Paper Mario: Sticker Star taught me how big a difference the mere presence of the Internet makes when playing a game.

Sticker Star can become very frustrating as there are a variety of puzzles that seem to have that old nebulous adventure game logic, or simply have no hint as to what sort of tools will be needed before encountering them. The player could spend a lot of time wandering around desperately trying to find a solution or being forced to backtrack all the way back to town to grab a couple key stickers that are necessary, and are then forced to repeat the entire map again.

These frustrations typically occur at least once or twice throughout the five major worlds of Sticker Star, and can make it easy to kill all drive to play the game for a while. However, a curious thing happened.

I was partway through world five when I moved, and for the first few days here we didn’t have Internet or television. So when I wasn’t unpacking I was winding down with Paper Mario, and soon enough puzzles that would have stopped me in my tracks before now caused me to sit, think, and experiment. Whereas before my patience for experimentation was limited to a few minutes, now I was willing to spend roughly half-an-hour to figure out a problem. Half-an-hour was also the most time I needed, as most problems were solved in much less time.

It reminded me of playing games when I was a kid, how you might spend an afternoon trying to figure out how to progress in a game. If you were lucky you might have the strategy guide, or you’d have a friend that knew the way through at school. Most of the time, though, these lunchroom strategies were only discovered through trial and error, experimentation, and a whole lot of time not progressing. Without access to the Internet, it is easier to be patient. Without the ability to just click the mouse, tap some keys and land on a page with all the information you need (or a video), the minor frustrations are easier to handle.

So I’m a bit stuck in my thoughts. On one hand, the problems I had with Sticker Star wouldn’t have been a big deal in a day before the Internet. On the other, a lot of the reason this stuff was a problem is because it was inconvenient or completely user friendly. Secret passages and locations in a spot that is barely hinted at, that most users and players won’t catch. Needing specific stickers in order to stand a chance at defeating a boss, and few hints ahead of time as to what you might need. Having to repeat levels once you figure out what you need, or the specific strategy required, without any shortcut options to help.

These things all disrupt the flow of the game, which is one of the reasons they are often so jarring. The experience is otherwise smooth as silk, with simple and easy to figure out puzzles scattering most of the game. Each world introduces new elements to their levels, and even create a series of set-pieces, in order to keep the game from being too repetitive. World four is perhaps the best at this, where almost every level breaks the typical formula in favor of a one-time gimmick or approach.

The stickers themselves are an excellent concept to build all the gameplay around. It makes resource management one of the key elements, forcing the player to keep track of what they have in their inventory and what to save for emergencies. Different enemies are immune to certain attack types, and thus having a variety of stickers in store is a key element of victory and success. At times the concern is running low on certain stickers, and other times it is simply having too many and trying to figure out what you do and do not need.

Plenty of objects around the world are also capable of having stickers stuck on them, being peeled off or simply being unfolded. As usual, Nintendo takes the very concept of the world being built of cardboard and paper and pushes it as far as they can, allowing the player to change the world and navigate it in much more imaginative ways than the usual. You don’t merely pull a switch to activate or deactivate something, you place stickers over giant vents in order to keep them from blowing too much air which keeps knocking Mario off a bridge.

Perhaps the greatest charm in Paper Mario: Sticker Star are the characters, though. I was greatly amused at how rudely everyone treated Mario at first, and the variety of personalities and characteristics distributed amongst otherwise same-looking Toad characters. To me, it feels as if the Paper Mario series is a sort of myth or story built around this character of Mario within the Mushroom Kingdom as we might make a film of Hercules. That the Mushroom Kingdom has this myth and the Paper Mario games are stories from this fictional world.

That is all conjecture, though. In truth, this is just a delightful game with plenty of characters to make you smile. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to have the mild depth that was found in Super Paper Mario, but seeing as that game wasn’t favored amongst fans it is no surprise they wouldn’t go that route again.

Paper Mario: Sticker Star is certainly a good game that is also fun to play. However, it is frustrating to reach the near-end of a level only to discover you have to leave, fetch an item, and then replay everything just to complete this one task. Or to reach a boss and use a special sticker too early (or be unaware of what you’d need at all) because you didn’t know just the right time to use the weapon, forcing the player to flee, exit the level and retrieve that special item yet again.

Even if these sorts of inconveniences weren’t a big deal in a day before the Internet, the fact of the matter is they are inconvenient and force the player to backtrack when they shouldn’t. The game’s flow gets disrupted, and with or without thirty minutes of patience, the temptation to just Google solutions before even reaching the next level or boss becomes too tempting.