Dark Aspects of Paper Mario: Sticker Star | A Complete Analysis

Forgot about that toad. Been suck under my fountain since 2012.

8:40 I just love how the bar for this entire thing is on the floor lol. But glad it made him feel at least something

And don't forget about Kamek turning Mario's stickers into flip-flops. An odd choice until you realize how blissfully ignorant Kamek really is, while Nintendo knows something that Kamek doesn't.

It's interesting how even the least interesting Paper Mario game still has a decent amount of intriguing things going for it

as someone who was 6 when she first played sticker star and therefore quite enjoyed it, it's nice to see SOME appreciation for this game that I know so many hate in the form of a half an hour video

You forgot to mention how after the events of Super Paper Mario, Dimenio was able to utilize the last shadow of his power while controlling the chaos heart to destroy Mario's whole dimension and create Paper Mario Sticker Star as an act of revenge. However, with his limited amount of power left, the worst he could do is make it as bland and "paper thin" in depth as possible by literally curing the entire land. I mean, Dimentio has experience in making his own dimensions as you fight him in his very own dimension while playing Super Paper Mario. With only an ounce of the Chaos Heart's power and his experience as a magic user, Dimentio was able to do this. This curse makes sense too, as in TTYD, curses turned you into papery transformations. These curses were always on a small scale in TTYD, so they didn't do too much to Mario compared to the multiverse destructive force that is the chaos heart. Rogue Port doesn't exist anymore, and neither do any of the other interesting locations from the first 2 games. Sticker Star's plot basically functions as a much, much weaker re-telling of the events of the original Paper Mario. It was essentially a world reset. The Sticker Star and Sticker Commet are essentially the lifeless forms Star Haven and the Star Spirits take. The game hides little reminders of a past life existing, like in the 5-1 trash pit, we see some final letters from Goombella and Parrykarry, but no one is this new world understands what it means. This was probably in Dimentio's best favor because this was probably a fate worse than death for the Mario gang. The Mario characters of this new world have been transformed into tragic characters suffering from a lack of memory of their past life, as characters like Bowser forgot about his development from SPM and even forgot how to talk! Ever wondered why Dimentio also sounded like "dementia", well he basically causes a form of dementia for the whole Mario cast. Over time, Mario's world starts to develop and recover again, as we see in Color Splash and Origami King, even still including references from the first three games, but these are still only left over nods to remind you that a past, better life existed right under their noses, but they were none the wiser. When you take into account Sticker Star's obvious implications and the games that came before it, Sticker Star is actually a deeply provocative game and a storytelling masterpiece, rivaling the likes of TTYD and Super, and it expertly displays its themes in its terrible gameplay and general structure! I am obviously kidding here, and the developers never thought of this, but can you imagine if this was actually cannon? I mean, it makes sense, right? Honestly, if Nintendo is thinking about going back to Paper Mario's roots, this could potentially become the basis for a 7th Paper Mario game's plot. Like, maybe it involves Mario traveling back in time to prevent this from happening and restoring the world to what it was like before this curse, while also colliding it with the events from the newer games. I am really curious to see where Nintendo takes the story after the remake of TTYD. I am guessing will have to do with the sales of the remake, which is a shame, but it is what it is.

8:37 that’s just the ice king from adventure time.

I like to believe that the modern Paper Mario Trilogy takes place before the first trilogy. The stories and stakes get darker with each game, and Bowser and his dwindling army are gradually reduced as a threat, and he even ends up being a hero in the end. Each game also seems to give Luigi and Peach more to do in this order.

Amazing work! I can’t believe how many dark themes you squeezed out of the least dark game in the series. It’s the only one with no Boos being swallowed whole, no shadow queen trying to enslave the world, no world ending chaos heart, no shy guys sucking the blood out of npcs, and no major character death. I love your style of video making you have given me inspiration to finally continue my Origami King series, thank you!

there are some things i genuinely like about sticker star, like the mentioned snowman story and overworld puzzle aspect of the game. i think it would've been a good game if they had leaned more on the story and puzzles

What's interesting is that Mr. Blizzard says, "...you'll make ME again, won't you?" He is fully confident that this is possible. It reminds me of the Snowboys of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, except they find melting fun. Understandable. You never have to go where Nibbles is in a form that Nibbles will attack -- somehow, perhaps, thanks to the power of the "curse", Nibbles doesn't attack Mario when he's being a paper boat -- and if you do, it's one HP, not your entire life.

Something I've always found pretty dark are Kamek's final words in this game: "King Bowser will destroy you!" Not the phrase itself (which is painfully generic, like almost everything else in this game), but the fact that he keeps yelling it over and over until he turns to dust. It always stuck with me.

the most strangely unknown fact bout the Final Bowser fight in Sticker Star, since normally he just dies from infini-jumps, is that if you take too long, he will start attacking more times per turn. first Bowser starts attacking twice, then eventually starts attacking 3 times per turn when enough turns have passed. including Mario getting Crumpled(take x2 damage), in which he just barely survives this onslaught of attacks, this makes the final Bowser the most damaging enemy in Sticker Star from this alone. too bad almost no one will ever see this unless they goof around like I always do for that fight 🤔

Imagine if Sticker Star continued the trend of Paper Mario games progressively becoming darker and was actually darker than Super Paper Mario. I don't want to know what Nintendo would have in store for that...

Honestly Nintendo is a master of putting Dark aspects in their games. Take Splatoon series. The time of humans and mammals are over they as humanity destroyed that earth causing ocean water to rise with the last part of humanity being an 2 cats an bear and an fax machine. Everything else is gone we play in the remains of humanity as evolved sea creatures.

Man, I played this game way too much. I actually glitched it and now my file says I started playing in 2011 despite the game not being released yet. Great game, sucks people hate it so much.

You forgot the part where after you've exorcised the Enigmansion, you can take a portrait of the deceased owner of the mansion, paperize it, and bring him back to life. As far as the Sticker Comet is concerned, I didn't think it was too odd. PM64 itself is a spiritual continuation of SMRPG, where wishes are granted by the Star Road, which allows any wish from anyone be granted, is a physical star-shaped object that can be interacted with and destroyed, and is looked over by "a higher power" rather than the Star Spirits specifically. Ot's not that shocking if there are more than one means to grant wishes in the Mushroom Kingdom.

Sticker star was my first paper mario game, I loved it, it has to be one of my favorite paper mario games.

Oh yes! It’s nice for Sticker Star finally get a darks aspects video!

The darkest aspect about this game was its conception 😭🙏