Paper Mario: Sticker Star -- 3-1 Leaflitter Path

We return to Decalburg to find it in the midst of attempting a Sticker Fest revival. In the blue house, the Toad is gone, but there's a headline saying a mysterious green guy was spotted in the Drybake Stadium. Theories include he was entranced by a solo from a Sombrero Guy or that he was taking an epic nap. Well, we'll just have to keep an eye out for Luigi. There's another picture in the red house about the desert. It looks like this is Mario and Luigi's house, as the journal entries mirror Mario's adventures. Let's continue!

This area is more of a forest. Now, if we hit a Goomba with our hammer, it is instantly defeated and turns into a coin. Once we move past the trees, things get very quiet. There's a Snifit wandering around. The next area has some quiet music and someone's snoring. There's a giant Wiggler ahead, fast asleep. Looks like we'll need something loud to wake him up. We can put a Thing sticker near him. My guess is the Jackhammer, but that isn't it. The Trumpet's sticker is too small.

I got back to the Goomba Fortress to get another Trumpet anyway and see Luigi. We peel him off and he runs away again. What's he up to? Back in Decalburg, there's a new story about him being at Goomba Fortress. Goomba eyewitnesses reported that he looked very weak and cowardly.

I go back to Leaflitter Path and use the Trumpet and it works. Even after we wake him up, Wiggler is cheerful and enthusiastic, saying something great's going to happen today. Kersti asks why Wiggler was sleeping outside instead of his home. Wiggler says he ate too many leaves and got sleepy. He says the forest has been covered in icky, goopy poison, so the leaves he normally eats were no longer edible. He found clean leaves at the entrance to the forest. We're going to help out, as this is likely the work of Bowser. Wiggler will take us to his house so we can talk. It is once again quiet.

In the next area, we find Wiggler. Something moves over his head and out of sight. It then gets dark. Wiggler's happy to see us because he's always alone. The darkness is caused by the poison so we should watch our step. The thing that moved out of sight returns and takes Wiggler away. There are patches of poison everywhere, so don't fall in. There are also Ninji in the area. They're pretty good at dodging attacks and sometimes drop Throwing Star stickers.

In the next area is a large pool of poison. Wait for a log floating in the poison to spin around so you can reach it. Transfer to another log and it will take you to the other side. There's a door drawn on the tree in the back. The Secret Door leads to the Searchlight. Also in this area are Paint Guys. They'll splash paint on the screen if you don't repeatedly push them away. Hop across the spinning log to reach the other side. In the next area, there are Boomerang Bros in the background. On the othe side of the first poison pool, there is a Heart Block and a Save Block. Once we reach the other side of the poison, the Boomerang Bros appear. They're both going to battle us. They each have 24 HP. The boomerangs they throw will hit you twice, so guard twice. They'll drop two Boomerang stickers. Just ahead is the comet piece.

Return once the poison clears to find an HP-Up Heart in front of the comet piece.

Paper Mario: Sticker Star -- 1-6 Goomba Fortress

Mario walks up to the fortress and Kersti notes it seems pretty grandiose for such little minions. She can feel a Royal Sticker's power coming from inside, so we'd better check it out. Kersti thinks this place may have gone crazy because Bowser went crazy under the influence of a Royal Sticker, but as far as we're concerned, that's normal for Bowser. We battle the Goombas on the bridge and go inside.

Inside, there's a yellow block in the center of the room. Hit it to make the paths rotate, so you can access different doors. Just to check things out, I go to the door on the right. We see a tall tower with a flag. We're noticed by a Goomba up there, where there are cannons and Bob-ombs. He wakes up the Bob-ombs with a 3D Trumpet. That may be another item we should grab. Bob-ombs fire from the cannons and drop down with parachutes. Some of the Bob-ombs drop Bomb stickers after battles. We go back and go through the door in the back.

This place has spikes, as well as a Heart Block and Save Block. The Bowser tape in front of the spikes is hiding a carpet that covers half of the spikes. We go back to the area with the Bob-ombs and go through the doorway. There's another yellow block in the center of the room. We go to the right wall and hit it with the hammer to find a hidden room with coins and a Shiny Jump.

Through the door in the back, things are quiet. We step on the bridge and it triggers a fan system to blow us away, along with Paragoombas in our path. We're blown off the bridge and walk around, finding some stickers. There's a door drawn on one of the walls. The Secret Door leads to the Squirt Gun. The bridge is impossible to cross, but we see spots for stickers when we paperize in front of the vents. Pick any two small stickers you don't want and place them in those spots. The stickers won't hold forever, so move quickly. The item block at the end has a Poison Mushroom.

Inside, there's an item block we can't quite reach. Go to the back and use your hammer on the air to the right. Blocks will appear so you can reach it for a Shiny POW Block. Through the door on the left are more Bob-ombs. We need them to run into fences and blow them up to clear a path. Try not to battle them so they'll blow up fences. We enter another part of the fortress and the yellow block doesn't work. It's rotate 90 degrees, so paperize, pick it up, and put it where it's supposed to be. The door to the front takes us to the area with the Save and Heart Blocks. Peel off the Bowser tape here to make the other part of the bridge. This leads to a dark green bridge guarded by a couple of Goombas.

Inside, it's quiet. Mario's jumps echo throughout. There's a spiral staircase guarded by Goombas. In the center are a couple of ledges. The lower one allows you to reach a Flashy Jump. The stairs lead to the top of the turret where the cannons are. The Trumpet has been abandoned, so we take it. The item block to the right has a heart in it that restores 30 HP. To the left are some stairs.

At the top, someone says, "Shee shee shee... Nee nee nee... Shinysheenyshoony... SHINE-YAAAAAAAA!" It's a Goomba wearing a shiny crown, looking possessed. That might be the Royal Sticker. The Goomba continues: "Shee hee hee! Well me, Mario. But here's where I turn you into confetti and scatter you to the winds! Take this! Shine-diddly-DOO!" Tough talk from a small Goomba. Kersti appears and confirms that the crown is, indeed, a Royal Sticker. The Goomba refuses to return it, as it pumps up the Goombas. Suddenly, Mario is surrounded by 15 Goombas. They all engage us in battle at once. Plug in your 3DS now; it's going to be a long battle. The crowned Goomba says, "OH, SUCH SHINABILITY! The shininess! Such power it gives! Such glittery-glottery glory!" The Battle Spin appears and I match 2 Lightning bolts. Our enemy is Megasparkle Goomba with 90 HP. This could take a while. After my first two attacks, the crowned Goomba says, "All right, boys! Time for the real deal!" The Goombas get in formation in the air, forming a 4x4 square, which becomes a giant Shiny Goomba sticker. It can form into a cone as well as roll into a tube. At times, it may flip over to reveal the individual Goombas, which can fly out at you. I'm not doing a lot of damage and am running out of stickers, so I unleash the Scissors! It does 20 HP of damage. Megasparkle Goomba says "Oopsie for yoopsie! When we're all sparkled up in a wall, that stuff doesn't even faze us!" After a few tries, I finally beat him. Bring lots of Mushrooms (at least 4) and lots of powerful stickers. All Thing Stickers have action commands in battle. Some are based on timing hitting the (A) button once and other require button mashing. I had to use my Shiny Big Hammer, but it finished him off. The crowned Goomba says, "Shee hee hooof... That stunk! C'mon boys, get your shine back on! Come, my sparkly shine-a-rooskies, and unite once more into a gigantic sticker of glitterosity!" One of the other Goombas says, "Nah, my, uh, fellow shine-rooster of whatever you just said... I think I'd like to go back to being a normal dude, if it's all the same to you." Another says, "Yeah, me too... The power of that sticker changes a Goomba, y'know? It changes your body and your MIND. I didn't sign up for that!" Sounds like they're as tired of the battle as I am. They leave. Crowned Goomba says, "UNshiny, UNdazzlish, UNCOOL! You whiny little spit wads! If that's the way it is, then FINE! I'll outshine you myself!" The battle continues and he has 1HP. After hitting me, so do I (I had 2 HP before the attack). And my 3DS resets itself. Just fantastic. I have to restart the battle, so I hit him with everything I have and finish with the Scissors. After his fellow Goombas desert him, I use a Bomb Sticker. Victory at last!

Kersti notices that we've used up a lot of stickers. She says there may have been a more effective sticker. I'm thinking the Fan, but I didn't have room in my album for large stickers. She says to try a little harder next time. (She says this regardless of how many stickers you use.) I have 11 HP left. The crowned Goomba says, "Shuuuh...Uuuuugh... All that wonderful, glittery power was like a dazzling dream... Now it's gone... Now I no longer... shi...ne..." He collapses and the crown is removed. Kersti says the Goomba got the crown's power because it was stuck on it. What we don't is if this was accidental or on purpose. If another Royal Sticker is stuck on another enemy, it'll be a glittastrophe. And with that, we put it on our album cover, on the top part of the pentagon. From the looks of things, they're all crown-shaped.

Next is a short transition which basically sums up the Goomba's encounter with the Royal Sticker. A new page is added to the album, a welcome addition.