Review - Paper Mario: Sticker Star

I was very excited for Paper Mario: Sticker Star. But it seemed with every new detail and every new screenshot that found its way to me, I grew less and less excited. An RPG with no party members? An RPG with no experience points? I maintained faith that the fine folks at Intelligent Systems knew what they were doing, but... what were they doing? I couldn't fathom why they would bother to retain RPG elements at all if they were going to be so willing to discard the genre's most basic elements. It seemed to me that the latest and greatest Paper Mario adventure was shaping up to be quite an unfocused mess. I was worried. I wanted another Thousand-Year Door, not another Super Paper Mario.

Well, Paper Mario: Sticker Star is actually neither of those, but now that I've had my hands on it, I can wipe my brow and breathe a sigh of relief. As it turned out, Intelligent Systems knew exactly what they were doing: taking some of the most interesting and exciting risks I've seen the genre take in years.

Custom Pushmo/Pullblox Puzzles

As you know if you've read our review of Pushmo, the 3DS puzzler gives you the ability to create and download custom puzzles. Included after the break are all the puzzles that I've created! Downloading these puzzles is as simple as pointing the 3DS camera at your computer screen, but to play them, you'll need to unlock the expanded level editor by completing the first 109 puzzles in the main game.

Review: Pushmo

Pushmo (or Pullblox, as it's known in Europe) is a deceptively simple puzzle game. The "Puzzle" genre has never been as mainstream as when Tetris first hit shelves, and likely never will be. But when done well (as in Tetris Attack, Meteos, Chu Chu Rocket, and Professor Layton, to name a few), the genre has proven time and time again to be one of my personal favorites.

If you'll excuse the pun, the question I'd like to answer for you today is this: How does Pushmo stack up?

Let me put it this way. As I write this, Pushmo has been out for three days. If my 3DS activity log is to be believed, I've already played the game for 25 hours. Of the time that has passed since this title became available, I've spent a full third of that playing this title. Consider that I also spent a third of it sleeping.

I'll just come out and say it. Gaming websites are billing Pushmo as the eShop's "killer app," and while that is hardly scarce praise, I think this humble game deserves even more. This is not just a killer app for the eShop, but for the 3DS in general.