Paper Mario: Sticker Star

Paper Mario: Sticker Star is a 2012 role-playing game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS. It is the fourth installment in the Paper Mario series and part of the larger Mario franchise; it is the first game in the series released on a handheld console. In the game, the protagonist Mario and a new ally named Kersti travel across the Mushroom Kingdom to retrieve the six Royal Stickers scattered by Bowser. The game was released in November 2012 in North America and December 2012 overseas.

Unlike the previous Paper Mario games, Sticker Star uses a distinctly papercraft visual style, which is heavily incorporated into its gameplay mechanics. Sticker Star introduces the use of stickers, which are littered throughout the game world and are used as one-use items or power-ups, aiding the player in turn-based battles against enemies or in solving puzzles. A sequel for the Wii U, Paper Mario: Color Splash, carried over many ideas introduced in Sticker Star and was released in October 2016.

Game designer and producer Shigeru Miyamoto insisted that gameplay should be distinct from previous Paper Mario games, as he believed the concept was too similar to previous titles in the franchise. Because of this, emphasis was geared toward gameplay and combat, and a lack thereof for the story and plot. Allies alongside Mario were cut due to complications with sticker mechanics and there was an extreme decrease in characters with unique designs. The game received generally favorable reviews, with graphics, writing, and strategy being praised, and criticism towards unbalanced difficulty in combat, the lack of traditional role-playing game elements, and the abundance of identical Toads instead of the original fictional races the series had been known for. Reception on the sticker mechanics was mixed.