Is Paper Mario: Sticker Star really a bad game?

[Glitchy Bowser Jr.]

Yes, it is a bad game. The story is reduced to the usual Bowser kidnaps Peach. Bowser has no clever dialogue, no partners, awful battle system, and it's easy to get stuck because you have no idea what to do. It's also easy to waste important stickers.

 

[Dr. Peach]

I think Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door is a better game. It's plot was original and not the same Bowser kidnaps Peach crap. I mean the original Paper Mario scares the shit out of me when Peach's castle is lifted and oh boy does it remind me of a Castlevania game that mentioned a fuckload of times and it's the same for SMG1 like I said. It's ADX68000 or Castlevania Chronicles.

 

[Mcmadness]

Alright so I'll give my own elaborate opinion on sticker star.

Now as I said earlier, the game is mediocre, its biggest flaw for me isn't the lack of partners, its not the lack of a story to latch onto. No, for me its the removal of any kind of level up system, its ridiculous cryptic trial and error puzzles, the utterly stupid weakness mechanic for bosses and no long term benefit for battles.

However I feel it does have its strong points. First off the game is BEAUTIFUL. All the levels are very detailed with excellent use of lighting, colours, and they make great use of the paper style. The battles themselves are very fast paced and the attacks the most satisfying in any of the games, with hammer attacks that cause shockwaves, incinerating foes with fire balls or fire hammers or jump attacks have a nice oomph to them on impact.

It has a great sense of exploration, with lots of hidden paths and areas full of secrets and goodies to find and there is a certain level of non-linearity to the game. It also a few charms of its own, like ninji's that fold themselves into origami shuriken.

Also I love peeling things from the environment.

 

[Valerius Dover]

I don't think this game is bad by any means. Could it have been better? Yes, but it still turned out great in my opinion.

I'll spare the downsides, since other people have mentioned these already. I like the unique take on the gameplay, and the story, while not deep, is somewhat decent at parts. There are some very entertaining levels in this game, actually. I can say I've enjoyed this game immensely so far.

However, I do hope this doesn't become the new standard formula. Instead, I have to wonder why the use of characters was so limited. "Only use characters from the Super Mario world". What does that mean, exactly? Main series? If so, where's Toadsworth? Where's the Toad Brigade? Or Toadette. Come to think of it, there aren't any female toads in this game...

 

[Lumastar]

As a reminder, mediocre is not bad.

 

[Magikrazy]

Sticker Star I mean it's like Metroid Other M and Mega Man X7


Yes. It's bad. Everyone else has explained why.

 

[Ray Trace]

I don't think it's a bad game at all

Before you stone me, I hate Sticker Star like everyone else

But is it REALLY a bad game? Well....no. It's playable. It's not a bug-ridden mess. It could be fun. Some people had fun with it. The reason people have problems with it solely because it labels itself as a Paper Mario game and people were expecting something along the lines of the first two Paper Mario games. And you couldn't blame them. After experimenting with Super Paper Mario, people would want a break from the break of tradition. And Sticker Star was even a game that looked promising to older Paper Mario fans when it got revealed.

It's not a bad game by any means though. If you want a bad game, go play Big Rigs, Ride to Hell Retribution or, hell, any of these games on this list.

 

[Valerius Dover]

I'd say it's in the same group as Star Fox Adventures. That game is almost entirely on foot with only a few vehicle stages and plays more like a Zelda game. Is it a bad Star Fox game? Well, yes. Is it a bad game? No, not by any means.

Paper Mario: Sticker Star is a bad Paper Mario game, but not a bad Mario game.

 

[Ray Trace]

I'd say it's in the same group as Star Fox Adventures. That game is almost entirely on foot with only a few vehicle stages and plays more like a Zelda game. Is it a bad Star Fox game? Well, yes. Is it a bad game? No, not by any means.

Paper Mario: Sticker Star is a bad Paper Mario game, but not a bad Mario game.

There's a lot of games like that. Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts is another excellent example of a "revived" dead game series people wanted but expectations got crushed.

 

[Gumball Machine]

Someone on GameFAQS compared Sticker Star to Megaman Battle Network.

This...could not be further from the truth.

Battle Network for all of it's flaws is still superior to Sticker Star.

Also, there's the whole "no stickers=no attacks" problem. Let's compare this to the first two Paper Marios and the Mario and Luigi games where you have no Flower Points, Star Power, Bros. Points, Bros. Items, or Special Points. You can at least still attack with Mario and Luigi's jump and hammer commands and each Paper Mario partner can still use their default move.

I'm also a little bit disturbed by the bosses' absurdly high HP, oddly enough, I'm okay with the Mario and Luigi bosses having high HP.

 

[Ray Trace]

I'm also a little bit disturbed by the bosses' absurdly high HP, oddly enough, I'm okay with the Mario and Luigi bosses having high HP.

It's possibly because damage and stat outputs on both games are different? Though I don't know if Sticker Star uses the lower stat system like it does in the first two games.

 

[Lumastar]

I'm also a little bit disturbed by the bosses' absurdly high HP, oddly enough, I'm okay with the Mario and Luigi bosses having high HP.

It's possibly because damage and stat outputs on both games are different? Though I don't know if Sticker Star uses the lower stat system like it does in the first two games.

It does, but each boss has a certain Thing sticker or stickers that greatly drop their health.

 

[Ray Trace]

It sounds like goddang stupid game design to have an uber boss specific item without actually having to resort to any real strategy to beat those bosses

 

[Lumastar]

It sounds like goddang stupid game design to have an uber boss specific item without actually having to resort to any real strategy to beat those bosses

1. The strong stickers don't finish them off alone (except for World 4's boss).
2. You can only have one of each Thing sticker at a time.

 

[Crackin355]

I enjoyed it quite a lot. I appreciated the change to be honest, I can see how a lot of people were pissed off at them for doing that but I wasn't one of them.

I didn't have any trouble with the puzzles either so I guess that probably made my experience somewhat better. I also battled everything I saw which was a bonus since I enjoyed the battling and peeling off stickers from the environment was satisfying for me.

It is kind of strange to look back on how when I saw the teaser trailer I thought it looked bad so I was totally uninterested and then how my opinion flipped when they started talking about the sticker mechanic.

 

[Lumastar]

I enjoyed it quite a lot. I appreciated the change to be honest, I can see how a lot of people were pissed off at them for doing that but I wasn't one of them.

I didn't have any trouble with the puzzles either so I guess that probably made my experience somewhat better. I also battled everything I saw which was a bonus since I enjoyed the battling and peeling off stickers from the environment was satisfying for me.

It is kind of strange to look back on how when I saw the teaser trailer I thought it looked bad so I was totally uninterested and then how my opinion flipped when they started talking about the sticker mechanic.

I'm glad that you can see the good in the game.

 

[Vommack]

I'm also a little bit disturbed by the bosses' absurdly high HP, oddly enough, I'm okay with the Mario and Luigi bosses having high HP.

It's possibly because damage and stat outputs on both games are different? Though I don't know if Sticker Star uses the lower stat system like it does in the first two games.

It does, but each boss has a certain Thing sticker or stickers that greatly drop their health.

And the only thing that I've heard about those items is that figuring it out comes down to pure guesswork.

 

[Lumastar]

I'm also a little bit disturbed by the bosses' absurdly high HP, oddly enough, I'm okay with the Mario and Luigi bosses having high HP.

It's possibly because damage and stat outputs on both games are different? Though I don't know if Sticker Star uses the lower stat system like it does in the first two games.

It does, but each boss has a certain Thing sticker or stickers that greatly drop their health.

And the only thing that I've heard about those items is that figuring it out comes down to pure guesswork.

There are subtle hints for some of them.

Spoiler

For example, the arena where the Tower Power Pokey is fought resembles a baseball stadium.

 

[Vommack]

And the only thing that I've heard about those items is that figuring it out comes down to pure guesswork.

There are subtle hints for some of them.

Keyword: Some. As in, there are still more of them that come down to throwing random things at it until something sticks.

 

[Lumastar]

And the only thing that I've heard about those items is that figuring it out comes down to pure guesswork.

There are subtle hints for some of them.

Keyword: Some. As in, there are still more of them that come down to throwing random things at it until something sticks.

Some of them should be obvious, such as

Spoiler

the Big Cheep Cheep, which can be weakened by using the Hook thing.

 

[Vommack]

And the only thing that I've heard about those items is that figuring it out comes down to pure guesswork.

There are subtle hints for some of them.

Keyword: Some. As in, there are still more of them that come down to throwing random things at it until something sticks.

Some of them should be obvious, such as

Spoiler

the Big Cheep Cheep, which can be weakened by using the Hook thing.

...And that's still some, see?

 

[Crackin355]

Not completely but they are pretty difficult to figure out. Vague hints. Sponge for third boss because of all that poison in world 3, baseball bat for second boss because the field before you fight it is literally a baseball field. ice world, fire stuff; simple.

that red boot sticker that i forget the name of (infinijump?) is also pretty good to use, pretty sure that's how i beat petey.

Actually the only ones that don't really have hints are the Goomba boss and the final boss. The Final Boss was kind of like a puzzle tbh.

 

[Tyrell Badd]

It sounds like goddang stupid game design to have an uber boss specific item without actually having to resort to any real strategy to beat those bosses

You can beat the bosses without using the uber thing stickers, though. It takes a lot longer, but it's possible because I did it. It took an hour to beat Tower Power Pokey, though, so I do not recommend it. Too bad he had the best music.

I'd say it's in the same group as Star Fox Adventures. That game is almost entirely on foot with only a few vehicle stages and plays more like a Zelda game. Is it a bad Star Fox game? Well, yes. Is it a bad game? No, not by any means.

Paper Mario: Sticker Star is a bad Paper Mario game, but not a bad Mario game.

Pretty much my opinion. It's a giant pile of shit compared to the previous three Paper Marios and dumps on everything that made the series great, but it's not the worst I've played. Major disappointment, at the very least. Really, the only saving grace it has is that it has a pretty great soundtrack......................and they decide to waste that by only putting 1/4 the songs in the "sound test" that you work hours to unlock. What a pointless thing. You may as well not have a sound test at all.

 

[NSY]

The main thing that pisses me off about Sticker Star is that how it goes against the rest of the series, the story, gone, the characters, gone, the charm, gone. Is it a bad game, no but's it's very close to being one.

 

[yoshiking14x]

There were no unique Paper Mario characters and everyone kept talking about how the world is made of paper. I tought it was just the art style. playing the game was fun though.