Paper Mario Sticker Star Review~
The game starts as you'd expect, time for another story, aw yeah. So there's an event called the sticker fest that the mushroom kingdom holds every time the sticker comet rains down upon the lands, scattering stickers everywhere for mindless nameless toads to collect. what do they get from this activity? why stickers of course! GLITTERY SPARKLY STICKERS.
So in the midst of the fest, Bowser shows up and wrecks things without anyone talking throughout the entire cut scene. Afterwards, mario is tasked by a floating crown named Kristi to collect the pieces of the comet Bowser split, along with the other "royal stickers" that aren't touched upon plotwise at all whatsoever. I want to emphasize that at this point in the game, you already have a hammer, and there is nothing else. There is literally nothing else at the beginning of this game. Bowser just kidnaps peach, silently, without her even yelling, and blows up the sticker fest. that's it.
You can probably tell that I do not like this game. But before I elaborate on why any further, I'd like to talk about the parts that I found rather fun, interesting, etc.
The very very first thing you notice about the game is that the aesthetics are absolutely PERFECT. there has never been a better use of the "paper" aspect in any of the previous games. TTYD did try and use this and expand upon it somewhat, but sticker star takes it and perfects it. Toads are running around with folded edges, talking about how they were told growing up to always fold their creases neatly, some even stack themselves up to come with you and help with various things. Not only that, but the 3D effects in this game make the paperyness of it pop amazingly, you actually feel like you're looking at a paper craft scene sometimes, the backgrounds and foregrounds are all made up of construction paper and cardboard and its all beautiful and pristine and amazing looking. GOSH IT IS SO PRETTY.
Graphics & Asthetics: Tenouttaten
Another new fun thing is the stickers themselves. while there are a lot of things they did wrong with this system, the fact that each sticker offered a new and different attack was very cool to me. I just kept thinking as I was using them throughout the game that jumping and using the hammer shouldn't have been sticker-only attacks. they should have been defaults and stickers would be reserved for special attacks that should have used FP or something. but nope. they're just stickers.
Another thing I liked (well not at first) was the world map. It offered you a way to go to and from different areas in the game much akin to quick traveling in other RPGs. the only problem with this is that it kinda leaves you feeling like once you're done with an area, you're done with it. it doesn't exist.
Compared to the older games where getting from area to area required exploring, In sticker star, the map is instead the same style as the ones from the new super Mario bros games. And at the end of each area/level/stage you reach a goal, grab part of the comet, and just continue onward to the next stage. then there's a boss at the last one of the world.
Seems kinda formulaic if you ask me.
I guess another good thing is the witty banter from the toads? gosh I was laughing sometimes. I mean not as much as I did from Super paper Mario, but still, it was well written for what was there. ...but there's not much there.
Alright kids its time for the torrent of BAD, get your scuba gear ready cause ya'll are gonna DROWN IN IT.
#1 The characters
Lets count them, shall we?
1. Mario
2. Peach
3. Bowser
4. Kristi
That's it. Seriously. Even counting background characters, there's just a bunch of nameless toads running around the levels talking about how Bowser has been wreaking havoc. In the first three games, there was a countless slew of characters that both aided in your adventure and were also just THERE, either to be funny or to make the world seem like, well, a world. In sticker star, there's none of that! the world seems so goddamn empty and bland, I felt like I was playing a gray brick for a good portion of the time. There's no merlon or merlee or any witty toad names like Russ T. running around, there's NO ONE. Its empty and lifeless and it made me feel sad inside.
#2 Plot
Bowser kidnaps peach and takes the macguffin.
I... do I need to say why I hate the plot? I just.... He doesn't even steal her castle this time, he just kidnaps her, without another word. Also, remember those neat-o peach segments from 1 and 2? the ones where it showed her character as much more than an awful stereotype of women who doesn't fight for her own freedom? the ones that happened for a short time after every chapter to give you a glimpse of what was going on while Mario was doin' stuff? this game doesn't have those.
It doesn't even have the end of chapter story text either. None of this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1qSnOhYWUA
or this, http://youtu.be/U-IwOxZ5mzA, just nothing. There's no storybook other than the intro, or anything at all that makes you want to find out what happens next. there is absolutely no drive forwards in this game in terms of plot. It doesn't even make an attempt to throw one in there other than the fetch quest save peach piece of blah.
sigh. anyway. onto the worst part.
#3 Combat and RPG elements.
Stickers replace jumps. and hammers. and all other moves. yes even the special moves that were labeled special because in the older games they required star power to use. In this game, they require nothing.
Each time you enter a battle you face enemies and fight them with your collection of stickers you have found scattered around the world. this is neat in a way, as you can organize and use them in any way you like and use a battle spinner thing to use more than one at once. the drawbacks of this of course, are that a. it gets incredibly dull once you stop finding new stickers, which happens real fast, and b. There is no FP, or experience points to gain from battling. Instead, all you get from battling is coins. Coins are practically thrown at you in this game, I remember at the end of world one I had at least 2000. you get coins at the end of each level too, in a little money shower minigame. But what can you use the coins on? Well i'm glad you asked!
You use them on stickers.
You buy stickers. to use stickers. to get coins. to buy stickers.
...
Instantly battling becomes a chore and you want to avoid it at all costs. its not fun, its not rewarding, and there's no point to it other than to hinder your progress. You don't need to beat enemies at the beginning because you don't get xp from them, and with no xp you dont level up and since you're always the same power level you might as well go fight bowser right now, right? seeing as you're already as powerful as you can be? NOPE you have to get through the levels first.
y'see...
In Good RPG's, there is always an emphasis on moving forward. improving yourself and striving towards a goal you want to achieve. this element in the games is defined by two things, The story that takes you in and makes you want to know what happens next, and the characters and their abilities. Leveling up in a game makes you feel like you've grown in strength and are ready to tackle bigger challenges, while the as the story progresses, more challenges are presented to you in an interesting format.
Thats how the last 3 games worked. Even super paper mario had leveling up, and it didn't even have a battle system. Why? Because they didnt need it! They realized that with the game they had made, there was really no need to add useless stuff on that would just waste the players time.
Sticker Star gets rid of all that, and just puts you in an endless loop of use stickers, get coins, buy stickers, use stickers, etc. A lot of people might argue that the whole coin thing is just a replacement for Experience points and leveling up, and that is does exactly the same thing. From a technical standpoint, this is absolutely true, and there is no difference in that regard.
But, at least to me, there is a huge difference in the feeling the gameplay gives you when you have a leveling system vs a "buy your victory" system. I'd much rather stock up on experience than coin any day, it makes me feel like I'm growing as a character and progressing, whereas this game just makes me feel like I have big pockets. You don't improve yourself at all, if you cant get past something you just buy the item, make it into a sticker and bam, obstacle gone. Everything that you are able to do in this game is dependent on object acquisition and management.
Final thoughts
This game is absolutely gorgeous. It is by far the prettiest paper Mario game out there. but playing it just makes me want to play the far superior Thousand year door again. The controls are great, the music is great but gets repetitive at times, and the puzzles offer you no useful information in terms of solving them. Most are based on luck and ones that require the use of stickers are impossible if you don't have the ones you need to progress, which happens A LOT.
In the end, Sticker star could have been a really great game. I feel as though if they went back and looked at what they did wrong and were given a chance to correct it, they could have done an AMAZING job.
But they didn't so it sucked.
Final Score: 4/10
Hope y'all enjoyed my review. c: I like comments so do those.
Heres my tumblr version, its better: http://darkwind.tumblr.com/post/39703425709/paper-mario-sticker-star-review-redux
The game starts as you'd expect, time for another story, aw yeah. So there's an event called the sticker fest that the mushroom kingdom holds every time the sticker comet rains down upon the lands, scattering stickers everywhere for mindless nameless toads to collect. what do they get from this activity? why stickers of course! GLITTERY SPARKLY STICKERS.
So in the midst of the fest, Bowser shows up and wrecks things without anyone talking throughout the entire cut scene. Afterwards, mario is tasked by a floating crown named Kristi to collect the pieces of the comet Bowser split, along with the other "royal stickers" that aren't touched upon plotwise at all whatsoever. I want to emphasize that at this point in the game, you already have a hammer, and there is nothing else. There is literally nothing else at the beginning of this game. Bowser just kidnaps peach, silently, without her even yelling, and blows up the sticker fest. that's it.
You can probably tell that I do not like this game. But before I elaborate on why any further, I'd like to talk about the parts that I found rather fun, interesting, etc.
The very very first thing you notice about the game is that the aesthetics are absolutely PERFECT. there has never been a better use of the "paper" aspect in any of the previous games. TTYD did try and use this and expand upon it somewhat, but sticker star takes it and perfects it. Toads are running around with folded edges, talking about how they were told growing up to always fold their creases neatly, some even stack themselves up to come with you and help with various things. Not only that, but the 3D effects in this game make the paperyness of it pop amazingly, you actually feel like you're looking at a paper craft scene sometimes, the backgrounds and foregrounds are all made up of construction paper and cardboard and its all beautiful and pristine and amazing looking. GOSH IT IS SO PRETTY.
Graphics & Asthetics: Tenouttaten
Another new fun thing is the stickers themselves. while there are a lot of things they did wrong with this system, the fact that each sticker offered a new and different attack was very cool to me. I just kept thinking as I was using them throughout the game that jumping and using the hammer shouldn't have been sticker-only attacks. they should have been defaults and stickers would be reserved for special attacks that should have used FP or something. but nope. they're just stickers.
Another thing I liked (well not at first) was the world map. It offered you a way to go to and from different areas in the game much akin to quick traveling in other RPGs. the only problem with this is that it kinda leaves you feeling like once you're done with an area, you're done with it. it doesn't exist.
Compared to the older games where getting from area to area required exploring, In sticker star, the map is instead the same style as the ones from the new super Mario bros games. And at the end of each area/level/stage you reach a goal, grab part of the comet, and just continue onward to the next stage. then there's a boss at the last one of the world.
Seems kinda formulaic if you ask me.
I guess another good thing is the witty banter from the toads? gosh I was laughing sometimes. I mean not as much as I did from Super paper Mario, but still, it was well written for what was there. ...but there's not much there.
Alright kids its time for the torrent of BAD, get your scuba gear ready cause ya'll are gonna DROWN IN IT.
#1 The characters
Lets count them, shall we?
1. Mario
2. Peach
3. Bowser
4. Kristi
That's it. Seriously. Even counting background characters, there's just a bunch of nameless toads running around the levels talking about how Bowser has been wreaking havoc. In the first three games, there was a countless slew of characters that both aided in your adventure and were also just THERE, either to be funny or to make the world seem like, well, a world. In sticker star, there's none of that! the world seems so goddamn empty and bland, I felt like I was playing a gray brick for a good portion of the time. There's no merlon or merlee or any witty toad names like Russ T. running around, there's NO ONE. Its empty and lifeless and it made me feel sad inside.
#2 Plot
Bowser kidnaps peach and takes the macguffin.
I... do I need to say why I hate the plot? I just.... He doesn't even steal her castle this time, he just kidnaps her, without another word. Also, remember those neat-o peach segments from 1 and 2? the ones where it showed her character as much more than an awful stereotype of women who doesn't fight for her own freedom? the ones that happened for a short time after every chapter to give you a glimpse of what was going on while Mario was doin' stuff? this game doesn't have those.
It doesn't even have the end of chapter story text either. None of this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1qSnOhYWUA
or this, http://youtu.be/U-IwOxZ5mzA, just nothing. There's no storybook other than the intro, or anything at all that makes you want to find out what happens next. there is absolutely no drive forwards in this game in terms of plot. It doesn't even make an attempt to throw one in there other than the fetch quest save peach piece of blah.
sigh. anyway. onto the worst part.
#3 Combat and RPG elements.
Stickers replace jumps. and hammers. and all other moves. yes even the special moves that were labeled special because in the older games they required star power to use. In this game, they require nothing.
Each time you enter a battle you face enemies and fight them with your collection of stickers you have found scattered around the world. this is neat in a way, as you can organize and use them in any way you like and use a battle spinner thing to use more than one at once. the drawbacks of this of course, are that a. it gets incredibly dull once you stop finding new stickers, which happens real fast, and b. There is no FP, or experience points to gain from battling. Instead, all you get from battling is coins. Coins are practically thrown at you in this game, I remember at the end of world one I had at least 2000. you get coins at the end of each level too, in a little money shower minigame. But what can you use the coins on? Well i'm glad you asked!
You use them on stickers.
You buy stickers. to use stickers. to get coins. to buy stickers.
...
Instantly battling becomes a chore and you want to avoid it at all costs. its not fun, its not rewarding, and there's no point to it other than to hinder your progress. You don't need to beat enemies at the beginning because you don't get xp from them, and with no xp you dont level up and since you're always the same power level you might as well go fight bowser right now, right? seeing as you're already as powerful as you can be? NOPE you have to get through the levels first.
y'see...
In Good RPG's, there is always an emphasis on moving forward. improving yourself and striving towards a goal you want to achieve. this element in the games is defined by two things, The story that takes you in and makes you want to know what happens next, and the characters and their abilities. Leveling up in a game makes you feel like you've grown in strength and are ready to tackle bigger challenges, while the as the story progresses, more challenges are presented to you in an interesting format.
Thats how the last 3 games worked. Even super paper mario had leveling up, and it didn't even have a battle system. Why? Because they didnt need it! They realized that with the game they had made, there was really no need to add useless stuff on that would just waste the players time.
Sticker Star gets rid of all that, and just puts you in an endless loop of use stickers, get coins, buy stickers, use stickers, etc. A lot of people might argue that the whole coin thing is just a replacement for Experience points and leveling up, and that is does exactly the same thing. From a technical standpoint, this is absolutely true, and there is no difference in that regard.
But, at least to me, there is a huge difference in the feeling the gameplay gives you when you have a leveling system vs a "buy your victory" system. I'd much rather stock up on experience than coin any day, it makes me feel like I'm growing as a character and progressing, whereas this game just makes me feel like I have big pockets. You don't improve yourself at all, if you cant get past something you just buy the item, make it into a sticker and bam, obstacle gone. Everything that you are able to do in this game is dependent on object acquisition and management.
Final thoughts
This game is absolutely gorgeous. It is by far the prettiest paper Mario game out there. but playing it just makes me want to play the far superior Thousand year door again. The controls are great, the music is great but gets repetitive at times, and the puzzles offer you no useful information in terms of solving them. Most are based on luck and ones that require the use of stickers are impossible if you don't have the ones you need to progress, which happens A LOT.
In the end, Sticker star could have been a really great game. I feel as though if they went back and looked at what they did wrong and were given a chance to correct it, they could have done an AMAZING job.
But they didn't so it sucked.
Final Score: 4/10
Hope y'all enjoyed my review. c: I like comments so do those.
Heres my tumblr version, its better: http://darkwind.tumblr.com/post/39703425709/paper-mario-sticker-star-review-redux
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I wanted a fun plot, not a super mario bros game.. oh well it's gorgeous anyways
