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It ’ s no secret that 2012 ’ s Paper Mario : Sticker Star didn ’ t go down so well . Although the 3DS entry in the beloved RPG series was brimming with charm and a gorgeous papery aesthetic , it was fatally crippled by a flawed battle system that relied too heavily on inventory management . So you can imagine fans ’ frustration when , 4 years later , Nintendo casually revealed the Wii U ’ s instalment , Paper Mario : Color Splash , and it looked to be adhering to all the aspects which scuppered Sticker Star . Item-based battle system ? Check . No original characters ? Check . Generic world design ? Swarming with NPC Toads ? Bowser as the villain ? Check , check and check .
Indeed , one almost gets the impression that Nintendo knew the game would receive backlash the second the internet clapped eyes on it , since the trailer debuted with little fanfare and details on its development were , for a time , practically non-existent . By all accounts , it seemed they had little faith
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in the project and were attempting to sweep it under the rug .
This is a real shame because , having now played it all the way to the end , I can wholeheartedly assure you that , on the whole , it ’ s a stupendously inventive , utterly endearing adventure which stands tall alongside the N64 original , although it doesn ’ t quite reach the lofty heights of TTYD .
Color Splash shifts the action from the
Mushroom Kingdom to Prism Island , a lurid technicolour resort
lorded over by the omnipotent Big Paint Stars . This change in locale , which affords Intelligent Systems the chance to experiment with more outlandish environments than standard Mario fare , is fresh and welcome .
Papers Mario , Peach and Toad are deposited on the island after receiving a strange invitation , only to find it more resembling the drab backwaters of Hull
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than the polychromatic paradise they were expecting . Someone ’ s gone and sucked out all the colour , see , and after witnessing a few resident Toads suffer the same terrible , grey fate , Mario decides to seek out the missing Big Paint Stars and set things right , accompanied by a sentient paint can named Huey ( see what they did there ?). And fear not , because the now obligatory Peach kidnapping is in there too .
Yes , Color Splash won ’ t be winning any Pulitzer Prizes for its narrative , and this
may well be a sticking point for many . But to the game ’ s credit , it knows this , and has fun with it (“ Bowser kidnapped Peach ? Nobody could have predicted this !”) in some of the most deliciously biting , satirical humour we ’ ve yet seen in the franchise . “ Ugh . Gentrification at its finest ,” sighs one world-weary Snifit watching Mario go about unleashing his inner Bob Ross .
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Another tosses Mario in jail , proclaiming that he can ’ t do anything more to him “ without raising the game ’ s age rating .” An existential Shy Guy on a train regales Mario with his worldview : that Bowser ’ s army is forever destined to lose and there is , in his view : “ no point in lying to ourselves .”
The total sardonicism and wit of the script manages to completely carry the run-of-the-mill plot , against all odds , and makes every turn of the page an exciting one , as you wonder
what kooky character or bizarre scenario you ’ ll discover next ; be it a shuffle danceoff secretly mired in conspiracy ( referred to as ‘ Shufflegate ’) or a building full of ghosts needing to tell their stories before passing on . Toad ghosts , natch .
And it isn ’ t as if the environments you pass through to reach these events are unpleasant , either . Though at first they ’ re patchy and a
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little downtrodden , a few smacks of Mario ’ s new paint hammer soon blossoms them , de Blob style , into thriving wonderlands full of life . The paper art style is cranked up to 11 here , and thanks to the graphical heft of the Wii U , appears almost tangible at times , with creases , folds and tiny specks of dust adorning the characters .
The game keeps track of how much of an area you ’ ve painted , so completionists are sure to be kept occupied hunting down that last 2 % or 3 % of unpainted territory . Colouring items in a certain manner will often trigger cutscenes , solve puzzles , or yield coins / cards , and slowly breathing vibrancy back into all the desolation is immensely satisfying .
In a marked improvement from Sticker Star , almost none of these environmental puzzles are prohibitively difficult , and make good use of a new ‘ Cutout ’ ability to rearrange landscapes and open paths forward in imaginative ways . Likewise , Huey , who ( Lord forbid ) could easily have become Kersti 2.0 , generally keeps his mouth shut unless he ’ s really needed , and manages to be far less irritating than his predecessor as a result .
Where Color Splash sadly stumbles somewhat , though , is in the battle system . Much like Sticker Star , it re-
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