Paper Mario: Sticker Star

Paper Mario: Sticker Star
File:PaperMarioStickerStarCover.jpg North American packaging artwork
Developer(s)	Intelligent Systems
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Director(s)	Naohiko Aoyama Taro Kudo
Producer(s)	Kensuke Tanabe Toshiyuki Nakamura
Designer(s)	Toshitaka Muramatsu Tomomi Fujisawa
Programmer(s)	Junya Kadono
Writer(s)	Taro Kudo
Series	Paper Mario
Platforms	Nintendo 3DS
Release date(s)
Genre(s)	Adventure role-playing
Mode(s)	Single-player

Paper Mario: Sticker Star, known in Japan as Paper Mario: Super Seal (ペーパーマリオスーパーシール, Pēpā Mario Sūpā Shīru), is a 2012 role-playing video game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS console. It is the fourth installment of the Paper Mario series and is the first game in the series playable on a handheld console. The game was released in North America on November 11, 2012 and in December 2012 in Japan, Europe and Australia.

Like previous Paper Mario games, Paper Mario: Sticker Star uses a papercraft visual style that is heavily incorporated into its gameplay mechanics. Sticker Star introduces the use of stickers, which are littered throughout the game world and are used as items or power-ups, aiding the player in turn-based battles against enemies or in solving puzzles. The plot follows Mario's quest to gather the six Royal Stickers that were scattered by Bowser.

Gameplay

File:Paper Mario Sticker Star Gameplay.png

Paper Mario attacking a Paper Goomba using a Jump sticker in battle. Sticker Star differs from its predecessors in that Paper Mario's stats and available attacks are determined solely by collecting stickers rather than accumulating experience points and leveling up.

Paper Mario: Sticker Star features a visual style similar to its predecessors, in which the characters appear as paper cutouts in a 3-Dimensional papercraft Mushroom Kingdom, with landscapes ranging from snowy areas and forests to volcanoes. The story focuses on Paper Mario's efforts to retrieve the 6 Royal Stickers that have been scattered by Paper Bowser at the annual Sticker Fest. Paper Mario is accompanied by Kersti, a sticker fairy, who bestows upon Paper Mario the power of stickers.

The player controls Paper Mario as he explores the various locales of the Mushroom Kingdom. A major facet of Sticker Star's gameplay is the extensive use of collectible stickers, which are used to gain new abilities and progress through the game. The player collects stickers that are found and peeled off from various areas in the environment. The player can also purchase stickers using paper coins or receive them from non-playable characters. The player has limited inventory space, and larger stickers take up more room. Stickers are used both in combat and for interacting with the environment. The player can enter a state called "Paperization" that allows him to place stickers anywhere on the visible overworld to activate certain events. The player can also find real-world objects, such as baseball bats and scissors, that can be turned into special types of stickers, called "Thing Stickers", which are often needed to solve puzzles in the overworld. For example, a Fan Thing Sticker can be placed in strategic areas in the environment and when activated, creates wind that moves or destroys obstacles.

The turn-based battles in Sticker Star are similar to those in the original Paper Mario and The Thousand-Year Door, initiated when Mario comes into contact with enemies in the overworld. The player's available attacks are determined by the stickers currently on hand. For example, possession of the Jump sticker is required for Paper Mario to attack an enemy by jumping on it. Thing Stickers are used to inflict more damage on enemies, and certain types of Thing Stickers are required to make it easier to defeat boss characters. However, each sticker is removed from play after one use; it is necessary for the player to consistently collect new stickers. Unlike the previous 3 games, the player increases his maximum HP and other stats through collection of HP hearts, which give him 5 more heath points and a stronger first attack, instead of gaining experience awarded from winning battles. Bonuses or special events that occur during battles can increase Paper Mario's attack power or allow him to use a single sticker multiple times.

Plot

Every year, the Sticker Comet lands in the Mushroom Kingdom, and those who wish on it have a good chance of their wish being granted by the Royal Stickers that reside within the comet. Paper Mario attends the Sticker Fest, a festival held in Decalburg to accommodate the Sticker Comet's arrival; and Paper Princess Peach presents the comet on the festival's stage.

As the Paper Toad attendees begin to make their wishes, Paper Bowser crashes the celebration and attempts to make his own wish by touching the comet. This causes the comet to explode, scattering the 6 Royal Stickers across the kingdom. 1 Royal Sticker lands on Paper Bowser's head, corrupting him with its power. Paper Bowser moves to kidnap Paper Peach, but Paper Mario intervenes. Paper Bowser, strengthened by the power of the Royal Sticker, overcomes Mario, and knocks him out.

After regaining consciousness, Mario encounters Kersti the Sticker Fairy, caretaker of the Royal Stickers. Kersti then blames Paper Mario for the touching of the Sticker Comet and does not believe Paper Mario when he tells her it was Paper Bowser's doing. Kersti demands that Paper Mario help her recover the Royal Stickers, to which Paper Mario willingly accepts. Together, the 2 embark on a journey to recover the Royal Stickers.

After traveling to plains, mountains, deserts, forests, beaches, icy peaks, jungles and volcanoes the duo reach Paper Bowser's Sky Castle, defeating Paper Kamek and Paper Bowser Jr. along the way.

Paper Mario and Kersti finally find Paper Princess Peach, but a battle against Paper Bowser, who's still empowered with the Royal Sticker, soon ensues. Eventually, Paper Mario pushes Paper Bowser off a platform, only for Paper Bowser to grow to gigantic proportions due to the Royal Sticker's power still being inside him. Kersti then realizes that her own sticker power is the only thing that can match Paper Bowser's sticker power. Kersti then sacrifices herself by giving Paper Mario all of her power, whilst apologizing for "forcing" him to go on the quest with her in the first place. With Kersti's power inside of him, Paper Mario is able to defeat Paper Bowser and save Paper Peach. Paper Peach then reminds Paper Mario of the Royal Sticker's ability to grant wishes and asks Paper Mario what his wish is.

Paper Mario and Paper Peach arrive back in Decalburg to once again present the Sticker Comet. Paper Bowser then once again attempts to touch the comet, but just before he touches it, Kersti pops out and stops him, revealing that Kersti was revived by Paper Mario's wish. Kersti then states that if Sticker Fest is to be this way every year, she would need to reconsider her career.

Development

According to an interview with some of the game's developers, the partner system prevalent in previous Paper Mario titles was removed because it was found to often conflict with the sticker-focused gameplay and the developers were asked by Miyamoto to make a Paper Mario game only using traditional characters as much as possible and "stop creating and introducing new characters," which also had the consequence of removing the partner system. Miyamoto also asked the developers to change the gameplay and battles because he considered it to be too similar to The Thousand Year Door and asked the developers to greatly de-emphasise the game's story, saying "It's fine without a story, so do we really need one?" The world map and level system seen in Sticker Star was implemented so that players could easily stop and resume play at any time.

One of the major motivations for the development team after Miyamoto insisted on no story (or at the very least, minimal story) was to survey Club Nintendo members to see if they liked the story in the previous games. Not even 1% responded that they liked the story, and the response generated led the team to moving in more of the emphasis on paper. However, the survey was limited to members of (and who regularly check) Club Nintendo and most fans of the series claim to have never heard of this survey even existing. For that matter, it's reasonable to say that people who did do the survey thought it wasn't much more than a joke, considering how ridiculous the answer seems in context.

Paper Mario: Sticker Star was first announced at E3 2010 under the tentative title Paper Mario, demonstrated in trailer form. Few details about the new Paper Mario title were given outside of additional trailers that were released at Nintendo World 2011 and E3 2011. The game and its full title was announced during Nintendo's E3 2012 press conference, alongside New Super Mario Bros. 2 and Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, with a release window sometime during the 2012 holiday season. A live gameplay demonstration by Nintendo of America localization manager Nate Bihldorff, one of the writers for Sticker Star's English text, was later shown at the Nintendo 3DS Showcase event, which heavily detailed and elaborated on the sticker-focused gameplay. The game was also announced to be distributed both physically as a Nintendo 3DS cartridge or downloadable via Nintendo eShop.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores Aggregator Score GameRankings 75.97% Metacritic 75/100 Review scores Publication Score EGM 6.5/10 Game Informer 8.75/10 GameSpot 7.5/10 IGN 8.3/10

Paper Mario: Sticker Star received generally mixed to positive reviews, gaining aggregate scores of 75.97% and 75% from GameRankings and Metacritic, respectively. These are lowest scores of any game in the Paper Mario series.

Ben Lee of Digital Spy gave the game 3 out of 5 stars, praising the visuals, but commented on the game's difficulty and backtracking. "Writing is sharp and legitimately funny at times. [The game] has a lot of charm and personality [but] stalls horribly as you backtrack and replay level after level, trying to figure out what you're missing. It's often unclear where Mario needs to go to progress, and these moments end up being frustrating and ruin the flow of the story."

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences chose Paper Mario: Sticker Star as the "Best Handheld Game of the Year" during their 16th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards ceremony.

The game sold 402,000 copies in Japan in 2012. As of March 31, 2013, the game has worldwide sales of 1.97 million.

However, despite mainly positive reviews, fan reception to the game was strongly negative, due a drastically lessened focus on RPG and battle elements (despite being an RPG game), story, world design, writing, dialogue, gameplay, and characterization, that were staples of the Paper Mario series, while also featuring no original characters,^[4] instead of returning to the gameplay style of the first Paper Mario game and The Thousand-Year Door.^[3]

Fans further cited the only recurring friendly species being generic Toads, the paper theme being overemphasized, cryptic puzzles, tedious bosses, the consumable item based battle system, and the removal of the partner system (another staple of the series) as reasons for their criticism.

External links

• Official website