I've given paper mario two chances since the amazing, incredible thousand year door, and that little twerp has blown both chances. I took more enjoyment out of that game yes, i used cheat codes to make it bearable but still. I put eleven hours into it, trying to convince myself that hey, this isn't so bad. Then as i was running through a forest, dodging enemies again, battles are pointless wastes of time it hit me. This game is so bad, i would rather have a lobotomy than be forced to play it another second. By relytia on february 11, 2013 please put down your pitchforks, my friends, and give me a chance to explain.

Quite the contrary in fact, and when it comes to the paper mario series, i have always been a massive fan, whether it's the. I bought my 3ds way back when highly anticipating this game, and even though it went through several delays, i waited patiently. All through development, this was promised to be an entry that would take paper mario back to its rpg roots, in every sense, and i couldn't have been more psyched.

Then, i started to notice some glaring issues, and they became more glaring with each passing moment until i realized something painful, i don't really like this game all that much. Please, put down your torches and pitchforks and let me explain and i want to be fair to the game and to you, the readers, so this may be a long, detailed review, i'm warning you right now. The whole children's pop up book aesthetic of the paper mario series has always been one of its biggest strengths. Not only is it cute, but it somehow pulls off being simultaneously nostalgic and fresh to the extreme, and it's done really well here. The nostalgia and familiarity is really endearing and some new twists on familiar oldies, like a mariachi shy guy band, or a yoshi sphinx, are fantastic.

3Rd Year English Papers

There's also something awesome about 2 d, flat paper characters and settings rendered in true 3 d on the 3ds. Oh the soundtrack! the music in this game really blew me away, and on occasion merits putting down the system just to soak it in for a while. Much of it feels like they told a jazz band to just go nuts with familiar mario motifs and themes, and it's awesome.

The battle system is entirely sticker based, and oftentimes you need certain stickers to solve puzzles in the various levels you visit. Or maybe you need a special thing sticker that comes to life and affects the environment in big and surprising ways. I found the whole sticker theme to be a refreshing twist on the classical paper mario formula, or at least i found the concept to be great anyway.

Process Analysis Essay Topics College

In an attempt to return to paper mario's rpg roots, intelligent systems made the battle system a turn based affair once again. To fight a sense of been here, done that, they decided to make the battle system revolve around stickers. The entire battle system is, for all intents and purposes, entirely item based or sticker inventory based, if you will , and 2. There's a system of strategy that involves proper button inputs to increase the effectiveness of whichever sticker command you choose.

Reward as you wonder, can i use this less powerful 'worn out hammer' perfectly and finish the battle that way? or should i pull out my more powerful 'flashy hammer' sticker and guarantee a victory? this is really cool. It's a unique twist that at least starts to bring the series back to its rpg roots. There are a few huge problems, however, that really pull the rest of the game down. Yeah, at the beginning, bowser grabs a giant, mythical royal sticker he's not supposed to, and because of that sticker's power, he himself becomes a super powerful, shiny sticker. He gives each fragment of the original royal sticker to five of his henchmen across the land, and it's up to mario to go to each area, traverse their levels, and get each crown sticker back. It's bizarre, because the game actually feels like a traditional mario platformer in terms of its story, in that, there is virtually none.

Even the way you get from level to level is like a mario platformer: an overworld map in a level 1 1, 1 2, 1 3, etc. Each level itself is styled in the way the original paper mario was, but there's no big world to explore, no big, interesting towns to visit, no companions to meet and take along with you, nothing. There's only one companion, a floating crown sticker named kersti who is basically mario's very own. Even super paper mario, which was basically a platformer at heart, had way more plot and characters than this. Again, in a mario platformer, that's not a problem, but this isn't a platformer! it's supposed to be more of an rpg, and in an rpg, plot is kinda important. Now wait a minute, didn't i say this was a positive? well, yeah, the battle system itself is fantastic, except for one massive problem: it's all meaningless! after playing for an hour or two, i noticed something there's no place in the menu to see mario's stats, or his level, or his equipment. Wait, does that mean there's no experience points or star points, to be accurate or leveling up in this game? yep, there are zero tangible benefits to battles.

Stickers are everywhere in the world as you explore, so this battle reward is meaningless. Coins are also everywhere in the levels, and their only use is for buying more stickers, so again, meaningless. The battles that are otherwise brilliantly conceived are rendered a waste of your time by no meaningful, tangible rewards for your efforts. It makes more sense to just avoid enemies on the map altogether who always respawn when you go back to already conquered areas, by the way, and since backtracking is a big part of this game at times, this is troublesome and annoying. Coming from thousand year door, where i actually sought out battles as much as i could due to their one two punch of awesome design and satisfaction from winning, this is a massive gaffe. Imagine truly great rpgs, ones like or vi, vii, and ix, take your pick, they're all amazing. Super mario rpg, the mario and luigi rpg series, or the first two paper mario titles, and imagine them without experience points, new, better equipment to find/aquire, or a leveling system.

Blasphemy! if this wasn't trying to be an rpg, it wouldn't be so bad, but everything else in the game hearkens back to the rpg paper mario titles. When intelligent systems started work on this game, they wanted to make it a true sequel to 1,0 year door. There was going to be a charming overworld filled with exciting places to explore and characters to meet. All throughout the process, however, shigeru miyamoto rejected all of these ideas until this game became the finished product. If intelligent systems' original vision for this game had been allowed to come to fruition, i have no doubt whatsoever that this would have been a 5 star masterpiece. Look at their track record for a moment: all paper mario games up until this one, the fire emblem series, the advance wars series, the warioware series, pushmo, crashmo, and the list goes on. These guys are masters of their craft, and this would have been another masterpiece to add to that list, if only uncle shiggy hadn't gotten in the way i love the guy, he's a true inspiration to gamers everywhere, but this is a blemish on his otherwise astronomically great record.

What would have been a masterpiece has been turned into a game that is merely ok, and that is the most painful thing of all about this game: the lost potential. I'd much rather review games i love or at least really like, not ones i think are just meh or ok. I really wanted to love this game, but given the massive loss of potential, and the real botching of some of the most crucial aspects of the game that would have justified the change in direction, i just can't.

Conclusion In a Research Paper

I really tried with this game, but in the end, i just couldn't shake the growing feeling of disappointment and boredom anymore. Super paper mario really changed up the traditional formula, sure, but it was still a wonderfully executed game that was great on its own. Sticker star could have been a nice spin off paper mario title like that one was if there was even a slightly better plot to break the monotony, a battle system that actually feels rewarding, and a sense of satisfaction and progress for mario's character throughout the game, but it just isn't there. The game has some real strength in its presentation and many of the core concepts are sound, but it just isn't for me.