Sticker Star is maybe the best?

[Esau of Isaac]

Or be Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door and be reviewed by Game Informer circa 2004

That...wow, that's surprising. Now I wish I hadn't cleaned out my Game Informer collection a few months ago so I could check out what they said.

[Samias]

Sticker Star is a competent game on its own, but the fanbase isn't exactly pleased by having all the story sucked dry and having enemies be more or less pointless to fight. Honestly I would give this game a 7 or so myself, but the Paper Mario name is almost a false advertisement. It looks like Paper Mario and has RPG mechanics, but it's just not the same. It doesn't deserve to have pitchforks and whatnot raised against it, but this is easily the most bland Paper Mario game ever made. The few exceptional levels, such as the level where you lose all your abilities, shows a much more spectacular game underneath what we actually got though.

I don't think the critic and user reviews are that far apart from each other to be honest. I don't think anyone was really wowed by Sticker Star, but there are worse offerings out there to play. It's more entertaining than Pilotwings Resort or Steel Diver, and more accessible and with more 3DS-specific polish than Tales of the Abyss.

Edited January 12, 2013 by Samias

[Rehab]

IIRC they basically said it was alright, but it was simplistic, didn't improve on Paper Mario in any significant way and was 4kidz, and they didn't think they could recommend it to the majority of the people they knew to be gamers. They kinda got some backlash on that one.

Edited January 12, 2013 by Rehab

[NinjaMonkey]

I've had more fun with this game than with the rest of the Paper Mario games.

That's all I'm going to say on this.

Edited January 13, 2013 by NinjaMonkey

[Original Alear]

IIRC they basically said it was alright, but it was simplistic, didn't improve on Paper Mario in any significant way and was 4kidz, and they didn't think they could recommend it to the majority of the people they knew to be gamers. They kinda got some backlash on that one.

Shmae on their tastes and preferences! I could kinda buy "4kidz," other than that, no fair.

Edited January 13, 2013 by Mouse

[Party Moth]

I've had more fun with this game than with the rest of the Paper Mario games.

That's all I'm going to say on this.

Depends on what you want out of the game, really.

For me, pressing A repeatedly for no good reason hardly makes a good game.

[Zera]

Salutations, savvy Sticker Star players! Paper Mario Sticker Star is a very good game, and I might even reccomend it. It is also unfortunately the worst in the series. No questioning it. It's like a watered down TTYD.

Here's my opinion of the PM series.

PM:SS------8/10

SPM---------9/10

PM:TTYD---10/10

PM------------11/10? (I haven't actually played this one)

And here is a famous critic's opinion.

Edited January 21, 2013 by Zera

[B00TE]

I really need to look into this at some point. I adore the Paper Mario and Mario RPG series in general, though as I understand it this steps away from those roots. Sad, but I'll give it a shot none the less.

But only when it's much cheaper than it is right now. :c

[Sol Hiryu]

Sticker Star has its fair share of problems, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The soundtrack was awesome and I actually did like the puzzle/sticker adventure bit. Sure, there's no story, but it's essentially the same old Mario story formula. It would have been much better with more polish, admittedly.

The gameplay mechanic change isn't for everyone, I agree. It's sorta like going from Baten Kaitos to Baten Kaitos Origins and getting completely curbstomped due to the overhaul. Still, though, I thought Sticker Star was a great test of resource efficiency and risk/reward.

To be honest, while I absolutely love TTYD, it had its own big problems; it had a story pacing problem that culminated in the game dragging on for a long while near the end (I'm looking at you, chapters 6 and 7. So much unnecessary padding), Bowser sections were pointless and not really that great, and the story felt...somewhat out of place in a Mario game (to be fair, Super Paper Mario had this problem too). This isn't even mentioning the balancing issues it had (hello danger mario and quick change). I suppose being the more loved Paper Mario game, it can be handwaved.

[Zera]

...and the story felt...somewhat out of place in a Mario game...

So basically, what you're saying is, we get to go to FUN worlds outside the Mushroom Kingdom? Why...yes, that's right! I think the story is much better than in SS.

Another problem is that fighting enemies isn't very rewarding on its own.

Why do you fight enemies? For money!

Why do you need money? To buy more stickers, of course!

But what are stickers for? To fight enemies!

See the loop? The problem is that none of these things actually get you any closer to the next boss.

For that you just walk right, until the level ends. Which would be okay if this were a platformer at heart, which it's not.

[Paperblade]

I really don't understand why it's getting pretty decent reviews when the fan reaction has been overwhelmingly disappointed.

This is true of most recent games. Video game journalists/reviewers are indirectly paid by video game companies via the ads on their site, if they give them shitty reviews then the companies can/will threaten to pull ads.

Also I refuse to buy Sticker Star because they removed partners/badges and the rest of the opinions I've heard are too mixed/negative to warrant me buying it because "Hey it might be good despite that."

[Zera]

It's a good game.

It just has no replay value whatsoever besides filling the Sticker Museum.

It reminds me of Super Mario 3D Land. I beat it 100% and thought, "Well, that was pretty fun. Okay, I want my money back now."

The problem is that good games don't actually cut it. Great games have been made in the past, games with so much effort

put into them that they are flat-out better and still bought and played through the second-hand market to this day. Super Mario 3D Land

is a good game. Yes. But Super Mario Sunshine is still an awesome game, and this is a game made over a decade ago.

The simple fact is that if I own a great game, and it gets a sequel that is a good game, I have no reason to buy it.

Why purchase something inferior to what you already own? And for a higher price too?

If most critics took into account that they payed 33% more for SS than TTYD ($30 to $40), it would probably have lower scores.

Sticker Star is a good game. But It's not worth the $40 pricetag if you already own TTYD and SPM, which are better games.

Edited January 25, 2013 by Zera

[NinjaMonkey]

It just has no replay value whatsoever

I could say the same thing about PM:TTYD, yet I've completed that multiple times...

[Zera]

I could say the same thing about PM:TTYD, yet I've completed that multiple times...

Some games are just so awesome that their awesomeness itself becomes replay value. Like Sin and Punishment: Star Successor.

And TTYD has an entire bulletin board of sidequests. Sticker Star has ONE. One sidequest. That's it.

[Sol Hiryu]

Some games are just so awesome that their awesomeness itself becomes replay value. Like Sin and Punishment: Star Successor.

And TTYD has an entire bulletin board of sidequests. Sticker Star has ONE. One sidequest. That's it.

Er, I wouldn't really say that's replay value. You could make a case for the Pit of 100 Trials, but even that can be completed before you beat the game. TTYD has very little to no replay value once you beat it, unless you're willing to grind up to level 99, which would take forever.

And yes, no sidequests/replay value is a knock against SS too, but it's a bit egregious to say that TTYD has so much more replay value when there's not much to do in postgame.

TTYD is good enough to do multiple playthroughs, and people might disagree on SS, but there are sure to be fans of it that will play it multiple times as well.

Edited January 25, 2013 by Sol Hiryu