Paper Mario: Sticker Star is the fourth game in the line of Paper Mario games, which spun off from the 1996 Super Mario RPG game. The third entry, Super Paper Mario, gained notoriety for abandoning a lot of the RPG elements for more of an action-RPG. The most recent game again takes a spin on the RPG genre to deliver something that is not quite like the first two entries, not quite like the third, but still entirely Paper Mario.
At the beginning of the game, there is a festival going on that Bowser wrecks, destroying the sticker comet that came to grant everyone’s wishes. Bowser is the main antagonist in this game, having kidnapped Princess Peach, per his standard MO. Mario is once again called upon, as the strongest plumber in the land, to rescue her.
Unlike previous Paper Mario games, Mario is going it alone in this adventure, except for the help of a snarky, sparkly crown sticker called Kersti. She is a caretaker of the Royal Stickers that Bowser stole, and enlists Mario to help her rescue them. Kersti assists in battle by allowing Mario access to the Battle Spinner, which may allow Mario to use more than one sticker in a round, depending on your abilities with a slot machine. Kersti also enables Mario to "paperize." This ability is key to most of the puzzles and hidden areas in the game, adding a unique and thoroughly enjoyable puzzle mechanic. Kersti changes the perspective, turning the 3D diorama world into a flat picture that Mario can manipulate by placing and removing stickers. Finding the right solutions to these puzzles is a potent mix of frustration and joy, as wrong stickers are needlessly wasted, but finding the correct solutions is greatly satisfying.
The idea behind Paper Mario, that everything is made of paper and the world is a diorama, has fully come to fruition in this game. Almost everything in Sticker Star is made of paper: trees, houses, coins, everything. Anything requiring a little depth is made of cardboard. The visual style is charming and the graphics are some of the best I've seen so far on the 3DS. Paper-wise, this is the most immersive Paper Mario game yet, and it filled me with that same sense of wonder that the first Paper Mario did. It’s difficult for a game in its fourth iteration to make the whole idea seem fresh and new, but Sticker Star certainly delivered.
Even distant Yoshi-Sphinx is made of paper.Pretty much all the NPCs in this game are Toads, who can be found almost anywhere, but are mostly in Decalburg, the central hub-town of the game. With just a couple exceptions, the Toads are visually indistinguishable, but they have a lot of personality despite the cookie-cutter appearances. Rarely have I seen anything more adorable than a squadron of Toads panicking over the sudden appearance of Goombas and Koopas.
The sticker-based battle mechanic works very well. For people who generally save every item in a game, Sticker Star offers a museum in Decalburg, where every sticker can be displayed. In addition to saving a copy of all the stickers, mundane and valuable, each display has a small blurb written up by the Toad research department, with the trademark Paper Mario wit. Having all the stickers tracked in the museum, the collector-gamer should feel less stress when using powerful stickers in battle. While the sticker album is small in the beginning of the game, I found that sticker management was not terribly complicated. It is easy to automatically sort the stickers, to sort them manually, and to toss stickers if you find something special when you lack the room. It wasn't until near the end of the game, when I was finding huge shiny stickers, that I began having to make tough choices on what to carry into battle.
The music for Sticker Star is absolutely wonderful. The songs are upbeat and a bit jazzy. The music matches the areas and action very well. Some of the songs are remixed classic tunes, which were delightful to hear. The main theme also finds its way into songs here and there, but that jazzy tune never gets old.
So adorably distressed.There is really only one thing missing from this game, and that is the RPG. There certainly is a story, but the entire plot, with all its twists and turns, is known within five minutes of turning the game on. There are no levels in the game, only max HP increases that are hidden around the world. Because the only partner is Kersti, who generally stays hidden, this game is light on dialog compared to past Paper Mario games. Because of the lack of an expanded story, and the fact that this is a portable entry in the series, this game is shorter than all previous Paper Mario games, too. The one real hold-over from its RPG roots is the turn-based combat, though the battle system itself has been replaced with stickers.
The game attempts to make up for this absence with interesting locations and puzzles. For my part, this more than succeeded. The game has five worlds, broken out into sections, much like a New Super Mario platforming game. But instead of running right to win, the areas are full of enemies, puzzles, hidden paths, and challenges. Some areas have multiple exits and require repeated play-throughs, but because you have to discover the new exit, it does not feel tedious. Sometimes things are too well-hidden, or the correct sticker to solve a puzzle is not obvious. Also, it is rare to have the best stickers in your album for a particular boss when you first approach him, but this game allows you to run away from bosses and return to an area with all the puzzles still solved. One of my favorite areas in Sticker Star is this game’s take on the Ghost House. A Toad’s winter retreat has been over-run with Boos, and Mario has to round them up and seal them in a magical tome in the basement. This one area is full of puzzles, mysteries, and scares.
Not even remotely haunted. Toad's sitting outside just 'cuz.This isn’t your typical Paper Mario game. The partners are MIA and the plot is paper-thin. The game can also frustrate you when there is a puzzle you need to solve, but unknown to you, the thing you need is hidden four areas back. Despite the flaws, Sticker Star’s charm, atmosphere and wittiness shines through, making this one of the most enjoyable games I’ve played this year. Don’t come looking for a classic RPG, and you will have a wonderful time with this game.
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