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.
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.
4 Comments
I’ll be playing The Origami King once I get back to college from break, and I’m looking forward to it since the story looks interesting and I absolutely loved origami as a kid. As for if SS can even be called an RPG… I dunno, but the battles are turn-based, you can upgrade health, and you’ll gradually gain more powerful stickers as you go along, which I think is like the bare minimum to qualify as one. It’s a shame, because as much as I generally don’t like RPGs, I’m certain this game would’ve been better off with more traditional RPG mechanics (and a hint system; all those generic Toad NPCs, yet not a single one of them provides hints like, say, the Hint Toad from the Galaxy games and Odyssey).
And thanks for the compliment! Can’t wait to see your take on the remake of TTYD next year, especially since I know you love the original.
And thanks for the compliment! Can’t wait to see your take on the remake of TTYD next year, especially since I know you love the original.
Sorry, I realized I said post-Sticker Star in my original comment. I should have said post-Super Paper Mario since I haven't actually played Sticker Star or Color Splash. I want the TTYD remake to turn out great and sell well so that original character designs in Mario spinoffs will be a thing again, if nothing else. I really don't mind them changing the battle system considering how little the timed hits system evolved between entries, but more cookie-cutter Toads is unacceptable.
I have faith in the TTYD remake. It not only looks incredible, but the between that and the recent remake of Mario RPG (as well as the releases of 'Odyssey and Wonder), it feels like Nintendo is done with the “bland era” of Mario and are trying to move the franchise back to its wilder, more experimental roots.
EldestBrisingr
6 months ago