Paper Mario: Sticker Star team explains removal of RPG elements

Paper Mario: Sticker Star is a pure platformer that does away with the RPG elements of previous games in Nintendo's papercraft series. In the latest issue of the developer's 'Iwata Asks' panel sessions, the Nintendo president quizzed the team about Miyamoto's decision to shift towards a pure platform format. Check out their reasoning below.

Responding to Iwata's question, Kensuke Tanabe of Nintendo's software planning division replied, "Aside from wanting us to change the atmosphere a lot, there were two main things that Miyamoto-san said from the start of the project: 'It's fine without a story, so do we really need one?' And, 'As much as possible, complete it with only characters from the Super Mario world.'"

The move was backed up by focus testing it seems, as Tanabe added, "With regard to the story, we did a survey over the Super Paper Mario game in Club Nintendo, and not even 1% said the story was interesting. A lot of people said that the flip move for switching between the 3D and 2D dimensions was fun."

Vanpool representative Taro Kudo backed up Miyamoto's decision, "I originally saw it in a way that's similar to Miyamoto-san. Personally I think all we need is to have an objective to win the boss battle at the end of the game. I didn't think we necessarily needed a lengthy story like in an RPG.

"Instead, we looked at the characteristics of a portable game that can be played little by little in small pieces and packed in lots of little episodes and ideas. I always did like putting in little ideas, so I actually enjoyed it."

The team focused purely on Super Mario World's enemy set, and didn't add in any new friendly characters, except from multiple Toads of varying colours. Kudo expressed a fondness for the project's increased focus.

"Personally, the more restrictions there were, the more excited I got," he explained, "They may look the same, but we put in some elements in which their personalities are slightly different, so you can tell the difference and you think, 'Hey! Are you that Toad from back then?' Toward the end of development, I could feel that I became one with Toad! [laughs]"

So there you go, lots of Toad, lots of classic platforming, and lots of Super Mario World. But will you miss the RPG elements? Let us know below.