Paper Mario: Sticker Star
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 The Sticker Star isn't shining very brightly...
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Paper Mario: Sticker Star is a role-playing game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS. It is the fourth installment in the Paper Mario subseries, and is the first (and currently only) handheld entry.
Star Sucker Qualities
- Mario RPG's usually have deep, well-written plots and colorful, fleshed-out characters, but Sticker Star's plot is as bland and boring as a typical Mario platformer.
- Kersti, Mario's main partner in this game, is EXTREMELY unlikable even for Mario character standards. She forces Mario to clean up the mess even though BOWSER was the one who made it, collect all the pieces of the Sticker Comet, and collect the six Royal Stickers. Even worse, she is hot-tempered, going as far as blaming Mario for touching the Sticker Comet. All of these reasons make her very similar to Spryte from the Zelda cartoon.
- The game even tries to make us feel sympathy for her when she sacrifices herself by turning herself into a sticker during the final phase of the battle against Bowser, but it quickly becomes undone when Mario revives her via the Sticker Comet.
- As the title implies, stickers are the main focus of this game; while they are a neat concept to use in a video game, they are your only means of attacking, thus forcing you to constantly collect new ones of run the risk of your Album running out. And if it does, you are completely helpless against foes due to being unable to attack without at least one sticker, so you will take damage until you die.
- While on the subject of the title, no object called the Sticker Star ever appears in the game; the closest we ever got is the Sticker Comet. Though there is a mentioned place called the Sticker Star in the game.
- The game introduces the "Crumpled" status. While Mario can inflict it back at enemies and make spiny enemies safe to jump on, this status effect is incredibly annoying. It halves Mario's defense and makes him completely unable to act for a few turns, and bosses and a few generic enemies can cause this status effect. If Mario gets crumpled, expect him to be quickly killed.
- You do not gain any experience points (EXP) when you defeat enemies, instead gaining coins; the only way to level up in the game is to find HP Hearts within levels, which are often in such out-of-the-way places that you'll probably miss on your first playthrough. You also gain coins for completing a level, thus making them a pointless reward after each battle.
- The Battle Slots, which can be activated at the start of battles, is a nice concept, but it requires you to pay coins to use it and upgrade it to make it easier to play. Also, you are unable to choose which enemy you will attack with multiple attacks.
- Unlike most other Mario RPG's, new original species are practically nonexistent, considering all friendly NPC's are Toads (which, while they have their uses, are bland and forgettable) while new enemies are just uninspired versions of pre-existing ones.
- Bowser and Peach do not speak for the majority of the game, which is strange: Bowser only makes roars and growls, while Peach has no dialogue until the very end.
- Some levels are next to impossible to complete without a guide and usually involve VERY specific stickers from designated areas, but there is no indication of which ones you need. An example of this is most of World 3's levels requiring you to hunt down Wiggler's segments, which involves constant backtracking to progress the story and repetitive encounters/fights with said Wiggler Segments.
- Main bosses are difficult to defeat without specific Thing stickers; however, you likely won't know which ones you need without trial-and-error gameplay or a guide.
- While on the topic of bosses, Kamek's later two fights will most likely be seen as annoying because he turns all of your stickers into Flip-Flop stickers, which makes it very easy to lose a sticker you treasure the most and are saving for later because all Flip-Flop stickers look identical.
- The post-game unlockables and galleries require you to pay for them using coins, which is unacceptable considering most other Mario post-game content (such as Secret Worlds) is available for free.
- Many of this game's elements (such as focus on paper, Thing stickers, not gaining EXP after battles, lack of proper RPG elements, generic Toad NPC's and boring plots) will carry over into Color Splash and Origami King, despite both games being better than this one.
Qualities That Shine Brightly
- In fairness, a majority of the problems Sticker Star has can be attributed to Intelligent Systems wanting to take the Paper Mario series in a new direction, but failing in execution.
- The graphics are excellent for a 3DS game, and the character designs are as good as usual.
- The soundtrack isn't too bad, despite being inferior to most other Mario games.
- With the exception of not leveling up, the game still plays like a turn-based RPG.
- This game does the paper aesthetic best, especially when using Paperization to apply stickers and/or scraps to the field.
- The Things are creative and fun to use in battle or specific field areas, such as the Fan, Vacuum, Disco Ball, etc.
- After each main boss is defeated, a storybook cutscene plays explaining why they transformed into their boss forms.
Reception
Despite receiving "generally favorable" reviews from critics (scoring 76/100 on Metacritic), Paper Mario: Sticker Star received mixed-to-negative reviews from users and fans of the first three Paper Mario games (scoring 5.4/10) due to the changes made to the series, making it thought to be the weakest game in the series thus far.
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