The story moves fast in Sticker Star, with Bowser almost immediately disrupting Sticker Fest, a celebration of the arrival of the mythical Sticker Comet. He and his minions steal the wish-granting power of the comet, using their new strength to wreak havoc on the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario teams up with sassy sprite Kersti–think Ocarina of Time’s Navi, but funny instead of annoying–to reclaim the five Royal Stickers in the hopes of setting things right.

The premise of collecting a handful of magical items to defeat your arch enemy might be pretty predictable. However, Sticker Star casts away many RPG conceits like experience points, equipment, and party members, so the game feels like anything but a retread of the same.

Any attack in battle consumes a sticker, most major plot developments depend on sticker placement, and maintaining your supply of stickers is where much of the strategy comes from. Choosing when and where to use a certain sticker adds tension to every battle, because ending a mundane fight fast with a strong sticker means you won’t have it on hand for the inevitable boss battle. You can build your collection in shops across the world, but many rarer stickers are found few and far between, hidden in the corners of stages.

Underneath all the stickers, the turn-based, reactive combat of previous entries is still intact, where early hits and timing your blocks can mean life or death for Mario. Removing the frills of traditional RPGs lets that gameplay shine even brighter, and by the end of the game you’ll wonder why you ever felt like a Mario RPG needed all that extra fluff. Mario games are at their best when they focus on simple fun, and Sticker Stars proves that once more.

If players’ might have early, misguided doubts about the gameplay, they will likely feel the same about the seemingly linear construction of the map. However, while the map structure of segmenting worlds with “1-1, 1-2, 1-3” and so on may seem too straightforward, in practice Sticker Star is fairly open-ended. When the map opens up, major bosses can be beaten out of order and areas like 5-3 can be explored hours before 4-2, a flow that fits well within the limitations of portable gaming.

For as enjoyable as the gameplay may be, the exceptional script is Sticker Star’s strongest asset. The clever dialogue breathes life into every character, such as Kersti’s continually bossing around Mario and jumping to conclusions, or Bowser Jr.’s insufferably bratty taunts. The writing–supported by expert English localization–is incredibly funny, even by the franchise’s high standards. Also of note is the jazzy soundtrack, one of the best from the series in some time.

As cute as all that can be, a few of those sticker puzzles are also home to Sticker Star’s bigger frustrations. After collecting dozens of real world items (staplers, goats, ect), you end up with so many baubles that some puzzles that should have been amusing end up frustrating ordeals based on trial and error that often aren’t clarified by Kersti’s optional hints. The occasional off the wall solutions mix with the overly open map to cause confused players to aimless roam the map until they finally stumble upon the solution.

But those frustrations are momentary at best, hardly detracting from a can’t miss handheld game. One of the best 3DS games to date, Paper Mario: Sticker Star updates an already great series for handhelds by expertly cutting the fat to make for a digestible portable adventure. RPG lovers might balk at the changes, but after the first few hours they’ll realize that this is just the next evolution in a series that was always quietly innovating its genre.

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We also particularly enjoyed the new arrangement of the classic Mario soundtrack, with groovy double bass and ‘brush’ snare taps complementing an enjoyable modulation through the familiar overworld theme. We know you were thinking the same thing. Suffice to say, as trailers go, this is a good ‘un. And we’re even more excited for the game now, which is due to launch on November 11 in the US, with Japan and Europe following on December 6 and 7 respectively.

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Many are eyeing Nintendos big November 18 release of the Wii U, but three days before that, the publisher releases its biggest 3DS game of the fall, Paper Mario: Sticker Star. We recently went hands-on with a near-final version of the game, playing the first few stages in the flat (and yet somehow 3D) adventure. Weve already been pleasantly surprised by some of new features to the series in Sticker Star during our brief time with it. Even Paper Mario veterans will be caught off guard by changes like

It doesn’t waste time

In previous Paper Mario titles–and RPGs in general–the story can take an hour or more to really begin. But Sticker Stars story gets going in mere minutes. The game begins with Bowser interrupts Sticker Fest, steals the power of the Sticker Comet, kidnaps Princess Peach, and then makes a mess of the Mushroom Kingdom. Since we came into the game assuming Peach would be kidnapped by Bowser, it was nice of the game to cut to the chase. Further along in the game, we noticed similar streamlining of the story.

The soundtrack is already amazing

When we first turned on the game, we had trouble leaving the start menu, but not because of any technical issue. We were just in love with the jazzy title screen music, so much so that we were listening to it for a good five minutes before we started the game. Once we began the actual game, it was great to hear that the soundtrack quality was maintained in the early stages. Sticker Star is on track to continue the tradition of Mario RPGs having great music.

Kersti is your only friend

This might seem like a negative to longtime fans, but Sticker Star does make one big break in tradition early on. The Paper Mario games on N64 and GameCube had Mario accompanied by a big group of companions that assisted him on the field and in battle. This time Mario looks to be limited in friends to the sassy sticker sprite Kersti. Otherwise, this is a solo RPG adventure for the plumber.

It’s less of an RPG than you expect

Mario has never followed the norm in his RPGs, whether it was exploring with precise platforming or having more direct control over the turn-based combat. And Sticker Star turns its back on genre conventions even more than its predecessors. There are no experience points, standard leveling up, or a traditional overworld map. The game breaks the most rules with its sticker-intensive combat. One important thing to know is…

You better conserve your stickers

As the title implies, this Mario adventure is crazy about stickers, with different stickers plastered all over the world. You should get in the practice of grabbing every sticker you see, because you cant attack without them. Each sticker you collect goes in your sticker book to be called upon later in and out of combat. Every move in a fight uses a different sticker of varying quality, and stickers disappear after one use. The idea of using MP or stamina for a move is gone; you either have a sticker or you dont. It seems pretty simple, but…

Don’t assume the combat is that simple

With no teammate to back you up, no experience points, and no MP to worry about, combat seems straightforward, perhaps even too easy. After a getting in more than a dozen fights, things got much more complicated thanks to our shrinking sticker collection. We were left with stickers that were either too good to use on a common Goomba or not strong enough to finish the job. We were planning for the fights ahead as well as the enemies in front of us. The situation made us take random battles far more seriously than we did before.

Bowser Jr. is a real jerk

In his landmark first appearance in a Mario RPG, Bowser Jr. is his usual annoying self. Nice to see that becoming flat doesnt change your personality. Hes searching the Mushroom Kingdom for rare stickers, getting in Marios way as usual–though now hes powered up with the same sticker strength as his father. He demonstrates his new strength by flattening the world and ripping a bridge off the land, turning it into a sticker, and then crumpling it up. How are we supposed to deal with that?

The power of Paperization

Marios talkative new friend Kersti is useful for more than conversation. She can flip reality on its head using the power of Paperization. Hitting the Y button stops time and pulls the camera back to a flat version of the world. From here, Mario can grab special stickers from his collection and add them to the world to complete objectives. Its a cool new power that takes the series paper theme to new heights.

The levels are smaller than you expect

Instead of the sprawling worlds of most RPGs, Sticker Star has really segmented its adventure, though in a way thatll feel familiar to Mario fans. There are distinct worlds, but theyre divided into smaller levels, like 1-1, 1-2, and so on. 1-1 and 1-2 were both pretty brief, taking 10 to 15 minutes before we reached the goal of the stage. We arent exploring as much as we used to, and this shortening of stages is likely done to make the series fit better on a portable. Fans of the series might not like it at first, but at least the change fits with Marios style.

There might be more classic power-ups on the way

Near the end of our time with the game, we had grabbed both Fire Flowers and Ice Flowers, which transformed him into Fire Mario and Ice Mario respectively. If the start screen is anything to go by, that isnt the end of iconic Mario transformations in Sticker Star. In the start screen we spotted power-ups that looked a whole lot like Frog Mario and Kuribos Shoe power-ups from Super Mario Bros 3. Just how deep is Sticker Star going to go with its special moves?

Fasten your stickers

We had a great time with the start of the game, but we won’t have our full review for the game until next month, likely around the US release date of November 15. For now, we’d love it if you told us how interested you currently are in the game. Please tell us in the comments!

And if you’re looking for more info on Marios and portable games, check out our list of 12 most important portable games of holiday 2012 and a collection of Mario’s greatest boss battles.

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