Paper Mario: Color Splash Deserves a First Chance

[Music] Paper Mario Color Splash was needless to say controversial when it was first announced it looked to be a sequel to the much maligned sticker star from the Bare Bones story to the lackluster combat to the generic characters and general soullessness First Impressions gave the appearance that color splash was just the same as before the same unnecessary deviation from the Thousand-Year Door just on the Wii U this time instead of the 3DS naturally fans took to social media immediately to protest I didn't much care for sticker star myself but being the sycophantic Paper Mario fan I was and still am I bought it anyway and rushed through the entire game when it first launched on October 7th 2016. and you know what I loved the game on my first playthrough I thought the writing was hilarious the art style gorgeous us the locations varied and charming and yeah sure the combat wasn't great but that hardly seemed to matter how could it when the rest of the game was so wonderful admittedly though this opinion seemed to be on The Fringe the game Saw relatively lukewarm perception and most of the discourse surrounding the game seemed to be fairly negative in fact Color Splash is one of the worst selling Mario games in recent memory though this likely speaks to the Wii U's failures more than it does the game still though the fact that color splash didn't even manage to sell 1 million copies speaks to a thorough distaste in apathy for the product Nintendo had put out but none of this particularly mattered to me I figured most people complaining had never actually played the game and we're never going to give it a chance so I filed the game to the back of my mind as yet another underrated classic with the hopes eventually people would be able to judge the game on its own merits and not on the awful premise of a sticker star sequel I was also pretty confident that it's lackluster sales ensured that another game like Color Splash would never happen again much less another paper Mario game in general I figured this particular debate was a closed chapter in the history of Paper Mario wow I was certainly wrong about that fast forward four years later and we get a surprise announcement of a brand new game Paper Mario the origami King fan reaction was generally more positive than before 4 but after a quick glance The Familiar concerns started heating up all over again there's a debate over whether Partners were returning whether or not disposable items would remain the main combat mechanic or whether the story would be as painfully generic as the last two games not helping matters was the fact that despite the game was releasing only two short months later the trailer revealed no in-depth footage of the combat obfuscating whether or not the largest issue with sticker star or color splash would be resolved even I an adamant fan of Color Splash was disappointed I always preferred the RPG mechanics and world of the first two games and even though I ultimately thought the New Direction with Paper Mario had proved fulfilling I wasn't particularly excited to play another game making the same exact mistakes three times in a row but I was a paper Mario worshiper so I knew I was going to play the game as soon as it came out regardless of what mistakes it was going to make unsurprisingly I enjoyed it immensely I thought the game was just as vibrant and beautiful as ever the writing just as witty and I even found the new ring system combat far more engaging than the cards or stickers from games past and it seemed like most other people who played the game enjoyed it too contrary to color splash the game sold extremely well within its first few months quickly becoming the second best-selling Paper Mario game just behind super finally I thought I had been Vindicated all of those skeptical of Color Splash had given the new formula a chance with the origami King and it turned out they liked it too but somewhere in the back of my mind something told me that I might be wrong after all the origami King seemed to be pretty much better than his predecessor in every way so what if Color Splash wasn't actually this great game that I thought it was and instead was a game now completely obsolete by its more competent younger brother not only that but I foresaw the discourse surrounding Color Splash turning sour very quickly now after all all the talk about Color Splash being sticker star done right I worried the origami king would recontextualize that comment and that wasn't good for Color Splash so after getting off the high of playing a new Paper Mario and a quick playthrough of blood fables I decided it was time to revisit Color Splash and see not only how it Stacks up against my fond memories of it but also how it compares to its subsequent entry look if there's one thing that paper Mario tends to get known for it's being unusually story heavy pushing the boundaries of what is shown and seen in the Mario Universe the Thousand-Year Door has Mario in a race for an ancient treasure against a bizarre cult known as the xnots Super Paper Mario tasks Mario with saving the universe from an Ever eclipsing void that threatens to consume everything certainly these are unusual stories stories you wouldn't necessarily expect to see within the confines of a Mario game which usually feature next to nothing in terms of story story in archetypical Mario games usually serve as a framing device for why you're going on whatever Adventure rather than acting as a narrative that a player is supposed to be invested in this more story lean lens then seems to be the overriding philosophy for the next game in the series sticker star in it Bowser kidnaps Princess Peach and you need to collect 5 RPG macguffins to stop him that's literally it the decision to simplify the story like this proved be an unpopular one and it's not hard to see why instead of an evolving ever-growing story with fun characters the game was a bog standard new Super Mario Bros s game complemented with an obtuse purposeless combat system it begged the obvious question if Paper Mario was just going to become new Super Mario Bros but more cumbersome and over complicated why shouldn't you just play New Super Mario Bros instead the answer to this particular question is answered in Color Splash a game that tries marginally harder to develop an overarching narrative but it's not the answer you might expect but before we get to that how is The overarching Narrative of Color Splash well it's not great after receiving a toad drained of all color in the mail Mario and Peach traveled to a new Locale prism Island to discover the meaning behind it and why it was sent in the first place when they arrive at Port Prisma they discover the port and the rest of the island drained of its color including its populace this setup is a promising start rather than wrote beginnings of its predecessor Color Splash at least makes an effort to get players invested in some kind of intrigue no matter how small it also helps that the color draining gimmick is played for a few Eerie sequences almost harkening back to the darker days of Mario storytelling whether that be the dour circumstances present in super or the post-apocalyptic Mushroom Kingdom of Partners in Time unfortunately things quickly take a turn for the generic after rescuing the first big paint star of which we learned six are required to restore the island we learned that Bowser is the source of the colorless spots and that he lured the party here so he could kidnap Peach which he evidently does at this point the game drops the mystery aspect in favor of the typical Super Mario plot confusingly though the game doesn't drop the pretense of there being a mystery even though I can assure you there isn't one after collecting each big paint star they'll show you a vision of what happened on the day Port Prisma became colorless as if it's supposed to be in any way Illuminating but the information revealed is always inconsequential one flashback shows that it was kamik who sent the colorless toad in the mail another flashback shows airships dropping into Port Prisma to steal paint information we've already been aware of since the first big pain star another one shows shy guys pouring paint into those same airships presumably these cutscenes are supposed to give players the sense of accomplishment as they slowly uncover more and more of this mystery that's difficult to do when there is no mystery the answers have already been revealed furthermore after Peach gets kidnapped after the red chapter she'll occasionally send down Holograms of herself to give updates on her condition these serve the same purpose as the big paint stars and are equally as useless they pale in comparison to the peach prologues found in Paper Mario in the Thousand-Year Door and there's a distinct impression that if the game had been given a more complex narrative these moments could have been immensely more satisfying to the game's credit there is a Nuance added later that Bowser is being possessed by black paint but nothing is done with this Edition other than to remove any culpability on Bowser's part though Peach still blames him personally by saying she hopes he has learned his lesson this time which is oddly vindictive and unsympathetic worse yet I would be remiss if I didn't point out that despite the story's overwhelming Simplicity it features some pretty severe plot holes throughout the game Bowser sends his Koopalings to go and find the big paint Stars yet one of the big paint star Visions shows that Bowser himself scattered them in the first place talk about counterproductive also why did Bowser send a letter in the first place leading Mario the one person who always seems to defeat him right to his position these aren't serious flaws with the game but it's slightly astounding how a game with such little plot manages to make so little sense advertising The Mystery of the story here was probably a miscalculation still I mentioned before that color splash answers the question of how to tell a new kind of Mario story that separates itself from his platforming counterparts and the answer doesn't come from the game's overarching narrative rather in a quite Infamous for other reasons interview with producer kensuke tanabe regarding the origami King he mentions that he quite likes video game stories but also in a way one might not expect to go back to Mario in Paper Mario color splash I avoided having a complicated story so as not to Veer too far away from the Maru universe and instead aimed for a game with more memorable events to create even more memorable experiences for players in Paper Mario the origami King we've established some characters other than the partner character who will also Journey with players through the game in particular I think that Bobby has turned out to be just as memorable a character as Olivia rather than focus on overarching narratives tanabe sees the future of Storytelling in Paper Mario as a series of memorable events with little or no connection between them this is a reasonable approach to storytelling in games and one that's far more faithful to the spirit of the Paper Mario series and people give tanabe credit for after all one only needs to look at the original Paper Mario to see exactly this kind of Storytelling Paper Mario also features a road Bowser kidnaps Peach plot yet the game is fondly remembered for its story precisely because of its memorable events approach one moment you'll be finding hidden figures in a bustling desert town the next you might be exploring an incongruously large box filled with shy guys causing Mischief you might even be solving a murder mystery even peach got to have some fun within the confines of her castle whether that be random quiz shows or baking cakes for extremely obese shy guys either way anything seemed possible at any second in the original Paper Mario and that was its strength indeed in the more memorable experiences type of Storytelling Color Splash shines far more brightly than sticker star similar to paper Mario's of the past there's an unexpected energy to everything in Color Splash one stage might feature you exploring a shrunken Forest where every object is five times smaller another stage might feature you repairing a train and yet another could have you traveling to a parallel universe and in this way color splash's abundance of memorable moments connects the game thematically to its predecessors in a way that connected to me far more than I thought it would on my first playthrough in this context I feel obligated to defend one of the game's primary criticisms the world map on the surface this criticism seems warranted it made sense to have a world map on a 3DS game as that system was designed to be played in shorter more quick bursts as such you would want an experience designed to fit that play style and quick segmented levels on a world map seemed the perfect Paradigm to use but since Color Splash is a console game it would now make sense to remove said world map no since it's no longer longer a pick up and play experience what purpose does it serve well my counter to these questions would be this though a world map implies segmentation and discreetness I think that's exactly fitting for a game whose narrative relies upon memorable events to tell its story rather than have these events spread across a sprawling connected World each event is distilled down to a single stage a one-time experience that you can go into and come out in simplistic fashion in this sense I feel Color Splash actually accomplishes this event style storytelling better than the games surrounding it the former having no events worth speaking of besides perhaps the Enigma mansion and the latter whose cohesive World which is not necessarily A criticism by the way diluted the separation between memorable events of course Color Splash isn't able to pull off its event style story as gracefully as Paper Mario or the Thousand-Year Door one of the reasons those two games events are remembered so fondly is because of the Charming and fresh new characters that facilitated said events this particular aspect has been a strong point of contention amongst the Paper Mario games as of late and that same interview with tanabe mentioned earlier highlights this since Paper Mario sticker star it's no longer possible to modify Mario characters or to create original characters that touch on the Mario universe that means that if we aren't using Mario characters for bosses we need to create original characters with designs that don't involve the Mario Universe at all like we've done with Ollie and the stationary bosses strangely because of some bizarre mandate that doesn't allow for new original characters the events are inherently neutered instead of creative new characters leading us through inventive new situations the events need to be carried by the generic Mario species toads Koopas Goombas you get the picture but even here there is a caveat as those regular species cannot be altered in any significant way unlike the first two games you can't have toads with different body types or kookas that are too unrecognizable as such the most characterization you'll see design wise is a hat and sword on one toad or a lab coat on another this is a shame as this completely arbitrary restriction hurts the very storytelling design the game is utilizing Things become that much more dull when you're seeing the same designs over and over again and it's impressive how much more vibrant things would feel with a simple aesthetic change which leads us to the game's biggest storytelling strength strong writing there are many comments about Color Splash early on that went to the effect of I may not be able to tell these two Toads apart physically but the writing is clear enough that after reading their dialogue I immediately recognized who it was this sentiment is precisely what I observed in my playthrough and the sharp dialogue is quickly able to characterize any Toad and give them a level of distinctiveness whether that be a cowardly pirate captain or a melancholic train engineer depressed about the end of his career the game is also surprisingly funny I laughed consistently during my first playthrough and I'm happy to report that I found the game to be just as funny the second time around even four years later I distinctly remember a joke in the sunset Express where we cut away to a toad smiling and exclaiming that everything's fine only to then cut away to a similar toe looking upset and exclaiming that everything's terrible only to then cut away a third time to a similar toad being chased by a giant train it's an egregiously simple joke whose construction is so basic as to be textbook but it's genuinely hilarious as are many other moments in the game that I could also sit down and explain if I were really that intent on ruining this game's humor many haven't complained that color splash relies heavily on paper jokes wherein characters simply comment on the fact that they're paper and that's the joke but I found this criticism mostly overstated many of the jokes in the game don't feature this quality at all and it's more prevalent at the beginning of the game than it is at the end these writing comments also apply to the game's staple exception character the one character who is actually allowed to be designed in color splash's case Huey Huey's a good character by himself and a significant improved of the previous game's companion Kirsty for a number of reasons Kirsty was a failure of a character because not only was she unlikable from the onset constantly berating the player for no discernible reason but she was also never given a chance to reflect upon this position sticker star wasn't a game with bad writing but it wasn't a game with particularly good writing either most accurately it was a game with no writing never being given a chance to Excel or underperform as a result kirsty's few lines of condescension towards Mario are about all she gets and to have your only character trait be unlikable brat isn't exactly a glowing review it might have been a bit different had Kirsty been allowed to grow into a likable character over the course of the game but even her one scene where she's given a chance to apologize in the Russell burrow is still Laden with insults conversely Color Splash is a game filled with dialogue and this allows Huey to exhibit a wide range of emotions Huey structured how Kirsty presumably was supposed to be albeit slightly toned down he is at first aggressive and annoyed at Mario but over time learns to appreciate all that Mario has done for him analogously Huey's apology scene feels much more genuine than kirsty's and isn't insult Laden a market Improvement it also helps that this particular scene occurs at the end of the game instead of somewhere in the middle as it was the case with sticker stars furthermore the excellent comedy writing present in most of the game is also exemplified through Huey who by far has the most jokes out of anyone in the game much like his attitude towards Mario though I found that Huey's comedy was much improved in the second half of the game than in the first most of the first half consists of Huey creating the humor offering many lame puns and yes even the dreaded paper jokes however towards the end of the game as the memorable events increased in their frequency and Ridiculousness Huey's role changed into something I found far more effective rather than create the jokes Huey seemed better served when he was reacting to the comedy Instead This distinction within Huey highlighted a trend I noticed in color splash's comedy writing the better jokes were born out of the situations or memorable events rather than the quippy one-liners lending more credibility to the strength of this kind of event-based Storytelling that color splash engages in the world of Paper Mario Color Splash and its presentation are some of the game's clear biggest strengths the locales of prism Island are varied and interesting following the moment's style I discussed earlier but the levels themselves are also condensed enough so as to get right into the action equality no better exemplified than in the game's main Hub Port Prisma replaying through the game I was struck at how much better of a hub Port Prisma is than toad town in the origami King toad town was an unwieldy and large area to explore and though its size better reflected the more sprawling Landscapes of its game the space wasn't properly utilized all of the important places in Totem the harbor the shop the battle lab the museum are all located right next to each other in the east side of town amongst all of the important NPCs as a result of this unused space toe Town failed to feel like an actual location filled with bustling activity but instead more like a glorified menu had toad Town been a single circle with all of these buildings surround ending the circumference the only thing that would have been lost is the spectacle of a giant town and little else or Prisma on the other hand much more effectively utilizes its space the area is separated into four districts each serving a different use the red district is where the big paint stars are located as well as the game's major achievement Flags more on those later the yellow district is where the museum Rescue Squad HQ and cutout finder are located the blue district is where the mail and item shops are located and finally the harbor is where the thin collector as well as trash toad are located clearly each space support Prisma is utilized to its fullest and its smaller size relative to toad Town ensures that getting around town never feels cumbersome poor Prisma speaks to a more General quality of Color Splash arguably the game's best and defining feature its incredible Pace on my first playthrough I recall spending upwards of 45 minutes to an hour on many stages searching for every secret and colorless spot available to me on a repeat playthrough I was shocked at how fast the game was progressing many stages would only take between 10 to 20 minutes if even that you're never in one location for very long and this serves two functions both of which help the game firstly the fast pace complements the memorable event storytelling by ensuring that the player will be introduced to as many events as quickly as possible secondly it ensures that players don't have to spend too much time on any one idea which helps to cover up any one idea's flaws in truth many of color splash's scenarios can feel underdeveloped and some could quickly lead to frustration but the game's inability to sit still ensures that you aren't thinking about it for too long and no one element ever becomes too exhausting finding five toes is a part of an ocean Festival is not the most exciting activity but it takes no more than five minutes before that's completed and you're moving on to the next thing comparatively the origami King has a much slower Pace one of the largest criticisms of the game is it's overly long and tutorial filled first chapter a criticism presumably made by people who have never had to endure this significantly more intrusive tutorials of Dream Team still the criticism is fair the first chapter of origami King is much slower than the rest and it reflects a greater distinction between itself and color splash instead of fast-paced event-based Storytelling origami King attempts in large part to be a hybrid of the old and new style of Paper Mario a game with larger emphasis on a Grand's narrative while also containing the smaller events via the different areas you visit consequently you'll spend a large amount of time in a smaller amount of areas origami King's desire to plays a sort of hybrid extends beyond the story and area structure and one style is not necessarily better than the other but if you don't like climbing up a bunch of desert towers for an hour or two you may be out of luck interestingly Color Splash differs from its successor not just in terms of structure but also in terms of presentation at first glance it may seem like the two games have almost exactly the same art style but playing Color Splash again include me in on an important whereas the origami King creates most of its Landscapes with giant swaths of construction paper giving it a harder and brighter look color splash's environments have a much softer and felt like quality giving each area more homemade kind of feeling in hindsight this difference is appropriate the dioraminess of the areas in Color Splash makes its areas feel comparatively smaller and more bite-sized which as we've discussed before fits its more bite-sized structure of course the origami King has a higher resolution graphically but I found myself appreciating color splash's more methodical constructions than I was expecting in fact I think I might even prefer the look a similar point of comparison can be made with the two games as music especially when looking at the title screen themes from Color Splash and the origami King which both play every time you launch the game the difference between the two themes is immediate and entirely consistent with what we've discussed beforehand the origami King begins loud and with gusto indicating a grand Adventure is about to begin while color splash's opening theme is softer and more delicate in keeping with the feelings evoked by its art style in fact the opening sequence literally begins with Mario walking around a diorama and as silly as it may sound the fact that the game booting up so slowly forces you to listen to color splash's title theme as opposed to the origami Kings which you can just skip I found myself more attached to this main theme and this seems to be a more General observation as well both Color Splash and yorigami King have excellent soundtracks and I could spend a paragraph or two just listing all my favorites from each game but I found color splash's soundtrack to be more memorable at first I thought this was simply because I had been listening to the soundtrack for over four years but I think two songs in particular May illustrate another reason the two themes I'm talking about in particular are the Overworld theme from Color Splash and the toad Town Theme from the origami King both themes attempt a similar concept as you progress through the game and collect destroy whatever RPG MacGuffin you need more instrumentation is added to the song until they become complete at the end of the game however color splashes attempt at this concept is far more successful and for two reasons the theme's ubiquity and uniqueness as I previously discussed toe town is a somewhat lopsided Hub with little reason to go back and visit it throughout the game as such there's very little time to take notice of the instrumentation being added to the song as the game progresses in direct contrast the world map and color splash is unavoidable and a constant throughout the game there is no way to not notice its growth the result is a theme that once fully realized is profoundly satisfying and truly captures the feeling that this is the end of your adventure something that toe town has never given the chance to do then there's the matter of for lack of a better term the theme's uniqueness see you may have noticed that the toe Town Theme sounds a lot like the main title theme and that's because it pretty much is I think this ultimately does harm to this adding instruments formula because the origami King essentially spoils where it's leading up to from the very beginning so when I hear the toad Town Theme at the end of the game I'm disappointed instead of a grand celebration just sounds like I'm booting up the game again except this time actually listening to the theme instead of jumping straight into the game and though the title theme of Color Splash and the Overworld theme also share similar compositions they sound nothing alike and as I'm sure is becoming cliche to say at this point this fits both games design philosophies the origami King's compositions while wonderful have a tendency to blend together or at least they did for me after hearing the sixth boss theme featuring heavy Rock color splashes compositions whether that be the battle with Ludwig or Wendy tend to be more varied and less bombastic than well any boss from the origami King somehow I've managed to talk about this game for this long without mentioning what you're supposed to be doing in it that seems kind of important huh but before we do that I want to spend just a little more time discussing the structure of the game's levels or more specifically what does a good level and color splash look like what feels good to play in the first and second chapters I talked about how Color Splash tries to make quick and excitable stages levels that you wouldn't get too bored of before moving on to something else in congruence with that observation a fun stage in Color Splash is one that captures this Essence the spirit of going on a quick ride in an amusement park before moving on to the next one this quality is clear with some of the game's best stages dark blue in has Mario solving paranormal activity within an Ever resetting time bubble green energy plant has Mario transported to a Super Mario Bros 3 environment but with some of the gameplay elements of Super Paper Mario golden Coliseum forces Mario to sneak around the bleachers of a gladiatorial Arena while the emerald circus find Mario and Huey having to entertain an unruly crowd in a deathly circus there are many many more examples I could list and I'll elaborate on two more shortly but all of these areas feel like new fresh environments to the Mario series which makes exploring them all the more entertaining unfortunately Color Splash can't help but hearken back to its more sticker star-like influences and consequently it's more new Super Mario Bros blandness many of the early game stages particularly in the red and yellow chapters feel more like levels designed to facilitate platforming challenges than behave like actual locations you might visit in the real world arguably the worst level in the game kiwano Temple features Mario rolling down linear passages over spiked pits all while avoiding spiked balls being thrown at him another early game level Indigo underground has Mario traversing a generic cave while jumping over crystallized platforms which I'm pretty sure is a stage idea ripped off wholesale from new Super Mario Bros Wii or any other new Super Mario Bros for that matter the same argument could be made for other stages like red pepper volcano or Mondo Woods it's not that these platforming challenges are necessarily unwelcome but the more the stage feels like something that should appear in one of Mario's platforming Adventures the question of why bother playing Paper Mario rears its ugly head again ironically enough a stage I just praised green energy plant is literally from one of Maria's platforming Adventures but it has the self-awareness to make that concept feel novel and fresh in Color Splash rather than generic and Bland kiwano Temple also represents another problem with color splash's design which is how the game chooses to end each stage via the mini paint Stars each time a paint star is collected it fills in another space on the map allowing you to travel to the next level however some stages have multiple paint Stars allowing players access to faster alternative routes in the world map though this never allows you to skip any levels in theory this sounds like a great incentive to explore every nook and cranny of every stage but in practice it's somewhat eyebrow raising instead of hiding these stars in clever locations these alternate paint stars are usually placed in glaringly obvious locations sometimes right next to other paint stars in kiwano Temple as I alluded to earlier the second paint star is right underneath the first one at the very end of the level kiwano Temple isn't the worst stage because it's a slow and generic new Super Mario Bros level it's the worst stage because it gets to be a slow and generic new Super Mario Bros level twice the most offensive example of this kind of paint star placement appears in Moss Rock Theater which has three paint Stars two of which appear literally inches away from each other a completely frivolous and confusing decision by and large though the game succeeds with its levels more than it fails and I think it's important to dedicate some time to what are easily the best two segments of the game The Violet and orange chapters unlike the rest of the game which are largely disconnected levels with no Central themes the violent and orange chapters Feel Like Love Letters to the classic Paper Mario formula demonstrating a unique example where Color Splash hangs on to a good idea for more than one level The Violet chapter takes us on a voyage across the ocean traveling with a pirate Captain as he searches for a long lost treasure and maybe some bravery too after level crossing the ocean the shipping crew crew reach the Violet Isles where the Violet chapter's main gimmick has revealed each island has an identical form of itself in a parallel Dimension One Mario must utilize to cross to the various obstacles he encounters on each island these puzzles are generally clever requiring you to consider how a change in one version of The Island affects the other on the other hand the Orange chapter finds Mario helping the passengers aboard a train titled the sun set Express on its final voyage though none of the levels in the Orange chapter feature a consistent gimmick like in the Violet chapter this narrative through line of the sunset Express has carried the entire way through simply put the reason why these two chapters are so successful is because they reach the game's full potential not only do both chapters have evolving narratives with consistent characters traveling alongside you but they also maintain that sort of episodic type storytelling the game thrives on the Violet chapter despite being about a singular goal still finds time to throw in Lighthouse discos a segment where you navigate the ship through a dangerous region of ocean and massive whirlpools caused by laundry machines in an alternate Dimension the Orange chapter features sniff it prison escapes fuzzy attacks at a train Repair Station sentient meet in a restaurant and a showdown on the rooftops of a train the Thousand-Year Door style in this way color splashes Violet in Orange chapters suggest a more seamless and creative hybrid model of Paper Mario then the origami King could ever hope to accomplish of course in order for any level to be fun it also has to be fun to play the levels themselves in that regard colorspotch succeeds minus a few irritating hiccups other than the typical running jumping and hammering Mario is known for there are two primary new mechanics with which color splash utilizes to spice up its Overworld exploration the paint hammer and the cutout mechanic the paint Hammer is an extremely simple mechanic but works wonderfully to flesh out this game's overall achievement hunt a staple in any Mario game whether it be Stars moons Comet medals Star Coins star medals you get the picture instead of swinging the regular Hammer the paint Hammer allows you to swing the hammer and fill the surrounding environment with paint which in turn can be used to recolor various parts of the level to 100 the game you'll have to fill in every colorless spot within every level task however is surprisingly fun not only does it offer an excellent incentive to explore every inch of a level but some of the colorless spots are extremely easy to miss if you aren't looking closely enough I'm reminded in particular of certain levels like Sunglow Ridge where you need to recognize the thin wires on the bridge are decolored or Plum Park where individual tiles are colorless on the floor or green energy plant where the only colorless spot is a missing eye on one of the clouds the origami King attempts a similar feature with the non-bottomless holes but these are not nearly as effective the paint Hammer offers a more tactile feel than throwing the confetti and watching the pieces get gravitationally attached to the hole you threw them at isn't as rewarding or satisfying as filling in the World of Color yourself not only that but the holes are generally a lot more striking than the colorless spots thanks in part to the origami King's more saturated art style that I talked about earlier gaping black voids against a bright environment are much easier to parse than small white splotches on a faded background indeed the more analogous collectible to Color Splash may be the paper toads as finding them requires a more attentive diagnosis in figuring out which object is part of the paper environment and which part is actually a folded up paper toad this means the origami King has two separate Collectibles and for my money neither are as clever or gratifying as the paint Hammer the other major Overworld mechanic cut out is vastly underutilized but extremely underrated this mechanic has Mario searching for lines in the environment and cutting said lines to make your way to new areas or places specific cards needed for progression in other words if an object in the foreground lies up with an object in the background at specific angles to form a card shaped Square you can perform cutout to place a card acquired from the Overworld in that square the most instances of cut out are used to place said cards in rectangular shaped areas many other applications left me routinely impressed in Port Prisma one cutout is performed by lining up an awning the post office sign and tree to form a staircase that Mario can climb red pepper crater attempts the same staircase trick but you need to time three lava plumes correctly in order for the staircase line to appear cherry lake the level the mechanic is introduced in features a rotating water wheel in the background that can be used as a platform to reach the mini paint star when it's in position I'm tempted to list all the other cool uses of this mechanic such as in Fort Cobalt and Chateau chanterelle but the bigger problem is that the list would actually be surprisingly short cut out when it's used creatively is a brilliant mechanic that creates patterns in the environment that you would have been completely blind to otherwise but its critical flaws that it simply underutilized whole sections of the game go by without a proper use of the mechanic and it occasionally feels as if the developers forgot the mechanic even existed it would have been nice to see cutout return in the origami King but unfortunately we got the 1000 fold arms Instead This Very lame mechanic requires you to find a magic circle usually revealed by defeating an enemy hitting a block or something else equally arbitrary and use the arms to find a crease in the world which can be peeled off to reveal something behind it this mechanic though it may sound as if it requires some environmental investigation almost always boils down to a predictable procedure of randomly rubbing a wall until something gives and then pressing a button in fact it's one and only interesting use comes in the form of a basic puzzle literally a few rooms before the final boss which is about an entire game too late for that to happen even sticker star's paperized mechanic which saw Mario rip objects out of space and time and keep it in a journal for usage elsewhere in the world saw more use than the origami King's Arms which is a startling step back it would have been nice to see the cutout mechanic further expanded upon in color splash's sequel but instead the first three usages of cut out offer a more interesting application of the mechanic than the origami King is able to provide for its main mechanic in the entirety of the game recall those cards that you can place in specific cutout segments earlier somehow I've managed to get this far without discussing color splotch's secondary gimmick the cards so let me briefly talk about their purpose within the Overworld and will tackle their role in combat slightly later scattered in blocks and as a reward for filling in colorless spots cards with images of various actions will be rewarded to you ranging from jumps to hammers to fire flowers to mushrooms each type of card has plenty more variations though these more basic cards do not have a purpose outside of combat other than putting them in the museum in Port Prisma they're more special counterparts thing cards most certainly do throughout the world you'll occasionally find real world life-like objects called things which can be squeezed to drain them of paint and turn the objects into cards these things can be any random object you can think of giant fans megaphones break dancing piggy banks whatever once you have these thin cards in your possession you'll generally need them to complete create some sort of situational puzzle solved by placing that specific thing card in the slot using cutout it should be noted that this is not a new mechanic to Color Splash but instead a rather Infamous mechanic from its predecessor in sticker star different things were scattered all over the world with absolutely no indication as to where they were meaning when the game arbitrarily expected you to use one in a situation you couldn't have seen coming you were out of luck worse yet the solutions to said puzzles often felt arbitrary and confusing one early level in World 2 finds Mario stuck in the middle of a sandstorm with the only distinguishable feature being a rock with two narrow slots the solution to this puzzle is that you're supposed to vaporize The Rock and place the vacuum cleaner sticker in it to suck in the sandstorm if that sounds like complete nonsense to you you're not alone not only is the solution nonsensical but the vacuum cleaner sticker is located in a warehouse in a town you do not need to visit at all up until that point in the game furthermore The Rock gives zero indication that it can be vaporized the towel to use that particular mechanic is if something in the scenery looks out of place like a door facing sideways or a backwards foot on a tower mural but the rock just looks like a rock and with Mario games General propensity with sticking eyes on everything and anything it's extremely easy to mistake what is supposed to be an outlet on the rock for a rock with eyes and if you think the game is going to give you any hints about this solution sorry not happening the eye rock is all you get it's an embarrassing puzzle and unfortunately hardly an isolated incident in sticker star thankfully Color Splash makes some much needed improvements to this system though improvements might be an inaccurate word in this game there's a toad located in the harbor District of Port Prisma who gives you a vague hint as to what the next thing item you need is where it's located and whether you have it or not this completely removes the tedium and guesswork present in sticker star which is very good but it may go too far the hints are so helpful that the thing items cease to be a puzzle rather I would just periodically stop at the toad in the harbor over the course of the game check to see if I have the correct item and use it at the proper time it's as simple as that or at least it should be but Color Splash keeps a mistake regarding thin cards that sticker star also did once you use a thing it's gone from your inventory and you have to either pay for another one in the main Hub or find it in its natural location again so even though I knew what to use when is still a problem for example in the beginning of the game in Indigo underground you need to use the plunger to clear out the pipe before you can use its head inside knowing this beforehand on my second playthrough I used the card instinctively and was shocked to see it do nothing turns out I need to check the pipe first to see that it was clogged then use the plunger admittedly this is my fault for jumping the gun but I also think it speaks to a greater flaw in puzzle Design This is a terrible punishment for incorrectly answering the puzzle rather than emphasizing making educated guesses the fear of losing the card and having to reacquire it emphasizes punishing the player for making a mistake meaning the puzzles aren't fun to solve if I make a mistake I'm not thinking about other possible solutions I'm just frustrated that I lost the card which I may need in the future this issue combined with the toad in the harbor who practically gives you all the answers reveals the thing puzzles to be an undercooked and unfocused idea one whose only improvements are that they're more annoying aspects have been diminished in Color Splash to be fair that's still an improvement over sticker star that pretty much sums up all of the different aspects of the gameplay excluding combat so now it's time to talk about why you would engage in these activities after all Mario is known for its Collectibles and as we've seen Paper Mario is no different in the center of Port Prisma are six decorative banners each with a different achievement that needs to be fulfilled doing so allows you to view the secret ending for the game and unlike the origami King you can actually complete this before finishing the game though it's a little deceitful about it the achievements are relatively straightforward collects 10 000 coins buy 200 cards from the shop perform 200 excellent attacks in battle paint all of the colorless spots find all cutout slots and beat all eight rock paper Wizards now one would think all of these banners would be goals you would work towards as you play the game but in practice that's not quite how it ends up working the last three banners that I mentioned will take the entire game to complete as expected but the first three are actually astonishingly easy I was able to collect ten thousand coins before the end of the second chapter in the game due to a reason we'll get to shortly and had completed the attack and card buying banners before the end of the Blue chapter which is only the third one and that was despite the fact that I had been avoiding most battles and was constantly full on cards as a result of this discrepancy between the banners I'm left slightly confused were these supposed to be difficult challenges I truly they struggle to imagine a completionist playthrough of this game where someone doesn't manage to get the first three banners before the final chapter as for the latter three banners the difficulty completing them is varied the cutout Banner has a helpful toad in the yellow District which indicates which levels you're missing a cutout spot in helpfully mitigating the frustration of aimlessly wandering the world the colorless spot Banners are genuinely fun challenge as I discussed earlier but there is one minor frustration that should be addressed remember those optional mini paint Stars the ones that open up optional routes but don't actually skip any levels in the game well it turns out those optional routes have two fairly vital uses the first usage is that it allows for faster travel around prism Island which is convenient but it is also helpful in catching the shy Bandit on occasion a shy guy will pop out of the world map and throw a signal card onto a specific stage and once that happens it's a race to beat the shy Bandit to that particular location because the shy Bandit runs faster than Mario and the world map have having these shortcuts help Mario reach a location before the Bandit and while all of this sounds like a cute mechanic the results can actually be surprisingly disastrous for one there's really no way to track when or where the shy Bandit will appear next or where he will throw his card for that matter consequently you can occasionally get stuck in a no-win situation one where you can't beat the shy Bandit even with the shortcuts available to you now that wouldn't be a problem if the punishment were minor but I can assure you the punishment is anything but if the shy Bandit reaches the card before Mario he'll begin slurping the paint out of the level if he's there long enough he'll reset the percentage of colorless spots you painted to a seemingly random number meaning you'll have to go back into the stage and find out which spots have reappeared and which have remained painted in my first playthrough of this game the shy Bandit threw his card onto Fortune Island a level which resides on the furthest point on the map and which only has one access point until the Green Chapter unfortunately for me I wasn't at the Green Chapter and the chapter after Fortune Island the Orange chapter takes place on the opposite side of the map to make a long story short I was Mega screwed much like the thing puzzles the punishment here is downright cruel but triply so here I essentially had to go through the entirety of Fortune Island again and repaint things I had already painted because of a circumstance completely out of my control but even if these no win scenarios couldn't occur the punishment shouldn't be this harsh there is nothing challenging about this nothing interesting or fun rather than take away my cards or coins or paint and force me to consider how I'm going to get it all back the game is arbitrarily taking away my progress taking my time away from me a completionist or really anyone's nightmare speaking of cruel the last usage of the alternative routes is that they provide access to the Rochambeau temples where you can find the rock paper Wizards needed for the last Banner I'll be blunt the rose Shambo temples are some of the most awful and mind-numbingly bad areas in a game I've ever seen and I'm including every level of sticker star in that assessment even sand shifter ruins visually the temples are stunning with big mushroom-shaped Arenas with a packed Stadium a creative setting in line with color splash's variability but that's pretty much where the positives end once inside the temple Mario is subjected to a game of rock paper scissors where he must complete three rounds in order to beat the temple let me be very clear about this it's literally just rock paper scissors that is it no fancy mechanics no extra Fanfare just fling one of the cards up there and pray to God it's the right one if this isn't sounding infuriating yet allow me to illustrate with a simple probability you have a 33 chance of winning around in order to win you need to win three rounds consecutively assuming each round is independent of each other and that the game is fair debatable the odds of you winning a temple are 0.036 or about four percent this is to put it mildly absolutely Preposterous making matters worse is that there isn't just one Rochambeau Temple no apparently because this was such a compelling feature of the game the developers decided eight was the number of temples we needed now to be fair the first few temples have hint givers that tell you what your first and second round opponents will play ensuring that you'll win the first two rounds but as the temples progress those tends to get more and more vague until the final Temple where you get no hints at that point you just play until you get the four percent making matters worse is just getting to the Rochambeau temples and defeating the rock paper wizard isn't an easy Affair if you fail a temple which is extremely likely the temple will disappear and won't reappear until you've collected another mini paint star this means that every time you fail you have to go to another level and grab whatever the nearest paint star is on the 8th Temple the one with no hints I established a system in which I would go to the temple fail go to the nearest level with an easy to grab paint star in this case the green energy plant collect it walk back to the temple and repeat this process took nearly an hour and a half before I was lucky enough to finally beat all three rounds consecutively baffling doesn't even begin to describe the Rochambeau temples rock paper scissors is not a game of technical skill it is a game of psychological skill can you fake out your opponent if I played three rocks in a row my opponent is probably gonna play Paper right so should I switch to scissors or will they anticipate the fact that I thought this and play Rock instead these are the kinds of questions someone is asking themselves when they're playing this game and there's only one thing necessary for the game to work a human Player rock paper scissors simply does not function as a game when played with the computer algorithm oh sure it functions in a technical sense but it isn't Fun it certainly isn't worth spending over an hour on yet for some reason the developers of Color Splash don't seem to understand this not only did they think this was a good enough idea to put eight times in this game but it also makes a comeback as the main gimmick of a boss in the origami King why but we're not done with these temples yet recall that in order to get the secret ending for the game you need all the banners but to get all the banners you need to beat all of the rock paper Wizards however just because of Rochambeau Temple is open doesn't mean a rock paper wizard is inside it in order for that to happen you need to be to Koopaling the game's major bosses for each Koopaling you be a new rock paper wizard opens at a new Temple the problem with this is that there's a Koopaling in the final level of the game meaning you can't get the final flag and see the secret ending unless you beat the Koopaling exit the final level and then take an hour and a half Pit Stop to beat the temple the game never tells you that that's how any of this works so it's entirely likely that you'll just wander into Bowser's Castle unaware that the temple is open to you meaning that if you want to see the secret ending you'll have to fight the final boss again the origami King style as sweet as the secret ending is it's not really worth doing the whole final boss over again and it's a problem that the game could have avoided if it was a little more clear about how it works have I mentioned the Rochambeau temples also completely destroy this game's economy because it most certainly does see after every round you play and win in a rose Shambo Temple you'll win coins usually 100 or 300 but more for later temples also recall that in the first few temples hint toads are there to essentially guarantee your Victory on the first two rounds combine this with the fact that there is no fee to enter you have an extremely efficient coin grinder quite literally free of charge but don't think you'll need to go out of your way to grind this because if you attempt to complete all the temples it's likely you'll fail enough times just to accidentally reach the coin cap which is 9999 coins in fact I failed the first Rochambeau Temple so many times even though I only needed one win that I ended with about 6 000 coins at the end of the red chapter this is how I was so easily able to get that 10 000 coin achievement Banner because coins are so easy to get and everything is relatively inexpensive you're never going to find yourself in a situation where you don't have enough coins which for Color Splash is absolutely crippling though we won't examine why until deep into the next section in the context of this section though it still hurts coins are one of the main major incentives of the game so having them be such a non-entity reduces incentives to explore the wonderful environments because you already know the reward isn't worth it as is the case with colorful minigame doors you can enter throughout some of the levels it even Hurts The Comedy of the game too one joke sees Mario collecting a giant coin only to find out it's worth the same as one of the small coins it's a good joke but because I was at 9999 coins and I couldn't collect anymore it felt completely flat what I'm really trying to say here is that Ro Shambo temples suck from paint hammers to cutouts to things to whatever philosophical game principles Rochambeau Temple is just supposed to be born from Color Splash has a wide array of things to do ultimately despite all the whinging color splash is a fun game to play swinging the paint hammer and examining the environment make up the bulk of the gameplay and it's almost always successful this really isn't surprising though it's basically a Nintendo staple to do a good job making their games fun to play where Color Splash goes wrong though is in some of the truly baffling and off-putting decisions that completely derail the fun whether it's repetitive star placements game design that emphasizes punishing the player over supporting them or literal games of chance Color Splash 2 frequently commits one of the biggest sins in gaming disrespecting the player's time and consequently disrespecting the player it's never fun to watch progress be deleted in front of you or watch yourself get punished for genuinely trying to engage with the game but there are times when Color Splash just doesn't feel very well thought out one could argue that is also a Nintendo staple out of all the controversial features showcased in Color Splash its combat was by far the most unanimously disliked it's not difficult to see why it looked like a carbon copy of sticker stars flaws and all even I didn't really appreciate the combat on my first go-around but with a second playthrough under my belt has the combat gotten any better No in fact it's gotten so so much worse Color Splash and by extension sticker star may have one of the most truly inept combat systems I've ever seen in a game but before I explain why we first need to go over how combat works on the outset color splash's combat sounds reasonable much like the RPGs of old when you touch an enemy on the Overworld it brings you into a combat-like Arena instead of selecting from a menu of attacks though you must select your attacks from an array of cards on the GamePad and the cards you bring into battle are the ones you found and collected in the Overworld once you've selected your cards you can use your paint supply to paint the card you've still elected complete their relevant Action commands a Mario RPG staple for the chance to do extra damage and the battle completes once all enemies are defeated sounds pretty simple right well it should be but a couple of strange UI decisions turn a seemingly easy mechanic into a laborious task firstly the cards are inelegantly displayed on the GamePad not only can you only see about seven of them at a time but the cards don't stack this means that if you pick up 20 Hammer cards in the Overworld you're gonna have to sift through 20 different Hammer cards when searching for another card you might want which is often the obvious solution here is to Simply have each card of the same kind stacked behind itself with some indicator of how many cards you have left so you only have to search through the various different types of cards but that's not the only inconvenience not only is sifting through the deck somewhat tedious but playing the card is too once you've found the card you want you have to put it in the card slot once you've clicked the done button after that you have to paint the cards by tapping and holding each individually then click done once again but wait then you have to fling them up on your screen with the stylus this process is novel the first few times but by the end of the game it's just an inconvenience especially when you're playing four different cards in one round of course there is an option to switch to Advanced combat which removes the need to click done after placing the Cards into their slots but this only removes one of the steps and like many other things in the game this feature is barely mentioned outside of one tutorial already we're seeing problems regardless of anything else combat systems should be at the very least fun to play but these inconveniences do their best to make sure that doesn't happen unfortunately for Color Splash though that's the least of this combat system's problems when designing any combat encounter it's important to think about what a player is attempting to achieve obviously the goal of most encounters is to defeat every enemy on the field but how is that accomplished what must the player do to best achieve this to show how a combat system should work let's take complete non-sequitur and look at Xenoblade Chronicles 2. in that game there are multiple ways to defeat All Enemies but there are a couple of primary systems which must be engaged in order to do this more effectively for example if you're fighting a particularly tough boss it might be helpful to perform a Full Burst but doing so requires an enormous amount of setup first you have to go through a specific sequence of attacks to place what's known as an elemental orb on an enemy and different sequences Place different types of orbs once enough orbs of enough types are in place and you've filled the party gauge up to maximum you can initiate a chain attack and carefully sequence attacks such that you break all the orbs that you've placed and finally perform the Full Burst an all-out powerful attack if this sounds confusing that's okay because the specifics don't really matter what does matter is that xenoflade 2's various systems work in tandem with each other to always provide players with a goal in combat most combat Encounters in the game won't last long enough for you to be able to achieve before burst but that's fine because working on its various parts will help you in battle as well so you should at least try and start that's the game's strength once you enter an encounter you always have a goal to strive for even if nothing else interesting is happening if we examine color splash's combat it may at first be difficult to see a similar goal-based approach but it's there see if you're capable of defeating all enemies in the first round of an encounter you're granted what's known as a perfect bonus which rewards you with additional cards coins and paint it may be difficult to believe but I think this is actually the core of color splash's battles here's an example of how I think the combat of Color Splash is supposed to work take the setup given here with a boo and a boo 10 stack behind it if we're trying to get ourselves a perfect bonus we'll need to beat both of these enemies in just one round with only three cards we know that to beat a 10 stack will need to hit it 10 separate times thus we'll need to use a hop slipper a card that does less damage per jump than a regular jump card but allows us to jump on an enemy 10 separate times which is what we need but suppose we don't have a hop slipper what should be done instead well since we know a jump card jumps on an enemy five times we can say that two jump cards equals one hop slipper in this case now that we figured that out we know that both the second and third card slots will be jump cards meaning the first card slot has to be powerful enough to kill the first boo in one card to ensure this I'll use let's just say a big jump card with that done the perfect bonus now hinges on whether I can form the Action commands correctly if not no perfect bonus for me this setup May clue you in on a key aspect of this combat system when framed like this the primary aspect of combat is deck optimization seeing if you can build the deck you currently have to deal with the lineup in front of you in other words the lineup you're given at the start of the battle is a sort of puzzle the deck optimization is your attempt at a solution and the perfect bonus is your reward for correctly solving the puzzle if this sounds familiar it should this is exactly how combat operates in the origami King in truth I don't believe the ring system combat of origami King was as unprecedented and fresh as we've all been led to believe rather I think it is a more explicit expression of what they've been trying to achieve this whole time since sticker star many have viewed color splash's combat through the lens of a typical RPG game but I think this is the incorrect lens color splash's combat system needs to be viewed as a puzzle combat system but there's no need to take my word for it in a color splash interview producer Risa Tabata explains the core philosophy as to why the game features no traditional progression systems Color Splash is an action-adventure game with puzzle solving at its core so it is true that we did not use the typical RPG system where the player character grows Stronger by collecting experience points and upping various parameters of the player character this is because the concept of levels does not directly relate to puzzle solving however there is actually a leveling system included in this title we made it so that your maximum paint capacity will gradually increase if you collect a certain amount of the hammer shaped items that drop when you defeat an enemy this is a meaningful growth element in this title since painting is involved in both battle and puzzle solving we'll discuss the meaningful growth of hammer scraps later but the fact that color splash is considered a puzzle solving game and its core is important why wouldn't this aspect be reflected in its combat as well not only that but the interview with tanabe at the beginning of this retrospective explicitly refers to the origami King's combat as having puzzle solving elements this is an idea that has clearly been on their minds for a while what's perhaps most interesting about analyzing color splash's combat like this is the way in which it in large part addresses specific criticisms from the combat in the origami King one of the primary criticisms of that game was that it was attempted to be a sort of hybrid combat system both by having a real-time action combat system and a turn-based one while also splitting the turn base 1 into a puzzle-based system in a more traditional RPG one this is a reasonable analysis after all we've seen from the way the origami King structures its areas and levels that it's a game very interested in Bridging the Gap between the old and new Paper Mario games however many felt that this combat split was unnecessary and several key aspects were undercooked the RPG mechanics required very little thought after placing the enemies in their correct positions so choosing which attacks to use and which commands to perform felt more like an afterthought than a true hybridization but in that sense much like color splash's violet and orange chapters the card based combat may actually suggest a more successful hybrid attempt than the origami King in the example I provided with the booze the Action commands were essential to my plan of getting the perfect bonus I understood that in order to beat the 10 stack I would need to perform every single jump correctly or I would fail to solve a puzzle in this way color splash's more traditional Paper Mario elements are weaved seamlessly into the combat itself rather than requiring an entirely different mode like combat in the origami King this puzzle combat lens is why I will also defend the notorious aspect of color splash's combat its cards being limited resources as I mentioned before one of the key elements of solving Encounters in color splash's proper really optimizing your deck but this simply can't happen if you have all the cards available to you at once that hop slipper equals two jump cards conversion I suggested earlier doesn't matter if you always have hop slippers so I think a key element is lost if cards aren't in some way limited resources of course up until this point we've been talking purely hypothetical I've been using the words suppose a lot when describing how I think color splash's combat should work but the truth is it doesn't work like at all and at every conceivable opportunity where this combat system could fail it absolutely does if Color Splash is truly supposed to be a puzzle combat system as I've suggested then it's nearly impossible to solve these puzzles in a way that feels satisfying firstly enemies have no health and cards have no indication of how much damage they do the only indication that you're hurting an enemy is that the paint slowly drains away from them this is a cute visual detail but too imprecise to be helpful as such it's hard to know how effective a card is really going to be the result is that most of the puzzle solving involved just turns into guessing I think this will do enough so I'll just do that hopefully the example with the blues contained a 10 stack enemy this enemy is perfect for puzzle solving because the 10 is a health indicator in order to beat the Stacked enemies you need to hit them the number of times they've stacked but the strength of the attack is irrelevant unfortunately these enemies are few and far in between in regards to health meters sticker star of all games seem to be a closer to the mark providing a health bar at the top right showing the total enemy's Health confusingly though the game's health bar combined all of the enemy's Health on the field into One Singular health bar completely destroying the purpose of having it in the first place just when I thought I could Praise You sticker star the second problem is that the first problem doesn't really even matter the game is so poorly balanced that oftentimes you can throw any random card at the screen and short of you jumping when you're supposed to hammer you'll kill the enemy anyways alternatively you could just use a fire flower and easily obtainable and usually screen clearing card that almost always one shots any enemy it touches what's the point of puzzle solving when you could just I don't know not there's a further issue when it comes to balancing and one that's also related to incentives as Tabata discussed in the quote earlier Color Splash lacks a traditional progression system found in most RPGs rather when you complete a battle you're rewarded four things coins paint maybe a card and Hammer scraps Hammer scraps acts as a sort of XP increasing the total amount of paint you can store in the paint Hammer if you collect enough of them the idea is that because painting cards in battle exhausts so much of your paint supply a bigger supply will ensure that you don't have to worry about running out the problem is each of these rewards are extremely useless when exploring the environment whacking just about anything will give you just about everything paint coins cards you aren't going to run out of them and that presents a serious problem if I can get enough paint from the environment what's the point of obtaining Hammer scraps they will simply never be useful and recall those dreaded Rose Shambo temples and how they completely ruin the game's economy well despite that completely ruining the coin reward in battle it actually enables you to do something much worse go to the card shop in Port Prisma and buy Cards since coins are practically infinite in the land of prism Island so is your supply of cards the cards you can buy are so inexpensive that it is entirely possible to optimize your hand exactly the way you want it stocking up on only the most overpowered and broken cards available to you so basically a bunch of Fire and Ice flowers there is also a secret shop in the harbor of Port Prisma that sells you think cards which depending on the card can just clear a screen instantly this quickly becomes a nuisance not only in the sense that it completely breaks the game but also in the sense that you'll constantly be full of cards once again removing the incentive to explore the environments for potentially rare cards unless you really want to fill out the museum the max cards you can carry in your hand can't be increased at all doesn't that sound like it could be an excellent method of progression so the problem never subsides worse yet you can actually buy painted versions of each card at the shop meaning that the one thing that might have necessitated you collecting Hammer scraps painting your cards is now completely obsolete to recap the reason you would battle in the game is because you want to collect coins and Hammer scraps so you don't run out of paint except coins are a complete non-issue and the only feasible way to run out of paint is by painting cards in combat essentially engaging in color splash's combat creates a problem only resolved by engaging in color splash's combat the worst part about all of this is that it completely guts the one reason you would actually try to win an encounter the perfect bonus since nothing you get from the perfect bonus is actually useful the one goal this game has is now completely moot it's a sad State of Affairs but perhaps most strangely these issues actually seem to be a feature not a flaw in that same interview with Tabata when asked why they even kept combat in the game at all she responds we never thought about removing combat altogether this is because we decided that the element of battling with enemies that block Mario as he proceeds through his puzzle solving Adventure was also necessary however we decided to handle combat merely as a hurdle that must be cleared to beat the game rather than making it the central element of the game in other words we didn't want leveling up to be a requirement for clearing the game with Boss characters in particular we put the emphasis on solving the puzzle of which cards to use at which times and so long as you can do that they can be easily defeated so there you have it battles are completely essential to this game's core experience but not so essential that you ever have to worry about participating in them I must be missing something here but Tabata actually brings up another contentious point about sticker star boss battles in that game boss battles were not so much boss battles but excuses to have more thing puzzles except somehow even more infuriating recall that vacuum cleaner puzzle I talked about earlier while in the same world world 2 is exceptionally awful if you couldn't tell the boss of the world the tower power Pokey requires you to have a specific thing in your inventory in the Pokey example you're supposed to have the baseball bat and knock the Pokey down at just the right time the problem is though the only hints you get that this is the item you need occur in the battle meaning it's almost as if the game expects you to initiate the battle collect the hints and try again with the right thing this is incredibly unsatisfying and it doesn't help that the hints are not exceptionally helpful mostly that the battle takes place in a desert Arena and that instead of the opening text saying fight it says play ball this general formula applies to all boss battles in sticker star worse they weren't really boss battles beyond that once you use the thing stickers the bosses just about gave up letting you wail on them until they're defeated though you can technically be each boss without using its thing the bosses are exceptionally difficult if you choose to do so and clearly not at all intended Color Splash improves its boss battles if only slightly things are still required to be played in specific moments in combat with the only difference being that they are now absolutely required to complete the fight you can't attack the bosses otherwise this sounds like a downgrade and it would be but because of the trash toad in the harbor you'll never come into a battle unprepared in other words Color Splash didn't really fix the problem it just negated it completely outside of the thing cards though the bosses are generally weak most of them feature interesting mechanics but don't go far enough to flesh them out take Ludwig for example his battle presents an interesting twist he begins the battle in a ship which you cannot reach to defeat him you'll need to use a tail card on your turn of the battle and to flexed his attacks back at him all the while defeating the enemies he summons on the platform the problem is if you get hit even once the tail disappears meaning you have to be very sure you have the timing down just panic but it doesn't last after you damage the ship enough he plops down on a submarine you use the thing balloons in this case and he lands on the platform practically defeated at that point it's just easy cleanup the boss started with an interesting gimmick but stops there innovating no further the same criticism could be levied at almost all bosses in Color Splash let's use Wendy as another example her boss battle has her throwing enemies at you where you must Dodge them by guarding to the same beat she threw the enemies out at like some sort of Rhythm heaven-esque minigame this sounds cool but she literally only ever does one Rhythm so once you get it the first time you're good to go for the rest of the times Wendy's battle also highlights another major problem with the bosses they're boring when Wendy is by herself the combat mechanics don't work properly since you won't be able to defeat her in a single round there is no perfect bonus to get and since the game isn't presenting you with any unique lineups there's no puzzle to be solved as a result no deck optimization is required all you need to do is throw out your biggest most powerful cards whatever they may be and you win no strategy at all it's very unfulfilling interestingly though there is one boss battle that bucks this trend one boss battle that I actually found fun that boss was Larry aboard the sunset Express and his battle at least to me is a confirmation that everything I've been saying about this combat system is Justified Larry's gimmick is that he stands on the top of the trained Smoke Stack in someone's lines of enemies to fight you your goal is to lead the Train's conductor to the front of the train but if you fail to defeat the line of enemies Larry summons on the round he summons them he knocks the conductor back to the beginning of his path in other words the battle's gimmick is achieving consecutive perfect bonuses for once I was actually forced to consider what cards I was going to use and the lineups he provided were actually interesting and thought provoking requiring more optimization than just a jump and a fire flower for the first and only time in the game it seems the game's combat system was in harmony with itself and sure the screen clearing thing cards are still an option to you but I didn't bring any with me on this particular battle the result is that I actually almost ran out of cards during my battle with Larry which brings us to another Point there's actually an entire battle mechanic I've yet to even mention if you can believe it the battle spin this utterly useless mechanic allows you to pay 10 coins to spin a wheel and gain an additional card if you pay an additional 50 coins you can slow the wheel down and essentially get a free choice of card given my explanation of this mechanic I think it's fairly easy to see why this isn't particularly very helpful why would you ever be out of cards in this game which is why I think the Larry fight is all the more impressive it is the only battle in the game in which I utilize the battle spin better yet even after you use the thing for the battle Larry is no pushover dealing attacks that can do over a third of your health it was a very bizarre experience seeing such a fully fleshed out fight appear in the game especially after so many miscalculations and underdeveloped ideas the fact that this particular fight centers around perfect bonuses is no coincidence I suspect it's clear that color splash's combat is a disaster but where many people seem to go wrong is understanding why the game's battles are a disaster it has nothing to do with progression systems sure it would be nice to be tangibly rewarded for participating in battle in a way that is Meaningful and worth the time investment but even if that were the case and color splash had honest to goodness progression systems its main flaw would be unsolved it's just not very fun it is a combat system with no balance it is a combat system where most of the time is spent sifting through cumbersome user interface it is a combat system that relies on guesswork rather than meaningful strategy and ultimately it is a puzzle combat system whose greatest puzzle is how to not break the puzzle combat system Color Splash could have been the opportunity to improve A system that failed the first time it was tried but instead it was content to remain just as flawed as ever and if the Larry fight told me anything it's that there is an alternate timeline where this combat system can actually work alas it is not this one what a shame for his cheery and comedic as this game is there's a point in it unlike the others that has always stuck out to me a small nanosecond where the game suddenly drops the act as if all the jokes and smiles were only the veneer of Happiness it's a quick line by the train Foreman when you first visit him in the toad train works but lately I've been thinking that sometimes it's okay for things to end on a whimper as if I had a choice it's an oddly melancholic and depressing line and it comes seemingly out of left field but it isn't the only melancholic thing in the chapter the sunset Express just like the foreman is on its last legs and the journey Mario helps it on is a bumpy and often dangerous one one can't help but notice the Symmetry Paper Mario Color Splash would release October 7th 2016 and would serve to be the last big first party title on a Home console from Nintendo until breath of the wild in early 2017. in that sense Color Splash was the final gasp of air from a dying console for many this death came as a relief the Wii U was a failure by pretty much any metric the worst selling console Nintendo had seen in recent memory not only that but it came at a time when many were displeased with Nintendo in the games they were producing Nintendo seemingly refused to make a new 3D Mario game instead giving us heaps of new Super Mario Bros and Super Mario 3D Land and World Star Fox Zero was widely panned the hot new Zelda game before the switch was Triforce Heroes Pikmin got hey Pikmin in Animal Crossing God amiibo Festival fans of Metroid got Metroid Prime Federation Force the new Mario Luigi game was paper jam a relatively Bland and unimpressive title that would begin the downfall that led to the series producer Alpha Dream to declare bankruptcy four years later Mario party was on a downward spiral for some it seemed Nintendo was simply compromising with them giving them the franchises they wanted but not in the way they wanted for others it seemed Nintendo had lost their magic either way p people were tired of this era of Nintendo and they were eagerly awaiting news of the rumored NX console hoping this would bring new life into the company in their games everything else until then was Expendable and tired the Wii U had failed and its last few months weren't going to change that similarly before men can't help but feel that his final years will be in vain rather than living out of fulfilling life he worries that the last leg of his journey feels preordained and inevitable tragedy that can't be avoided Color Splash exhibits a similar anxiety there was a sense that the game's Judgment day was merely a formality pushed on a long since neglected platform featuring a much maligned formula it seemed Color Splash was deemed guilty before its trial had even begun and in many ways Color Splash is guilty it's a game that blatantly and exhaustively wastes the player's time whether that be through obnoxious games of chance or resetting your progress worst of all it shows a lack of interest in iterating and improving upon what's come before a lackluster story only barely connected by the loosest of threads and inexcusably bad combat system that more or less functions the same as its 3DS counterpart and a commitment to the homogenization that it seemed to be endemic to the Mario franchise for years to that point a trend that wouldn't be broken until Super Mario Odyssey yet this conclusion doesn't capture the full story when I went back to Color Splash I was worried that its charm would have been voided by its sequel that everything about it would be eclipsed and never seen again but to my surprise that's not what happened at all as I played through the game again I realized that color splash had many more unique qualities I had overlooked the first time through qualities that even surpassed the origami King I was surprised by how much the mechanics of the game meshed with the environments whether that be through cut out or by painting all of the color of the spots I was surprised by how much more concise and quick the game was about its tutorials but mostly I was surprised by how much the world and characters have retained their charm there are just so many more fun levels and amusing events I wasn't able to cover in this retrospective whether that be sacred forest or the Cobalt base or marmalade Valley the pacing of this game is truly its strength always making the player excited to see what's in store for the next level people complain about the world map and its segmentation but it's shocking just how much prison island is able to retain a sense of Place characters constantly refer to other people in events in other locations you'll frequently be asked to return to specific locations to see how your progress throughout the game has altered certain areas despite being segmented and levels often having no relation to each other geographical or otherwise prism Island still feels like a cohesive Place somehow the origami King is as a game a more polished and refined experience despite its flaws it is never a game that wastes your time as flagrantly as color splash the game is always clear about its expectations and gives you the tools to best fulfill those expectations yet despite this I was continuously surprised by the fact that in many facets Color Splash seem to offer a more intriguing depiction for the future of Paper Mario the Violet and orange chapters felt like something new something I hadn't seen before and as much as I like the fact that the origami King went back to a more open interconnected World part of me is slightly disappointed I would have been curious if the developers could have expanded on the Epic Sonic yet serialized levels Color Splash it provided before I replayed color splash I had considered it a truly underrated gem I thought people had dismissed it out of hand and missed out on a truly wonderful experience because of it now I'm still inclined to believe that most people who complain about the game haven't played it I mean those sales were abysmal but I'm a little more sympathetic to its critics there's a lot to love here but there's also a lot to hate so is Color Splash worth giving a chance yes despite my pages and pages of whining and complaining all of which I stand by the core of the game is there and it's as fun as ever minus the combat and if nothing else this game is worth playing just for the gorgeous scenery and excellent music the entirety of which I listen to while writing this it's entirely possible that the game will bounce off hard for you for any of the multitude of reasons I've listed out but on the off chance it doesn't you've got a wonderful experience ahead of you the origami King is most definitely the better game but I can safely say that color splash is not eclipsed by it [Music] [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: AurumAlex

Views: 5,415

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Id: buXytZx9jr0

Length: 82min 15sec (4935 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 28 2022