Number 14: Paper Mario: Sticker Star
What is Paper Mario: Sticker StarPaper Mario: Sticker Star is the fourth title in the Paper Mario series and is exclusively available for the Nintendo 3DS, thus making it the first installment to be supported by a handheld device. The game was released on November 11, 2012 in North America and December 7th, 2012 in Europe and was preceded by 2007's Super Paper Mario for the Nintendo Wii.
The game was intially announced at the Nintendo Conference at the Electronic Entertainament Expo (E3) 2010 on June 15, 2010. Unlike the side-scrolling gameplay of it's predecessor, Paper Mario: Sticker Star returns to the series' roots and focuses on the RPG-style gameplay established in the original Paper Mario for the Nintendo 64.
During the game, players take control of the titular character Mario as he explores the overworld and challenges enemies into RPG turn-based battles, as well as obtaining items and power-ups, solving puzzles, etc.
PlotThe story starts during the night of the Sticker Fest, where the citizens of Decalburg come to witness the Sticker Comet which is said to make everyone's wishes come true. As Princess Peach, Mario and the Toads celebrate the event, Bowser and his troops suddenly crash the party to claim the Sticker Comet. The Toads try to prevent Bowser from touching it but fail, and the comet breaks into six Royal Stickers, one of which falls on Bowser’s head making him more powerful. Mario tries to attack him, but is overpowered and later wakes up with the Sticker Fest in a disaster: Toads have been stuck everywhere by Bowser, and the Princess missing. After regaining consciousness, Mario meets Kersti, a sticker fairy and the caretaker of the Royal Stickers. After a conversation with her, Mario then suggests that he will help her get the Royal Stickers back, and Kersti finally agrees with him and gives him an album.
Mario starts by freeing the Toads affixed in tape placed by Bowser in the damaged festival, gaining a hammer in the process. After liberating the Toads, Mario heads towards the plaza east of town and discovers the area rolled up. The Toads push to unroll the Plaza and bring it back to normal, accidentally trapping a Green Toad under the fountain in the process. As Mario leaves the town, he gets ambushed by a trio of Goombas. Kersti uses the opportunity to explain how battling foes with stickers work and Mario defeats the Goombas.
Mario starts his travels through the grasslands and across mountains. In the Warm Fuzzy Plains, Mario and Kersti meet a group of Toads hunting for stickers. They stumbled onto one Toad who dropped a rare Scissors sticker and quickly flees before warning them about Bowser Jr., who appears and demands that they give up the sticker. Mario defeats him using the Scissors sticker, and infuriated Bowser Jr. tears up the bridge using paperization and throws the bridge up onto a high ledge Mario cannot jump onto. Mario and Kersti get help from the group of Toads, who form stairs for them to walk onto the ledge, and Kersti teaches Mario the ability to paperize to fix the bridge. A similar incident occurs in Water's Edge Way, this time with Kamek who is chasing a Toad for his album page, and after losing to Mario uses paperization to toss away the Sticker Comet, which must be found to proceed.
Eventually, Mario and Kersti arrive at Goomba's Fortress, where the first Royal Sticker is being held. Mario travels through the fortress, dealing with its forces to reach the top where he and Kersti confront a Goomba corrupted by the Royal Sticker and his minions, who form into Megasparkle Goomba. Near the end of the battle, the Megasparkle Goomba splits and the other Goombas abandon their boss, claiming that the Royal Sticker is destroying who they are, and saying that they would prefer to be normal Goombas again. The enraged boss begins to battle alone, but Mario defeats him and obtains the first Royal Sticker.
Mario and Kersti then head to doorway which requires stickers to be placed on it to enter the desert. They travel through the world to Drybake Stadium, which requires three tablet pieces gain entrance. One of them is in Drybake Desert. The second one is in Yoshi Sphinx, where Mario battles Kamek again to safely collect it. The last one is in Damp Oasis, where a Vacuum is used to remove the sandstorm and then a Faucet to fill the pond with water. After restoring Drybake Stadium, Mario faces Tower Power Pokey, the guardian of the second Royal Sticker, at the top. By defeating him, Mario and Kersti recover the second Royal Sticker.
The next location is a forest. At the entrance is a sleeping Wiggler who must be awakened. He says that he was looking for food, due to the entire forest being polluted by poison. Mario and Kersti decide to help Wiggler and go to his house. However, deeper in the forest, Wiggler is snatched by Poison Bloopers, although both heroes think he just ran ahead. When Mario and Kersti arrive at Wiggler's Tree House, they find that Wiggler has been broken into five segments by Kamek's magic, four of which have run away to different parts of the forest. Mario and Kersti must find the Wiggler Segments and bring them back to the Wiggler's head. After the Wiggler Segment is initially found and the level cleared, it will run away to another level where it must to fought due to being enraged. On the Outlook Point the poison is discovered to come from an island near Whitecap Beach. Here, the last Wiggler Segment, after freeing it from Poison Bloopers, is enraged by this and runs to Surfshine Harbor to get a boat and reach the island. The Toad that owns the boat refuses, because a fishing boat was recently lost at the island. After this, the Wiggler Segment decides to finally return home.
After Mario and Kersti reattach Wiggler, he decides to help them by taking them to the island where the poison comes from. There, it is shown that Gooper Blooper, corrupted by the third Royal Sticker, is the cause of the poison in the forest. After defeating the Blooper, the poison disappears, reverting the forest to its normal state, and Mario gets the Royal Sticker. Wiggler can again find himself food.
To reach the other worlds, Mario and Kersti require the boat from Surfshine Harbor. The sailor Toad helps them with this after finding and placing back the boat's wheel. However a Big Cheep Cheep suddenly attacks the ship. After Mario defeats it, the frightened Toad retires from sailing, letting Mario to use the boat as he wishes.
This world is snow-themed. As Mario and Kersti travel through it, they come across The Enigmansion, where its steward is sitting outside due to the mansion being haunted by "Terrifying Things", Boos, freed from the Book of Sealing. He tasks Mario to find all 100 of them, reseal them in the book, and place it on the pedestal in the basement. After the task is completed, Kamek then reveals himself, claiming that he released the Boos by accident when he was looking for a novel about stickers. He tears out all the pages of the book, and crumples them together to form the Big Boo, and leaves. When the Big Boo is defeated and sealed again in the book, the steward thanks Mario by inviting him to enjoy tea, as well as letting Mario have Forebear's Portrait, which is of the Enigmansion's previous steward.
Mario and Kersti head to Whiteout Valley, where they use the portrait to fill the hole with the portrait. The forebear thanks Mario by starting up the ski lift, which Mario rides to reach Bowser's Snow Fort. This place is a minecart coaster which Mario must ride to reach Bowser Snow Statue. After breaking it down, it's revealed to be Mizzter Blizzard, a snowman who only wanted a body that wouldn't melt, and although the Royal Sticker gave him that, it also corrupted his mind. When Mizzter Blizzard is defeated and the fourth Royal Sticker is obtained, his final words are to beg Mario to rebuild him next winter, so they can meet on more peaceful terms.
If the player returns to the Mansion, the forebear has returned there, and the former steward is now a servant. Also, leaving the world causes Bowser Jr. to intercept and fight Mario. By defeating him again, Bowser Jr. retreats once more, returning to his father's castle.
At the next world, Mario and Kersti travel through a forested area, going on a raft, and getting chased by a massive cardboard Cheep Chomp. This is followed by Chomp Ruins, where Mario has to battle a massive Chain Chomp, afterwards is a more volcanic area. At Rumble Volcano, Petey Piranha, powered up by the fifth Royal Sticker, eats Kersti, so Mario must reach and defeat Petey to both free Kersti and retrieve the fifth Royal Sticker.
Arriving at the Gate Cliff, the five Royal Stickers begin to react. As Mario places them on the wall, he can paperize the wall and flip it, revealing Bowser's castle which flies to the sky, out of Mario's reach. Upon hearing mention of a creature flying over the forest and by heading to Wiggler's house, they find out Wiggler has grown up into Flutter. Wanting to repay Mario and Kersti for restoring the forest, Wiggler flies the pair up to Bowser Jr.'s Flotilla. Here, Mario defeats Bowser Jr. for the final time, and is able to reach Bowser's Sky Castle.
At the castle, Mario again faces and defeats Kamek for the last time. With him out of the way, Mario is able to continue on to Bowser at the final area of the castle, where Princess Peach is taped to a chain. During the final showdown, Bowser falls down into a pit with the last Royal Sticker, and emerges seconds later as a massive cardboard version of himself. With any attack dealing little damage to him, Kersti powers-up Mario to face him by sacrificing herself, apologizing for all the hassle she has caused him. With this power boost, Mario defeats Bowser, releasing him from the Royal Sticker's control. Mario frees Peach and uses the Royal Stickers to return everything to normal. After Peach congratulates Mario and the rest of the kingdom for their success, Bowser attempts to steal the Royal Stickers again, only for the revived Kersti to intervene. She jokes that she wants to change her career, and Mario, Peach, and Bowser laugh.
(Mario's helper in this series, Kersti, a sticker.GameplayAfter forgoing the classic battle system in favor of a sidescrolling platformer-style system in Super Paper Mario, Paper Mario: Sticker Star returns to the turn-based system from the first two installments. However, players have to gather stickers, which are necessary both for solving puzzles and gaining battle commands. Stickers are a major part of the gameplay and storyline. Some real-world objects (called Things) appear in the form of stickers, and they also have the ability to be used to attack and overcome obstacles. Instead of leveling up from experience points as in the previous installments, Mario must find HP-Up Hearts, which each increase his current HP by 5 and increase attack power from First Strikes. Stickers replace Badges from the first two installments of the series. A new feature is the "Battle Spinner" slot machine which allows Mario to attack with multiple stickers in one turn, gain coins, or cause a different event to occur, depending on the combination received.[1].
In addition, the gameplay places a lot more emphasis on the "paper" aspect than the previous games, containing status elements directly related to paper materials such as "soggy," "clipped," or "tacked;" additionally, the enemies sometimes transform themselves to better reflect the papery nature of their designs (eg, a Goomba occasionally becoming a cone Goomba), transform as part of an attack (eg, the Koopa Troopas), or simply resemble paper to begin with (eg, the Big Boo fought in World 4-3). Many characters actively refer to themselves as existing within a paper world, most notably Kersti. The world's environments also resemble craft materials like cardboard. A few enemies that debuted in Super Mario Bros. 2 are back such as Shy Guys Snifits and Ninjis.
When Mario battles an enemy, the screen will flash a certain color with the word saying "Fight" when the battle starts. It is a blue screen when Mario touches an enemy outside battle. If Mario hammers or jumps on an enemy, the words will say "Nice" with the blue screen. However if Mario jumps on a spiky enemy such as a Spiny or a Piranha Plant or if Mario gets hit by the First Strike outside battle in this game, the screen will be red and orange as soon as Mario enters it. If Mario defeats all of the enemies on the first turn of the battle, then "Perfect Bonus" will appear on the screen, which earns Mario bonus coins.
StickersStickers are the only items to appear in Paper Mario: Sticker Star. They serve as the only method of attack, items to solve puzzles, and the like. Stickers can be found anywhere in levels, being stuck across the environment and inside blocks, and can also be purchased in shops. Any stickers collected are stored in the album.
There are many types of stickers, but the two main types are Jump stickers and Hammer stickers. Jump stickers include Jump, Hopslipper, Line Jump, and Iron Jump. Most Jump stickers can attack all enemies that are not spiked or have some other hazard on top of them. Hammer stickers include Hammer, Eekhammer, Slaphammer, and Hurlhammer. Most of them can hit all enemies except ones that wield wings, Spear Guys when holding their spear horizontally, or some other type of flying device, such as Kamek's broom.
There are also stickers that support Mario in battle, such as Spike Helmets that give Mario a helmet that damages all enemies that attack him from above. Also in this category are Mushrooms that heal Mario and Leaf stickers that execute all action commands perfectly for one turn.
Other types of attack stickers include Fire Flower and Ice Flower stickers that burn and freeze enemies, respectively. Certain enemies also occasionally drop stickers that represent their weapons - for example, Sombrero Guys occasionally drop Sombrero stickers, and Bob-ombs drop Bomb stickers.
There are 2 special stickers that only appear in battle and then disappear when the battle is finished. Kamek turns all of Mario's stickers into Flip-flop stickers during the Kamek battles in World 2-2 and 6-3. Flip-flop stickers are similar to Eekhammers because they strike multiple times in a hammer-like fashion. Flip-flop stickers also retain their power status, i.e. a Shiny Jump sticker is a Shiny Flip-flop, a Megaflash Slaphammer is a Megaflash Flip-flop, etc. Flip-flops of the same size will appear the same, even if it is Shiny or Flashy. Once Flip-flops are used, they are gone from the sticker book, meaning that the player cannot get that sticker back once the battle is completed and their inventory is returned to normal.
The second sticker of this kind is none other than Kersti, who will enter Mario's sticker book during the final stage of the Bowser battle. She will activate the Battle Spinner and will automatically give Mario a whopping five slots for stickers per turn. Even though Kersti will disappear from the sticker book once used, Mario wishes her to be alive again, so he can still Paperize and talk to Kersti after the battle.
Although neither sticker can be tossed or sold in shops, selling Kersti is mentioned twice in the game: entering Decalburg's shop for the first time, and right before Kersti enters Mario's sticker book when battling Bowser. Also, if Mario is able to overpower Bowser without using the Kersti sticker, he is able to toss Kersti away. However, this action does not alter the storyline.
Finally, there are Secret Door stickers that Mario is able to paste onto the environment via the Paperize ability. These doors reveal secret underground rooms containing rare stickers and/or Things that are usually not used for storyline purposes, such as a Thumbtack and a Squirt Gun.
Every single sticker except Thing stickers sometimes have special traits applied to them, such as "Shiny", "Flashy", and "Big". These stickers usually sparkle in Mario's album and do more damage than usual to enemies. Stickers that have traits like "Big" and "Megaflash" take up more space in the album, not unlike Secret Door and certain Thing stickers. Typically, stickers wielding special traits are rarer than normal stickers. Battle Stickers and Thing Stickers come in three sizes: Small (4 Spaces), Medium (9 Spaces), and Large (16 Spaces).
WorldsWorld 1 1-1: Warm Fuzzy Plains
1-2: Bouquet Gardens
1-3: Water's Edge Way*
1-4: Hither Thither Hill
1-5: Whammino Mountain
1-6: Goomba Fortress
World 22-1: Drybake Desert
2-2: Yoshi Sphinx
2-3: Sandshifter Ruins
2-4: Damp Oasis
2-5: Drybake Stadium
World 33-1: Leaflitter Path
3-2: The Bafflewood
3-3: Wiggler's Tree House
3-4: Strike Lake
3-5: Loop Loop River
3-6: Outlook Point
3-7: Rustle Burrow
3-8: Tree Branch Trail
3-9: Gauntlet Pond
3-10: Stump Glade
3-11: Holey Thicket
3-12: Whitecap Beach
World 4 4-1: Snow Rise
4-2: Ice Flow
4-3: The Enigmansion
4-4: Shaved-Ice Cave
4-5: Whiteout Valley
4-6: Bowser's Snow Fort
World 55-1: Shy Guy Jungle
5-2: Jungle Rapids
5-3: Long Fall Falls
5-4: Chomp Ruins
5-5: Rugged Road
5-6: Rumble Volcano
World 66-1: Gate Cliff
6-2: Bowser Jr.'s Flotilla
Final: Bowser's Sky Castle
Why I Love This Game:1. RPG: Finally. Finally. After that experiment with Super Paper Mario (which I absolutely love to death) this game goes back to its original RPG structure.
2. Underrated: Many people bash this game and says that it is sub par and is horrible compared to the other 3 games before it. I agree, but it is not horrible at all! This game is not mentioned as much as other games when it has the right to be mentioned. Man....
3. Fantastic Series: I love the Paper Mario series to death. Really. This along with the Galaxy series are my favorite Mario games. Thousand Year Door and Super Paper Mario are top notch. This series has created a standing impact on me and that's what makes this game fantastic also.
Starting from the next right up is when true nostalgia begins....oh god.