Zero Punctuation: Paper Mario: Sticker Star

[Kapol]

I'm playing through the game right now, and the feelings expressed in this video are pretty much identical to mine. The Paper Mario series was always one of my favorites. This one doesn't feel like a Paper Mario game at all. It feels like they tried making Paper Mario into normal Mario with a few BS mechanics thrown in. I despise the inventory puzzles since it always means I have to go back to get a certain sticker to do it. They're more of a chore than anything. All of the charm of the previous games is also gone. We get one new character, the sticker guide thing. She's pretty decent, but participates so little I sometimes forget she's there.

But there are a few stand-out levels that I enjoyed so far. The level in the forest where you lose all your stickers, your hammer, and the ability to paperize was interesting. I also liked the game show level... though the 'games' in it were dull and uninspired. Whack-A-Mole, quiz time, ball under moving cups, and quiz while whacking stuff. Meh.

Don't even get me started on the bosses either.

 

[Squilookle]

The credits raises an interesting question: What would Yahtzee make of any sort of new Conker game?

He'd probably jump to the same conclusion as the rest of us if a new Conker game was made: Rare lost it's spark years ago and this new Conker game is an absolute travesty that comes nowhere near the heights of the original.

Pretty much just take any review or Banjo Kazooie Nuts N' Bolts and substitute the name for 'Conker' and you can call it a day.

 

[Demonio Penguino]

To be honest, I actually completely agree with Yahtzee for once. The sticker system is just flawed and annoying, and the game would have been much better without it. Nintendo, we don't want annoying new gimmicks in our Paper Mario games. We just want Paper Mario.
Also, surprised that Yahtzee didn't mention the EXTREMELY annoying NPC character that you see in every 3D Zelda game.

 

[Cpt. Slow]

at Yahtzee doing the level remix dub and the 3DS pleasure sounds.

I heard that Skrillex is already on his way to Australia.

 

[Elvaril]

I would have bought a 3DS just to play this game. I can confidently state that Paper Mario is my all time favourite game, with TTYD coming in close second. Was super excited when I found out that the game play was going back towards the style of TTYD and away from SPM, but after reading the reviews I sadly decided to give this game a miss. When we get a true sequel to TTYD, then I will quite happily buy it. Until then, well, I feel like pulling out the N64 again and booting up the original.

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

Nintendo's problem is that they count entirely too much on their customer's loyalty to sell a product. I feel like every Nintendo-brand game that's come out in recent years has been lazy and half-hearted. People buy Nintendo systems because there are always five or six stellar titles that make the system worth owning, something which I suspect Nintendo has caught on to.

I love Paper Mario, but I got bored with Sticker Star so quickly that I was baffled as to why I bought it in the first place. Like everyone else says, it doesn't really 'feel' like a Paper Mario title. It's just hashed together junk that Nintendo knew it could sell us by attaching a name. Makes me worried about Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon.

 

[spacecowboy86]

Actually Yahtzee, I think Conker got transferred to the closet underneath Microsoft's staircase.

 

[scorptatious]

Nintendo has been taking the Mario franchise in this bizarre direction for the longest while now. It always seems to be about going "back to basics". With the NSMB series they've essentially taken out all story elements and just left you with the old "Peach captured by Bowser" bit, and they did that with SM3D Land as well.

I feel like saying "but Nintendo! You aren't Sonic Team! You're actually good at creating new characters and stories within the franchise, why are you so scared to do that?"

Anyway, glad to see Yahtzee enjoys the series. I love Thousand Year Door, and consider it easily one of the greatest games ever created. A solid, fun RPG wrapped in endless charm and originality.

Kinda have to agree about Mario. I was recently over at my sister's house with my nephews and we ended up playing New Super Mario Bros. for the Wii U. It felt so dull and copy pasted from previous games that I felt sorta sick playing it. I mean seriously, that flying squirrel power up is almost exactly the same as the raccoon suit. Are you even trying anymore guys?

In comparison, Kirby's Return to Dreamland, another game I played with my nephews, was boat loads of fun. Even if it is a "back to basics" kind of game like NSMB.

On the subject of Paper Mario, I have yet to finish either of the first two games. I need to rectify that sooner or later.

 

[gamerguy20097]

Yahtzee, if you were disappointed with Sticker Star, you should check out "Virtue's Last Reward". Much better.

Its an anime game. He will NEVER play it no matter how good it is.

 

[Hutzpah Chicken]

With the sticker thing, maybe Nintendo thought Little Big Planet was so successful because of the sticker collecting. I would invest in the idea of a Refrigerator to couch conveyor system.

 

[Darth_Payn]

Oh, no surprise Yahtzee hates it! It's a Nintendo product, after all!

...I feel dirty.

Ah-HA! So your one of the dolphins and stotes (sp?) accusing Yahtzee of baseless Nintendo hatred! This time he has a bloody good reason!
Doesn't the white space with the cupboard under the staircase with the unwanted games remind you of the bit from another video with "Come and join us, the Master will be home soon..." or is it just me?
Also, I liked the phat beat yahtzee dropped with his Mario Remix, and the cocaine sticker.

 

[Jailbird408]

Want to hear a tangentially related tale?
My dream Mario game is a sort of multiplayer Mario-and-Luigi style RPG for the Wii U set eighteen years after the Mushroom and Koopa Kingdoms have made peace. You play as Mario's daughter (hereafter called Mary because the concept alone drained my imagination) and her friend, Bowser Jr. The princess has been kidnapped, but so have Bowser and Mario, by a completely new enemy. You know how Miyamoto said the Koopalings weren't Bowser's sons? Well, their real father, who logically must be called Morton, is the perpetrator of this crime, and it's up to you to save your parents.
As you travel across the vast lands, you'll pick up two extra playable characters: the geeky daughter of Daisy and Luigi (hereafter known as Lewis), and the new chief of the Yoshi Tribe. Mary, Bowser Jr, Lewis and the Chief all have different abilities that will come in handy on the journey: Mary can use powerups and manage the inventory of items, Bowser Jr can use his claws to climb walls and melt things with his fire breath, Lewis is technologically minded and can shoot switches far into the distance with his lasers, and the Chief can use his long tongue and flutter jump to cross large gaps. With every district the quartet of adventurers enter comes a new obstacle that affects one of the players, forcing the other three to work together to help their friend across. For example, in the tropical district, Lewis is unable to enter bodies of water due to all the electrical items he's carrying, so Mary and Bowser Jr have to build bridges for him. (But not the Chief, because the tropical district comes before the forest-filled Yoshi Island where the Chief joins the party.)
The multiplayer aspect comes from a drop-in playstyle compatible with the Nintendo Network. It's sort of like Left 4 Dead, in a way. Players can choose to allow online players to enter their game and control one of their teammates, or enter another player's game themselves, so long as they've cleared the world that the host is up to. (Because spoilers are bad.) With multiple players, solving puzzles and choosing moves in combat goes by much quicker due to the fact that the host player doesn't have to control everyone.
But since Nintendo will never, ever make a game like this, I don't know why I brought it up.
So... carry on.

 

[WOPR]

Anyone else have the sudden urge to actually make "grasslands, desert, forest, jungle, ice world, fireworld, boss, unn-tss unn-tss unn-tss unn-tss" into a song?

Okay, I just have to say . . .
The reason for the sticker thing is that everything is made out of paper.
Paper? Stickers? Get it?

Yes and pokemon X and Y are jokes about 3D
Because they'll make an obligatory crossover game after everyone buys the first two and call it Pokemon Z

Get it?!
Cause Z is the DEPTH axis that they use to make things THREE DEE!?
HA. HA. HA. *shoots self*

...creativity has died...

 

[otakon17]

You know, I'm not sure if anyone else has come to this conclusion, but Paper Mario Sticker Star is more akin to a point and click adventure game than a RPG. Think about it, you walk around collecting everything and anything that looks useful and bosses usually have ONE specific sticker that makes them vulnerable. There is no leveling and all your exploration and combat abilities come from picking up the various stickers around the game world.

 

[otakon17]

Oh, no surprise Yahtzee hates it! It's a Nintendo product, after all!

...I feel dirty.

Ah-HA! So your one of the dolphins and stotes (sp?) accusing Yahtzee of baseless Nintendo hatred! This time he has a bloody good reason!
Doesn't the white space with the cupboard under the staircase with the unwanted games remind you of the bit from another video with "Come and join us, the Master will be home soon..." or is it just me?
Also, I liked the phat beat yahtzee dropped with his Mario Remix, and the cocaine sticker.

Stoat*

Man, why don't they just PORT the GOOD Mario RPG's to the DS by now? I mean really they'd make a killing I can almost guarantee it. I mean hell everyone else ports old goodies to new systems, Nintendo seems to be the only one that doesn't really. No, they just remake the same game and CALL it new.

 

[Swifteye]

I liked the RPG aspect to a mario game. When I played paper mario way back when it was a really fun game. I wanted to play the sequel but I never ponied up for a gamecube. I remember the sequel getting kind of a meh grade in the gameinformer. Super Paper mario got a better grade but something struck me about the information and the pictures. Namely that it looked more platformy than RPG like.
I actually really like both genres but I liked paper mario specfically because it was a mario RPG. So when I saw that this game had even less RPG elements than Super Paper mario and others I didn't buy it.

It's split people down the middle from what I hear.

 

[FallenMessiah88]

I've always wanted to check out the Paper Mario series, but this review seems to indicate that I should probably start with the older games first.

 

[deserteagleeye]

I really didn't need to hear Yahtzee moaning...or did I?

 

[Second World]

Moar Kirby's Dream Collections!
or.. maybe a Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for several of the older generations?
Despite many of them being in the e-shop, I wouldn't mind a "Nintendo's NES collection" or "Nintendo's SNES Collection" being available commercially on whatever medium. Hell, the Wii U could make it possible to have an amalgamation of a fairly large number of the old generation Mario games (NES, SNES, 64, GB, GBC, GBA, DS, and otherwise) on a single game. Resolution too small for some GB titles? Throw it on the controller screen. Needs DS capabilities? U controller + TV (with a lot of black space around the image I'd assume.)
I'm sure a lot of kids would go ape wild if they could play a Pokemon collection that leads up to the N64 generation using Wii U functionality/internet.
With Nintendo's good RPGs being in the past, I don't see how it could be too troubling to have Mario RPG (license issues?), Paper Mario, PM: TYD, Mario & LuigiiT, M&L:BiS on a Wii U with HD whateverz and additionL CoNtenT!1!? in a single collection.

 

[daxterx2005]

So Yahtzee is a fan of the Wario Wares huh?