The Rescue V videos have been entertaining, but they haven’t convinced me it’s the sort of Paper Mario game I want to play. I’m waiting for reviews before I make any decisions.
But for players more convinced than me that Color Splash will be enjoyable, the digital copy became available to pre-load from the eShop last night.
Normally, a pre-load lets you download the game so that when release day comes, you can play it immediately without having to wait for the download.
Here, however, someone messed up.
Even though Color Splash won’t be out until October 7, the pre-load accidentally made the entire game playable. Oops?
Nintendo fixed the problem by removing the ability to pre-load the game. Maybe it will return once they lock the game and make it function as a normal pre-load. As for me, I’m looking forward to hearing early impressions of Color Splash.
What do you think about this unusual mistake? For players who got their early digital copy, how is the game so far?
When Paper Mario: Color Splash was announced, it filled me with dread because of its resemblance to Sticker Star.
Let’s get one thing out of the way. I don’t hate it just because it isn’t like the original Paper Mario games.
I’d be thrilled if Color Splash looked like The Thousand-Year Door 2. I’d be thrilled if it looked like Super Paper Mario 2. Unfortunately, it looks like Sticker Star 2, and I considered Sticker Star a bad game in general.
Color Splash was one of the games shown by Nintendo Treehouse at E3 this year.
First, I’ll give it some credit. Visually, it’s great. I like Color Splash’s aesthetic.
It also doesn’t look like it has limited inventory space for cards. If you can carry as many cards as you want, that is a major improvement over Sticker Star.
However, the basic Sticker Star elements appear to be in full force: cards & paint work together to take the place of stickers, battles don’t award you experience, there are a lot of Toads instead of original characters, and Thing Cards are the equivalent of Thing Stickers to be used in puzzles and against puzzle bosses.
This doesn’t have to be terrible. Again, if the inventory isn’t limited, it’ll take away a lot of the frustration those puzzles caused. As long as the solutions are intuitive (see, the fire extinguisher makes sense) or at least hinted at, Color Splash could sidestep one of my major issues with Sticker Star.
But what about the others? It is not an RPG. Worse, GameXplain conducted an interview with the assistant producer that suggests Paper Mario will never be an RPG series again.
I don’t understand what’s wrong with having two Mario RPG series. Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi, while similar, have very distinct feels. And since Mario & Luigi has also been handheld, this doesn’t do much for console players who want a Mario RPG…
Now let’s consider the matter of Color Splash’s story. In that interview, she was concerned about giving spoilers. That’s a good sign! …Assuming it’s a legitimate concern, that is. Paper Mario: Color Splash claims to be a mystery, so I’d like to see actual mystery elements in it, along with interesting characters.
(The paint bucket needs to be more than Color Splash’s Kersti, and he can’t be the only character.)
If Color Splash has a decent story and fixes Sticker Star’s gameplay issues, maybe I’ll give it a chance. Maybe. For now, I’m not convinced. Either way, I’ll lament the loss of the Paper Mario series as it once was.
As for a Thousand-Year Door HD remaster, great. Sure. It wouldn’t be the same as a new Paper Mario RPG, which is what I really want, but at least it would be something. And if it sold well, it just might convince Nintendo that there’s room for two Mario RPGs on the market after all.
Based on what we’ve seen so far of Paper Mario: Color Splash, what do you think about the game and the series’ future?
When a new Nintendo Direct was announced for yesterday, I was excited. (If you missed the Nintendo Direct, you can watch the entire thing here.) More than anything else, I hoped the rumored Paper Mario Wii U game would be announced.
And it was.
And it was heart-breaking.
My first worry was when he referenced Paper Mario as being in the “action adventure genre.” Did they forget these are RPGs?
Then he mentioned colors and paint. I wanted to think “cool,” but all I could think was, “Why another gimmick?”
Then he mentioned Prism Island, and I felt a ray of hope. A new region! Surely this will mean new characters and an intriguing plot!
… *sees no one but Mario, Peach, and Toad*
Make it stop!
Paint Hammer… restoring color… restoring color to Toads… Toad House… no no nononono! I swear, if this is as annoying as rescuing Toads in Paper Jam…
Painting cards to start battles? What the heck? I want to believe this is like Paper Jam’s battle cards, but I can’t help but see Sticker Star’s stickers.
GameXplain looked at Color Splash in the European and Japanese Nintendo Directs as well to find more footage, but it doesn’t get any better. It shows more “characters,” but by that I mean Toads and a Shy Guy. It also shows the conclusion of a battle and Mario’s reward: coins. They just cut it off before showing his exp gain, right??
Aside from Prism Island, the one bit of hope I see in this trailer is that the paint can appears to be a new character. While he could be another Kersti (please no), maybe he’s just the only partner or original character revealed so far.
At least the Nintendo Direct also revealed the English title for Genei Ibun Roku #FE, one of my most-anticipated turn-based RPGs. It’s called Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, a title weird enough to put Kingdom Hearts to shame… although TMS is SMT backwards! That will be out on June 24…
I don’t know when Color Splash will come out, and unless they release a new trailer showing a story and characters, I don’t really care.
What about you? Do you see any reason to be excited for Color Splash, or have you joined me in singing Paper Mario’s funeral dirge?
*Yes, I like Super Paper Mario. I loved its story and characters. And while it didn’t have turn-based combat, at least it was fun, something I can’t say for Sticker Star’s battle system.
I’m still not sold on Paper Mario: Color Splash.
