Why would you give a game turn-based JRPG combat without the reward of experience points or any real kind of character progression? It makes playing the game an actively pointless waste of time. Feels like a game made by people who don't understand JRPGs, platformers, or the appeal of Paper Mario in general.
siiiiiiiiiigh
What a miserable experience. Did they add the Sticker gimmick so Journos wouldn't write 'Paper Mario is beginning to feel paper-thin' as the stings to their reviews?
Got the series stuck in such a slump that they've had to spend a decade trying to crawl out of it. I'm one of those assholes who skipped Color Splash and Origami King because of a lack of confidence but in writing this, I feel that someday I should check those out, if only to give Intelligent the benefit of the doubt.
Got the series stuck in such a slump that they've had to spend a decade trying to crawl out of it. I'm one of those assholes who skipped Color Splash and Origami King because of a lack of confidence but in writing this, I feel that someday I should check those out, if only to give Intelligent the benefit of the doubt.
No.
I hate stickers now.
The start of a downfall
I remember when Paper Mario was a good series, like despite any and all changes it had, it at least had a good story, good characters, and good RPG elements. Even Super Paper Mario with its retooling structure to the formula was still a good game. Sticker Star however, is not that, Sticker Star took out nearly everything that was good in the franchise and turned it into something unfinished, and not true to the source material. There was a lot of talk about Miyamoto changing a lot of the way the game played and worked, and frankly this is one of his biggest mistakes ever. Just everything in this game is a disgrace to what came before it and fans of the past games, well they just aren't going to like it. I know I didn't like this game, in fact I loathe this game for what it is, and that’s a missed appropriate for something great. Because aside from the horrible changes, Sticker Star still looks great, and has great music to it. Everything about the surface is eye catching and looks like a game that is very fun to play, but it's not that.
Sticker Star just changed way too much of the Paper Mario formula to really be called Paper Mario to began with. I understand that the name itself and the way it looks gives it that title, but the essence of what made Paper Mario as a series good, is gone in this game. They removed so much of what was there that gave Paper Mario substance as a series. Partners went away for pretty much no reason, instead of quirky unique characters that joined you along your travels to help solve problems along the way, they are instead replaced by thing stickers.
Thing Stickers are a good idea gone horribly wrong as they could have been a really cool power up for Mario this time around, like a special move that uses flower points, instead they are one time use stickers that are used randomly to solve certain obstacles you encounter in sticker star. I say randomly because for the vast part of the whole game it is up to you and what very little hints the game gives you to figure out which sticker to use in a given situation or battle, and if you don't use the right one or even at the correct time you not only lose your sticker, but are also punished for it by having to get it back by either paying for it or looking for it again. This causes a lot of guess work and a lot of lost stickers and money which can then led to more grinding for coins, which means a ton of your free time is wasted. And while I understand that the thing stickers are often too powerful for combat to keep getting used over and over again, being used for solving a puzzle and losing it whether or not it actually works? That is just some of the stupidest game design manageable, and strongly discourages use of any stickers throughout the entire game. Literally I remember making a thing sticker and being too afraid to use it in case it was used for something else at some point, and still having it at the last battle without using it even once. The game doesn't help either with Kristi, the new helper for Mario in this game, as she pretty much gives very little advice to begin with and what little she does is only based with in the whole level, and not one screen like in most Paper Mario games. To add more to this unhelpful mess, players aren't given information on what stickers do unless they use them. Which as said before, if you use certain stickers to early or incorrectly you are punished by getting the stickers back either through money grinding or backtracking. This mess of thing stickers wouldn't be so bad however if it wasn't for the fact that you are required to use thing stickers in order to beat the boss battles in this game. Thanks to not adding any sort of level up or experience system to the game, boss battles rely more on thing stickers than anything else in this entire game. Making the boss battles less of a challenge on battling and more on problem solving.
Granted a lot of the basics return to Sticker Star's battle system, but it's vastly basic and doesn't even mention the action commands that can give you a edge in battle. It's not like timing matters that much in these battles anyway, as by the end of the whole game I realized that just smashing A constantly would yield the same results as trying to figure out the correct timing. Either way, battles in this game are pretty much all for show. There is absolutely no reason to ever get into any battle in this game unless you are actually required to by the game itself. Not only are you not punished to go into unneeded battles, but rather rewarded by not having to use any stickers you currently have, saving them for when the “real battle starts”. Which in all honesty, I was a bit fine with at first till I noticed that Sticker Star as a lot more enemies than the majority of Paper Mario's do. Usually in the original and TTYD you get about 1 to 4 enemies on screen and that was pretty much it unless it was a unusual situation, but in this game you are normally given 4- 7 enemies to deal with on screen the majority of the time. Thus making it a lot harder to simply run away from battles, as fighting each enemy would be counter productive and waste a bunch of stickers. And this is all not mentioning the fact that the majority of characters and story are not there. Granted there is some story and some characters that talk to you, but Sticker Star vastly comes down to what sticker should I use now and where do I go to use it?
Sticker Star was reduced to the level of a regular Mario game when it came to story, and that above anything else is what made Paper Mario its own series. It wasn't just Bowser just kidnapping Peach, but of a whole world brought down by chaos. It was about Mario traveling around the varies lands, interacting with characters from all sorts of places and getting a rag tag group to defeat a greater evil. Sticker Star just doesn't have that story, it doesn't have that emotion, it doesn't have what made Paper Mario, Paper Mario.
Final Thoughts:
Paper Mario: Sticker Star is a huge disappointment on a franchise that has otherwise been stellar. Sticker Star removes too much of the old, and replaces it too much with broken ideas, and gameplay that just doesn't work. Despite the great soundtrack, and the way it looks, Sticker Star is a terrible game that doesn't understand its source material, and ruins the great formula that the series once had.
Sticker Star just changed way too much of the Paper Mario formula to really be called Paper Mario to began with. I understand that the name itself and the way it looks gives it that title, but the essence of what made Paper Mario as a series good, is gone in this game. They removed so much of what was there that gave Paper Mario substance as a series. Partners went away for pretty much no reason, instead of quirky unique characters that joined you along your travels to help solve problems along the way, they are instead replaced by thing stickers.
Thing Stickers are a good idea gone horribly wrong as they could have been a really cool power up for Mario this time around, like a special move that uses flower points, instead they are one time use stickers that are used randomly to solve certain obstacles you encounter in sticker star. I say randomly because for the vast part of the whole game it is up to you and what very little hints the game gives you to figure out which sticker to use in a given situation or battle, and if you don't use the right one or even at the correct time you not only lose your sticker, but are also punished for it by having to get it back by either paying for it or looking for it again. This causes a lot of guess work and a lot of lost stickers and money which can then led to more grinding for coins, which means a ton of your free time is wasted. And while I understand that the thing stickers are often too powerful for combat to keep getting used over and over again, being used for solving a puzzle and losing it whether or not it actually works? That is just some of the stupidest game design manageable, and strongly discourages use of any stickers throughout the entire game. Literally I remember making a thing sticker and being too afraid to use it in case it was used for something else at some point, and still having it at the last battle without using it even once. The game doesn't help either with Kristi, the new helper for Mario in this game, as she pretty much gives very little advice to begin with and what little she does is only based with in the whole level, and not one screen like in most Paper Mario games. To add more to this unhelpful mess, players aren't given information on what stickers do unless they use them. Which as said before, if you use certain stickers to early or incorrectly you are punished by getting the stickers back either through money grinding or backtracking. This mess of thing stickers wouldn't be so bad however if it wasn't for the fact that you are required to use thing stickers in order to beat the boss battles in this game. Thanks to not adding any sort of level up or experience system to the game, boss battles rely more on thing stickers than anything else in this entire game. Making the boss battles less of a challenge on battling and more on problem solving.
Granted a lot of the basics return to Sticker Star's battle system, but it's vastly basic and doesn't even mention the action commands that can give you a edge in battle. It's not like timing matters that much in these battles anyway, as by the end of the whole game I realized that just smashing A constantly would yield the same results as trying to figure out the correct timing. Either way, battles in this game are pretty much all for show. There is absolutely no reason to ever get into any battle in this game unless you are actually required to by the game itself. Not only are you not punished to go into unneeded battles, but rather rewarded by not having to use any stickers you currently have, saving them for when the “real battle starts”. Which in all honesty, I was a bit fine with at first till I noticed that Sticker Star as a lot more enemies than the majority of Paper Mario's do. Usually in the original and TTYD you get about 1 to 4 enemies on screen and that was pretty much it unless it was a unusual situation, but in this game you are normally given 4- 7 enemies to deal with on screen the majority of the time. Thus making it a lot harder to simply run away from battles, as fighting each enemy would be counter productive and waste a bunch of stickers. And this is all not mentioning the fact that the majority of characters and story are not there. Granted there is some story and some characters that talk to you, but Sticker Star vastly comes down to what sticker should I use now and where do I go to use it?
Sticker Star was reduced to the level of a regular Mario game when it came to story, and that above anything else is what made Paper Mario its own series. It wasn't just Bowser just kidnapping Peach, but of a whole world brought down by chaos. It was about Mario traveling around the varies lands, interacting with characters from all sorts of places and getting a rag tag group to defeat a greater evil. Sticker Star just doesn't have that story, it doesn't have that emotion, it doesn't have what made Paper Mario, Paper Mario.
Final Thoughts:
Paper Mario: Sticker Star is a huge disappointment on a franchise that has otherwise been stellar. Sticker Star removes too much of the old, and replaces it too much with broken ideas, and gameplay that just doesn't work. Despite the great soundtrack, and the way it looks, Sticker Star is a terrible game that doesn't understand its source material, and ruins the great formula that the series once had.
hot take, i like this game. Not the best tho, especially revisiting.
Shit.
THIS GAME BLOWS
Paper Mario Sticker Star is a fundamentally flawed video game for two reasons:
1. Its central RPG sticker battling mechanic is completely useless, providing no necessary benefits besides wasting resources
2. It attempts to transfer over very similar mechanics/designs of the previous RPG focused games like TTYD and turn them into a heavy adventure-puzzling platforming; but this clash of genre and mechanics simply do not work
These two reasons are the backbone of everything wrong with this abomination of a game and what makes it so unlikable. Here are just a few reasons why:
- The level design in general is some of the worst I've ever experienced in a video game. As explained before, the "PM RPG format" simply doesn't work in areas designed around platforming and movement. Everything feels so clunky and difficult to control and perform, which leads to so many useless encounters and hindrances that at time feel unavoidable and provide you with no benefits. These simply elevate the already mundane tasks and paths the game has you go along. Some of the levels in World 2, for instance, such as the ones that require you to chose paths while continually traversing underground (and require trial and error to reach the end) and traveling around and inside a Sphinx, are some of the worst levels I've ever played in a video game, and gave me some of the worst stress of my life.
- Progression at multiple times is blocked by required "Thing" items you must collect, and are scattered in levels at random. While adventure elements such as this mechanic work in tons of other games, Sticker Star makes it as tedious as it could be. That specific item you need could be in literally any level up until that point, and just by missing one despite collecting the abundant other optional Things, you could be monumentally screwed over. That is NES levels of frustration - and when exploration is already an insane drag to begin with, it's just the icing on the cake of a horrible session.
- "Fortunately" these bizarre barriers are at their worst in boss fights. Each boss fight can be beaten with just regular items, but unless you want to use everything in your already limited inventory, you're gonna need a specific Thing to properly beat it. Beating these without a guide feels almost impossible, as most of the time the Thing you need is quite ambiguous and requires countless trial and error because of the way Things are designed to be used (you must go to a specific place to rebuy an already used Thing and then use a specific shop to then turn that Thing into a sticker; if you use it by accident or that Thing turns out to be the incorrect one needed, then you must repeat the process all over again.)
Sticker Star breaks so many basic necessities that a game must follow, and first and foremost is wasting the player's time; And that's all this game really is. Whether it means requiring you to repeat mundane tasks or creating strange and ambiguous barriers for progression or just being a slog to get through, Sticker Star does everything in its power to make you hate the game as much as possible. My 15 hour play through felt like an eternity of hell, but I don't think I've ever been happier to beat a game. It's an embarrassment to the fantastic titles Nintendo continually puts out, and it's an embarrassment to the joy and quality video games are suppose to bring you. This is by far the worst game I've ever played, and I hope I never have to experience something of this level of disgust ever again.
1. Its central RPG sticker battling mechanic is completely useless, providing no necessary benefits besides wasting resources
2. It attempts to transfer over very similar mechanics/designs of the previous RPG focused games like TTYD and turn them into a heavy adventure-puzzling platforming; but this clash of genre and mechanics simply do not work
These two reasons are the backbone of everything wrong with this abomination of a game and what makes it so unlikable. Here are just a few reasons why:
- The level design in general is some of the worst I've ever experienced in a video game. As explained before, the "PM RPG format" simply doesn't work in areas designed around platforming and movement. Everything feels so clunky and difficult to control and perform, which leads to so many useless encounters and hindrances that at time feel unavoidable and provide you with no benefits. These simply elevate the already mundane tasks and paths the game has you go along. Some of the levels in World 2, for instance, such as the ones that require you to chose paths while continually traversing underground (and require trial and error to reach the end) and traveling around and inside a Sphinx, are some of the worst levels I've ever played in a video game, and gave me some of the worst stress of my life.
- Progression at multiple times is blocked by required "Thing" items you must collect, and are scattered in levels at random. While adventure elements such as this mechanic work in tons of other games, Sticker Star makes it as tedious as it could be. That specific item you need could be in literally any level up until that point, and just by missing one despite collecting the abundant other optional Things, you could be monumentally screwed over. That is NES levels of frustration - and when exploration is already an insane drag to begin with, it's just the icing on the cake of a horrible session.
- "Fortunately" these bizarre barriers are at their worst in boss fights. Each boss fight can be beaten with just regular items, but unless you want to use everything in your already limited inventory, you're gonna need a specific Thing to properly beat it. Beating these without a guide feels almost impossible, as most of the time the Thing you need is quite ambiguous and requires countless trial and error because of the way Things are designed to be used (you must go to a specific place to rebuy an already used Thing and then use a specific shop to then turn that Thing into a sticker; if you use it by accident or that Thing turns out to be the incorrect one needed, then you must repeat the process all over again.)
Sticker Star breaks so many basic necessities that a game must follow, and first and foremost is wasting the player's time; And that's all this game really is. Whether it means requiring you to repeat mundane tasks or creating strange and ambiguous barriers for progression or just being a slog to get through, Sticker Star does everything in its power to make you hate the game as much as possible. My 15 hour play through felt like an eternity of hell, but I don't think I've ever been happier to beat a game. It's an embarrassment to the fantastic titles Nintendo continually puts out, and it's an embarrassment to the joy and quality video games are suppose to bring you. This is by far the worst game I've ever played, and I hope I never have to experience something of this level of disgust ever again.
ouchie wouchie
14-year-old me bought this instead of Kid Icarus Uprising. He owes me 30 bucks.
A guilty pleasure
May possibly be the most uninspired game I've ever played in my life, with so few redeeming qualities. What was once a fun RPG franchise was dumbed down completely, with world maps and bland levels. There were maybe three levels in the game at most that I at least moderately enjoyed. Kersti is probably the most boring companion ever, and the world is devoid of creative life, instead filled with generic Toads galore. The lack of any story is also mind-boggling, made only worse by strange songs written by seemingly toddlers that play when defeating a chapter boss that are supposed to provide some kind of lore or context.
Everything from the battle system to mechanics devolved into such uselessness. Fighting any enemies at all was detrimental in a game where the core gameplay is battles, and boss battles were rendered nearly impossible unless you found the random Thing sticker, which you had to backtrack to stickerize. This game also removed any cool paper mechanics from prior games (ie: paper plane), with the only replacement being a clunky paperization system; admittedly that idea on its own isn't bad, but it was still a massive downgrade.
There's some fire tracks as this was during Nintendo's jazz age, but that's essentially the only good thing I have to say about this game.
Everything from the battle system to mechanics devolved into such uselessness. Fighting any enemies at all was detrimental in a game where the core gameplay is battles, and boss battles were rendered nearly impossible unless you found the random Thing sticker, which you had to backtrack to stickerize. This game also removed any cool paper mechanics from prior games (ie: paper plane), with the only replacement being a clunky paperization system; admittedly that idea on its own isn't bad, but it was still a massive downgrade.
There's some fire tracks as this was during Nintendo's jazz age, but that's essentially the only good thing I have to say about this game.
Maybe the worst Nintendo game in 20 years
HORRÍVEL
This game is a mess
I mean it is the weakest paper mario game, but I don't get why so many people act like this game killed their entire family
first paper mario game I ever played
meh
meh
It's only fitting that a franchise made of paper would be set on fire so spectacularly.
Without exaggeration, Paper Mario: Sticker Star's gameplay system is actually useless; there is literally NO incentive to fight battles since you get no experience and it wastes stickers. Nothing about this game is memorable except for how much it made me hate stickers for a couple years.
Wow, this is one of the best jazz Mario cover albums ever! From Super Mario Galaxy's Boo Waltz, a 6/4 version of Airship, to Slider of all things? The original songs are all good too!
I really love how the Starman theme is totally reimagined here - it's like how Sonic final boss themes tend to have a Phase 2 representing Sonic's strength, usually in Super Sonic form. I could go on and on about all the songs I really love from this album. I wonder who the remixers were?
...wait, what? this is a soundtrack to a game? what game?
I really love how the Starman theme is totally reimagined here - it's like how Sonic final boss themes tend to have a Phase 2 representing Sonic's strength, usually in Super Sonic form. I could go on and on about all the songs I really love from this album. I wonder who the remixers were?
...wait, what? this is a soundtrack to a game? what game?
This game sucks, anyways have you heard of a great game titled Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling? Is pretty kino and you should play it 😃
Thanks I hate it
A game so horrible and disappointing that it made 18 year-old me sell their 3Ds.
Art-style and visuals are great and so is the OST, but that's really all I can say for the game.
There's no memorable or interesting characters like the first 3 Paper Mario games, but the game's biggest failing is the absolutely terrible gameplay mechanics.
Every single attack functions as a one-time use sticker item. You can't even perform the simplest jump or hammer attack without a sticker for it and since every item is one-time use there's absolutely no incentive to battle any enemies you aren't forced to fight. There's no experience/level system and you are legit penalized for fighting when you don't have to since it just wastes stickers. Even the items known as 'things' are one-time use only, these are objects you find on the overworld that you turn into stickers and they're powerful attacks that take up a lot of space in your sticker album, but since it's a one-time use the only way to get it again is to backtrack all the way to where you originally found the item, so it's just a waste of time and unnecessary padding.
Every single boss in this game has an absurd amount of HP unless you find the proper object in the overworld and turn it into a sticker that you use on the boss and then the boss just becomes a complete pushover. So basically you have two options for difficulty 'unwinnable' or ' laughably easy'
The whole game is just a joke and one of the biggest tanks in quality from what was once an amazing and consistent franchise.
R.I.P. Paper Mario
February 5th, 2001 - November 11th, 2012
Art-style and visuals are great and so is the OST, but that's really all I can say for the game.
There's no memorable or interesting characters like the first 3 Paper Mario games, but the game's biggest failing is the absolutely terrible gameplay mechanics.
Every single attack functions as a one-time use sticker item. You can't even perform the simplest jump or hammer attack without a sticker for it and since every item is one-time use there's absolutely no incentive to battle any enemies you aren't forced to fight. There's no experience/level system and you are legit penalized for fighting when you don't have to since it just wastes stickers. Even the items known as 'things' are one-time use only, these are objects you find on the overworld that you turn into stickers and they're powerful attacks that take up a lot of space in your sticker album, but since it's a one-time use the only way to get it again is to backtrack all the way to where you originally found the item, so it's just a waste of time and unnecessary padding.
Every single boss in this game has an absurd amount of HP unless you find the proper object in the overworld and turn it into a sticker that you use on the boss and then the boss just becomes a complete pushover. So basically you have two options for difficulty 'unwinnable' or ' laughably easy'
The whole game is just a joke and one of the biggest tanks in quality from what was once an amazing and consistent franchise.
R.I.P. Paper Mario
February 5th, 2001 - November 11th, 2012
yuck
the physical manifestation of disappointment in the form of a physical 3DS cartridge
What even happened in this game
Spin-off game to the Paper Mario Trilogy.