Paper Mario: Color Splash Reviews
Paper Mario: Color Splash is an engrossing journey and a funny and colorful game. It plays a lot like Sticker Star, but does everything better.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Paper Mario Color Splash isn’t frustration-free, but compared to the Mario platforming games Color Splash is light and refreshing, an opportunity to have an adventure with Mario and his friends that doesn’t require lightning-quick reflexes and high frustration tolerance. You’d better be ready for some cringe worthy puns, however.
Paper Mario Colour Splash might not be the Paper Mario game everyone wanted, but it's a game that oozes polish and manages to sit somewhere in a niche between RPG and adventure game. It's a memorable journey full of charm, craft, chuckles and a whole lot of paint.
If you’re willing to accept the fact that Color Splash is more of an adventure platformer, and less of an RPG, then you’ll be in for an absolute treat of a game.
Paper Mario: Color Splash brings a delightfully funny plot to an involving and extraordinary adventure that can keep the player in front of the Wii U for over 50 hours of gameplay. With its lovely visual presentation, exquisite soundtrack and well implemented gameplay mechanics, Paper Mario: Color Splash is set to be one of the Wii U's most outstanding titles in the console's still growing catalogue.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Paper Mario: Color Splash is an absolute delight.
There’s a lot of content and fun to experience here, and Wii U owners owe it to themselves to give this game a chance. It’s not a direct sequel to Thousand Year Door, but it doesn’t need to be. Color Splash is a fantastic game in its own right, and deserves to be played by everyone.
Prism Island is full of secrets, and finding them all is an adventure worth having in itself.
Paper Mario: Color Splash isn't the Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door successor that many still resolutely hold out for, but that day may never come. But, the adventure that unfolds is a remarkable one, and joyously memorable for all the right reasons.
Although there are many similarities with the last Paper Mario game, the developers have addressed the concerns of their fans and created a much more rounded and enjoyable experience. The setup of the game is great as you explore the world, take on the Shy Guys plus the meddling Bowser, it’s assisted by the stylised graphics to help with the overall immersion factor. The soundtrack is brilliant as well, so if you’re looking for something fun to play without too many headaches, Paper Mario Color Splash is that game and so far, it’s my favourite game on the Wii U this year.
What’s so impressive about this latest Paper Mario game is that, for all intents and purposes, it could have been just as grinningly dumb. This is an adventure revolving around the antics of paper-thin varietals of cartoons. No one expects Tolstoy. But the writing is smarter than most serious videogames attempting to evoke actual emotions. And that attention to detail—and a restraint diametrically opposed to its surface lunacy—is what makes the experience so humorous.
Charming characters and zany events fill the world, which is good because you traverse the same locales multiple times
But that's it. That's the extent of my issues with this game, and for me, the positives far, far outweigh the negatives. If you didn't like Paper Mario: Sticker Star because it wasn't like the first two games in the series, I don't think you'll be satisfied here. For everyone else willing to give it a chance, Paper Mario: Color Splash is a charming journey that will delight your senses, your funny bone, and the part of your brain that houses your nostalgic feelings towards Nintendo.
Minor crinkles can’t stop Paper Mario from being a frankly excellent experience and one that you, yes you, should play.
Paper Mario: Color Splash is a hell of a good time. If you are able to look past a gimmicky battle system and a couple of shoehorned mechanics, Color Splash oozes with both charm and humor. Sporting a great aesthetic, it is a title that should be in every Wii U owner’s library.
It improves on the shortcomings in Super Paper Mario and Paper Mario: Sticker Star and while very different to The Thousand-Year Door it exudes the same quality fans have been expecting form the franchise. A must have title on the Wii U towards the end of its lifespan.
It’s no Thousand-Year Door, but Color Splash really does provide an overarching sense of consonance which was conspicuously absent from Sticker Star and even Super Paper Mario. It’s a good balance of humor, environment, variety, and casual puzzle elements. And it seems likely that, provided they can sit back and relax and reset their expectations for the franchise, the fanbase will really enjoy what it brings to the table.
Paper Mario Color Splash is a delightful visual experience that keeps alive the series RPG style and offers new features thanks to the Wii U pad possibilities beside a great length.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Once again Nintendo has delivered an overall enjoyable game that doesn't seem to deliver what fans may have initially expected. Putting aside expectations though, Paper Mario: Color Splash is a decidedly solid adventure-platformer, with some great storytelling and humor layered on top. The papercraft visuals are gorgeous, and the soundtrack will have you humming along in just a few minutes. The card-based battle system is a real downer though and the loss of deeper gameplay elements is still hard felt, dragging the whole experience down quite a bit.
While I’m still wishing the RPG elements of Thousand Year Door were back here, I still had a pretty great time with Color Splash. It looks amazing, plays great, and has some really great pacing that kept me coming back knowing I was just one more step away from another paint star. Wii U owners have been looking for a new game for a while now, well you just found a great one here and I highly suggest picking it up.