Paper Mario: Sticker Star

NOTE: Some spoilers ahead.

This game is fun. I am compelled to like it on a sub-conscious level because it says "Paper Mario" in the title.

But it isn't what it could have been, and that is where I think most people are taking issue.

I can accept the sticker combat—though it isn't ideal. I can even accept the lack of partners—though, again, not awesome.

I can't accept the NSMB-style story. Why does NSMB have a crap story? Because it's a platformer. It's meant to be quick, perceptual fun—the story isn't important. PM:SS does that okay, but people play the Paper Mario series not for what it does perceptually, but for what it does conceptually.

The "concept" held while playing this game is: Mario, venturing to generic SMB3 style worlds (basic grass/water, sand, spooky forest, ice world, jungle, final castle), interacting with a very sparse amount of Toads.

Occasionally, there are fun/unique moments—Snifit or Whiffit, The Enigmansion—but they are short-lived, too few, and frankly just remind me more of what we're not getting in Sticker Star.

Originally, Paper Mario was going to be called "Mario Story." It was a story-centric title. The story is all-important. The story of how Mario does what he does. The journey he takes to do it—whether or not the overall reason (Bowser stole something, ancient evil, whathaveyou) is terribly unique. It's made unique in the way it is presented; this theme is bundled up in the paper the world is made of.

In the first two games, you were given an abundance of long-term and short-term purpose. You grew as you went, as did your partners—both physically in battle prowess, and spiritually in your cultural flow through the worlds you visited, often through some sort of effort—a train, a ride on a whale. Not just moving to a new place on a map. You couldn't just go back to Toad Town or Rogueport on a whim.

The overall mapping made abundant sense. For whatever reason, Decalburg is surrounded by completely non-sensical geography—on one side a forest and on the other side, a desert? To get to the desert in PM64, you had to take a train and go over Mt. Rugged. Mountains often break into plateaus and buttes and steppes and then into desert. It didn't have to make geographical sense, but it did.

Your partners were gained in a sensible manner. Mario lands at the Goomba household after Bowser takes Peach and the Star Wand. They patch him up and get him on his feet, and Goombario joins him as a sort of guide. It's practically Virgilian.

Whether they realize it fully or not, THAT kind of stuff is what made the first two games so endearing and irrefutably appealing. The combat system demanded more patience than does its sticker counterpart, but you were hardly alone. You have one or more partners, and usually plenty of named, personality-heavy NPCs with you or nearby. Mario seems to exist in the world. In PM:SS, he seems to be a stranger in a strange place.

It is lonely. It is a lonely game and a shallow pool, where you take a lot of steps but don't really go anywhere from a conceptual standpoint. I don't bemoan its existence. I do hold out for a champion's return to Glitzville, a jaunt through the sun-kissed Flower Fields, or some heavenward gazing within Starborn Valley. I want to see what Peach is doing. I want her tiny actions to ripple out and help Mario get where he is going. I want Bowser to have a voice, a purpose, and a personality.

It's just too black and white. I don't care that the game is made of paper. Enough with the paper jokes and the paper gameplay. Paper Mario (64) didn't even seem to realize it was paper. It was a tasteful aesthetic choice to show you that you were reading a story in a book—that was the point. It even begins with, "Today, I'm going to tell you a story of stars and wishes," paraphrasing a bit.

This is the issue with Sticker Star. It doesn't diminish the older games, but it is not what it could have been.

I agree somewhat, just not to that extent. I believe it's closer to the other games than you say it is. I still find that charm that the other games had. I see the witty dialog and personality, mostly in the toads, but the charm is there. However, all that aside, I still think it's a pretty great game.

That's just my opinion though.
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Athainir, King of the Valenwood forests
Wanna buy a stick? I gotta fresh one right here. No? Then what can I do for ya?

I think the problem is that gamers have pretty loose definitions of "story" to begin with. When you read books its kind of hard to be impressed by any "story" that happens in a video game. I certainly didn't go into this game (or any Mario game) expecting any kind of deep story.

You've put into words what I've been trying to. I've been describing this as Paper Mario without a soul, but you explained why.
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Shut up.
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phisho873 posted...

You've put into words what I've been trying to. I've been describing this as Paper Mario without a soul, but you explained why.

That was my intention. If just to explain the problem that people like you and I have with Sticker Star.

I'm not demanding everyone look at the first two games that way. But for those of us who do, Sticker Star is understandably disappointing.