I haven't posted a review for a long time since my break from playing RPGs. Now, I have a review to be written. Paper Mario: Color Splash is a 5th RPG of the Paper Mario series that has been an exclusive to the WiiU with all of the color madness and action. Nintendo released the game back in Fall 2016. With the awesomeness that is color based, Paper Mario fans will be pleased with colorful joy. I'm just gonna cut the chatter and go straight to the review. Enjoy!
Welcome to Prism Island:
In the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario and Peach are together with love and romanticness, until a letter has been sent to them, saying "Come to Prism Island, where joy and colorfulness are the beauty of the Mushroom Kingdom". So Mario and Peach take a trip to Prism Island, a vibrant place where joy and life are born into the land with the central hub of the island, known as Port Prisma. The land is full of vibrant and lush colors, until a bunch of Shy Guys come to the island and suck up the color throughout Port Prisma and the rest of the places throughout Prism Island. Finally, the evil menace and antagonist named Bowser showed up, mixing all colors into one maliciously evil black paint to harness the power of, then throwing the Big Paint Stars that are on the fountain across the island, leaving Port Prisma's fountain without the Big Paint Stars, which are designed to bring color and life to the land. So without any of them, the fountain is done for. They are 6 Big Paint Stars in existance. Big and Mini Red, Yellow, Blue, Purple, Orange and Green Paint Stars are around the island.
Colors Across Prism Island:
After the situation regarding the colors being sucked by the Shy Guys, the hero of Mushroom Kingdom, Mario and his assistant who looks like a paint can, named Huey. Huey is responsible of maintaining the colors and he has two missions, gather all 6 Big Paint Stars to restore life to the island and get rid of every ounce of that black paint, which comes from mixing all 6 bright and vibrant colors.
The Gameplay:
If you are familiar about the gameplay on Paper Mario: Color Splash, then I'll teach you the basics. When Mario gets his hammer, press the B button. With Huey around with his perfect health, his hammer has the ability to paint the areas with his hammer, which is performed with the X button. But pay attention to your Paint Gauge on the top left cotner of the screen, which has red, blue and yellow gauges. For example, if you came across a white spot, press the X button until all the white has been covered in the spot. There are Toads that are uncolored and they are brought back to life when painting them.
There is an Unfurl ability to open certain objects marked with "?!". The Unfurl ability is found in a box marked with "?!", but it is active for a limited time. While the Unfurl ability is active, quickly hit the object with the "?!" mark before time runs out. Now, the Cutout ability is performed with the Y button. If you press Y, the dotted lines will show and keep pressing Y until the dotted lines go together. Then use your finger on the touch pad to follow the dotted line and the scissors will follow your finger. Once the dotted lines have been cut, guiding Mario to the flag and revealing secrets will complete the Cutout.
Now, the combat system is simple. There are Battle Cards to fight enemies. For example, if you touch and drag the Jump card with a picture of the shoe to the rectangle with a number in the middle on the touch screen with your finger, it indicates that you are using the Jump ability. The best part is, you can use multiple Battle Cards and you can use up to 4 cards. The more cards you use, the better.
When you're fresh out of or running low on cards, get to the shop in Port Prisma where the Toad sells Battle Cards or touch the the Battle Spin command, which costs 10 coins. During the Battle Spin, you see the cards spinning while face down. If you want to see the faces, touch the Faces button and the cards will show faces and the command costs 20 coins. And finally, you can use 30 coins to slow down the coins by pressing the Slow button. To stop the spin, press the A button and the card by the arrow will be in your collection. You can use the Battle Spin once per round.
With the power of paint, you can color an uncolored card by holding the card on the touch screen. The more you color, the stronger the action gets. But don't use it willy-nilly, otherwise you'll run out of paint. To refill paint, simply get the drops of paint from objects and enemies. The bigger the drop, the more paint you'll refill. Or, you can use the 1UP Mushroom to completely refill. Good news is, you can increase the max paint by collecting the hammer coins that come from defeating enemies. When the handle of the hammer on the top left corner is full, the paint gauge will increase its max.
Although there are hazards across the island, but you got to be careful not to trigger a hazard, otherwise Mario's HP reaches 0 and you'll be getting a Game Over, which is fun, when it comes to whole eyes and such. Not realizing that is holding you back or whatever not being realized.
The Power of Things:
In Paper Mario: Sticker Star, there are Things to help you on adventures and boss battles. Color Splash in that case, also has Things to help you on your journey and they are scattered across the island. If you came across a Thing, squeeze the color of it with the A button when by it. Those Things are powerful during combat, they can help you on boss battles and certain objects. For example, when fighting Morton, the first Koopaling in the Crimson Tower, wait until his hammer is filled with the intense power of the flames, then use the fire extinguisher to douse the intense flames and you will have a chance to finish him off. Another one, outside of combat, when you see the dotted lines make a rectangle, follow the dotted lines on the touch pad and look a Thing to help a Toad off the pipe, which is the plunger. If you don't have a Thing to help, you can always ask the Thing know it all in the Harbor District of Port Prisma.
Gathering the Paint Stars:
As mentioned before, gathering the Paint Stars will bring Prism Island life and magic. When you collect the Mini Paint Stars of the same color, they will reveal the region of the same color and lead you the Big Paint Star of the same color. When getting a Big Paint Star, it will color the big white spot as Mario's hammer will not cut it. For example, when you get the Big Blue Paint Star from Fort Cobalt, it is capable of coloring the ocean in Violet Passage. When you get all 6 Big Paint Stars, the fountain in Port Prisma will be brought back to life and all colors of the rainbow will be in the center of the fountain and will never be mixed into the evil black paint that Bowser harnesses the power of.
The Conclusion:
As you all know, Paper Mario: Color Splash became a colorful RPG with all the madness regarding the PT expedition. Although I wasn't happy to oblige when I been looking for the hard things, like cooking a perfect steak for example, but I was able to complete that task. Madness aside, my favorite part is gathering the Paint Stars, courtesy of Huey's sole purpose. I may not call it perfect, but I'll say this profanity-free RPG is marvelous and extreme. I got my high hopes for the next expedition, when it comes to interesting things.
Pros and Cons:
+Intense Coloring Fun
+Expeditons with Interesting Finds
+Huey's Excellent Paint
-Annoying Tasks
-Some Bad Obstacles to Give a Game Over Screen
Now that the review has been written, I'll give Paper Mario: Color Splash a solid 9.0. Hope you can enjoy.
