“Paper Mario: Sticker Star” is the video-game equivalent of a beach read: nothing too demanding, nothing too memorable, but engaging enough to keep you going.
This has become a tradition for the series, which seems to strive above all for pleasantness. Like the first “Paper Mario,” which hit the Nintendo 64 way back in 2001, “Sticker Star” takes us to a Mushroom Kingdom where everything — even Mario — is made of flat paper cut-outs. It’s a charming art style that hearkens back to the plumber’s two-dimensional roots, and allows for all kinds of ridiculous stuff, like enemies folding themselves into paper airplanes to attack you. Another difference from traditional Mario games is that the focus isn’t on running and jumping in real time, but attacking enemies in turn-based battles, in the manner of role-playing games.
