Paper Mario:
Sticker Star

Realease Date:	Units sold:	System:
Nov 11, 2012	2.5 million	Nintento 3DS

Paper Mario: Sticker Star is where the series fell off for a LOT of people. It is often criticized for its lack of experience points for battling, the lack of interesting characters, and the lack of a compelling story. The game is for sure not as good as the others in the series in my opinion, but it does have its good parts too.

Plot

The story begins on the night of the annual Sticker Fest, which celebrates the yearly passing of the Sticker Comet. The Sticker Comet is said to be able to grant people's wishes. Once the Sticker Comet comes around, Bowser crashes the festival and tries to take the Sticker Comet for himself. The second he touches it, the Sticker Comet gets split into 6 Royal Stickers, which are each in the shape of a crown. One of the Royal Stickers lands on Bowser's head, granting him immense sticker power, which he then uses to wreck the Sticker Festival after Mario tries and fails to stop him.

Gameplay

Battle System
The battle system in Paper Mario: Sticker Star harkens back to the original two games in some ways while putting its own spin on things as well. First off, the combat is back to being turn-based instead of real-time like in Super Paper Mario. The first major difference is that, in order for Mario to attack, he needs to use disposable stickers he picks up in the overworld. The sticker you choose determines what move you do. Once you use up a sticker, it is gone. This can add an element of risk and reward, as you tend to save your more powerful stickers for just the right moment, and you may have to change up your go-to strategy if you don't have the sticker in mind. There are quite a few mechanics that Sticker Star has removed from its predecessors' battle systems. The most prominent of these is the lack of experience points earned when defeating enemies in battle. This led to a lot of complaints from fans, as there is now little to no incentive to go out of your way to battle. On top of that, the only thing that really comes out of battling is wasting stickers. Another big removal is the lack of the ability to choose an enemy to target. Mario will always default to attacking the first enemy in line. This removes quite a bit of strategy that made the previous games' battle systems so fun and engaging. The third and final major removal from the battle system is the lack of partners to fight by your side. Mario only has one partner throughout the whole game, and she does not participate in battle. This also removes quite a bit of strategy and engagement and decreases the variability that the player can have in their approach to battling. Despite this, personally, when I play the game, I quite enjoy the battle system for what it is. Having to think on your feet based on what stickers you have available can be a fun challenge to do in every battle. I also find myself incentivized to battle because it spends my stickers. One of my favourite parts of this game is collecting the massive amount of stickers you can find all over the world. But eventually, my stickerbook gets too full and I have to ignore a bunch of stickers that I pass. Battling helps me maintain a steady inflow and outflow of stickers, keeping me engaged in both aspects of the gameplay.
Overworld
As with the battle system, the overworld gameplay is more similar to that of Paper Mario 64 and TTYD, taking a more 2.5D perspective, instead of being a pure 2D platformer like Super Paper Mario. Similar to the first two games, there is a healthy combination of enemies to fight, puzzles to solve, and a bit of platforming thrown in as well. The main new activity, as I mentioned, is picking up stickers that are scattered all over the place. I find this keeps me very engaged in the overworld gameplay, and I always get a rush of excitement when I see a sticker I haven't seen before. In addition to stickers, Mario can occasionally come across real-world objects, like scissors for example, called Things. Mario can convert these Things into stickers, which can then be used in either combat as a super-powerful move, or in the overworld to solve puzzles. To use stickers in the overworld, Mario's partner, Kersti, grants him the ability to Paperize. Paperizing involves Mario leaving the world, and looking at it like a storybook. Once here, Mario can stick stickers onto the world just as one could do to a real-life storybook. The ability to paperize gives the game a lot of creative freedom with solutions to puzzles, sometimes allowing for more than one solution to a given problem. More often than not though, Mario requires one specific Thing sticker to get the job done. While it can be satisfying to guess the right sticker, more often than not it can get frustrating. The main reason is that after guessing wrong when paperizing, the sticker gets wasted anyways. This can lead to a ton of unwanted back-and-forth gameplay that could have otherwise been avoided.
World Map
One major change from the previous three Paper Mario games that Sticker Star makes is the addition of a world map, as opposed to one large interconnected world. Each chapter is comprised of multiple levels, connected solely by this world map. This was most likely done to accommodate the handheld platform that this game was on, but it can lead to breaks in immersion. It is very cool to be able to travel seamlessly across the world in the first three games. Having the world map isn't deal-breaking, but it makes the chapters feel more disjointed and less like one single environment. One thing that I do like about it is that it makes backtracking easier, and less of a hassle. Sometimes the game uses this to its benefit, utilizing levels multiple times for various purposes like retrieving items or going through a path that you could not before.

Partners

Kersti

Kersti is the guardian of the sticker comet. She was sent to help secure the Royal Stickers by the Sticker Comet just before Bowser touched it. When Mario first finds her, it becomes instantly clear that she's a bit of a hothead. Without warning, she just starts yelling at Mario, assuming he was the one who touched the comet. After he explains what actually happened, she calms down and agrees to join him on his journey. She is honestly not the most likable partner in the world. She loses her temper easily and is overall just not pleasant to be honest. She provides Mario the ability to paperize in the overworld. In battle, she gives him the battle spinner, which Mario can pay coins to use. If he is lucky with the spinner, he gains access to extra sticker slots, allowing him to use multiple stickers in one turn.

Chapters

Prologue: Decalburg
After Bowser crashed the Sticker Fest, Mario wakes up to a complete mess! The Sticker Fest has been completely destroyed, and Princess Peach is missing! Pretty much as soon as Mario gets up to look around, he runs into Kersti, who yells at him and then joins him. The first thing Mario notices is that there are toads scattered about all over the place. So, Mario takes it upon himself to find and rescue all the toads, who then work together to unravel the main town of the game, Decalburg. Mario then battles three goombas within Decalburg, which teaches him about the battle system.
Chapter 1: Warm Fuzzy Plains{6 Levels}
This chapter is all about exploring the grassy lands called the Warm Fuzzy Plains. The first two levels are spent going through this area, saving toads, battling goombas, and getting a whole bunch of stickers. In the first level, Mario fights Bowser Jr. He defeats him by using the scissors Thing sticker. Level 3 takes Mario back to his plumbing roots and requires him to use a faucet Thing sticker to fix a broken pipe system. Mario then scales a grassy mountain, called Whammino Mountain, in Level 5, which is a very fun level with lots of verticality. And then finally, Level 6 takes Mario to the Goomba Fortress. The fortress is not terribly long, but is fun to puzzle your way through nonetheless, and is much more interesting than the standard grassy plain levels. When Mario reaches the end of the fortress, he encounters the Megasparkle Goomba, who has the first Royal Sticker. If you are not familiar with using Thing stickers in battle, this one can be quite a challenging first boss, as the game intends for you to use Thing stickers to blast his health away, but this is not always clear. After defeating the Megasparkle Goomba, Mario recovers the first Royal Sticker and concludes the chapter.
Chapter 2: Drybake Desert{5 Levels}
As you may have guessed, Chapter 2 takes place exclusively in a desert, called Drybake Desert. Throughout each level, Mario has to solve tricky puzzles to obtain pieces of the last level in order to paperize and construct the final level and then beat it. Level 1 is just spent traversing the sandy dunes and fighting sand-related enemies like Pokeys and Spinies. Level 2 is a very good level where you get to explore the Yoshi Sphinx. It's a very fun area to explore, with many branching paths leading to secret areas. At the top of the Yoshi Sphinx, Mario encounters Kamek,who is a recurring miniboss in this game where he transforms all of Mario's stickers into flip-flops. These boss fights are tricky because you have to remember where your not-so-good stickers are so that you do not end up wasting a really good sticker while it was transformed into a weak flip-flop. After this, Level 3 takes Mario to an underground ruin called the Sandshifter Ruins. The ruins are effectively a glorified pachinko machine, where Mario has to choose different places to jump down to reach different areas. It can be a bit tedious to travel through, but not too bad. Level 4 takes Mario to a dried-out oasis, called the Damp Oasis. It is currently enveloped in a powerful vortex, which Mario uses the vaccuum Thing sticker to clean up, and then the faucet Thing sticker to refill the oasis. Finally, after collecting all the pieces of the level, Level 5 sees Mario climbing to the top of the Drybake Stadium. The Drybake Statium is a multi-level, puzzle-based dungeon in which Mario has to solve many puzzles to do with paperizing. After reaching the top, Mario finds the Tower Power Pokey. The key to defeating this one is using the baseball bat Thing sticker to hit each of its sections away, dealing massive damage to it.
Chapter 3: The Bafflewood{12 Levels}
Chapter 3 takes place inside a lush dank forest, called The Bafflewood. It begins with Mario meeting a very friendly Wiggler. Soon after, Wiggler gets split apart by Kamek's magic, causing each of his segments to run away into various parts of the forest. Mario is thus tasked with tracking down each Wiggler segment and return them to Wiggler. This chapter is incredibly long, as every time Mario finds a segment, they run off a second time, forcing Mario to find each of them a second time, which becomes very tedious. Some standout levels are Levels 7 and 10. In Level 7, Mario falls down a large hole, into the gave called Rustle Burrow, and drops all of his belongings, including his hammer, stickers, and Kersti herself. The stickers you had get scattered all across the cave, and Mario spends the level finding them all. This level is very cool because you start from nothing, struggling through every battle, and then by the end, after getting all your stickers back, you feel extremely powerful in comparison to how you first were. Level 10 is iconic because in it Mario participates in the game show, Snifit or Whiffit. This is a very fun part of the game, and very memorable for its humour. It can also be a fun challenge. After finding all of Wiggler's segments, Mario rides on him across the sea to find the source of the poison that had been infecting the waters of the forest. Once there, Mario finds out that the source of the poison was the Gooper Blooper, who had the next Royal Sticker. This boss is actually impossible if you do not have the Thing sticker that is required for it, being the sponge. The sponge is used to defend Mario from an incoming poison shot from the Gooper Blooper. Once defeated, the Gooper Blooper drops the Royal Sticker, and Mario recovers it.
Chapter 4: Snow Rise{5 Levels}
Chapter 4 is themed around snow. In addition to that, within the snowy levels, you begin to encounter shiny stickers in the overworld, which are more powerful versions of the stickers you get before this area. Some of the enemies you encounter are also shiny. Thus, this is the chapter where things step up in difficulty a little bit, with both stronger enemies to face and stronger stickers to use. Level 1, taking place in the Snow Rise, is enjoyable to play through for this reason. It's cool to feel a sense of levelling up in your adventure, albeit a small one. Then, after Level 2, which is another fairly standard snow level, we arrive at Level 3, The Enigmansion. The Enigmansion might just be the best level in the game. Basically, you explore this large mansion effectively becoming a ghostbuster. You have to hunt down every last Boo in the mansion, which is extremely fun to do. Some of them are pretty well hidden too! There's one moment where you get to use the infini-jump sticker on a massive stack of boos, which lets you do as many jumps as you can time correctly, with no limit! It's super fun to do. After this level, we have a level that's more of a minigame, where Mario rides a ski-lift in Whiteout Valley to go further up the mountain. It's not a long level, but is fun for what it is. And finally, Mario arrives at Level 6, which is Bowser's Snow Fort. This level begins with Mario waiting patiently in line to go on a minecart ride. Then, the minecart ride itself is something straight out of Donkey Kong, having you timing jumps to clear gaps, as well as properly timing Paperizations to progress. After the minecart ride, Mario starts getting attacked by this giant snow sculpture of Bowser. As Mario battles it, he starts to reveal who is controlling it, being Mizzter Blizzard the Snowman. After defeating him, Mario retrieves the next Royal Sticker from him, ending the chapter.
Chapter 5: Shy Guy Jungle{6 Levels}
Up next is Chapter 5, which takes Mario to a jungle-themed chapter. He begins with Level 1, in the Shy Guy Jungle. It's a fairly long level where Mario has to chase down three Spear Guys who have stolen pieces of the bridge forward. After this, Mario spends the next two levels river-rafting down the Jungle Rapids. In Level 3 specifically, Mario gets chased down by a giant Cheep-Chomp. After this, Mario arrives at the Chomp Ruins in Level 4, which is another one of my favourite levels of the game. The battles that take place in this level are some of the best, and the ruins themselves are a joy to play through. In the final two levels, Mario hot-foots it into the Rumble Volcano, which is a dangerous place filled with tough enemies and tough puzzles. I got stuck in the Rumble Volcano for a while on my first playthrough. Once you reach the end, Mario finds one of his oldest nemeses, Petey Piranha, who has the fifth Royal Sticker. After defeating Petey Piranha, Mario secures the next Royal Sticker, ending the chapter.
Chapter 6: Bowser's Sky Castle{2 Levels}
Chapter 6 is the finale of the game. We only have two levels, and they aren't overly long. There's no big huge final dungeon, which is a bit of a shame. Instead, Level 1 takes us aboard Bowser Jr's Fiery Flotilla, which is his airship. Mario gets help from the Wiggler from Chapter 3, who has now transformed into a Flutter (a Wiggler butterfly).Once aboard, Mario does some battling and puzzling and then battles Bowser Jr. one last time. After this, Mario heads into Bowser's Sky Castle to face Bowser and recover the final Royal Sticker once and for all. But before he does, Mario battles Kamek one last time as well, with his stickers being temporarily turned into flip-flops again too. After this, Mario jumps straight into the fight with Bowser, with very little buildup. Fighting him can be quite frustrating as well to be honest. Where every boss has required one Thing sticker to be the solution to it Bowser has multiple phases, each with their own Thing sticker solution. Your skills and sticker management don't really feel like they come into play until the final phase when Bowser grows giant. This portion of the fight is quite enjoyable and makes me wish more of the fight was as good. Partway through this phase, Kersti decides to sacrifice herself to give Mario an extra boost in sticker power so that he can deal enough damage to keep up with Bowser. This sacrifice would be emotional if Kersti was actually likable, but alas, it was a good try. After Mario triumphs over Bowser, he rescues Peach and the final Royal Sticker. With all the Royal Stickers assembled, Mario has the power to grant himself one wish. And what does he do but waste it on reviving Kersti :)