Current Events > Is Paper Mario Sticker Star really that bad?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I've only played Paper Mario N64, Thousand Year Door, and Super Paper Mario.

I know Sticker Star gets a pretty bad rep. For those who have played it, what do you think of it? Is it really that bad?

Yes

No, it's even worse

It is really bad. I regretted buying it.

Played two chapters and dropped it, apparently I stopped before the worst bit too.

I've 100% it, it's ass

It's so unrewarding to play; a total nothing of a game.

It's bad. Color Splash fixes a lot of it's issues and I'm sure origami king goes further but sticker star is not good

I played it and beaten it (nine times). I can't turn away from its flaws and missed opportunities, and it's definitely a far cry compared to the first two games (especially in the narrative department)...but I still greatly enjoyed Paper Mario: Sticker Star for what it was and it did implement some QoL features (increased coin wallet, more than two-way-directional hammering, emphasized exploration and action elements, etc.) that I hope to see return in a hypothetical return-to-roots entry in the series.

I also did play worse 3DS Mario games, though:

Mario Party: Island Tour
Great ideas marred by terrible execution; the unique board rules are all broken and rely too much on the already-broken luck-based factor for any game to just end. Even for a Mario Party game, this is just embarrassing and is the only Mario Party game I flat out hated as a result.

Mario Sports Superstars
While having multiple games in one bundle is (usually) always a good thing, this is one of the few instances where it's not, especially when many of the games featured here are stripped-down versions of their individual prior (and later) releases that each offered a ton more beyond just content and replay value. Really pointless game, for sure. On a related note...

Mario Tennis Open
Coming straight off of the high heels of its GameCube predecessor Mario Power Tennis, this one came as an absolute far cry on many angles while its new Chance Shots system is downright broken and RNG-based, ruining the overall skill-based tennis gameplay of the series (with the lack of any option to playing a match without Chance Shots being the cherry on top).

Its gameplay and level design is trash and it has no real story. Setpieces were pretty good though as well as music and I'm someone that gets an inordinate amount of enjoyment in games from music so I actually did enjoy the game a bit. I still recognize that it's pretty damn bad outside of that.

Thousand Year Door is on my list of favorite games of all time. And Im not someone who hates things just because theyre different, I actually played and finished Super Paper Mario at least twice.

With that said, Sticker Star fucking sucks. Its truly not worth playing. I didnt even get to Chapter 3. And I say that as someone who played and beat Sonic 06. There is literally no reason to engage enemies. The game encourages you to straight up avoid them. Boss fights are not a matter of player skill or strategy. Theres literally no story. No reason to play it.

Turbam posted...

No, it's even worse

It's bad

It's a legit 3/10 game, even if you ignore what it did to the Paper Mario legacy.

Sticker Star is probably my 2nd biggest gaming disappointment ever. The only game more disappointing is Halo Master Chief Collection. What an unforgivable disaster that was.

Evolician posted...

Sticker Star is probably my 2nd biggest gaming disappointment ever. The only game more disappointing is Halo Master Chief Collection. What an unforgivable disaster that was.

Dead Rising 4 is for me. Although Dead Rising at least had the decency to sell like shit and end the direction it was going in right there while Sticker Star sold well and continued two games that kept the gameplay nobody wanted.

... kinda :/

GiftedACIII posted...

Dead Rising 4 is for me. Although Dead Rising 4 at least had the decency to sell like shit and end the direction it was going in right there while Sticker Star sold well and continued two games that kept the gameplay nobody wanted.

Oh lord I didnt even think about that. Maybe Sticker Star is worse.

I thought it was okay... 6/10 game, imo.

Evolician posted...

Oh lord I didnt even think about that. Maybe Sticker Star is worse.

At least one plus side is that Sticker Star is the perfect example of a game unanimously hated that still sold very well which is helpful to use against people who like to tout sales as the end-all-be-all.

Combat takes more resources than you gain. It makes no sense. You might need to use 4 stickers to finish a fight, and you'll get maybe 1 and a very small amount of coins as a drop for winning. So basically it isn't worth fighting optional battles.

Nah. Its okay.

Now that 3DS games are expensive AF absolutely not worth trying without sailing the high seas though.

I was bored to tears barely 1/4ths in and couldnt finish it. Gameplay was terrible, story was bad, OCs gone, and bowser who was a competent villain in the first paper who constantly attempted to undermine you at every turn is MIA.

It goes to show how egotistical nintendo is at times when they continued the same formula as with the mario n luigi series but refused to admit they fucked up and to course correct.

In a vacuum its ok. But the problem is that people (myself included) want a return to games like the original Paper Mario, and TTYD. And games like Sticker Star are soooo far away from what we want.

I was wondering that too when I got it at discount. And to be honest? It's not that bad. It's not completely unplayable, buggy, offensive, unclear etc. it's just that at every conceivable opportunity they made the choice to do things just a little bit more awkward or annoying, or uninteresting. It's most cardinal sin, even beyond the stickers, is simply wearing the skin of paper Mario and being extremely boring and unremarkable.

As someone who has only played TTYD, what specifically makes this one so hated exactly? The gameplay mechanics?

Darkninja42 posted...

As someone who has only played TTYD, what specifically makes this one so hated exactly? The gameplay mechanics?

There's a few useful posts in the topic about that but in summary, yeah the gameplay has some issues, but also the story is practically non-existent.

You get stickers instead of XP, and use stickers to do all normal Mario rpg style attacks from hammers to jumps, and spend more than you use in regular battles so there's basically no reason to do them. Which is a huge problem in an RPG.

It's bad

Iyami posted...

There's a few useful posts in the topic about that but in summary, yeah the gameplay has some issues, but also the story is practically non-existent.

You get stickers instead of XP, and use stickers to do all normal Mario rpg style attacks from hammers to jumps, and spend more than you use in regular battles so there's basically no reason to do them. Which is a huge problem in an RPG.

That does sound counter intuitive as hell

It's a game with near boundless counterintuitive gameplay design. Bosses require certain stickers in order to defeat with barely any clue as to what works against them, and if you happen to use the wrong ones, well tough shit, you'll have to go back and find it again. Even when you have the right idea, you have to somehow know when to use it otherwise it won't work either.

It was literally the only Paper Mario game where I was forced to use a guide because the boss and puzzle design is beyond horrendous. And then of course the issue of random battles being 100% pointless.

Imagine playing Paper Mario but there's no story. No one says anything. You can't talk to anyone. Basically it's just Super Mario Bros 3 but instead of platforming you have to kill the enemies in turn based battles.

That's Sticker Star.

It's not really bad per se but feels like a complete waste of time to play. You get nothing out of it. Super Paper Mario was bad but it at least had a cool story to keep you interested. Sticker Star is just boring combat from start to finish.

Color Splash and Origami King are massive upgrades.

Iyami posted...

It's most cardinal sin, even beyond the stickers, is simply wearing the skin of paper Mario and being extremely boring and unremarkable.

Eh, honestly it's only really the Mario setpieces that made it barely interesting for me. I wouldn't have given it the time of day if it was a new IP.

Super Paper Mario was a cute, acceptable, one-time spinoff. But the fact that they double downed on straying from the JRPG formula is unforgivable...

Especially with how shallow Shitcker Star is. Comparing TTYD to it is like going from eating steak and lobster to dried, crusted dog shit.

DoctorPiranha3 posted...

Super Paper Mario was a cute, acceptable, one-time spinoff. But the fact that they double downed on straying from the JRPG formula is unforgivable...

Especially with how shallow Shitcker Star is. Comparing TTYD to it is like going from eating steak and lobster to dried, crusted dog shit.

That's a bit excessive. It's more like a ham sandwich and a bag of chips, except the sandwich has a mildly unpleasant flavor of mustard on it and the chips are a bit stale.

Iyami posted...

unpleasant flavor of mustard

No such thing.