Paper Mario: Sticker Star Review, 10.0 out of 10 based on 1 rating

Paper Mario: Sticker Star Review

It’s more or less a guarantee that every gamer has some games they like above most others. Maybe it has significant nostalgic charm or perhaps it just struck the perfect chord, but for whatever reason, everyone has a favorite game or two. Naturally, I’m no different from the majority in this regard. While there are a few series I could point to as an example, one of the oldest and dearest to me is the Paper Mario series. Ever since I played through the original title on the N64, I’ve held the series in high regard and I consider the second, Thousand-Year Door, to be one of the best games I’ve ever played. As such, when I heard that a new Paper Mario was coming to the 3DS, I was extremely excited, despite the fairly significant differences the trailers presented. Did it live up to those high expectations? Allow me to tell you.

The story framing is rather standard Mario fare. The Sticker Star has come down from the sky just in time for the Sticker Fest, but Bowser comes by to wreck things as he always does and ends up spreading the ultra-powerful Royal Stickers across the land in addition to taking one for his own. Teaming up with a sticker fairy named Kersti, you have to go find the Royal Stickers and save the Princess. Normally, I like the basic Mario premise in its simplicity. In this instance however, I would put this as a negative. The Paper Mario stories have always tended to have fairly significant depth if investigated fully, but that sadly isn’t the case with this particular entry. There isn’t much more to the main story beyond that brief summary, even if each area has its own personality.

However, personality is probably the area where Sticker Star shines brightest. The game exudes charm from everywhere and the writing is probably the strongest it has ever been. Despite the small number of significant characters present, they all leave very strong impressions and made me laugh more than a couple times over the course of Mario’s journey. Kersti started out a bit annoying, but had quite a few entertaining dialogs over the course of the game. The recurring villains of Bowser Jr. and Kamek also get more than enough characterization to be both welcome sights for interaction and unlikable jerks as their position demands. All the other minor characters encountered get their own great moments as well. It’s a bit hard to describe why it works so well without quoting specific lines, but when the exposition fairy practically calls one of the recurring bad guys a hipster at one point, the writers were doing something right.

A Toad staircase? Finally, they do something useful.

That personality also extends to most other significant aspects of the game as well. All of the real world items, or “things,” found throughout have fairly silly, if devastating, effects when used in battle. There are numerous references to previous Mario games as well, from the return of the Ninji from Super Mario Bros. 2 and Gooper Blooper from Super Mario Sunshine as new enemies to a mansion full of Boos that forms an obvious reference to the ghost houses of past games. The inevitable game show, Sniffit or Whiffit, is also full of entertaining jokes and an enjoyable atmosphere that makes it a ton of fun. Honestly, I could pick out so many little things and talk about how each of them contributes to the overall feeling of the game. It all ties into a very appealing world, to both look at and travel through.

Speaking of which, the graphics in this particular entry are more stylized than ever, but still look very crisp and clear. The locations are all relatively standard, with the expected grassland, ice world, and the like. Still, the design of these areas remains different enough to keep attention and there is often at least one particular standout section in every overall area. Also, a good portion of enemies and items also have a rather appealing sparkling sheen due to the fact that many of the paper materials in the world have turned shiny due to the effect of the Sticker Star. While the regular graphics are impressive though, Sticker Star has seriously taken advantage of its namesake of “Paper” Mario.

This world, perhaps for the first time in the series, really sells the idea that everything is truly made out of paper. Multiple Toads are stuck flat against walls, Goombas will sometime fold up to become paper cones and block jumping attacks, many references to crinkling or other folding terms are made, and some battle conditions are being crumpled or soggy. It all goes a long way to making the game’s obvious aesthetic feel like it really matters. In addition, through the use of the Paperize mechanic, you can press down stickers and pull off incorrectly-attached pieces of the world to press them back on the right way. It’s a neat aspect of the game and a good amount of the “puzzles” are solved by finding the correct sticker to fix the impeding issue.

Nice to see Fire Mario again.

While all these aspects do contribute to the overall experience, the core of the game is built around the new battle system focused around stickers. As opposed to previous entries and, indeed, most RPGs, levels are nowhere to be found and the only significant way to upgrade Mario himself is finding HP-ups to do just what the name would imply. Instead, improving effectiveness in battle comes from finding and using improved stickers throughout the world. Beating bosses grants more room in the sticker album to have a greater supply of battle options on hand at any given time, but the actual stats and damage still depend on the particular stickers used. It’s very different from the norm for games such as this, but those differences make for quite an interesting system.

Despite the disparity, there is still significant strategy needed to continue winning fights based on the simple fact that a sticker is gone once it is used. Stickers literally control every action that can be performed in battle, from complex super attacks to basic commands like jumping or healing. To put it bluntly, Mario is unable to fight if he runs out of stickers. There is a constant supply to be found throughout the stages that completely refreshes upon leaving a level, so he will rarely, if ever, be absolutely helpless. However, careful consideration has to be made for every action to make sure it is worth the cost of losing that action. Is it worth using the shell to knock out everything when a couple, more common jump stickers could suffice if performed correctly? Should the prepared thing sticker be pulled out in this bad spot, or can the battle be won without it? While it is indeed annoying when a really nice sticker is accidentally wasted, I love that it really makes the player put thought into everything they do.

Based on the fact that there aren’t any traditional experience points, it would probably seem as though there is little incentive to actual fight any of the enemies found wandering the different areas. However, the game gives two important reasons for doing just that. For one, enemies will often drop stickers after a fight, including relatively rare item stickers that can only be found by defeating certain enemy types. While these item stickers are often some of the best in the game, the coin rewards from battling are even more important due to the introduction of the Battle Spinner and the constant need to restock good stickers. Naturally, there are other ways to get coins, but the fastest and easiest way is to perform well in battle and get the perfect bonus reward by beating enemies in the most efficient way possible without being hit. Not only does this give a reason to fight in the first place, but giving strong incentive to do well only further adds to the need for strategy in battle.

Normally, Mario gets one action per turn, but by rolling the slots of the Battle Spinner and matching two or three symbols, Mario can have two or three actions, respectively, per turn. By spending even more coins at the spinner screen, the slots can have two stop together to ensure at least one match and slow down to pick a particular symbol and get the associated effect. Certain stickers, when used in combination, can power up stickers used later in a turn and there are many different strategies that can be performed through that fact. However, even taking that fact out of consideration, having three moves compared to one is still obviously beneficial and the fact that multiple enemies have to be attacked in order from front to back means that the order can have a significant impact. The system is integrated into the overall gameplay well and, as with the other battle options, grants even further opportunity for strategic decisions.

Prepare to place many secret doors across the stages

The multitude of choices and strategies available for battle translates over to a Paper Mario game that I found to be much harder than earlier entries. Enemies hit rather hard and it isn’t all that uncommon to lose half of Mario’s health from a flubbed turn or block when multiple enemies are attacking. While the normal battles can show the difficulty fairly well, the shift is most clearly evident in the bosses present at the end of each major area that hold the lost Royal Stickers. While many of them were quite fun, with special attention going to the World 3 boss for having an extremely awesome musical-based fight, they could all be very difficult, even if their hidden weakness is found. To give a frame of reference, the final boss in this game has 500 HP while the enemy with the highest HP in either of the more RPG predecessors was a bonus boss with 200. The game is a significant challenge and while some of those fights could feel grueling at times, they all had very solid design behind them and, thanks to that design, were mostly fun to play through instead of being mostly annoying.

The music is also worth a mention in its own right, as the Paper Mario games have always had some great tracks and the trend continues here. All the tracks fit their respective areas and situations very well, in addition to keeping a consistent jazzy theme between most of the songs. The ones that don’t follow that theme are generally remixes of other Mario songs that both sound great and provide further references to games that have come before. Among many others, I would probably pick out “Kersti’s Power” and “Mini-Boss Battle” as some of my favorites, although there really isn’t a bad song to be found. Granted, I wouldn’t say that the soundtrack is one of the best I’ve ever heard, but it is most definitely a good one.

In the end, Sticker Star is a game I had a lot of fun playing through. The interesting battle system and constant stream of charming moments kept me coming back for more until I beat Bowser and saved the princess yet again. It’s not perfect by any means, as there are a few annoying design decisions and levels and there isn’t really much to do after finishing the game beyond finding everything there is to find. Still, I’m glad to see that one of my favorite series is still going strong and certainly shows no signs of losing its forward momentum. For anyone who loves Paper Mario’s humor and wit as I do, this game will not disappoint. Otherwise, if you have a 3DS and have liked how anything I’ve said here has sounded, be sure to pick up Sticker Star. It’s a great addition to any library. Now, I must get to waiting for Paper Mario 5.

A review copy of this game was provided by the publisher for this review. The reviewer played the game to story completion in around 22 hours.

Paper Mario: Sticker Star Review

By Robert H.

Paper Mario comes to a handheld for the first time and produces another solid entry in a great franchise, despite significant differences.