Paper Mario: Sticker Star

[Hamishmash]

The ONLY complaint I have about Super Paper Mario is the design of the pixel people. It got very boring very quickly, compared to the great designs of previous games.

Everything else was great!

[Ronnie]

Originally Posted by Fused King

I love it too. No need to be ashamed.
The story was amazingly creative!!!

I remember thinking the storyline/telling was deeper than the last couple of Zeldas. Fantastic game.

[Mike]

Just beat the game last night. I really hope people enjoy it, and that they don't compare it too much to the other Paper Mario RPGs. It's very different, but in my opinion, that's no bad thing. Awesome game - my only complaint is, as reviewers have said, it's annoying when you need a 'Thing' sticker that you don't have to progress, and as well as working out which one you need, it's a bit of a rigmarole going back to get it. In particular, this was a bit of a pain with the final boss. Apart from that, though, a really gret game!

[Dcubed]

Iwata Asks is out! (Beware, the 5th page contains spoilers - which I happily skipped through most of!)

http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interv...papermario/0/1

A few choice excerpts...

Iwata We imagined rather early on that Paper Mario would be a good match for the Nintendo 3DS, and the papercraft atmosphere of the actual prototype was good.

Tanabe That was about three years ago, at the end of 2009.

Aoyama At the beginning of development, we were simply incorporating an idea making use of the stereoscopic display function. Then at the 2010 E321, before release of the Nintendo 3DS, we revealed several images.

Iwata So why did it drag on until now?

Aoyama After E3, Miyamoto-san played the prototype and said it was just a port of the GC version.

Tanabe I had heard that at first Miyamoto-san said that something like an RPG would be fine, so for a while I thought that something like the previous one would be fine.

Iwata That must have meant that you hadn't done much that was new.

Tanabe Right. So we wondered what to do. Then the idea of using stickers came up. Originally, the plan was to use stickers here and there for solving puzzles on the overall map and so forth, but then we thought, "If we're gonna do that, then we might as well use stickers for the whole thing, including battles," and we decided to begin rethinking the game mechanics. Iwata That's when the policy of going all out with stickers came to the forefront.

Tanabe Yeah. But at first I couldn't really dig into development and couldn't easily resolve that.

Iwata You were making the Donkey Kong Country Returns23 game for the Wii console and I asked you to not get too deeply involved in other projects.

Tanabe Later, Donkey Kong Country Returns was done and the new year began, and I was allowed to really dig into development at the beginning of 2011. The first thing I did was to ask Kudo-san to participate in the project.

Iwata Oh, it's from 15 years ago on March 5, 1997.

Aoyama It's made of 3D polygons, but I drew it to have an atmosphere like that of a picture book transplanted into a video game—with paper-thin 2D background and characters.

Nakajima This style simply didn't exist according to the path everyone was on at the time, but you could sense a great deal of feeling toward Super Mario in the pictures.

Aoyama I think about that time there was a trend of going for realistic 3D in home consoles, but I thought it might be an interesting twist to make use of those capabilities to use 3D in emphasizing a 2D appearance.

Kudo (looking at a memo (→image)) Hey, this is clearly my drawing! (laughs)

Iwata It says Love-de-Lic.20
20. Love-de-Lic, Inc.: The game developer Taro Kudo was affiliated with after leaving Square Co., Ltd. When staff members struck out on their own, it divided into several companies, including Vanpool, Inc.

Aoyama Kudo-san was there then, too.

Iwata In March 15 years ago, you ended up using something a new designer had made for fun.

Iwata Miyamoto-san really persevered with Paper Mario this time. Exactly what was he particular about?

Tanabe Aside from wanting us to change the atmosphere a lot, there were two main things that Miyamoto-san said from the start of the project—"It's fine without a story, so do we really need one?" and "As much as possible, complete it with only characters from the Super Mario world.

Iwata That's a difficult task. In some ways that would be the exact opposite direction from recent games in the series.

Tanabe Yeah. With regard to the story, we did a survey over the Super Paper Mario game in Club Nintendo, and not even 1% said the story was interesting. A lot of people said that the Flip move for switching between the 3D and 2D dimensions was fun...

Tanabe But being unable to use new characters is pretty strict. Of course, we could not make any new enemy characters, and as for allies among the Super Mario characters, there's really only Toad in various colors!

Kudo But personally, the more restrictions there were, the more excited I got. They may look the same, but we put in some elements in which their personalities are slightly different, so you can tell the difference and you think, "Hey! Are you that Toad from back then?" Toward the end of development, I could feel that I became one with Toad! (laughs)

Tanabe You can't forget them, like when they have a bad personality, even though their faces are the same. Everyone (laughs)

Kudo In addition to red, there are blue and green Toads. However, we held all but the red one in reserve, so we had to think carefully over when to use them. When we decided to put the ranger in the forest, there was a weird vibe, like, "Green Toad…you're up!" (laughs)

Iwata Creatively, restraints aren't necessarily a bad thing. A lot of new attractive features come out of that.

Tanabe That's right. At first, we were making a lot of individual allies as in a regular RPG, but when we decided to focus on stickers, in order to make a clear change with previous games in the series, it was like we started all over again by throwing out the system—including those characters—that we had made up to that point.

Iwata You purposefully threw out the basic RPG structure.

Tanabe Yes. We decided to make it so that players would face stronger opponents by throwing out the whole concept of experience points and levels in favor of gradually gathering stronger stickers.

I had actually been thinking for a long time that I wanted to get rid of the RPG experience points. In the Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland28 game, which Kudo-san and I worked on together, the player-character didn't develop at all. We adopted a system whereby they solved everything with money.

This time, we decided to do everything with stickers. We decided on a system whereby in battle, instead of attack commands, you fight by using the stickers you have gathered in the field or bought in town.

Iwata That's why we call it a "sticker battle adventure."

Igata As one in charge of the maps, we really made the entire gameworld out of paper, so this world that is unlike any you've ever seen before holds lots of sights and happenings that are impossible in reality. I hope people will look at that and be surprised.

And once again, an IA gets me excited to play the final game

[Magnus]

I'm really starting to think it's time for Miyamoto to retire!

[Fused King]

Tanabe Yeah. With regard to the story, we did a survey over the Super Paper Mario game in Club Nintendo, and not even 1% said the story was interesting. A lot of people said that the Flip move for switching between the 3D and 2D dimensions was fun...

Alright, this is hands down the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.
What is this Club Nintendo? Who the hell can say they didn't find the story/characters and all that interesting in Super Paper Mario....Without it, the whole game would be reduced to flipping from 2D to 3D to solve almost every problem and stilly jumping on huge bosses.

@Mike

How does the story hold up compared to the other Paper Marios?

[Ronnie]

we did a survey over the Super Paper Mario game in Club Nintendo, and not even 1% said the story was interesting.

WTF? The story was one of the best things about the game, as you say FK. "Not even 1%" sounds like total bullshit.

[Mike]

Originally Posted by Fused King

How does the story hold up compared to the other Paper Marios?

There really is none to speak of, beyond 'Rescue Princess Peach and collect the comet stars and special stickers'. If you're going into this expecting lots of narrative and memorable characters, you'll be disappointed, but it's just not that kind of game. Really, it's like hoping for story and characterisation in Super Mario Bros.

[Fused King]

Originally Posted by Mike

There really is none to speak of, beyond 'Rescue Princess Peach and collect the comet stars and special stickers'. If you're going into this expecting lots of narrative and memorable characters, you'll be disappointed, but it's just not that kind of game. Really, it's like hoping for story and characterisation in Super Mario Bros.

But that's the thing, I know what to expect when it comes to Super Mario Bros, because that's all about gameplay.
Paper Mario lends its strength from witty writing and a captivating story and is supposed to show that the Mario universe can house more than a generic plot and characters with little dialogue.

So what's basically happening here is that the developers are leaving us a Paper Mario that is more gameplay heavy and less story heavy?
Why must they try to make this game more like all other Mario games, why....?!?

I have a feeling I might be dissapointed

[Mike]

Originally Posted by Fused King

But that's the thing, I know what to expect when it comes to Super Mario Bros, because that's all about gameplay.
Paper Mario lends its strength from witty writing and a captivating story and is supposed to show that the Mario universe can house more than a generic plot and characters with little dialogue.

So what's basically happening here is that the developers are leaving us a Paper Mario that is more gameplay heavy and less story heavy?
Why must they try to make this game more like all other Mario games, why....?!?

I have a feeling I might be dissapointed

I certainly wouldn't describe this as 'more like all other Mario games' - it's a good balance between the platformers and the RPGs, something that Super Paper Mario certainly didn't achieve, in my opinion. The way it's put together, in individual levels and with few long sections of dialogue is a perfect fit for handhelds. At the end of the day, though, it's only getting 7s and 8s in most reviews, so there are no guarantees you'll like it. Hope you do, though!

[Magnus]

Oh man, I hope Fused will hate this. THEN YOU'LL KNOW HOW IT FEELS.

[Grazza]

Sounds like Miyamoto upended the table once again and saved us from a true sequel to Thousand Year Door. I wonder how many great games he's "saved" us from over the years?

[Josh64]

Ugh, is Miyamoto serious?! As far as I'm concerned, the story has always been the main part of the Paper Mario series. I think I'll get this from Love Film before I buy it, which is shocking as it was my most anticipated 3DS title.

I just want a true sequel to Thousand Year Door

[Magnus]

Originally Posted by Josh64

I just want a true sequel to Thousand Year Door

Over Miyamoto's dead body!

[Josh64]

Originally Posted by Magnus

Over Miyamoto's dead body!

The final chapter is still one of the greatest in any Mario title

[Magnus]

If Miyamoto had written that scene:

"Sorry, but the princess is in another castle. Ha ha ha just kidding."

[Josh64]

New trailer on front page! I'll stop complaining now because, despite the story woes, it still seems to have plenty of that Paper Mario charm.

http://www.n-europe.com/news/paper-m...launch-trailer

[Fused King]

Originally Posted by Magnus

Oh man, I hope Fused will hate this. THEN YOU'LL KNOW HOW IT FEELS.

Know how what feels?

What game has Miyamoto done to a game you like?

[Magnus]

Know how it feels to hate a Paper Mario game, of course.

[Rummy]

@Mike, how many hours did you manage to get out of this? As I'm not currently on the Wii U bandwagon its my biggest anticipation at the moment!

[Mike]

Originally Posted by Rummy

@Mike, how many hours did you manage to get out of this? As I'm not currently on the Wii U bandwagon its my biggest anticipation at the moment!

I think I beat the final boss with around 18 hours on the clock, although I did take my time. There's still a lot for me to do, though, if I want to find all the Things and fill up the sticker museum.

[Fused King]

One of the latest trailers for this game looks fucking awesome though, and took some of my hesitation away of buying it straight away.

[Guy]

My enthusiasm for this game can be described as a really cool balloon being slowly inflated and instead of bursting with excitement, someone let it go and it kind of farted about in the air for a few moments before dropping lifelessly to the floor.

[Rummy]

Originally Posted by Fused King

One of the latest trailers for this game looks fucking awesome though, and took some of my hesitation away of buying it straight away.

Hesitation, Fused?


Does anyone know how you unfriend on N-Europe, please?

Originally Posted by Guy

My enthusiasm for this game can be described as a really cool balloon being slowly inflated and instead of bursting with excitement, someone let it go and it kind of farted about in the air for a few moments before dropping lifelessly to the floor.

My enthusiam for you can be described as HEY FUCK YOU WHY YOU SO MEANIE :'(

I jest, of course. We cry out all the time for new things, new innovation, now that they're doing it everyone's like 'oh, it's different, i dont like it, why can't it be the same!' PLUS not even giving it the chance. I'm gonna try it, and if it sucks...well, it sucks. Maybe I won't get the next one. I wanna support innovation and new directions with games though, and I think it's good for Nintendo to try it. Maybe there'll be some kids playing this who've not played any of the old ones thinking it's the best shit they ever encountered.

[Fused King]

Originally Posted by Rummy

I jest, of course. We cry out all the time for new things, new innovation, now that they're doing it everyone's like 'oh, it's different, i dont like it, why can't it be the same!' PLUS not even giving it the chance. I'm gonna try it, and if it sucks...well, it sucks. Maybe I won't get the next one. I wanna support innovation and new directions with games though, and I think it's good for Nintendo to try it. Maybe there'll be some kids playing this who've not played any of the old ones thinking it's the best shit they ever encountered.

I hear ya, man. I hear ya.

However, as I have a limited amount of money to spend on games and a limited amount of time to play them, I try to make conscious decisions about which ones I buy. Especially which games I buy at full price at launch.

It's not that I don't support new and creative directions for franchises, I just think that each franchise has some kind of core which is what makes the franchise its own thing and what makes it so good in the first place.
For the Paper Mario series that would be memorable characters and great dialogue/writing. They can take away buddies, they can take away RPG elements, but, to me, enjoyable chapters worth reading should remain present.

I am going to buy it and I am going to be open about it and try not to compare it to previous Paper Marios, because I bet this one will have its own way of making it feel unique.

Still, Mario&Luigi: WiiUnification better have WeeGee jokes in it and not exclude them because 'not 1% understood what Luigi was doing in previous Mario&Luigi games, instead they liked Mario's jumping mechanic best'.

(Not 1% found Super Paper Mario's story interesting, ....who the fuck are these Japanese.....)