Paper Mario: Sticker Star - The Complicated World of Stickers

You’d be forgiven for thinking that Paper Mario’s transition to the Nintendo 3DS - his first ever foray into the realm of portables - is merely replicating the flat plumber’s console escapades. On the surface, the game’s basic aesthetic would seem to indicate that resemblance, with turn-based battles, time-based action prompts and a sharp 2D style (now in 3D!) that toys with the notions of a paper-based life. You might then think that applies to every aspect of the game - and yet you’d be wrong, despite the fact that this game does actually retain all the previously mentioned characteristics. Like so many Nintendo sequels, Paper Mario: Sticker Star keeps the core essence of its franchise safe while finding new avenues for innovation. In this case, that innovation comes through the battle system.

Playing this latest iteration of Paper Mario quickly proves that its turn-based mechanic is unlike anything the franchise has attempted before. Allies are gone, as is the weaponry that Mario used to employ. This time, your entire offensive capability is provided through stickers that are acquired during the exploration of stages or purchased with coins earned in battle. These stickers will still enable familiar attacks, like Mario’s jump or his trusty hammer, but then they’re gone. Your offense is now a finite resource that must be collected or earned. The fact that your weaponry is entirely disposable, and can now be collected at different strength levels, immediately changes the entire premise of Sticker Star. You must now measure the effectiveness of your offense, as foolishly wasting overpowered attacks will deprive you of that resource in the future.

Yet battles aren’t as simple as placing stickers into “move slots.” This isn’t an arbitrary substitute for selecting menu options. Developer Intelligent Systems actually introduces a great deal of complexity by boldly introducing significant restrictions - and enticing players to then step beyond those boundaries.

The restrictions are these - Mario must attack his opponents in a sequential, front-to-back order. The second in line can only be targeted directly once the first is defeated. Mario can also, by default, only make one attack per turn, despite the fact that he no longer has his friends to help him against what could be 4:1 odds.

What comes next is the clever part. The game takes what would be considered stifling limits and flips them into strategic elements. Sticker Star rewards you if you can pull off a “Perfect” battle, meaning you eliminate all of your foes before the start of your next turn. The financial rewards can be great, which pushes you to be less conservative with your stronger stickers. Yet just one attack, no matter how powerful, is unlikely to take our several enemies. Enter: The Battle Spinner.

Mario can activate the Spinner, which is basically a 3 category slot machine, to not only win substantial rewards but more moves (he’ll get 1 extra slot for a double match and 2 for a triple). Mario can even spend quite a bit of money to “rig” the Spinner, making this mini-game just a bit easier. And the goal here isn’t necessarily just to achieve that “Perfect” rank. Imagine a boss fight and the advantage of getting in as much offense at once becomes clear.

Whether or not the risks and rewards of Intelligent Systems’ new battle mechanics will continue to be entertaining throughout the entirety of this Paper Mario adventure remains to be seen. The game will need to challenge players to risk using the Battle Spinner, through a certain level of difficulty as well as increasing rewards.

And while the battle mechanics are by far and away the most curious, and recurring, element of Sticker Star, they are not at all the only changes being introduced. In a first for the ‘Paper’ series, Mario’s adventure is now positioned in a familiar world and level-based structure, with each stage then introducing various puzzles, battles and challenges. It actually feels right at home for a portable game, and it’s easy to see how a lengthy RPG would be more digestible in this form.

Stickers aren’t the only thing Mario can collect. There are ‘Scraps’ to find, which are pieces of the world that must be replaced through a ‘Paperize’ ability in order to keep moving. Likewise ‘Things’ - real world objects that exist within this paper-based land - can be tracked down and eventually converted into giant stickers (which, incidentally, take up a larger portion of your limited, grid-based inventory), which then will have a variety of effects.

Playing through just a couple opening stages of Sticker Star revealed all of these ideas, and it’s easy to get the sense that they are just the surface of what ought to be a lengthy RPG. We’ll be playing more Paper Mario in the very near future - so keep an eye on IGN for more details soon.

Rich is an Executive Editor of IGN.com and the leader of IGN's Nintendo team. He also watches over all things WWE, Resident Evil, Assassin's Creed and much more. Follow @RichIGN on Twitter, if you dare!

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West is Best for Call of Juarez: Gunslinger

The transition of the Call of Juarez franchise from the traditional Wild West setting of Bound in Blood to the modern day mean streets of The Cartel was not particularly well received; neither by fans nor by critics. Akin to the notion of displacing motley pirates from a sun-kissed Caribbean to downtown Catford or moving Mario from the Mushroom Kingdom to suburban Massachusetts, it was a poorly considered and ill-fated change of setting that robbed the game of its unique Olde Western flavour and was further compounded by some lacklustre execution - not to mention the moral ickiness of trivialising the Mexican drug wars.

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We returned to the Wild West for a number of reasons.

Happily, developer Techland has since decided that Call of Juarez is best serviced by being set in its spiritual home, the (very) Wild West, and so its upcoming download title Call of Juarez: Gunslinger will return to its roots.

“We returned to the Wild West for a number of reasons, but basically because of what we’ve heard from fans and the fact that we’re ready to believe that this is where the series belongs,” explains international brand manager, Blazej Krakowiak. “Ever since releasing Bound in Blood we’ve had a number of ideas that we wanted to use for a Western game and this is our chance to do so with a new format and new character.”

Techland is resting the series’ traditional bloodline by having the McCall’s cool their spurs for Gunslinger and is instead taking the opportunity to introduce a new protagonist. This worldly-wise and experienced bounty hunter of “late years” has seen, drunk and fought a great deal of what the Wild West has to offer; he’s also as gritty and abrasive as Midwestern sandstorm. These endearing character traits are evidenced in his regaling of a ragtag bunch of saloon locals, where he tells tales of his adventures from days gone by, which form the basis of each level’s gameplay.

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We’re really making a lot of effort to make sure that it responds well to how the player behaves or how it reacts to the player dying or doing particular actions.

Each level is based on the bounty hunter’s dealings with infamous characters of questionable moral fibre, such as Billy the Kid, Butch Cassidy and Pat Garrett and a key plot device sees the gruff protagonist narrate throughout the levels. Writing ranges from suitably hard-bitten: “Kid had a big chip on his shoulder and a hair trigger temper; that made him dangerous as hell”, to bawdy and ham-fisted: “The right position is very important; personally I prefer to be on top.” The narration of the first level of the game looks very much to set the tone and establish the roles and personalities of the support characters gathered round to hear the stories: the shrewd old timer, nice-but-dim young-un’ and brazen saloon mistress, all of whom add to the narrative along the way. Krakowiak says that the narration is still being refined but that it will come to form a natural part of the storytelling.

“We’re really making a lot of effort to make sure that it responds well to how the player behaves or how it reacts to the player dying or doing particular actions,” reassures Krakowiak. “It won’t be an AI that will comment on everything that you do, but we’re playing with the formula a little bit and always thinking about how to make it more enjoyable and less intrusive.”

Concerns about heavy-handed exposition aside, the action looks fast paced and offers the opportunity for competitive play thanks to a prominent high-score focus. Points are awarded for all manner of takedowns depending on the number of unsavoury characters you can off in quick succession and how and where you land your shots. There are also points for hitting targets on the move, landing headshots in slow-motion Concentration mode and, of course, for sharp shootin’ from sunrise to sundown (level start to level end, to you and me).

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We’re playing with the formula a little bit and always thinking about how to make it more enjoyable and less intrusive.

Helping you become the baddest, meanest gun in the west and achieve those enviable high scores is a character progression system that allows you to spend experience on new skills. These include dual-wielding, rifle speciality and Concentration mode upgrades, which Techland hopes will encourage you to replay levels with different abilities to try to best both your own high scores and those of friends. With the game coming early 2013, Krakowiak isn’t yet talking about multiplayer but given the focus on high scores, some form of head-to-head competitive score attack mode can be considered likely, at the very least.

The Wild West tropes are all here: desert, ghost town, tumbleweed and bent sheriffs as Call of Juarez: Gunslinger looks to embrace its uncompromising Wild West roots. The game launches next year as a download-only title for PS3, 360 and PC so get ready to hunker down with some hard liquor, a colourful cast and a spittoon or two as Techland attempts to spin a yarn of how high scores are best settled against the backdrop of an arcade-stylised Wild West.

Stace Harman is a freelance contributor to IGN and is convinced that zombies will one day inherit the Earth. You can follow him on Twitter.

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