Paper Mario: Sticker Star is a 2012 role-playing video game created by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS. It is the fourth game in the Paper Mario series and part of the larger Mario franchise. This game is the first in the series released on a handheld console. The story follows Mario and a new character named Kersti as they journey through the Mushroom Kingdom to collect six Royal Stickers that Bowser has scattered.
Sticker Star uses a unique papercraft visual style, which plays an important role in how the game is played. Players can collect stickers throughout the game world. These stickers act as single-use items or power-ups that help during turn-based battles against enemies or solve puzzles. The game’s designer, Shigeru Miyamoto, wanted the gameplay to be different from earlier Paper Mario games. This led to a focus on gameplay and combat, with less emphasis on the story. Some characters who originally fought alongside Mario were removed due to challenges with the sticker mechanics, and fewer characters with unique designs were included.
Sticker Star was released in November 2012 in North America and December 2012 in other regions. Reviews of the game were mostly positive, with praise for its graphics, writing, and strategy. However, some critics noted issues such as uneven difficulty in battles, fewer traditional role-playing game features, a limited story, and many Toads that looked the same instead of using the original fictional races from the series. Opinions about the sticker mechanics were divided. A sequel, Paper Mario: Color Splash, which included ideas from Sticker Star, was released for the Wii U in October 2016.
Gameplay
Sticker Star has a visual style similar to earlier games in the series. The player controls a paper model of Mario in a 3D papercraft world, with environments that include snowy areas, forests, and volcanoes inspired by the Mushroom Kingdom. The story follows Mario’s mission to collect six Royal Stickers that Bowser scattered after attacking the annual Sticker Fest. Mario is joined by Kersti, a sticker fairy who gives Mario the power to use stickers.
A key part of the game involves collecting stickers, which help Mario gain abilities to move forward. Stickers are found by peeling them from objects in the environment, bought with coins, or received from non-playable characters (NPCs). The player has limited space in their inventory, with larger stickers taking up more room. Stickers are used for both fighting enemies and solving environmental puzzles.
The player can activate a mode called "Paperization," which flattens the screen to reveal hidden details. Real-world items, called "Things" in the game, such as baseball bats and scissors, can be turned into special stickers called "Thing Stickers." These are often needed to solve puzzles. For example, a Fan Thing Sticker can be placed in the environment to create wind that moves or removes obstacles.
Combat in Sticker Star is turn-based and starts when Mario encounters enemies. The player’s available attacks depend on the stickers in their inventory. For example, the Jump sticker allows Mario to jump on enemies. Some enemies require specific attacks, like using a hammer sticker instead of jumping on an enemy with a spiked helmet. Thing Stickers can deal extra damage to enemies, and certain types are needed for boss battles. Each sticker is used only once, so players must collect new ones regularly. Players can increase their maximum health points (HP) and other abilities by collecting HP-Up hearts, which add five HP and improve attack strength.
Plot
Each year, the Sticker Comet arrives in the Mushroom Kingdom. People who make wishes on the comet have a good chance of having their wishes come true because of the Royal Stickers that live inside the comet. Mario goes to the Sticker Fest, a festival in the city of Decalburg that happens when the Sticker Comet arrives. At the festival, Princess Peach introduces the comet on stage. While the Toads prepare their wishes, Bowser interrupts the celebration and breaks the comet into six pieces, the Royal Stickers, which scatter across the Kingdom. One piece lands on Bowser’s head. Mario tries to stop Bowser but fails and is knocked unconscious. Later, Kersti, a sticker assistant who helps grant wishes to the Sticker Comet, wakes Mario up.
After cleaning up the mess in Decalburg, Mario and Kersti leave to find the first Royal Sticker. They travel through six areas to collect all six Royal Stickers. Each sticker is protected by a boss. After defeating each boss, a scene shows how the boss got the Royal Sticker and why they wanted it. Megasparkle Goomba used the first Royal Sticker as a crown and claimed to be a king. Tower Power Pokey was locked away by Kamek. Gooper Blooper, who loves music, accidentally released poison. Mizzter Blizzard wanted to control winter so it would never end. Petey Piranha accidentally swallowed his Royal Sticker.
After collecting all the Royal Stickers, Mario and Kersti go to Bowser’s Castle and face Bowser. During the final battle, Kersti gives Mario sticker powers to help him defeat Bowser. When Bowser loses, he drops the last Royal Sticker. Mario uses his wish to restore peace in the Mushroom Kingdom and bring the Sticker Comet back to life. Kersti is also brought back to life. The story ends with a parade celebrating the return of the Sticker Comet.
Development
Sticker Star was first introduced at E3 2010 with the temporary name Paper Mario, shown in a video trailer. At that time, few details about the game were shared, except for more trailers released later at Nintendo World 2011 and E3 2011. The game was officially named Sticker Star during Nintendo's E3 2012 press conference, where it was also announced alongside New Super Mario Bros. 2 and Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon. It was expected to be released during the 2012 holiday season. A live gameplay demonstration was later shown at the Nintendo 3DS Showcase event, led by Nate Bihldorff, a manager responsible for translating the game’s English text. This demonstration explained how the game’s gameplay centered around using stickers. Nintendo confirmed the game would be available as a physical Nintendo 3DS cartridge or downloadable through the Nintendo eShop.
The partner system, which was a feature in earlier Paper Mario games, was removed by the developers because it often clashed with the sticker-based gameplay. Additionally, the developers were instructed by Shigeru Miyamoto, a key Nintendo designer, to "complete the game using only characters from the Super Mario world." Miyamoto requested changes to the gameplay and battles, as he felt they were too similar to The Thousand-Year Door. He also encouraged the team to reduce the focus on the game’s story, stating, "It's fine without a story, so do we really need one?" Producer Kensuke Tanabe explained that less than one percent of players found the story in Super Paper Mario interesting, based on a survey from Club Nintendo. Taro Kudo, the game’s lead writer, believed the game did not need a complex story to drive the action. As a Nintendo 3DS title, Sticker Star was designed for short play sessions. The game included an episodic narrative, a world map, and a level system that allowed players to pause and resume gameplay easily.
In interviews for the 2020 game Paper Mario: The Origami King, Tanabe mentioned that starting with Sticker Star, Nintendo instructed developers not to show Toads with individual traits like age or gender. This led the team to focus more on text to express character personality. In a 2012 interview titled "Iwata Asks," Satoru Iwata suggested that character traits and personality were better shown through gameplay and function rather than visual details.
Reception
Sticker Star received "mostly positive reviews" according to Metacritic, a website that collects reviews. In Japan, four reviewers from Famitsu gave the game a total score of 36 out of 40, with each reviewer giving it a 9 out of 10. The game sold 402,000 copies in Japan in 2012. By March 31, 2013, the game had sold 1,970,000 copies worldwide. The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences gave Sticker Star the "Handheld Game of the Year" award during their 16th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards ceremony.
The use of stickers in the game received mixed opinions. Some critics liked how players could plan and manage stickers during gameplay. Philip Kollar of Polygon said the battles were exciting and enjoyed how each fight had a unique challenge that required logical thinking. However, Jeff Grubb of VentureBeat criticized the sticker system, saying players had too little space to store items, forcing them to keep certain stickers for later use and backtrack to retrieve them. Jeremy Parish of 1UP praised the game's playability, noting that its strengths helped balance moments when players had to revisit old areas for tasks. The use of "Things" in the game was criticized for being confusing and unnecessary, with some calling them a weakness due to the need to backtrack and the limited solutions for puzzles.
The game's graphics and world design were praised and compared to Super Mario 3D Land. Critics said the game was as unique as other games in its series, with Electronic Gaming Monthly stating that the 3D effect improved the visuals. Characters were described as charming and quirky, but some critics noted a lack of variety in their designs and the overuse of Toads, a character type that the series previously included in smaller numbers.
Many critics were unhappy about the removal of role-playing game (RPG) features, such as character progression through experience points (XP). GamesRadar+ liked the change from traditional RPG elements but said there was not enough RPG content for fans of the genre. Critics also found the story to be too short, though the humor in the game was praised. Paste reviewer Casey Malone said the game was "genuinely funny" compared to other games.
Some players found standard battles too easy, with Eurogamer reviewer Rich Stanton saying he "wasn't killed by a normal enemy once." However, boss battles were criticized as overly difficult, with terms like "nightmare" and "ridiculous" used to describe them.