Review: Paper Mario: Color Splash (Wii U)

When a blank Toad is mysteriously mailed to Princess Peach, our hero Mario sets sail for Prism Island, a papery paradise that’s losing its colour and needs your help. With the help of a new sidekick named Huey and a nifty new tool called the paint hammer, splash colour back into the world and track down the culprit behind this curious colour crime.

Pros:

• Cutesy 2D graphics in a 3D world.
• Opening and ongoing tutorial.
• Classic world map for level selection.
• Use your hammer to paint items/Parts of levels/enemies/friends.
• Collect paint from flowers/enemies/blocks. Paint colour will be random.
• Stars-Collect these from levels and use them to gain unlocks. Some levels will have multiple stars.
• Has some of the best writing I have ever read in a Mario game. Witty, On point and well delivered.
• Full off TV play.
• Three combat controls- Basic, Basic and buttons and advanced touch controls.
• Combat is a bit like a card battler. You collect cards then pain them to activate them. Then its just a case of selecting them then flicking em to use them. Using a card means you use the power associated to it.
• Can combo attacks can be done by timing your jumps or hammer swings.
• Earn coins, Cards and paint from enemies and boxes.
• Cut out- Unlock the feature where you can cut the level out and make it so you can manipulate the level to progress. Its a powerful tool and only available in select areas.
• Secret shortcuts and hidden areas in levels.
• Many cards to find and collect from fireballs to mushrooms to Goomba help.
• Enemies walk the level and you fight as soon as you make contact. Because of this you can do early strikes before the fight begins.
• Killing enemies without taking damage is a perfect and gives you bonus coins.
• Collect hammers to increase your paint capacity.
• Find and paint lost toads.
• Replay levels.
• 7946 Blocks download size.
• Central hub with shops, Mail and tutorials.
• Simple controls.
• Use coins to buy cards.
• If out of cards in a battle you get to roll for a random card.
• Fast loading times.
• Find missing team members of troops to unlock bonus levels and shortcuts.
• Fun to play.
• Plays out like a typical Mario game.

Cons:

• Card combat is fun at first then it just becomes a slow boring un fun experience. It has needless actions like painting then selecting them then flicking them.
• Hit detection is a bit off.
• When out of cards or paint the game becomes a lottery.
• Cut out feature has no indicators making it a last ditch attempt when stuck rather than adding to the flow of the game.
• Why only a handful of Toad colours?
• Level designs are either painfully predictable or have a small thing you need to do before you can continue.