definitely not a good game, but there's a lot of worse trash out there. technically fine with good sound design. overhated partially for the things you've heard about the game like lazy npc design and being the second consecutive unwanted departure from form in a well-regarded series, but - i'm sure - also because the writing in this one is so god-damn annoying. miyamoto infamously gaslighted himself into thinking no one wants story content in a game around when this came out, but you might not guess it based on all the incidental chatter that goes on during this thing's runtime

Paper Mario: Sticker Star es la cuarta entrega de la saga Paper Mario, y a diferencia de sus tres entregas anteriores, esta no resonó mucho conmigo. Si bien pude terminar el juego por completo y pude disfrutarlo más o menos, no puedo decir que lo recomiende a nadie que haya amado los títulos anteriores.

Si bien este juego regresa a la fórmula de combate por turnos del original Paper Mario y The Thousand Year Door, Sticker Star presenta ciertos cambios creativos que terminan por quitarle toda la gracia al combate en este juego, puesto que los ataques tienen usos limitados y casi siempre es preferible evadir el combate, puesto que no hay ningún incentivo para derrotar enemigos no obligatorios. Esto le quita mucho a la jugabilidad y al disfrute en general.

La banda sonora es olvidable -no puedo recordar ninguna pista de este juego- y el apartado gráfico, si bien es bonito, tampoco es algo que pueda subir mucho más la nota del juego.

En resumen, no recomiendo Paper Mario: Sticker Star a aquellos que deseen vivir una experiencia similar a los primeros dos juegos de la saga, pero tampoco considero que sea un mal juego. Mi nota final es 5.5/10

Look how they massacred my boy…

At first glance, Paper Mario: Sticker Star seemed like an exciting return to form for the skinny, subversive offshoot Mario RPG series. Super Paper Mario’s only significant crime in the eyes of the fervent Paper Mario fan was that the standard 2D platformer direction compromised on the substance that the accessible, yet buoyant RPG brought to invigorate the tired Mario brand. While the more meat and potatoes platformer gameplay in Super Paper Mario was relatively lacking in certain aspects, the straightforward meal being served was surely decorated with some snazzy garnishes and exotic spices to amplify the flavor and presentation to a wild degree. Super Paper Mario was akin to drinking light beer out of a clear, glass top hat that glows in the dark; approaching a beverage that comes by the barrel full in the most unorthodox and quirky manner possible, so it still fits the oddball Paper Mario identity like an oven mitt. With the announcement that Sticker Star was reverting to Paper Mario’s turn-based roots, the devil’s advocacy for Super Paper Mario is almost completely blown back to utter excitement. With the return to RPG gameplay, we can experience another abstract Mario adventure with a concise world map, badges, and proper partner characters with robust personalities and combat abilities. Our son is returning from college, and it's a delight to see him in person after settling for digital communications for a solid three months. However, even with the promise of RPG-facilitated splendor, Paper Mario: Sticker Star is a downright tragedy. Sticker Star is the equivalent of the son from the college analogy dying in a car accident on his way home, and playing it is like watching the medics and coroner peel his bloody body out of the tarnished vehicle. It’s so unpleasant that it's revolting.

For some reason, modern Mario games like to present themselves with a festival of some sort coordinated by Princess Peach. Sticker Star’s event of inane frivolity is gathering around for the annual occurrence of the almighty Sticker Comet that has the power to grant everyone’s wishes. Naturally, Bowser jumps at the opportunity after hearing about this cosmic Macguffin, so he crashes the party with all of his minions and absorbs the divine energy after obtaining the comet for himself. While the festival grounds are in ruin from Bowser’s upset, all hope is not lost. Kersti, a floating silver crown that is the embodiment of the Sticker Comet’s essence, promises to assist Mario in reclaiming the falling star’s power from Bowser before he uses it to dominate the Mushroom Kingdom.

Besides rehashing an overdone plot catalyst from the mainline Mario series, several other concerns arise just from the opening cutscene. For one, has the cat got Bowser’s tongue? Why didn’t he monologue on how awesomely righteous he would be after taking their precious comet, laughing devilishly at everyone is doomed as a result like he normally does? Where is his assistant Kammy Koopa, hovering right behind the Koopa King to humble him with her advisory input? In Sticker Star, the snarling, practically mute Bowser from the mainline series and the immature, comically inclined one we’ve come to adore throughout all of Mario’s RPG spin-offs are now unfortunately interchangeable. Also, every single Goomba and Koopa seen in the introduction is acting as enemies causing a commotion in the quad, which means that these two species of Mario foot fodder are now simply relegated to positions as grunts in Bowser’s army. So much for erasing the stigma with non-partisan Goomba and Koopa citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom. Having other species that roam the Mushroom Kingdom sure would’ve spruced up the heavily homogenized Toad Town hub of “Decalburg” considerably. Not only are Peach’s shroomy denizens the only ones that reside here, but their designs are the commonplace Toad model with little color variation. There are no toads with glasses and mustaches, no elderly toads, no preppy celebrity toads, no toad martial arts masters in uniforms: only the most basic of toad designs scanned thousands of times on a paper copier. Paper Mario’s characters and their dynamics are now indiscernible from the ones found in the mainline Mario series, and this is really Sticker Star’s most fundamental flaw. Mainline Mario can skate by with one-dimensional characters because the player will constantly be focused on the fast-paced platformer action, requiring tighter concentration on every momentary leap. In a slower-paced, character and dialogue-driven genre like a JRPG, the dynamic nature of the eclectic cast and the NPCs, regarding their appearances and personalities, can either make or break the experience. They really couldn’t have formulated a more literal translation of the typical Mario experience in the RPG realm, making what was deemed as more traditional narrative fare in the first Paper Mario seem like an avant-garde depiction of a Mario story by comparison. Because mainline Mario is arguably the least narratively rich franchise in gaming, Sticker Star’s story (or lack thereof) suffers completely.

If the blank characters are any indication, Sticker Star also extends its skin-wearing symmetry with the mainline Mario series with its levels. Mario’s range of level themes is the archetype for all platformer motifs, using base elements to diversify the handful of areas on display. Because Mario established the blueprint of elemental themes that all subsequent Mario games and derivative platformers followed, their prevalence became exhausting. This is why chapters in Paper Mario set in raucous wrestling arenas, poshly-decorated commercial trains, and the fortresses of sweaty, stuttering uber-nerds are highly refreshing deviations from the simple layouts found in the mainline series. Even the first Paper Mario that stayed loyal to the Mushroom Kingdom setting at least used the RPG format to let the tired topography breathe to the extent of livability. Sticker Star and I’m not shitting you, not only features the bare bone essentials of the standard elemental themes with its six worlds but the progression is also conducted via a grid-based map like the one in Super Mario Bros. 3. Progression is but a means of trekking to the end of a level as one would in a standard platformer-centric Mario game, only halted by the turn-based combat at several occurrences along the way. Overall, most of the worlds found in Sticker Star act as less lively versions of the environments from the first game. The desert area does not have an Arabic toad plaza, the Boo mansion isn’t creepy in the slightest, and the tropical jungle does not have a single Yoshi in its wild grasses. The developers couldn’t have approached this facet of the game with a more by-the-books method if they tried.

Mario’s leisurely trajectory through the Mushroom Kingdom will also be detoured often by the game’s main collectible and namesake: the stickers. From the hub of Decalburg to Bowser’s fiery domain in World 6, stickers will be plastered all over the land like a daycare center. Fortunately, Mario does not need a razor blade to procure these collectibles, for they simply tear right off with a moderately forceful pluck. Firstly, I must delve into a tangent with the absurd emphasis Sticker Star puts on paper and paper-related products like stickers. Modeling Mario’s world out of paper was strictly a pleasing and quirky visual aesthetic that compliments the storybook aura of the whimsical Mario RPG. The few special paper “curses'' inflicted onto Mario in The Thousand-Year Door were presented with a tongue-in-cheek sense of irony, a novel idea of actually warping Mario’s thin anatomy into paper objects as a jokey afterthought when the first game forgot to utilize it. The developers here seem to be convinced that paper itself is the selling point of Paper Mario, with the constant crumpling of characters like refuse and weightless floating moments. They think Paper Mario will inspire players to pursue a career at Staples. Eye-rolling paper gags aside, I start to audibly groan when the paper initiative is instilled on the field as a mechanic. Sticker Star heightens the tearing of the small stickers to ripping the foundation of the foreground, leaving behind the molecular substrate of the architectural bearing. It's an interesting mechanic in theory, but leave it to the developers to botch its execution. Filling in the required patch to hurdle over an obstacle is merely a matter of finding a suitably sized construct and placing it over the impediment. This mechanic could have warranted some intriguing puzzles, but even Sticker Star’s new properties are painfully streamlined.

The sticker mechanic is boring and condescendingly easy on the field, but how they are used in combat is bafflingly flawed. There is a reason why most of the stickers are shaped like boots and hammers, Mario’s primary attack options one will recognize from the first two Paper Mario titles. Each sticker equals an allowance to attack, one per sticker collected that is displayed in a sticker album along with the healing items that Mario must peel off the walls. If Mario does not possess any attack stickers in his inventory, the only option he has at his disposal is to scurry away like a yellow-bellied coward. I could understand that the developers implemented this bizarre system to supplement the already bland digression of Paper Mario’s turn-based combat, but this is a horrendously miscalculated decision. The basics of combat should NEVER be relegated to a disposable item, regardless of whether or not it has been watered down to the point of melting. Coaxing the player into meticulously searching for stickers to stand a chance even against the wimpiest of Goombas just enforces long bouts of tedious grinding to pad the game. Or, at least it would if the player doesn’t realize that there is no incentive to fight enemies because Mario cannot gain experience points from battle. All Mario receives is a sum of coins, used to buy more stickers I might add. No, I am not kidding. The sticker system that the developers coordinated as this entry's specific gimmick can be eluded almost entirely.

Upon hearing this revelation, one might ask themselves that if combat can be avoided entirely in Sticker Star, how will Mario fare against the game’s bosses? Well have no fear, fellow gamers, for the developers have thought ahead for this predicament, and what they’ve devised is of course, really fucking stupid. In each world, Mario will stumble upon a “thing,” a notable domestic object of interest whose conspicuous nature is highlighted by its size and sharper, rounder graphical rendering. These series of sore thumbs can be used by Mario once he converts their state of solid matter into stickers and uses them on the field to bypass obstacles (ie. the vacuum in the desert world). Where they come into play with the bosses is that these household apparatuses are exclusively the keys to conquering each boss, their Achilles heel that will bring them to their knees. Naturally, this connotes that all Mario has to do is use the “thing” item during a boss battle without any supplementary damage to it from regular attacks, but it's also the only way to subdue the boss at all. Imagine the cricket sound badge from The Thousand-Year Door as not only Hooktail’s weakness to give the player an advantage but if it was just a pass to automatically win the fight. “Winning” the fight is simply a reward for collecting the badge at the end of the day. Did they overlook this, or were the bosses intentionally this cheap and effortless?

Super Paper Mario is looking pretty good right now, isn’t it? Paper Mario’s former less-than-favorable effort on the Wii was an odd duck that took some wild liberties with the gameplay and pissed off some series veterans like myself at the time, but it is a goddamn masterpiece compared to Intelligent Systems follow-up to Super Paper Mario when they decided to appease fans with another game revolving around turn-based combat. Sure, it technically returned, but at what cost? At least Super Paper Mario was funny, creative, irreverent, and offered something outside the capabilities of typical Mario procedures. Paper Mario: Sticker Star is not a return to form: it’s an aggressive deviation in every shape and form. It’s generic, bland, pointless, broken, tedious, and mind-numbingly boring, all negative characteristics that do not match its Paper Mario brethren. It offends me in every way imaginable. Perhaps the biggest offense is that the process of sizzling all of the taste out of Paper Mario was a calculated effort on the part of the developers thanks to Shigeru Miyamoto’s “guidance.” If this isn’t just a grapevine rumor, it's time to put Nintendo’s patriarch in a rest home.

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Attribution: https://erockreviews.blogspot.com

This is the most hated game in the series, and for good reason, the things it does are just heavily flawed to the point where its not fun to play. Battles are useless, exploration is boring, puzzles are unforgiving and vague, the backtracking is horrendous.
Lots of factors to consider when playing this, now funny story, I never actually beat this game until recently. I lent this game to a freind and right when he was about to give it back and I just said he can keep it, cause I didn't want this game in my house.
Years later I'd get the game again to finish what I started and after seeing it all, it never got any better. This game is the sole reason paper mario is the way it is now and for that, it's horrible. But I mean the music is nice, that's about it.
Ignore/Skip this one at all costs. You will die of boredom playing this game.

esse jogo aqui é CHEIO DE PROBLEMA EM

talvez não seja nem um jogo bom, ainda mais pela mecanica de ataques limitados nas lutas

dito isso, eu me amarrei, joguei o joguin todin e me diverti, fé

Road to Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door— Part 4

Paper Mario fans will say “Sticker Star destroyed the Paper Mario series” or “Sticker Star is the worst game I’ve ever played” or “Sticker Star ran over my dog”. What do I think?

Meh.

There’s a lot to like about Paper Mario: Sticker Star. The level design, particularly in dungeons, is pretty good, with Enigmansion being a major highlight. The music is fantastic. The visuals are great for the 3DS. I genuinely liked World 3 and its more involved quest since it’s the only one with an actual storyline and a memorable character in the form of Wiggler. I liked some boss fights, like the final bout with Bowser Jr. and Mizzter Blizzard. Kamek has a larger role than usual, and he’s a pretty entertaining villain.

Above all else, though, I’m a simple man: I like Mario, I like stickers, and I like arts and crafts. So naturally, playing as Paper Mario in a world made of paper and cardboard and peeling stickers off walls to add to my collection was inherently satisfying.

Unfortunately, there’s also a lot to hate about Sticker Star.

Combat is meh. The stickers provide a nice bit of a strategy and the battles would be fun if you actually gained EXP and could choose which enemies to target. Bafflingly, neither of those mechanics were included, making combat as pointless as it is tedious.

The plot is nonexistent, which is a shame considering how Mario RPGs are usually willing to get weird and wild with their stories. Kersti could’ve been a good companion in a better game and I think some of her lines are genuinely hilarious, but she’s also unnecessarily mean to Mario at points (especially in her first scene) and the narrative doesn’t do enough with her to get me attached, making her “sacrifice” at the end of the game ring hollow.

Then there’s Bowser. Look how they massacred my boy! Bowser doesn’t have a SINGLE LINE OF DIALOGUE throughout the entire game and only shows up at the very beginning and very end, which is insane considering how much personality and presence he had in the original Paper Mario (or even Superstar Saga). It’s genuinely aggravating that they reduced Bowser to a generic plot device after making him a fully fleshed out character in all previous RPGs. Hell, even 3D World Bowser has more personality with his pimped out car and giant amusement park. This Bowser is just evil and kidnaps Peach for no reason.

By far the game’s biggest sin, however, is the Things. Oh, I fucking HATE the Things. They’re basically real-world objects in this world of paper that have tremendous power, like scissors, tape, staplers, etc., and are used for puzzle-solving. The problem is that the Things are so out of place in this world and the puzzles themselves are so obtuse that it makes progression a fucking nightmare without a guide. Like how the fuck was I supposed to know that I need to use a radiator to melt an entire fucking mountain’s worth of snow? I assumed said snow was just part of the level design. Furthermore, some boss fights require (or at least are made significantly easier by) the use of certain Things… except you won’t know what Thing you need until you actually enter and inevitably fail the battle, leading to some stupid trial-and-error gameplay. The final boss against Bowser is a particularly egregious case of this. On top of all that, you can’t just use the Things when you find them. Oh no. Instead, you have to backtrack to either the hub world or World 3 to turn the Things into stickers, which is just needless padding that wasted my time.

Yeah, Sticker Star is hardly irredeemable, but holy fuck is it a slog to get through, and it’s bogged down by some truly awful game mechanics. Easily the worst Mario RPG I’ve played thus far… but honestly, if this is as bad as it gets, I’m lowkey pumped to get to the rest. This is a 4-5/10 in my book and its good qualities do shine when given the chance, so the fact that this is widely agreed to be the worst Mario RPG means that I should be in for some smooth sailing from here.

Whenever a shit product gets made, I note that the people behind it don't necessarily want to make audiences angry. They just want to make a good and/or a financially successful product. That's what everyone involved in media wants to do. And to me, seeing a product released on a store shelf for people to experience is the greatest feeling of all.

That all being said, though... holy shit, this hot garbage. Made it to World 3-6 and got so frustrated I threw the cartridge in the trash. Again, no ill-will towards anyone at IntSys for this, not even Tanabe.