Paper Mario: Color Splash (Wii U) Review

Okay, time to start with some positives. Paper Mario: Color Splash - would it have been so hard to spell 'colour' correctly for the European market? Right, sorry. Starting again - positives! This latest Paper Mario is a sight to behold. Right from the off, players are greeted by the most beautiful 2D artwork on the Wii U to date, complete with a gorgeous soundtrack that deserves the sort of attention where the controller is left alone, volume is cranked up, and the music is left playing in the background. Be it new tunes or re-worked versions of classic Koji Kondo works, the audio is sublime… as is the writing style, with humour levels riding high, making for a very quaint and comical adventure. There are plenty of bright points, and yet there is no hiding from the truth that this is not the Paper Mario long-term fans were hoping for. This is definitely more Sticker Star than The Thousand Year Door, and that alone will put many off.

There are turn-based battles - thankfully not randomised, with enemies easily dodged for the most part - but it relies firstly on a deck of cards being held, meaning when running low on relevant ones for the enemies faced, there will be many times where fleeing is the only option. Secondly, it is too reliant on the GamePad. To expand on this - at least slightly - some of the game's background needs to be discussed.

Colour…sorry, Color Splash…is all about filling in areas of the land where colour has been sucked away as part of Bowser's latest nefarious plan. This is done via a special hammer that Mario handily acquires at the start of this latest escapade. Regular slams of the hammer can be used for hitting objects (or enemies for pre-emptive strikes, same as jumping on non-spikey-backed foes), yet a tap of the 'X' button, rather than 'B,' results in various hues splashing forth (that are replenished via hitting plant life in the vicinity, grabbing post-battle goodies, and more).

Levels visited have a percentage marker next to their name, indicating how much of the level still needs to be coloured in (the reward is the opening up of that stage's music when hitting 100%, so the incentive is not that high to reach total completion), battle cards sometimes come completely drained of power because of their whiteness, and even some of the plethora of Toad characters featured have some, if not all, of their colour removed, rendering them completely inanimate or partially restricted in what they can do (unable to walk, suffering from memory loss, to give just two examples).

Right, so back to the batting element that requires focus to be shifted from the main TV to the Wii U GamePad. Cards must be shuffled from the in-hand deck to choose one or more (dependent on what stage of the game you are currently at - with a greater selection of cards allowed as deeper progress is made), with some cards already coloured and others not, and the latter needing Mario's supply of blue, yellow, and red to paint them partially or fully (the choice is yours, since managing paint supplies is imperative throughout), strengthening them according to how much of their surface is filled in. Once coloured, it is time to confirm and then flick on the touch screen to send the cards - finally - onto the TV, ready to automatically kick into action.

To start with it feels very convoluted and frustrating, becoming easier as time passes, but in the same breath it becomes highly mundane as the adventure wears on, just like it did with Sticker Star.

The platforming elements are tight, and the overall feel of Paper Mario: Color Splash is fabulous, but the battling grows wearisome too quickly (despite being able to clear some weaker enemies with a mere slam of the hammer later on…as by then the tedium has already set in). The saving grace is the remnants of an RPG experience, despite everything taking place on a top-down map akin to Super Mario World, rather than completely open world. New quests opening up between stages, re-visiting areas and towns to unlock new elements and meet new characters - there is a lot of effort put in, yet ultimately the whole package grows repetitive after a few hours, and fails to improve further in because of the battle system.