10 Most Disappointing Video Game Sequels Of All Time
2. Paper Mario: Sticker Star
Long-time players of the Paper Mario series generally know what they’re getting into: a colorful, irreverent experience, which leans into the whole everything-is-made-of-paper concept and emphasizes it throughout.
For many, 2004 GameCube title Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door represents the pinnacle of the format. It’s tremendously fun and varied, with a large cast of characters that each have handy abilities in battle. The RPG elements seemed finely tuned to allow for strategy without becoming too deep or too shallow.
The titles since seem to have failed to get this delicate balance right. 3DS title Paper Mario: Sticker Star remains a controversial example, leaving behind those RPG trappings for the gimmicky titular sticker system.
It may not be a bad title (the stickers can be fun to experiment with, and the writing is on point as ever), but it just didn’t live up to what came before.