A lackluster 3ds premier for the Paper Mario Series
“Paper Mario Sticker Star” is the 3ds edition to the “Paper Mario” game franchise. Since the start I had extremely mixed feelings about this game. It has many unique and interesting concepts. However, these concepts may have no been utilized to the best of their potential.
“Paper Mario Sticker Star” is a platforming role playing game that focuses on Mario’s adventure to collect all of the pieces of the “Sticker Star Comet”. It just so happened that in this game during the yearly sticker festival the evil Bowser destroys the comet, gets untold power and kidnaps princess Peach. Basically, it is another Mario game where you have to save the princess. Story wise the game is the same old same old. Mario gets a whacky side kick, which in this situation in the sassy royal sticker Kersti. Kersti is your guide through the game, giving you the ability to “paperize” the area around you and some not so helpful hints through out the game. The story does have some entertaining character interactions. Kersti actually does have some very funny lines through out the game, but I use the word some very generously. This game is an extremely long game and about thirty percent through it the story loses steam.
One of my major complaints about the story was how strung out it becomes towards the middle. The game drags, the levels take a very long time to complete and unlike the other “Paper Mario” games, this game does not give you a large cast of characters to talk to, and to keep you busy with side quests. Nintendo really missed a great opportunity with this aspect. The older games were known for their wide cast of characters that were spread out through the entire game. In “Sticker Star” however, after you make it to the halfway mark of the game you do not meet any new characters. The game truly becomes boring. It starts off strong, but by the first boss fight I was already looking for some side mission to keep me entertained. The game really has a weak list of characters.
The game does have some collecting mini-games to keep the players busy. A few hours into the game you discover a “sticker museum’. This museum gives players the incentive to go out and try to collect all of the “stickers” and “things” in the game. The aspect of the “things” is a pretty interesting idea. Nintendo implements the concept of “things” very interestingly into the game. These “things” are usually three dimensional objects that the player can turn into a sticker and use in battle. These stickers can range from something as common as a scissor to the more strange such as a goat. The only downfall of this concept is the fact that Nintendo does focus on them a little too much during boss battles. Some of the boss fights in the game are impossible to win unless a “thing” is used. I believe this handicaps the player and forces them to rely on certain stickers too much.
The battle system is one of my other major complaints about the game. The player is stuck relying on the same stickers over and over again, and the battles get very repetitive. Nintendo really did take a lot of the “role playing game” element out of this game. It is much more focused on the platforming and the puzzles. While the “Paper Mario” series always focused on its puzzles, I missed some of the “RPG” elements of the other games. Such as leveling up Mario and receiving stronger hammers and jumps as I went through the game. While the stickers take the place of items it does make the game a little more predictable. There’s only a certain number of stickers where as in other Mario games I felt like I was always finding new items.
One of my major complaints about this game though, was the fact that I felt like the game didn’t know if it wanted to be for the casual gaming audience or the veteran gamers. Some of the puzzles in this game were way to hard for casual gamers, leaving the ones I saw frustrated and angry with it. The “hint” system in Kersti was not very good and I even had to rely on a guide at certain points. There is one part in the game that the player actually never finds out about from the game itself. I believe that Nintendo should have focused a little more on making the game accessible for everyone. That and the game is just a little too long. By the end of the game I was just trying to get through it, I did not really care about the story.
Overall the game gets a two and a half out of five from me. I was really battling to pick between a two and a three but I believe the game really does fall in the middle. If your a fan of Mario and have time to spend I suggest a rental.
