[3DS] Paper Mario: Sticker Star – Paper Products Have Never Been This Fun!

Paper Mario Sticker Star Game For Nintendo 3DS w/ Super Mario Cast…

Paper Mario: Sticker Star for the Nintendo 3DS is not your usual Italian plumber jumping, mindless Gumba stomping, side-scrolling action game we are all used to. No, Mario and the gang now have actual personalities, expressions, and stories attached to them. You need to chat with resident toads, convert things to stickers, and figure out how to use this to solve that. Curious yet?

Munchkin started playing this game first. I kept wondering how interesting it could be as she  could play it for hours at a time (hey, we were on vacation) and what in the world she kept giggling about. When I created my game file (you can save up to three) and got going, I quickly understood. This game is genius!

Paper Mario Sticker Star is so creative and the ‘paper’ factor was executed so well. The whole world is made of paper so there’s a lot of popping up going on as well as heavy usage of tape. As Mario turns, you can see how flat he is. The graphics and story revolved heavily on their make up as buildings have cardboard doors and bushes fall flat when you hammer next to them. There’s also quite a bit of crumpling, paper clipping, cutting, bending, blowing away, and getting soggy. Don’t forget to turn the 3D effect on for this one – you won’t want to miss superb animation.

It’s categorized as an RPG but isn’t quite one. You do need to talk to various characters but that is basically to get clues from them. There are no interchanges of dialogue or alternate sequences. Sometimes they say random, off-the-wall kinds of stuff but that’s just to keep the game light and silly. Wiggler is so cute and I love the dance-loving squid! Paper Mario actually doesn’t talk. He makes a ton of funny expressions though.

Coins are collected and can be used to buy stickers or ‘things’. You’ll also see several cut scenes of diorama-type flashbacks. Again, the adorable graphics are rendered perfectly on the 3DS. You don’t really use ‘lives’ but keep recharging energy. If you run out and your game is over, you really just start from where you last saved it, which is something you do easily and often.

When encountering baddies, instead of just running and jumping on them, you enter a type of battle screen. You can then choose an item in your sticker book against them, each one does something different and takes away a certain number of health points. These stickers can be peeled off walls, are found in question mark boxes, or are awarded by other characters. The line jumper, flashy shell, and spike helmet stickers are some of the best in my opinion. For some reason, my daughter has this fondness for eekhammers.

Paper Mario also has a hammer but that’s mostly to whack blocks and trees. He is free to move left, right, forward, and back. A new ability to paperize lets Mario remove portions of paper that don’t belong on a certain part and replace them somewhere else. This includes putting stickers carefully in place to connect puzzles. Non-2D ‘things’ can be found throughout, which you will have to slap on a special screen to turn it into a sticker you can use. For example, you will come across a radiator, bowling ball, high heel shoe, goat statue, curling weight, and more. The way these things are animated when you use them is a total crack-up!

Variety is not lacking at all. I can’t even begin to describe on the different worlds and play options. All the old character from previous Super Mario games show up and have their own spin on what’s been happening. There’s even a level that is set up like a game show – Sniffit or Whiffit. My daughter enjoys how the story is tied into every bit.

Since there is so much hidden material, you WILL need some kind of external guide to get past certain portions. I heavily used this walkthrough from IGN while playing. Thanks to that, it helped me finish the game. Whoo-hoo! And it only took me some 32 hours to do so… Did I mention that I still haven’t unlocked everything yet? I would have no life if I tried to do that.

Paper Mario: Sticker Star for Nintendo 3DS thoroughly surprised me and has become one of my favorite games. I liked it so much that I may even play it from scratch again, not something I would usually do. Not too soon for the sake of my family’s and my sanity but one day for sure!

Have you been hooked by this sticker-sticking fun yet?