Paper Mario: Sticker Star Review

[Zera]

Greetings, folks. Today I'm here to review Paper Mario: Sticker Star. This was developed by Intelligent Systems, who made Fire Emblem, Advance Wars, and Pushmo. This is the fourth installment in the Paper Mario series and the first portable title, appearing on the 3DS. Previous games are Paper Mario (N64), Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (GC), and Super Paper Mario (Wii). The only one I haven't played is the original.

Story: The story is an intriguing one, filled with mystery, betrayal, revenge, and romance...Bowser has kidnapped Peach, and Mario must save her. It's clear that the story takes a backseat in this game, which is ironic not only because it's an RPG, but because the previous two games had great stories. The dialogue is still charming and funny, though.

Characters: You will encounter many interesting and dynamic characters such as...Mario, Peach, Bowser, Toad, more Toads, a few more Toads, and Kersti.

Setting: Hyrule? Rougeport? A unique new location that we've never seen before!?!?.....nah, its just the Mushroom Kingdom...again...

Graphics: Everything is made of paper and cardboard! And it looks very nice.

Music: The soundtrack is jazzier than previous installments, and the boss themes in particular are spectacular. Which is why I find it ironic that the boss themes are the ONLY music not available in the unlockable sound test. Furthermore, after listening to a song for a minute or so, the music will automatically change to the next track, and the only way to return to what you were listening to is to mash the A button for a minute as you go through every other song in the game (there are a lot). I didn't think it was possible to screw up a sound test, but I have been proven wrong.

Gameplay: Sticker Star returns to turn-based combat and action commands, but it feels like a watered down version of The Thousand Year Door. There are very few unique status effects, no partners, no items, no special moves, and no appeal or defend commands. Other than using a mushroom sticker to heal or fleeing battle, your only option is to deal damage with various single use attack stickers. The only strategy is from different stickers attacking in different manners. For example, you can't jump on a spiked enemy, you can't hammer a high-flying enemy, and fire and ice attacks will deal double or half damage to certain enemies. Most battles are pretty easy so long as you have a good sticker collection. There is no experience system, and the ONLY thing you get from fights is money. The only thing to spend money on is more stickers, and the only thing to do with stickers is fight enemies. What this means is that you can avoid as many battles as possible and still be OK in the long run.

Throughout your journey you will find "Things", 3D objects from the real world that can be transformed into "Thing Stickers". These take up a lot of room in the sticker album and are powerful in battle, but you'll want to save them because they might be required to solve an environmental problems. Solutions range from obvious (Use a Light Bulb in a dark room) to clever (Freeze a volcano with a giant Fridge) to obtuse (When you see a huge pile of garbage, do you immediately think of using the Goat Sticker?) The problem with these problems is that if you encounter a problem (Don't have the right sticker or don't know which to use), you may end up exploring the entire world in search of that one thing you didn't find. You could waste hours without making any progress at all. For your own enjoyment, I highly recommend you play this game with a walkthrough nearby.

Enemies and Bosses: There isn't as much enemy variety as usual because all enemies are from the Mushroom Kingdom. You'll mostly be fighting goomba, koopa, and shyguy variations. The bosses are kinda disappointing, because all but one of them are just giant versions of regular enemies (Giant goomba, giant pokey, giant blooper, giant piranha plant, giant koopa). If you want to fight a mech, dragon, space overlord, dimension shifting magician, or resurrected demon queen, you're in the wrong place. The bosses have huge amounts of hit points and so much defense that all hits of regular attacks will only do 1 damage. Fighting them is a test of endurance; either you will burn through your entire sticker album or die trying. That is, of course, unless you use the one specific Thing Sticker you may or may not have that deals massive damage to the boss, debilitates its attacks, and reduces its defense to 0, making the battle a cakewalk.

Length, Replayability, and Value: My completionist playthrough took about 33 hours, and my speedrun took about 7. Despite having a world map that gives the illusion of exploration, Sticker Star is a surprising linear game. Once you beat Bowser, there is absolutely nothing to do except fill up the Sticker Museum and unlock a few achievement flags (10000 coins collected, 100 perfect battles, etc.). Other than that, there are no side quests or post-game content of any kind. Since this game is inferior to The Thousand Year Door in every conceivable way, I would only purchase it at $20 or less.

Conclusion: Paper Mario: Sticker star is a pretty good game, but not having the proper Thing Sticker for a problem can bring your fun to a screeching halt. Beyond that, the excuse plot and generic characters and setting are very disappointing, and every feature that makes this game good has been done better in a previous Paper Mario game. The only people I can recommend this game to are Paper Mario veterans who might suffer from Paper Mario withdrawal otherwise. If you are new to Paper Mario and own an N64, Gamecube, Wii, or WiiU, then there is at least one better Paper Mario game you could be playing right now.

6.5 out of 10 (Good, but inferior)

Edited December 6, 2015 by Zera

[Happy_Dingo]

This review sums up pretty much what I think of the game. It's fun but the original and TTYD are way better. Story wise it's the weakest of 'em all, but the gameplay is better than SPM IMO. The music is awesome, I'll say that. As with all the Mario RPGs the humor is great.

Also to the OP, you may have been told this before but I recommend playing the original Paper Mario. It's pretty great, though TTYD is still the superior game of the series. Actually the original takes second place in the Paper Mario series IMO.

[Samias]

Paper Mario: Sticker Star has very fast and snappy combat. When you go back to some of the older titles, some of the button inputs are crazy and others are downright tedious. If only Sticker Star hadn't been a huge story downgrade from previous titles, I think the battle system is very serviceable. I agree with the score, though. Sticker Star is a fun game but it's shallow.

[Happy_Dingo]

When you go back to some of the older titles, some of the button inputs are crazy and others are downright tedious.

Huh. I've never felt they were tedious at all. Which ones are you talking about in particular, if you don't mind me asking?

[Samias]

At least with the original Paper Mario, the Quake Hammer badge stands out in my mind as being rather boring. You hold back the control stick for what seems like an obscenely long amount of time. And some charge abilities that require you to mash two buttons simultaneously is very cumbersome for poor people like me with small little girl thumbs.

I mean, the Infinijump sticker in Sticker Star is also pretty bad, tapping A 99 times in perfect rhythm to get maximum damage, but homogenizing all the timed hits to A also fits the simplified-but-generally-faster battle system.

[Melonhead]

I'm a pretty big fan of the Paper Mario series, but I was kinda depressed by this one. Lost interest by the first boss and started doing something else. I might go back to it eventually, but I hope IS makes a better console-side one.

[Happy_Dingo]

Oh yeah, Quake hammer is a bit annoying. Simultanious button pressing doesn't bother me as I have decently large hands (at least I'm sure they're not "small little girl thumbs" lol). The infinite- jump stuff is usually ignored by me as it's usually over-kill except on bosses. Also enemies with defense make it pointless when the damage lowers to 1.

[Zera]

@Samias: When I button mash two buttons at the same time, I find it easiest to use my pointer and middle fingers at the same time instead of my thumb.

@Happy_Dingo: All attacks in Sticker Star do 1 damage minimum per hit, so Infinijump can still deal 100 damage to bosses. (For spikey bosses combine with Super Boot.)

I prefer the Power Bounce badge in TTYD to the Infinijump Sticker. It's less overpowered because the timing required is more precise with each hit.

[Happy_Dingo]

@Happy_Dingo: All attacks in Sticker Star do 1 damage minimum per hit, so Infinijump can still deal 100 damage to bosses. (For spikey bosses combine with Super Boot.)

My mistake.