And it's that combination of charm, wonderful visuals, and tight gameplay that makes Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door a wonderful game, and our choice for role-playing game of the year.