Paper Mario: Sticker Star - Review

[iDarkLink]

Hello everyone!
Recently, I purchased Paper Mario: Sticker Star for the 3DS and I'd like to give a little review for it!

I've played some amazing Mario games within my life, but I believe that in the Paper Mario side-series, Sticker Star is the most innovative yet! It's new characters and sticker powers are creative and fun! These sticker powers range from Mario's classic jump and hammer to a giant pair of scissiors that attack your foes! This is a first for the series to have a world map like in standard Mario titles, but it works well with this title.
The music is sort of an up-beat jazz-like type, which shows us that this game is a fun, up-beat, wacky game!
Oddly, this has only 5 items needed to be collected to get t Bowser, since all other RPG-like Mario titles had 7 items that needed to be collected.
I give this game an 8.9/10! Great job, Nintendo!

Well, thats just my review of this game. I'm still in the middle of the game, so I don't know if there are any unexpected twists in the storyline yet.
Now it's your turn! Reply your own review of Sticker Star!

Thanks for participating!

 

[RegalBryant]

Sticker Star. 7/10. Not a bad game, by any means. But where Super Paper Mario was lacking in battle system, Sticker Star is lacking in story. Not to mention the battle system falls flat as well. The lack of partners is extremely dissapointing, and hurts the fighting AND the story. Even with partners, the story is still pathetically simple, the bosses are unimaginative and underused, and the removal of badges is especially dissapointing. I wanted my hammer to sound like a cricket.

 

[Austin]

I think I would have enjoyed this game a lot more had the other Paper Marios not existed. Sticker Star is a great game if you view it without context. I think the main reason I was so disappointed is that I was expecting a super huge adventure like the kind I found in Thousand Year Door. I admit I haven't played it all the way through, but I doubt my opinion is going to change much. It's unfair and biased but I just can't get over TYD and everything this game is not, long enough to focus on what this game is.

 

[distractionbomb]

I would have to say I was very disappointed in this game but let me say this first it's a great mario game but it is a horrible paper mario game. There are barely any RPG elements which I could live with but there is no story or at least as far as I've gotten. Now I'm only going off the first two which were fantastic so to go from thousand year door to this was a bit upsetting. Sorry to say but Mario you let me down

 

[izi]

I'm going to give my review, and I apologize before hand that it may be spoiler-ridden, so if you don't want them don't read on past this point.

I had been looking forward to the new Paper Mario title since I first saw the short clip on the 3DS "upcoming game 2011-2012" preview video. By the time I was on my way to pick it up, I couldn't sit still. I first turn on the game, and I get thrown right into the story, with Bowser appearing at a festival, jumping onto a star. No dialog or anything, all I knew was Bowser and Peach were gone, and the place was wrecked. This was the moment where I realized that the game probably wasn't what I thought it was.
I knew about the sticker mechanic well beforehand, and I knew I had to give it a chance. It worked, but it made the game feel "portablized" - not quite the same quality/experience you'd find on its console predecessors; specifically The Thousand-Year Door.
When I got to the World Map (which I didn't know existed before I had played), i just got angry. Paper Mario's earlier adventures included a lot of exploration, something not quite accomplished with a level-based progression system. Speaking of level progression, I was really upset when I found out they didn't keep the RPG elements and took partners away. I know the game rewards some in-level exploration, but it just doesn't feel the same.

I guess that didn't have spoilers. Overall, though, I was fairly disappointed. I give the game 3.5/10, for still retaining some of the Paper Mario elements I've grown to love, but the innovation they worked for not really working. If they had kept RPG-style level progression in there, removed stickers and added action commands, removed the world map, given us partners, and given the game a more in-depth story (at all), the game would probably get something closer to a 7. Sticker Star just didn't do it for me.

 

[Mandi the Beast]

Paper Mario: TTYD (GC) > Super Mario RPG* (SNES) > Paper Mario (N64) > Paper Mario: Sticker Star (3DS) > Super Paper Mario (Wii)

I included Super Mario RPG because I consider it the beginning of the franchise.

 

[Pokemon]

Worst. Nintendo game. Of this generation.

Horrible.Horrible.Horrible.Horrible.Horrible.Horrible.Horrible.Horrible.Horrible.Horrible.Horrible.Horrible.Horrible.

 

[DarkestLink]

This is was terrible. The stickers were ridiculous and ruined so many good things like partners (which were taken out because of stickers). The villain never spoke once, for God knows what reason Miyamoto didn't want to use any Intelligent Systems characters, so we lost Kammy, who was replaced by a random Magikoopa. The combat was dull. The story was removed. The puzzles were stupid. And it just wasn't fun.

Miyamoto needs to get his head out of his butt and realize that this series needs to be brought back to its roots. If he wants to experiment with this garbage, then fine, but make a new series for it.

It's new characters and sticker powers are creative and fun!

Plural? There's...only one character who is new.

 

[Ventus]

Miyamoto needs to get his head out of his butt and realize that this series needs to be brought back to its roots. If he wants to experiment with this garbage, then fine, but make a new series for it.

Can you really blame him? He's part of the casual family friendly company that was once a gaming behemoth. All Nintendo pushes out is shallow backwashes of amazing titles they made in years long gone (if you were expecting a TTYD from Paper Mario Sticker Star, let me tell you that the 3DS isn't a portable GC unlike so many statements lol).

That being said, I've seen some PMSS in action, and I have to say the game is wholly underwhelming. You don't level up in the game, which is pretty sad for an RPG (leveling was my favorite thing to do in Paper Mario 64). Game seems incredibly easy to beat, and the stickers while a cool concept weren't executed quite as I'd like them to be. I guess things could be patched with a few patches and major DLC here and there, but Nintendo isn't a DLC company. D:

 

[JuicieJ]

Can you really blame him? He's part of the casual family friendly company that was once a gaming behemoth. All Nintendo pushes out is shallow backwashes of amazing titles they made in years long gone (if you were expecting a TTYD from Paper Mario Sticker Star, let me tell you that the 3DS isn't a portable GC unlike so many statements lol).

If this were the GameCube era, yeah, that first statement would be true, but Nintendo really shined with the Wii for the most part, namely involving their first party titles. The Super Mario Galaxy titles were hands-down the best Mario games period, Metroid returned to its side-scrolling roots with fantastic gameplay (story was crap, but gameplay heavily outweighs story in video games), and Zelda made some huge leaps forward in its combat and level design. Was the Wii as good as the SNES and N64? Hell no. Was it a major improvement over the GameCube. Without a doubt.

The 3DS is also most definitely a portable GameCube. Better than one, actually. Resident Evil: Revelations, Mario Kart 7, Kid Icarus: Uprising, Pushmo & Crashmo (eShop games), and Kingdom Hearts 3D are some of the finest games on any Nintendo platform, and they're all true console experiences. At that, while not quite traditional, Paper Mario: Sticker Star had undeniably great gameplay. I actually prefer the overworld map, as it doesn't require tedious and time-consuming backtracking seen in the first two titles. The Thousand Year Door is still the pinnacle of Paper Mario, but Sticker Star was better in some ways, specifically resource management and sidequests.

 

[Vaati101]

Warning: this post contains Spoilers about Paper Mario Sticker Star. Read at your own Peril.


I have to say, I think Paper Mario Sticker Star is the best Paper Mario Game I've ever played. I do love the fact that you are not forced to fight enemies and there isn't a leveling up system because that relieves alot of pressure, but to compensate for that you have these highly powerful bosses with have lots of HP and can do quite a bit of damage if you're not careful. Plus to make it even more challenging, you are left with little help as possible so most of the time you have to figure out what to do next in order to advance.

In terms of visuals, Paper Mario Sticker Star is the closest thing to actual paper which makes the game somewhat realistic. Overall the graphics are pretty good and really suit the nature of the game. The music is okay I do like some of the music, but I'm not a huge fan of Jazz. As for the story, it's pretty basic and I don't mind it. I guess it could do with a bit more story like Super Paper Mario, but that doesn't really matter because Paper Mario Sticker Star is a absolute fun game to play anyway. I really Like this game and I think it's the best Paper Mario game Nintendo have ever created.

 

[DarkestLink]

Can you really blame him?

Seeing how many times shoving new things into a series for the sake of doing so has failed...yeah...I'm amazed he hasn't finally caught on and come to grips with the fact that we play a series because we like THAT type of game. I'm all for him doing new ideas, but make a new series for it. Because when I go to buy a Paper Mario, yes, I do expect something like the original or TTYD. Buying something like this almost feels like false advertisement.

He's part of the casual family friendly company that was once a gaming behemoth. All Nintendo pushes out is shallow backwashes of amazing titles they made in years long gone (if you were expecting a TTYD from Paper Mario Sticker Star, let me tell you that the 3DS isn't a portable GC unlike so many statements lol).

I don't see why they couldn't make a TTYD like game...in fact, I think that was their original plan before Miyamoto came along and screwed it up.

I do love the fact that you are not forced to fight enemies and there isn't a leveling up system because that relieves alot of pressure,

That's actually one of the things that ticked me off most. There was no incentive to fight. In previous games, if you ran you could get hurt, you would lose coins, and you would still be in danger. Not to mention you wouldn't level up. In this game, there was no incentive to fight until the boss/mini boss. In fact, you'd be an idiot to fight. Running is so much better. Why? Well for one, you don't waste stickers, for another, running literally kills the enemy somehow and is much faster than actually fighting them.

but to compensate for that you have these highly powerful bosses with have lots of HP and can do quite a bit of damage if you're not careful and and to make it even more challenging

You just use the "Boss Sticker" and the boss is pretty much defeated.

~~~

*sigh* Overall...Mario's just been disappointing me at every corner.

Mario Party died around MP 4 or 5.

We had SM64 which had mastered exploration and combat, we were then given the horribly limited SMS...and then two weak titles SMG and SMG2 which turned a non-linear series into something as linear as a 2D Mario. Even Zelda isn't this linear. Except, unlike Zelda, the Mario series has nothing to gain from being linear.

Mario Kart Wii was too luck based and ruined the best part, the battle system. I can't even bring myself to buy Mario Kart 7 at this point...

After getting two successful games, they turn around and give us SPM for no reason. And then they gave us this abomination.

Miyamoto needs to get his act together or Mario will be in trouble.

 

[Vaati101]

You just use the "Boss Sticker" and the boss is pretty much defeated.

Um, you misquoted me. That last part wasn't to do with the bosses, it was on about another point completely. Anyway it is easy to defeat the boss if you know what sticker to use against it and if you don't you're gonna struggle big time, which happened to me with the last boss I fought. Sometimes even with the correct sticker you could end up losing (Spoiler alert!) There is one mini boss that will kill you instantly if you don't defeat it quickly in time after you use the appropriate sticker, I had to fight it multiple times.

 

[Kirino]

who was replaced by a random Magikoopa.

That was Kamek.

Plural? There's...only one character who is new.

There are multiple. Wiggler, the toad who owns the Mansion, the previous owner who operated the lift, the toad at world 3-6, Bowser Jr. and Kamek( new to the paper Mario series), ect.