Paper Mario: Sticker Star

[Ronnie]

As if we haven't had the exact same forest, sand, ice levels a thousand times before. My heart sank a bit when I saw another forest area for world 5. Sums up Nintendo's recent laziness when it comes to Mario/Zelda recently.

 

One question though, I'm stuck on level 4-2, there's scrap sticker that needs sticking to get through the level but it's not in that level and as usual Kirstee is no help whatsoever. Any subtle hints about where to look, without spelling it out too much?

[Magnus]

If you mean level 4-5, the sticker is in level 4-3.

[Ronnie]

Sorry yeah, 4-5. I went there straight from 4-1, off to look for a second exit...

[Hero-of-Time]

Cracked on with this some more yesterday and got to world 3-11. Man, that whole world felt like filler. You grab want you need, only for him it to run off to another level! I didn't care for the poison setting of the world either. Worst place in the game so far.

[killer kirby]

This is the first game I have ever gone into a store to get ready for an area, this is...weird, yet...nice, I want to dis this game yet...something draws me to it unlike what the other Paper Mario games did. I'm confused.

 

Also agree with Ron, Mario Galaxy series Zelda since after MM have all sucked.

Edited January 4, 2013 by killer kirby

[Ronnie]

I certainly don't think Galaxy and post-MM Zelda were bad, far from it, the Galaxies and Wind Waker were incredible. All I meant was IMO recently Nintendo have gotten a bit lazy with their flagship titles.

[Fused King]

I certainly don't think Galaxy and post-MM Zelda were bad, far from it, the Galaxies and Wind Waker were incredible. All I meant was IMO recently Nintendo have gotten a bit lazy with their flagship titles.

 

I must say that it is getting pretty obvious in at least the Zelda franchise.

My hopes are for more weird shit and weird areas than the regular areas.

[Grazza]

I'm happy with forest, snow mountain etc as long as they're well done. The danger is that if developers try too hard to avoid those very natural, intuitive themes, we'll end up with weird themes that just don't work and are different just for the sake of it.

 

That said, Thousand Year Door's train level is a textbook example of how to do it right.

[Lens of Truth]

I'm happy with forest, snow mountain etc as long as they're well done. The danger is that if developers try too hard to avoid those very natural, intuitive themes, we'll end up with weird themes that just don't work and are different just for the sake of it.

 

That said, Thousand Year Door's train level is a textbook example of how to do it right.

 

Agree with this and also Ronnie's point. I wonder why Nintendo's world making is so rote these days. It's like they actively avoid the imaginative dimension in their games, like they don't want that spark of character and memorability that makes a game feel truly special and unique (Galaxy 1 did have this for me). Or is this all due to Miyamoto's table-turning? I found Skyward Sword to have some lovely touches, like Zelda herself (most charming in the series), Groose, Impa, Ghirahim all handled well, the Sand Sea, Skyloft, Koroks etc, but other parts felt frustratingly undernourished - mainly the Eldin region and the barren sky overworld.

 

Sticker Star has been my most anticipated game since its announcement. I thought it would be the first 3DS game outside of Ocarina of Time that I'd truly LOVE and cherish (while the 3DS has been solid so far, most games fall into the "good not great" category for me). As much as I genuinely want to love Sticker Star, it frankly feels like a chore to play. It's filled a few long commute holes, to be sure, but at home I'm having trouble tearing myself away from much more enjoyable games on the Wii U (not to mention Nintendo Land is positivly dripping with charm, polish and character). I'd be shocked if I remember this as fondly as the first two.

 

The best thing so far is the music and the toads.

[Grazza]

I couldn't agree more, @Lens of Truth. The 3DS is my favourite handheld ever - I absolutely love it. And yet so many of the games are 8/10 for me, maybe 9/10, but no real classic yet. I'm hoping to enjoy something as much as Etrian Odyssey or Dragon Quest IX on the DS, because the hardware deserves it!

[Fused King]

Am I to understand that this particular Paper Mario is actually the most basic in terms of areas?

 

I mean, Thousand Year Door and Super Paper Mario were incredible in their creativity when it came to environments.

Even the very first Paper Mario had some great new spins on the classic Mario universe.

[Dcubed]

I've just finished the 4th world and I'm still enjoying it (4-3 in particular was lots of fun )

 

But I do find myself wishing for more story and characterisation... I'm not fully convinced that ditching the story entirely was the right way to go (though I'm not really missing the experience points - I'm really enjoying the battle system in general still and I'm finding myself using the Thing stickers in battle a lot more in general - now that I know that I can always buy the Things back from Decalburg after using them, I can enjoy all their funny animations )

 

Am I to understand that this particular Paper Mario is actually the most basic in terms of areas?

 

I mean, Thousand Year Door and Super Paper Mario were incredible in their creativity when it came to environments.

Even the very first Paper Mario had some great new spins on the classic Mario universe.

 

Yeah. The worlds pretty much follow the classic Mario cliches (Grasslands, Desert, Ice etc)

 

That being said, there's plenty of creativity throughout and lots of parts that'll make you laugh and smile...

 

Just don't expect the crazy characters, settings or story that you'd expect from a Paper Mario.

Edited January 4, 2013 by Dcubed

[Captain Falcon]

I felt the box was too small at one point. Would have been better is the box was an outline of the Thing.

 

Well it might have been the other way around - all I remember is looking at the box and looking at the sticker and thinking them an ill match. The thing outline idea would be pretty good actually. It would save you having to paperize all the items you think it could be and work your way through them. And if you don't have the item as a sticker or thing, then you know to keep looking for stuff.

 

This would have been better if there were multiple solutions to puzzles with there being an outline for the preferred choice but you could still use alternate ones to the same ultimate effect - possibly with a bit of added humour/sillyness.

 

 

I do think it feels pretty safe on the geographical front. I'm working my way through world 5 and the bits that stand out as interesting ideas have nothing to do with the actual locations - nothing really happens specifically because of the world it takes place in and could be easily transported to different locales. I guess since the emphasis isn't on story or even the platforming parts, it robs you of reasons to be in strange places or to have elaborate setup that require skill to navigate.

 

It's a difficult one and whilst it's easy to moan about the lack of diveristy in comparison to previous Mario games, there is little driving the need for it. Galaxy gets away with it because you are supposed to be exploring the universe where anything could happen.

 

In some ways, I don't think the level structure helps either as you have to be able to contain bits into small levels without them feeling disjointed or impacting the bite size approach to level lengths.

 

Perhaps the best approach would be to have certain "bonus" levels that would serve to move you around them map and then you could have levels on trains, or totally underwater, up in the clouds, SMB3 Pipe World, etc without the need to design whole worlds around them.

[Hero-of-Time]

Just finished the 5th world now. I may go searching for some secret doors and stickers before I head off for the final world.

 

Something had been bugging me after every world boss fight. When you get the story book scene after the boss, some music plays that seemed very familiar to me. I clicked on what it was last night. It seems to be a slight remix of this!

 

	Audio

 

	Audio

 

Awesome!

[nekunando]

I'm not particularly far into this yet but given that people seem to be having problems with certain sections and not being sure what to use where or where exactly to go, I've been jotting down a few notes on the 3DS Game Notes feature to hopefully save me some frustration later on..

[Hero-of-Time]

Whoever came up with the achievements/Flags in this game wants shot. I've finished all of them on the left hand side but have yet to unlock any on the right, despite me being at the final battle, which means you pretty much have to grind them out. I refuse to beat the game until I have done all of the sidequests!

 

I need to spend 6,000 coins in the shop.

Get 400 more Perfects in battle.

Need to get 35 more perfects when doing the roulette.

Get 500 more Excellents in battle.

 

*continues to grind*

[Captain Falcon]

I beat the last boss yesterday. It wasn't quite as annoying as I was expecting given some of the comments but it still took me 3 attempts.

 

The first time, I just gave up as I felt I could have done with a certain thing sticker and didn't feel like wasting a bunch of other stickers when one could have done the job - especially since I didn't know what else was coming up.

 

The second time, I got done over by the battle system and met an unavoidable death...

Got the last bit with the giant Bowser and had 5 attacks to perform. The order goes, left hand, face, right hand, left hand, right hand. So I set up my stickers to jump on each hand and hammer the face as I already discovered you cant jump normally on him. So I have my powerful jumps set up and all four hand attacks but because I destroy both hands on the first of the two turns against the hands, I was forced to jump on bowsers face twice which sent my HP lower enough that combined with Bowser attack, it ended up killing me. Now you can argue that my health shouldn't have gotten so low but I only had a couple of mushrooms going in and had used them on the grind up to that point and recovering health that the game demands you to lose before Kertsi intervenes and says use her - if I'd had known, I wouldn't have bothered and suspect would have managed to beat him. I did have a healing 1-up mushroom in effect which recovers enough to balance a defended attack but the game it was no good against my forced damage in addition.

 

 

Oh yeah, and whilst I'm ranting about the stupid battle system, the Kamek fight at the start of stage just led to more frustration. If you don't get perfect on the slot machine, and you don't get perfect with your attacks on turn one, he respawns his copies and they fly into the air where you can't even attack them. So you are forced to use stickers, which you can't even see what they are anyway, knowing full well they will go to waste. So annoying. I must have beat him and reset the game half a dozen times at least after just that fight as I felt like I was throwing stickers away trying to beat him. In the end, I got perfect on the spinner and managed to take out both him and his two clones on the first round - at which point, I exited the level to save it straight away.

 

 

And the third time, I made sure not to let the game do me over and gave the boss a good walloping

I used Infinite Jump stickers on both hands and hit all 100 jumps to break each one with a sticker a piece making sure to choose hammers for the next set of attacks against them so I could hit either hand or face depending on my success.

 

In the build up, I knew exactly which stickers I could freely waste without worry.

 

 

The only flag I managed to get was for completing all levels - didn't manage any others. Especially not the stupidly grindy ones H-o-T is on about. My sticker collection isn't too shabby though - 54/64 things and 93/96 battle so I think I might try to find the rest of those for the little extras they unlock. I also found every Luigi but the only thing it seemed to net wasn't worth the effort... which says something when it required no effort at all.

 

So overall? I stand by my previous assessment - not bad but certainly not good either with too many big flaws that lead right up to the end credits. If you want a Mario platformer, get 3D Land. If you want a Mario adventure, get Bowser's Inside Story instead.

 

Come on Alpha Dream - show 'em how it's done with M&L4 please.

[Magnus]

I had the exact same thing happen to me when I fought the final boss, except I didn't die, just wasted a couple of powerful jump stickers needlessly. Though I guess at that point jump stickers are useless anyway.

 

I was going to reset the game and start the final boss fight over once I knew what thing stickers I needed for the first couple of stages, but the problem is that you don't know what's coming up, so you may end up returning without the thing sticker you need for the next stage anyway.

 

I agree about fighting Kamek. There's nothing quite like knowing that you might accidentally waste some of your best stickers - even better when you know you can't hit him but have to attack anyway.

[Captain Falcon]

I refuse to beat the game until I have done all of the sidequests!

 

Did you do the missable side quest?

 

Filling Wriggler's diary by taking his body parts sight seeing.

 

 

 

I had the exact same thing happen to me when I fought the final boss, except I didn't die, just wasted a couple of powerful jump stickers needlessly. Though I guess at that point jump stickers are useless anyway.

 

I was going to reset the game and start the final boss fight over once I knew what thing stickers I needed for the first couple of stages, but the problem is that you don't know what's coming up, so you may end up returning without the thing sticker you need for the next stage anyway.

 

I agree about fighting Kamek. There's nothing quite like knowing that you might accidentally waste some of your best stickers - even better when you know you can't hit him but have to attack anyway.

 

But they aren't useless, they are worse than useless - useless means they have no affect either way on anything but that simply isn't true in this case.

 

It felt a bit like the final boss of

Super Metroid

except because this relies on an item management system, the game suffers badly from it whereas in the other game, consumeables no longer matter at that point beyond health.

 

I think the fight against

Bowser Jr on the airship

was a much fairer battle with a lot more sign posting on what was to be expected without beating you over the head with it. In fact, that was good level overall and much better than the last.

 

Oh yeah, finding a friend...

who can fly?

 

That well known of most well know Nintendo characters... Flutter who has appeared in all of two major games that weren't even proper Mario games in the strictest sense.

 

I went to his level to see if he had any advice to give and then when I saw him missing, I thought something was up so I went to the top.

 

Prior to that, I'd been making trips down the rpaids level in world five thinking I needed to hijack the flying cheep cheep (Big Bertha). That caused me no end of hassle on the single most annoying stage in the game. I kow it isn't a friend but I could think of anything else in the game that flew expect Bowser Jr in the Koopa Car.

 

 

[Magnus]

I only found out where I needed to go at the end because a Toad told me. Kersti was no help as usual. Though I guess the fact that there are no other characters in the game should have tipped me off too.

 

As for jump stickers, I read that the jump upgrade sticker lets you jump on spiked enemies? I assume that means that green boot one. Knowing that when I was playing the game might actually have been useful. :p

[Captain Falcon]

I only found out where I needed to go at the end because a Toad told me. Kersti was no help as usual. Though I guess the fact that there are no other characters in the game should have tipped me off too.

 

As for jump stickers, I read that the jump upgrade sticker lets you jump on spiked enemies? I assume that means that green boot one. Knowing that when I was playing the game might actually have been useful. :p

 

I only ever came across one of them Green Boot stickers and it went straight in the museum. I if recall, I got it by making a Prize Block appear after placing a sticker in Paperize mode but I'll be damned if I knew which sticker or what location as different places have different effects on stickers and like almost everything else in the game, you get no help working out which do what.

 

Instead of that sticking them down to make blocks, there should have been a Toad who would combine two stickers into one with properties of both - would have been far easier to reliably get holder of certain rarer stickers if you really wanted them as you could farm for lesser ones and build up from the bottom.

 

Heck, a full on trading/bartering mode would have made more sense given how it tends to be rife in real sticker collecting communities - trade stickers A, B and C for sticker X and Y. Maybe travelling all around the map trading for some super ellusive rare sticker. Combining elements of Link's Awakening's trading sequence and GTA:Chinatown Wars drug trafficking.

Edited January 6, 2013 by Captain Falcon

[Magnus]

I never managed to wrap my head around the prize blocks that only appear once you place a sticker. Sometimes you'd get an upgraded version of the same sticker, but other times you'd get something completely different. It was never reliable enough for me to dare risk any of my good stickers.

[Agent Gibbs]

As fun as this game is its so irritatingly hard and needlessly so at certain points.

The desert Oasis/sandstorm, lets see what our guide helper suggests...oh paperize... well maybe a fan will blow a sandstorm away? nope so i resort to a guide because nothing in game tells you.

 

Or the shiney spikey boss with 350hp, i wasted al my stickers on that thing, and eventually thought maybe there's a specific thing sticker i should use, and there was the bat, and i'd used it pretty much straight away, who knew you had to wait a bit till it was all out and then bat away its body

 

 

and from what you guys say it continues with its needlessly complex/unaided/hard segments etc.

 

Its a good game but its not the paper mario rpg we all deserved after super paper mario

[Hero-of-Time]

Did you do the missable side quest?

 

Nadda. Sadly I knew nothing about this until you mentioned it and by then it was too late. Luckily you get sod all from it so i'm not really fussed, unlike some RPGs were you miss a ultimate weapon or something like that.

 

I finally finished getting all of the flags yesterday...phew. : peace:

 

 

With that done and dusted I headed off for the final boss. It took 2 attempts for me to defeat him, due to not know what stickers I needed, but overall it wasn't a bad fight at all. At least it didnt drag out like most of the Mario RPGs final bosses seem to do.

 

Overall all the game is highly average. The lack of characters, uninspiring worlds, idiotic puzzles and a story that's *sniggers* paper thin, left a game that it's very memorable at all.

 

It was either Magnus or Captain Falcon who mentioned puzzle games like Monkey Island and how this seemed a bit like that. I agree with that statement, but the thing that made puzzles in the likes of Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle more fun were the characters and story, which this game really lacked.

 

If the puzzles themselves had more than one solution I think things would have been a lot better. But needed one specific item to be able to move forward was just stupid and many times I resorted to using G-Faqs as I couldn't be bothered to travel from place to place, hoping I would stumble on the right thing.

 

So, yeah, not a patch on the other games in the series. Hell, I probably got more enjoyment out of Super Paper Mario. Shocking, I know.

[Captain Falcon]

Nadda. Sadly I knew nothing about this until you mentioned it and by then it was too late. Luckily you get sod all from it so i'm not really fussed, unlike some RPGs were you miss a ultimate weapon or something like that.

 

Good job too as if it were some ultimate weapon (sticker), you'd either have the choice of reading a vague description and probably wasting it, or you'd put it in the museum to find out what it does and never actually get to use it anyway.