The Paper Mario series is a series of RPGs that have always been large in the story department. The first game was a follow-up to the SNES title Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars and while its story did have many similarities to the Super Mario platform games, it still managed to introduce a large cast of colorful characters, such as good members of generally evil species like Goombas. The game was divided into eight chapters, each taking place in a different reigion of the kingdom and having its own interesting sub-plot. Mario was able to equip badges that changed his stats in battle, use collected items, and even complete optional sidequests complete with a superboss while on his quest to save the seven revered Star Spirits and take back the wish-granting Star Rod from Bowser.

Mario met quite a few brand-new friends and foes on his first paper adventure, and its sequel, The Thousand-Year Door, improved on this by giving it an even more unique story and more depth to the battle system. Mario's partners could now have their own health stat, and a crowd would be present during battles. Pleasing the crowd would benefit Mario by giving him Star Power to use special moves. They could also give Mario helpful items, or toss rocks if disappointed. This game introduced a new group of villains known as the X-Nauts, an extraterrestrial army led by Sir Grodus, whose plan was to use the power of an ancient demon to rule the world. Mario would travel to a seaside town called Rogueport to look for clues about the legendary Crystal Stars and their power to open the ancient Thousand-Year Door. Again, this game had eight chapters, a badge system, an item system, and a large cast of new colorful characters. Optional side quests return, including a hundred-room, monster-filled dungeon called the Pit of 100 Trials.

The third game, Super Paper Mario, changed things up a bit. Badges were not present in this game, and the battles were real-time, making it more of an action-RPG. However, it retained quite a few of the traits of the other Paper Mario titles, including a brand-new storyline with new colorful characters. This game featured a villain known as Count Bleck, whose goal is to wipe out the entire multiverse. Mario is a chosen hero of the prophecy in this game, and must team up with Luigi, Princess Peach, and even Bowser to gather eight Pure Hearts and stop Bleck and his vast army of henchmen from carrying out their chaotic plan. While in the previous two games Peach and Bowser were semi-playable during interludes, this game has them fully playable characters, along with Luigi (whose role in this game is larger than in previous games). Unique enemies return from the previous titles, along with many new ones. Mario is granted the ability to switch between 2D and 3D dimensions to progress, as the game is primarily 2D unlike the previous open-world games.

A couple years ago, a fourth title in the series was released, Paper Mario: Sticker Star. It was the first handheld Paper Mario title, and the first released screenshots suggested that it would be similar to the first two titles. At least one fighting partner was shown, and the enemies seemed to have the trademark Paper Mario art style. However, as more screenshots and trailers were released, it was obvious that this would not be anything like previous titles. The early screenshots were apparently from an early build that was rejected for being too similar to the second title (Might I add that many consider that one to be the best in the series) When the game was released, a grand total of one new character was introduced. The story was horribly dumbed down to the point where it was virtually nonexistant. Turn-based battles returned, but were also dumbed down to the point where they gave no experience and were useless. Everything now revolved around stickers, which replaced the badge and item systems from before. For example, if Mario needed to light up a dark room, he would use a Lightbulb sticker. This game has no partners that fight by Mario's side. The NPC's are restricted to generic nameless Toads. In the previous games, we had stuff like nerdy chameleons and Koopas with shades and swag. The final boss in the second title (I won't spoil who it is) was so epic it featured a cutscene in which characters from each world Mario had visited cheer him on and beg him to never give up. This game doesn't even have eight chapters like in the first three titles. Instead it has six worlds, which are the very predictable grasslands, desert, forest, snow world, jungle, and Bowser's castle. (By the way, the final level consists of two rooms, while the final areas in the previous games each were extremely large and filled with puzzles, enemies, and traps)

If you want to see just how much of a disappointment Sticker Star was, watch an entire playthrough of it, then watch only one chapter of one of the previous titles. I guarantee there will be more charm in the one chapter than all of Sticker Star. The worst part is, interviews have indicated that they want to use the fourth game as the standard for the series. As a huge fan of the Paper Mario series, I would be horribly sad to see such an amazing saga decline because of poor decisions on the creator's part. So I ask Shigeru Miyamoto and the people of Nintendo and Intelligent Systems to please bring the Paper Mario series back to its roots. May the next title (likely on the Wii U) return to the traditions set by the first three games, and have a unique story and colorful cast of original characters again. Never again should we see a Paper Mario title so barren and devoid of soul as Sticker Star was.