Common Sense Media Review
By Chad Sapieha
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Quirky, fun Mario adventure is filled with clever concepts.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 9+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Play
Videos and Photos
Paper Mario: Sticker Star
What's It About?
Mario stars as a piece of paper in PAPER MARIO: STICKER STAR, an unusual hybrid of platforming action, RPG-style battles, and contextual puzzle solving. The game begins with Bowser crashing a sticker festival held in a town made of paper. He kidnaps Princess Peach and leaves the village and its two-dimensional townsfolk in shambles. Mario helps to restore the village, then heads out on an adventure through flattened forests and deserts in search of royal stickers that will help him save the princess. Stickers play an important roll throughout the game. Mario collects them to use in turn-based combat, choosing between stickers including boots, hammers, and bombs to attack his enemies. He also uses them to restore parts of the environment, placing bridge and gate stickers to open access to new areas. Players will end up using thousands of stickers in combat and to accomplish various objectives over the course of this lengthy, 15 to 20-hour adventure.
Is It Any Good?
Like its Paper Mario precursors, Paper Mario: Sticker Star stands well apart from other games headlined by Nintendo's iconic plumber. The game's clever and attractive two-dimensional aesthetic is striking. When paper Mario turns, for example, he virtually disappears for a split second as we see only his edge. Plus, evolving the series' paper theme to focus on stickers -- those collectible adhesives beloved by children of all ages -- is genius. Players get to peel them off walls and floors in satisfying fashion to reveal goodies and hidden rooms, then stick them back down to solve puzzles within the environment, smoothing out their edges with the circle pad. It feels great.
Paper Mario: Sticker Star isn't perfect -- you can expect to do a lot of backtracking and losing battles simply because you haven't collected the proper stickers to effectively defeat a specific type of enemy. But it's still one of the most original and entertaining games yet made for Nintendo's stereoscopic handheld. Don't miss it.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about solving problems with ideas rather than anger. When you get in arguments with friends, do you try to see the issue from their side? Do you think maybe there's a way that both of you can be happy, even if you don't agree or get exactly what you want?
What do you like about Mario games?
Game Details
- Platform : Nintendo 3DS
- Subjects : Language & Reading : reading
- Skills : Thinking & Reasoning : applying information , solving puzzles , strategy , Emotional Development : moving beyond obstacles , persevering
- Pricing structure :
- Available online? : Not available online
- Publisher : Nintendo
- Release date : November 11, 2012
- Genre : Action/Adventure
- Topics : Adventures
- ESRB rating :
- Last updated : October 1, 2025
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