More Mario RPG goodness is upon us. Paper Mario games are always good (though Super Paper Mario was a big dialog-heavy and ditched turn-based combat--and there was that hamster-wheel bit, but we don't talk about that).

This game returns to turn-based combat with a twist: ALL of your attacks come from single-use stickers. Even the most basic abilities, like the classic Jump and Hammer, need a sticker. Once you've used a sticker, it's gone, and can't be used again. It sounds tedious but works wonderfully. Stickers are not hard to find, but GOOD stickers are uncommon. In fact, I often find myself doing the Diablo Inventory Dance with stickers as I find new stickers for which I have no space. The Album you keep your stickers in starts with 2 pages (15 slots per page) but grows as you progress. Each type of sticker can be found in 3 conditions: worn, normal, and shiny. The better the condition, the more powerful the attack. Stickers come in various sizes as well (though the common abilities are all single-slot). I haven't run out of stickers yet...in fact I tend to have the opposite problem: there are so many stickers to be found that I can't keep them all. It becomes a juggling act of choice and balance. You need a good variety but you also need good numbers of the basics.

The combat system leads to an interesting combination of inventory-management (which feeds the Diablo-player hunger in my empty soul) and battlefield judiciousness. Do you use that Shiny sticker to take out those 3 Goombas in one swing, or save it for the boss? And certain attacks only work (or do NOT work) on certain enemy types which means you can't just go around wasting particularly-purposed abilities willy-nilly. And the timing-based aspect of attacks (hit A in time with Mario's Jumps or Hammer swings to chain attacks or increase damage) means if you blow it with that Shiny sticker, you've just wasted its potential--while on the other hand, you can make the most of that worn sticker by timing things right. All of this means that each individual round of combat becomes strategic, not only affected by how well you did last round, but affecting what you'll have to do in the next. It's a fantastic system that's superbly realized and works magnificently--something that almost never happens in videogames.

Of course Sticker Star has the series' trademark humor. Lots of laughs. But unlike Super Paper Mario, the dialog never feels heavy or cumbersome. It's there in perfect measure.

The 2D/3D papercraft art style looks beautiful even on the 3DS's low-resolution screens. The stereoscopic 3D is genuinely nice, highlighting the visual weirdness of 2D objects in a 3D world.