Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"Disappointing"

Paper Mario: Sticker Star has been released for the Nintendo DS on November 11, 2012. Like I said in my Super Paper Mario review, I'm not a huge fan of the Paper Mario series. I liked the Wii version because it has more plat forming elements and playable characters besides Mario such as Luigi, Peach, and Bowser. To me it seems that Paper Mario: Sticker Star is a step backwards from its predecessors.

Presentation - Like the previous Paper Mario games, Sticker Star has a nice story mode and is classified as a role playing game. Bowser plans to capture Peach for like the millionth time, and decided to stick all of the Toads on different walls, rooms, and areas. When I played the beginning of Sticker Star, it was pretty tedious to try to find all of the Toads to help them unroll the huge carpet in one room. The worst part of this game is there are no save blocks to be found anywhere. I don't know how many of them are around the other worlds since I only played the beginning, but that pretty much ruins the game for me. After I turned off the 3DS and then turned it back on, I had to re-watch the entire cut scene and find all of the Toads again from the beginning. At least in Super Paper Mario, there was a ton of save blocks to be found.

Another gripe I have against Sticker Star is that you can only play as Mario. Yes, Luigi is still in this game, but you can't actually play as him like you could in Super Paper Mario. Also, the partners that followed Mario in the previous games are gone in Sticker Star.

I understand that Paper Mario: Sticker Star tries to go back to its roots like the earlier games and has a role playing battle mode instead of just stomping and killing enemies straight up, and that is perfectly fine. The sticker mechanic is an interesting concept, but I haven't had the chance to battle enemies yet. I found that Mario can press the A button to hold down and peel the Toads off the walls.

Graphics - Super Paper Mario had amazing graphics and it represented more like the Super Mario Bros. series. In Sticker Star, the graphics again go back to the roots where The Thousand Year Door left off. It still looks appealing and colorful, but some areas look a tad too dark when I was looking at some screenshots from the GameSpot review of Sticker Star.

Sound - The music in Super Paper Mario had a nice blend between composed tracks of Super Mario World and made it sound even better in their installment. However, the music in Sticker Star is baffling because it sounds way too cutesy and since when did a Mario game have any type of jazz music.

Game play - The sticker mechanic is an interesting concept, but I'm still not sure how well it works when you battle against enemies since I haven't gotten that far yet. Controlling Mario is still solid, and you can still use his hammer to break down bricks.

Lasting appeal - Die hard Paper Mario fans will probably be sticking around with Sticker Star and the game will probably be lengthy again, but I wanted to warn the veterans because they may be still slightly disappointed with the latest installment.

The good - the sticker mechanic has an interesting concept that makes Sticker Star unique from its predecessors, decent visuals

The bad - the lack of save block locations in the same area make it difficult to get further into the game, no partners and can only play as Mario, baffling music

Presentation - 3
Graphics - 8
Sound - 5
Game play - 8
Lasting appeal - 8

6.4 out of 10 GameSpot Score 6.5 out of 10