(Review)
Before I get started, I'd like to point out that I still haven't played the first Paper Mario or Thousand-Year Door. However, I see this as more of a blessing than a curse, because I was able to play Super Paper Mario and enjoy it for what it was without having to compare it to the previous games, which is what a lot of people seemed to be doing and they ended up hating Super because of it. I still haven't gotten the chance to play Paper Mario 1 or 2, so I went into Sticker Star with the same mindset as I did with Super Paper Mario, and I found that Paper Mario: Sticker Star was not nearly as bad as people were making it out to be.
Now, Paper Mario: Sticker Star is by no means a perfect game. It has plenty of design choices throughout that make little to no sense and are actually quite irritating. For example, there are quite a number of "puzzles" in Sticker Star that have no clues given as to how to solve them, making it less of a puzzle and more of just the developers hiding required exits behind things no player would ever think to look. The majority of the puzzles in World 2 all revolve around stuff like this; in fact, all of World 2 is just a huge conglomerate mess of crappy puzzles and boring scenery, its only saving grace being the Sombrero Guy enemies. I nearly up and quit the game World 2 was structured so badly...but I'm actually quite glad I didn't.
The introduction to Sticker Star is easily the best intro to a game I've seen in a while, which got me up for great expectations. The dialogue was well-written, the characters were already likable, the few puzzles I had seen so far were looking pretty good, the scenery had some great design, and the music was already sounding very charming and unique. A few paticular lines in the intro were incredibly funny and I was really excited to delve into the game. Right off the bat, however, I could tell this wasn't going to be like any RPG I'd ever played. The map for the game looked very similar to Super Mario World in that every area was its own level in a set of worlds, and you're given three worlds to initially explore. As such, I decided to play them in order, starting with World 1, and I found the battles to be quite interesting. Here's the rundown: Sticker Star gets its namesake in that stickers are spread everywhere (and I mean everywhere) throughout the levels, and you use these stickers as attacks in battles. The stickers are consumable, so once you use one, it's gone. This makes for a very interesting battle system that, while some players found tiresome, I actually found to be refreshing and unique. I do have an issue, however, with the fact that this means that there's a lack of an EXP or a leveling system. This caused regular battles to actually be an annoyance and it made fighting enemies and using your stickers entirely pointless, some of which you probably bought by defeating said enemies. It makes for a constant loop of actions that have no effect whatsoever on the overall experience. This mechanic also causes the boss battles to be immensly tough and infuriating at times. The final battle, which was supposed to have a huge impact, blew up in my face because I ran out of effective stickers, making me restart the battle. Twice. Sure, every boss has a special Thing Sticker it's weak to (which is a real-life item you find in the paper world that you transform into a sticker for another use), but it's usually impossible to find out which one to use until the boss fight has already started. Despite all of that, battles are actually quite fun (if only becuase they test your reflexes with action commands) and the sticker system is a unique twist, and picking up every sticker and placing them in the Sticker Museum rewards you with a sound test feature, which is a great prize.
World 1 was somewhat plain, as to be expected of a first world, but come the mid-point of World 2...I was ready to give up. There was one section where you had to allow Mario to fall into a pit of quicksand (which is relatively unmarked) to get a plot-specific item. What should normally be an "Oh, I found a cool secret path!" moment turned into a "This was required?!" moment of confusion and rage. The boss battle wasn't too pleasing, either; it was quite disappointing in almost every aspect. The only good things about World 2 that kept me going were the aforementioned Sombrero Guys and the awesome moment when Kamek turns your stickers into flip-flops which you then use to slap him senseless. Although I can assume a die-hard Paper Mario fan would've stopped playing at this point, I'd urge them not to, because despite this massive dip in enjoyment, it gets much better very quickly.
World 3 and beyond each had their own unique premise and each level was interesting and fun to play. The environments became more varied and the music got even better as the game progressed and the characters and events shown from then on were laugh-out-loud funny. I won't spoil them, but if you stick around (get it?) past World 2, you'll see that Sticker Star ends up boosting so far up in the charm factor that you'll continue playing just to see what the game will throw at you next. Certain levels definitely provide interesting and unexpected twists and jokes that keep the game fresh and new. It almost feels like World 3 is a massive "We're sorry about World 2" postcard from the developers.
The cast of characters are all returning faces from mainseries Mario, meaning past Paper Mario regulars don't make an appearance. I wasn't affected by this at all; however, Paper Mario fans might be a little disappointed. Only one new character appears in Sticker Star: Kersti. This Royal Sticker follows Mario around to give him guidance (albiet in her own funny little smartass way) about where to go and what to do next. The dialogue coming from the Toads, side characters like Wiggler, and Kersti are enough to keep the game entertaining without having a large cast of characters, so I ask fans of previous Paper Mario games to not be too upset about their favorite characters not making a return or not seeing many new ones.
Paper Mario: Sticker Star is a game that's somewhat hard to form a well-structured opinion on. I'm torn between the game's great visuals, use of 3D, art style, lovable soundtrack & witty dialogue, and the aggravating puzzles, tough boss battles, & lack of replayability. I don't hate Sticker Star, but I feel like it's hard to fall in love with it, too, like I did in Super Paper Mario. It's not a bad game by any means, mind you; it's obviously got a lot of heart and talent put into it and you can tell the developers tried their best, but there just happen to be those few design choices that weigh the game down as a whole. If you want to try Paper Mario: Sticker Star for yourself, it's sold both as a retail game and digitally through the Nintendo 3DS eShop.
Before I get started, I'd like to point out that I still haven't played the first Paper Mario or Thousand-Year Door. However, I see this as more of a blessing than a curse, because I was able to play Super Paper Mario and enjoy it for what it was without having to compare it to the previous games, which is what a lot of people seemed to be doing and they ended up hating Super because of it. I still haven't gotten the chance to play Paper Mario 1 or 2, so I went into Sticker Star with the same mindset as I did with Super Paper Mario, and I found that Paper Mario: Sticker Star was not nearly as bad as people were making it out to be.
Now, Paper Mario: Sticker Star is by no means a perfect game. It has plenty of design choices throughout that make little to no sense and are actually quite irritating. For example, there are quite a number of "puzzles" in Sticker Star that have no clues given as to how to solve them, making it less of a puzzle and more of just the developers hiding required exits behind things no player would ever think to look. The majority of the puzzles in World 2 all revolve around stuff like this; in fact, all of World 2 is just a huge conglomerate mess of crappy puzzles and boring scenery, its only saving grace being the Sombrero Guy enemies. I nearly up and quit the game World 2 was structured so badly...but I'm actually quite glad I didn't.
The introduction to Sticker Star is easily the best intro to a game I've seen in a while, which got me up for great expectations. The dialogue was well-written, the characters were already likable, the few puzzles I had seen so far were looking pretty good, the scenery had some great design, and the music was already sounding very charming and unique. A few paticular lines in the intro were incredibly funny and I was really excited to delve into the game. Right off the bat, however, I could tell this wasn't going to be like any RPG I'd ever played. The map for the game looked very similar to Super Mario World in that every area was its own level in a set of worlds, and you're given three worlds to initially explore. As such, I decided to play them in order, starting with World 1, and I found the battles to be quite interesting. Here's the rundown: Sticker Star gets its namesake in that stickers are spread everywhere (and I mean everywhere) throughout the levels, and you use these stickers as attacks in battles. The stickers are consumable, so once you use one, it's gone. This makes for a very interesting battle system that, while some players found tiresome, I actually found to be refreshing and unique. I do have an issue, however, with the fact that this means that there's a lack of an EXP or a leveling system. This caused regular battles to actually be an annoyance and it made fighting enemies and using your stickers entirely pointless, some of which you probably bought by defeating said enemies. It makes for a constant loop of actions that have no effect whatsoever on the overall experience. This mechanic also causes the boss battles to be immensly tough and infuriating at times. The final battle, which was supposed to have a huge impact, blew up in my face because I ran out of effective stickers, making me restart the battle. Twice. Sure, every boss has a special Thing Sticker it's weak to (which is a real-life item you find in the paper world that you transform into a sticker for another use), but it's usually impossible to find out which one to use until the boss fight has already started. Despite all of that, battles are actually quite fun (if only becuase they test your reflexes with action commands) and the sticker system is a unique twist, and picking up every sticker and placing them in the Sticker Museum rewards you with a sound test feature, which is a great prize.
World 1 was somewhat plain, as to be expected of a first world, but come the mid-point of World 2...I was ready to give up. There was one section where you had to allow Mario to fall into a pit of quicksand (which is relatively unmarked) to get a plot-specific item. What should normally be an "Oh, I found a cool secret path!" moment turned into a "This was required?!" moment of confusion and rage. The boss battle wasn't too pleasing, either; it was quite disappointing in almost every aspect. The only good things about World 2 that kept me going were the aforementioned Sombrero Guys and the awesome moment when Kamek turns your stickers into flip-flops which you then use to slap him senseless. Although I can assume a die-hard Paper Mario fan would've stopped playing at this point, I'd urge them not to, because despite this massive dip in enjoyment, it gets much better very quickly.
World 3 and beyond each had their own unique premise and each level was interesting and fun to play. The environments became more varied and the music got even better as the game progressed and the characters and events shown from then on were laugh-out-loud funny. I won't spoil them, but if you stick around (get it?) past World 2, you'll see that Sticker Star ends up boosting so far up in the charm factor that you'll continue playing just to see what the game will throw at you next. Certain levels definitely provide interesting and unexpected twists and jokes that keep the game fresh and new. It almost feels like World 3 is a massive "We're sorry about World 2" postcard from the developers.
The cast of characters are all returning faces from mainseries Mario, meaning past Paper Mario regulars don't make an appearance. I wasn't affected by this at all; however, Paper Mario fans might be a little disappointed. Only one new character appears in Sticker Star: Kersti. This Royal Sticker follows Mario around to give him guidance (albiet in her own funny little smartass way) about where to go and what to do next. The dialogue coming from the Toads, side characters like Wiggler, and Kersti are enough to keep the game entertaining without having a large cast of characters, so I ask fans of previous Paper Mario games to not be too upset about their favorite characters not making a return or not seeing many new ones.
Paper Mario: Sticker Star is a game that's somewhat hard to form a well-structured opinion on. I'm torn between the game's great visuals, use of 3D, art style, lovable soundtrack & witty dialogue, and the aggravating puzzles, tough boss battles, & lack of replayability. I don't hate Sticker Star, but I feel like it's hard to fall in love with it, too, like I did in Super Paper Mario. It's not a bad game by any means, mind you; it's obviously got a lot of heart and talent put into it and you can tell the developers tried their best, but there just happen to be those few design choices that weigh the game down as a whole. If you want to try Paper Mario: Sticker Star for yourself, it's sold both as a retail game and digitally through the Nintendo 3DS eShop.
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