Paper Mario: Sticker Star (Nintendo 3DS) Review

Guess  I'll buy BiS instead then as I didnt play that one yet.

" all eyes turn to AlphaDream for a new, true RPG with Mario & Luigi 4."

hell yes.

I love Bowser's Inside Story, and am just putting the finishing touches to a review at the moment

I've just been checking other Sticker Star review scores and wow, the range is all over the place! Seems I've given it the lowest score according to Metacritic but that's really how I felt, and it looks like there are other reviewers talking about how frustrated they were. They shouldn't have messed with the formula

So disappointing...

Thanks.

The phrase 'style over substance' springs to mind. Even then, though, I don't why the usual humour seems so lacking. I've been playing Bowser's Inside Story again recently and it's laugh-out-loud funny at times.

Red XIII said:
I actually like the idea of taking away the level up system. Not making me grind and keeping the game moving along is great.

The cute animation for pulling stickers off anything (walls, bushes, trees, etc) is nice at first, but quickly grows tiresome as you need hundreds of the damn things and just multiply the two seconds it takes to pull each one off and you'll realise how much time is wasted.

Also, you don't always know if you've got enough of the strongest stickers to overcome a certain big boss (or even random mid-level bad guys). Therefore, there will be more than one time where you just have to let Mario run out of energy because trying to escape isn't that easy (or just isn't possible in some cases). This happens in RPGs, I suppose, but at least you're always able to attack. Here, the game gives a token random single sticker if totally out, but if you still have some left...ones that aren't good for attack (defence items or health mushrooms) then you don't get anything, meaning fights just drag out until your supply is finally out and you DO get a cursory attack item, or you die. Sounds a barrel of laughs, right?

Then there is the matter of the special stickers mentioned in the review -- where if you use them out of sheer excitement to see what wacky effects they have on enemies you're screwed and get stuck until having to track back and find the 'secret store' to buy more.

Back-tracking, wow, SO annoying.

You may read this and think I was overly generous with a 6...but there are redeeming factors, and it starts to grow on you after the third or fourth world. However, by that time most would have likely given up, shaking their head at Miyamoto-san for kerbing Intelligent Systems' creative flow. You know WHY that has happened, right? It's because Super Paper Mario sold more than the previous two PM games

( Edited 01.12.2012 10:32 by Adam Riley )

What a huge shame :c I'll prolly still get it, but all my excitement has died, simply not fair.

Adam Riley said:
You know WHY that has happened, right? It's because Super Paper Mario sold more than the previous two PM games

I've seen a few 6/6.5 out of 10 and 3/3.5 out of 5, plus a lot of reader reviews at GameFAQs have been very disappointed, giving it 3/10 in cases. A game that once was one of the reasons I might have picked up a 3DS when it was announced has been completely crossed off my list now. Like you say, all eyes are on the fourth game of Mario & Luigi now - a fantastic humorous RPG series, that this game should have been.

Is a fourth M&L game definitely happening?

And will Miyamoto be ruining that one too?

Huge shame, I was really looking forward to this. Ah well, I still need to get Bowser's Inside Story too, so that'll have to fuel my Maro RPG cravings for now!
Thanks for the review!

This is so disappointing. The first two Paper Mario games were amazing RPG's. The series is really going down hill

If something isn't broken - don't fix it. We've seen this with the 2D Mario titles, I have no idea why Nintendo won't apply this same principle to the Paper Mario games...

I have to admit this is getting slightly ridiculous.

There's nothing wrong with dispensing a score you think the game deserves. Yet you seem to rationalize the lower score by somewhat overstating the degree of offense committed, say, by the sticker system and lack of conventional experience-based growth. There's hardly anything "frustrating due to their implementation" about picking a sticker and attacking with it.

Since you mention backtracking, is it fair to say that The Thousand Year Door was just as egregiously designed in this regard? Is it not relevant to note that the segmented level design makes "backtracking" about as obnoxious as using "Fly" in the Pokemon overworld? Perhaps you could more accurately fault the seclusion of 'thing stickers' in elusive, doorway-bereft grottos around the map since, while a problem easily remedied by always trying to keep one or two door stickers handy, it is an understandably beleaguering system. "Backtracking" is hardly an issue.

Why emphasize the shorter areas which can be "breezed through in minutes" without noting how some can take up to an hour? Why not emphasize the level variety and creativity unless you simply have a bone to pick?

The actual problems with this game - less concentration on dialogue, some maddening and unintuitive puzzles ("THAT was the solution?"), little character variety and some serious nerve in invisible block placement - would have been more appropriately cited than "bactracking and stickers". As the reviewer the content here is entirely at your discretion, but you seem to eschew rightfully calling out more important, almost insultingly bold artistic decisions in favor of knocking features which are fairly tame, considering.

i felt playing one paper mario was enough. played th super one quite a bit, bu disappointing yeah.

...but that japanese name-san, is that really necessary? it looks so silly in a wall of englsh text. I don see a reason for  either. like you'd write monsieur Ancel or whatever his name is eveytime yo write an article on Rayman...?

NSMB2 sucks though (guest) said:
There's nothing wrong with dispensing a score you think the game deserves. Yet you seem to rationalize the lower score by somewhat overstating the degree of offense committed, say, by the sticker system and lack of conventional experience-based growth. There's hardly anything "frustrating due to their implementation" about picking a sticker and attacking with it.

Since you mention backtracking, is it fair to say that The Thousand Year Door was just as egregiously designed in this regard? Is it not relevant to note that the segmented level design makes "backtracking" about as obnoxious as using "Fly" in the Pokemon overworld?

Perhaps you could more accurately fault the seclusion of 'thing stickers' in elusive, doorway-bereft grottos around the map since, while a problem easily remedied by always trying to keep one or two door stickers handy, it is an understandably beleaguering system. "Backtracking" is hardly an issue.

Why emphasize the shorter areas which can be "breezed through in minutes" without noting how some can take up to an hour? Why not emphasize the level variety and creativity unless you simply have a bone to pick?

The actual problems with this game - less concentration on dialogue, some maddening and unintuitive puzzles ("THAT was the solution?"), little character variety and some serious nerve in invisible block placement - would have been more appropriately cited than "bactracking and stickers".

As the reviewer the content here is entirely at your discretion, but you seem to eschew rightfully calling out more important, almost insultingly bold artistic decisions in favor of knocking features which are fairly tame, considering.

I can't cover every tiny little detail in a review, and it's good to have discussion like this in the comments

Surprised at the low score. I've played the game for 7 hours now and I'm loving it. Did a 3 hour run one night until I realized it was VERY late hahaha.

The fights are fun and I'm constantly managing stickers so I'm ready for any hard fight. Sure, you only get coins... but you also get some special stickers unique to some characters, thus allowing you to complete the sticker museum.

This game seems to have broken a "love it or hate it" review burst, so be careful about buying/skipping the game after reading a review.

EdEN said:
The fights are fun and I'm constantly managing stickers so I'm ready for any hard fight.

Sure, you only get coins... but you also get some special stickers unique to some characters, thus allowing you to complete the sticker museum.

This game seems to have broken a "love it or hate it" review burst, so be careful about buying/skipping the game after reading a review.