Frustration. That is the word that comes to mind when talking about Paper Mario Color Splash. While the game is easily an improvement from the embarrassment that was 2012’s Paper Mario Sticker Star, the game still struggles with a lot of the issues that plagued the previous title, which results in slow paced, boring, and overall disappointing experience.
The game starts off promisingly enough. Beautiful visuals and a very catchy soundtrack help get you in a good mood. Even the trademark humor that was completely absent in the 3DS predecessor seems to be back in some form, and the initial opening is very reminiscent of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. All seems to be fine and dandy.
That is until the gameplay is introduced. Once again, the series has forgone its traditional turn based RPG roots, in favor of a more gimmicky based battle system. Throughout the game you can find, buy, and sell special cards which you use in battle. These are used by selecting a card in your hand via the Wii U gamepad, coloring it in, and then flicking it. While it was amusing the first couple of times, it quickly wore out its welcome. Now, I’m not opposed to changing up how encounters work. In fact, I very much enjoyed the real time battle system in Super Paper Mario, but what the game fails to do with its battle system is find ways to properly incentivize fighting.
The game tries to fix this problem by adding hammer scraps. Every time you defeat enemies, you’ll collect scraps of a cardboard hammer, and of you collect enough, you’ll be able to increase your max paint you can use. This however, still does not really work out as the game often forces you into battles rather than the originals which made you want to battle in order to level up. Add to the fact that enemies are already ridiculously easy, and there’s really no joy to the combat at all. I often found myself constantly running away from battles just to preserve my cards for the impending boss fights. Sadly, those are also very flawed. All main bosses will need a specific set of cards in order for you to beat them. If you lack the proper cards in battle. you’ll never beat them. This makes them feel more like extended and tedious puzzles than actual showdowns.
Sadly, the rest of the gameplay also fails to provide anything resembling fun. Most of your time will be spent running back and forth between different levels in order to find specific items and collect paint stars to open up new areas. Progress is often slow, and tedious. I’m not kidding when I’m telling you that you’ll be spending a good 5-7 hours at the start of the game just trying to get to the first boss. This is the main part of the game, and it’s really frustrating that it artificially extends itself out. Not only that, but the game can be very cryptic at times, so you might spend a good hour or 2 mindlessly wandering a level because you missed a small piece of paper sticking out of a bridge that’s integral to beating that level. After a while, not even the music or visuals can keep you going.
In conclusion, Paper Mario Color Splash may seem like a step in the right direction, but is still a ways off from the original 3 entries. The biggest problem is that developer Intelligent System seemingly ignored all criticism leveled at Sticker Star and simply just tried using a handheld style approach for a console. It seems like this new team just doesn’t understand what made the series so beloved in the first place. What does the future hold for our paper mache plumber? Who knows? Hopefully, it’s better than this.
Final Rating: ★★/5 Stars