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[maxcriden]

Nintendo World Report

The regular gameplay is what you expect from a Sticker Star follow-up, though many of the elements have been improved. The biggest improvement to me are the puzzles. Many puzzles in Sticker Star felt obtuse and irritating, which got old really fast. Color Splash takes a more straightforward approach to the proceedings. It’s more about finding secrets and seeing inconsistencies in the environments, which gives it a more relaxed atmosphere. If something looks odd, it can be walked into to see what’s hiding behind it. The enemies are active in the background, which is a nice effect.

Some backtracking will be required, as certain characters or objects form important keys to solve puzzles in a different world. It makes the experience very connected to one another, even though the game is divided into levels.

Paper Mario Color Splash is a far better game than Sticker Star. There are some cracks – the battles are easy, and the colorless spots can be annoying to fill in sometimes. But the little worlds are fun to traverse with puzzles, snappy dialogue and a beautiful presentation. I can just put the controller down and enjoy the little touches that makes this game tick. This is a way more charming package than the Nintendo 3DS gave us in 2012, so I am pretty much on board until the end. It may land with a thud, but right now I have very high hopes for Paper Mario Color Splash.

I don't want to C/P the whole thing, so, please give them the click and read their take on the battle system as well:

https://www.nintendoworldreport.com...per-mario-color-splash-wii-u-hands-on-preview

-

The Sixth Axis

Here’s where you jump into your first taste of the turn-based combat, and fans of the 3DS’ Paper Mario: Sticker Star will be right at home, with a few small differences now that you are powered by paint rather than stickers. You start out with a number of battle cards which appear on the gamepad’s touchscreen, each of which contain a type and number of attacks. Primarily these are jumps and hammer blows, but new card types will appear throughout your adventure expanding your arsenal.

Luckily for your Toad compatriot, Huey has bestowed the power of paint upon you and your hammer, letting you smack characters or scenery to fill them with colour once more. With one smash, Toad is brought back to life. Re-colouring various parts of the world is key, not only for collecting coins, but also because the newly revitalised section will often release a battle card at the same time. Each area has a paint-completion percentage, with 100% granting you another Paint Star, though the actual action of painting in a blank spot can be a little fiddly at first.

The charming paper aesthetic has a wonderful solidity and reality to it, from the paper characters gently fluttering in a breeze to the way parts of the scenery move and behave. The only mild disappointment is that it feels like it lacks the magic of other similarly themed games, particularly Sony’s Tearaway, with Nintendo’s emphasis on solidity and quality perhaps diminishing a little bit of the magic.

Either way, Paper Mario: Color Splash boasts an enjoyable lightness in tone that won’t have you rolling in the aisles but will regularly raise a wry smile. It’s often quite knowing and aware, with both modern-world and game-related references sometimes surprising you with a snark that you wouldn’t expect from the big N’s iconic mascot.

http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2016/09...ouring-the-world-of-paper-mario-color-splash/

Foreign language previews:

http://www.eurogamer.pt/articles/2016-09-13-paper-mario-color-splash-antevisao (Portuguese)
http://www.xgn.nl/paper-mario-color-splash-preview (Dutch)
http://www.gameblog.fr/news/62120-paper-mario-color-splash-nos-impressions-bigarrees (French)
http://www.millenium.org/top-jeux/p...plash-wii-u-nintendo-preview-eshop-mtj-148628 (French)
http://www.gamer-network.fr/actualites/157954-preview-paper-mario-color-splash (French)
http://www.jeuxvideo-live.com/jeux-video/preview-paper-mario-color-splash-507 (French)

Any translations are welcome and much appreciated!

Related threads:

Paper Mario Color Splash footage from JP Nintendo Direct
Paper Mario: Color Splash - PAX West gameplay (The Golden Coliseum)
IGN: Paper Mario: Color Splash surprised us in a great way (new video preview)
So, were battles in Paper Mario: Sticker Star truly pointless? (thread filled with spirited debate)

 

[Neiteio]

So many generic Toads

 

[Tadale]

Since the Last Guardian delay, this is probably my most anticipated game of October now. I think it looks great, and I actually really liked Sticker Star.

 

[Kouriozan]

Loved Sticker Star so I'll absolute love this one as well, nice previews.

 

[Leafhopper]

Yeah because I am sure being better than Sticker Star is hard task to accomplish.

Game looks nice though.

 

[NotLiquid]

I've never known how to feel about a game quite like this one. Yeah, Sticker Star was disappointing but by all accounts Color Splash seems like a step in the right direction.

 

[Shift Breaker]

FFS.

Fine, I'll buy it.

 

[Piers]

How much better can it get can than no EXP and same Toad/Enemy designs?
I can see what they mean by more relaxed, though, and finding inconsistencies is still neat.

 

[Yukinari]

Dont worry Paper Mario fans we heard your main concerns and made the puzzles better.

Because you know thats why you played Paper Mario, for the paper gimmick and puzzles.

 

[NotLiquid]

How much better can it get can than no EXP and same Toad/Enemy designs?
I can see what they mean by more relaxed, though, and finding inconsistencies is still neat.

You do get EXP in the game, sort of. The only way to increase your maximum paint gauge is by engaging and winning battles.

 

[maxcriden]

How much better can it get can than no EXP and same Toad/Enemy designs?
I can see what they mean by more relaxed, though, and finding inconsistencies is still neat.

I'm not sure if I follow your question, but (someone please do correct me if I'm wrong) I think in lieu of leveling up in this game you do gradually increase your paint meter, which is more than was present in Sticker Star (which, per the thread I linked at the bottom of my OP, did have some purposes to fighting battles).

So many generic Toads

I'd have thought the colorful darkness of this one would be right up your aesthetic alley.

 

[GhostTrick]

Sticker Star is a good game. Not the one people wanted. Puzzles improved ? Like, really few people cares.

The game still seems to be flawed in its main gameplay: Useless fights. Lack of personnality. No story.

This game's gonna bomb for obvious reason. People have been burned with sticker star and it doesn't seems to fix its main flaws.

 

[Toxi]

Unfortunately, I don't see any real improvements to the boss battles, which were one of the worst parts of Sticker Star's gameplay, beyond being more obvious about what thing card you need.

The Koopaling boss battles we've seen so far looked terrible; just a vanilla enemy that gets a mid-battle gimmick that doesn't actually add any new strategy to the approach beyond playing a specific thing card.

 

[Solid SOAP]

All I know is that I'd definitely buy a remake of the original game and TTYD with those graphics

 

[JoeM86]

Sticker Star is a good game. Not the one people wanted. Puzzles improved ? Like, really few people cares.

The game still seems to be flawed in its main gameplay: Useless fights. Lack of personnality. No story.

This game's gonna bomb for obvious reason. People have been burned with sticker star and it doesn't seems to fix its main flaws.

Isn't Sticker Star the best selling Paper Mario game?

 

[Dark Cloud]

Man I'm so excited for this! I'm going to love this game.

 

[eXistor]

Even better than Sticker Star? Nice, this should be amazing then. And no, I'm not being sarcastic, I legitimately thought SS was great.

 

[Leafhopper]

Isn't Sticker Star the best selling Paper Mario game?

Sadly.

 

[Toxi]

Isn't Sticker Star the best selling Paper Mario game?

Sadly.

No, that's Super Paper Mario, and by quite a significant number of copies sold.

 

[Yukinari]

Isn't Sticker Star the best selling Paper Mario game?

Oh man a 3DS game sold better than an N64 or Gamecube game.

Why are we still bringing up sales for this series.

 

[DownGrader]

Dont worry Paper Mario fans we heard your main concerns and made the puzzles better.

Because you know thats why you played Paper Mario, for the paper gimmick and puzzles.

What are you talking about? Puzzles were always one of the most important elements of Paper Mario games, starting with the original one. Puzzle elements were in each and every game of the series... while only two of them were pure RPGs.

 

[Leafhopper]

No, that's Super Paper Mario, and by quite a significant number of copies sold.

Oh right SPM being on the Wii helped that I am sure. I did like SPM at least but, that's where the problems started for people that liked Paper Mario in the first place.

At least that still was interesting plot wise though.

 

[balladofwindfishes]

Dont worry Paper Mario fans we heard your main concerns and made the puzzles better.

Because you know thats why you played Paper Mario, for the paper gimmick and puzzles.

Paper Mario 64 would have huge stretches of puzzles in between story bits. Dry Dry Ruins, for example, is just one giant dungeon with puzzles and no story at all once you enter the ruins.

 

[Joqu]

It sounds pretty darn good. I'm looking forward to it.

Definitely hope they're changing up the formula again for the next Paper Mario though. Maybe I'll get my characters back if they keep that up.

 

[Jonneh3003]

I'll be demonstrating the game in a short 20 minute live stream later

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KneBDSJot8g

If anyone has any questions I'll try to answer them as I go

 

[Yukinari]

What are you talking about? Puzzles were always one of the most important elements of Paper Mario games, starting with the original one. Puzzle elements were in each and every game of the series... while only two of them were pure RPGs.

Paper Mario 64 would have huge stretches of puzzles in between story bits. Dry Dry Ruins, for example, is just one giant dungeon with puzzles and no story at all once you enter the ruins.

I dont know anybody who was like, " i wish this series was centered around puzzles".

Puzzles are a supplement to the story, characters, and RPG mechanics. Not the core of the gameplay. Not to mention since the puzzles sucked ass in Sticker Star that means they FAILED to even do that right.

 

[Piers]

You do get EXP in the game, sort of. The only way to increase your maximum paint gauge is by engaging and winning battles.

I'm not sure if I follow your question, but (someone please do correct me if I'm wrong) I think in lieu of leveling up in this game you do gradually increase your paint meter, which is more than was present in Sticker Star (which, per the thread I linked at the bottom of my OP, did have some purposes to fighting battles).

Ah, whoops, okay. Nice to see they did that.

 

[maxcriden]

Sticker Star is a good game. Not the one people wanted. Puzzles improved ? Like, really few people cares.

The game still seems to be flawed in its main gameplay: Useless fights. Lack of personnality. No story.

This game's gonna bomb for obvious reason. People have been burned with sticker star and it doesn't seems to fix its main flaws.

Well... I agree the game may not sell so well, though the holiday positioning could help it a bit (as I think it did Xenoblade Chronicles X). But, I have to respectfully disagree with your summary of unchanged main flaws. It's debatable whether fights were truly useless in Sticker Star, per the link at the end of my post. But even still, as discussed ITT there is a greater point to battles in this game as fighting in them increases your paint gauge, in lieu of experience points. Second, it appears the game has significantly more personality than Sticker Star, between music, additional and new characters, and the personality of scenes and locations we've seen footage of, the last of which I'd also point to as a response to the lack of story, which while seemingly still lean compared to PM 1-3, appears to be a bit more significant than in Sticker Star.

The one thing the game will have a hard time besting is Sticker Star's music. That's one of the GOAT OSTs of Mario RPG games for me, and stands shoulder to shoulder with Paper Mario OSTs.

 

[Shiggy]

I really hated how these 3D objects didn't fit into the style of Paper Mario in the 3DS version.

For the Wii U version I wonder if they actually reward doing the battles, the paint meter already sounds like an improvement in that area. In the 3DS game I just tried to walk past enemies as the battles were so boring. The main issue of the 3DS game wasn't that it was bad, it was just boring.

 

[wild wild rice]

Game looks like it's gonna be fun, the most important thing. I think it's high time I pre-order.

 

[balladofwindfishes]

Would it kill them to throw sunglasses onto the koopas, though?

They look too cute and friendly to be enemies without them.

 

[GhostTrick]

Isn't Sticker Star the best selling Paper Mario game?

No, it's not. And it sold well in the first place because people expected more of it.

 

[maxcriden]

Oh man a 3DS game sold better than an N64 or Gamecube game.

Why are we still bringing up sales for this series.

Wow, I genuinely didn't know till just know that 3DS as a system has sold more than N64 and GCN combined. That's what better than I'd thought. So you're definitely right, relative to install base Sticker Star would be expected to sell more than on those systems. As to why we discuss sales for the series, I think they're brought up for this series just like for any other, discussing them serves a limited purpose but might help to give a barometer of when and why Nintendo tries to make similar games to the previous one (in this case) or not (like, say, Chibi-Robo or I presume Federation Force).

 

[entremet]

Even better than Sticker Star? Nice, this should be amazing then. And no, I'm not being sarcastic, I legitimately thought SS was great.

Same.

It reminded me of Zelda 2. I love Zelda 2.

 

[Puruzi]

Being better than shit isn't very difficult. Game still looks lame.

 

[maxcriden]

I really hated how these 3D objects didn't fit into the style of Paper Mario in the 3DS version.

For the Wii U version I wonder if they actually reward doing the battles, the paint meter already sounds like an improvement in that area. In the 3DS game I just tried to walk past enemies as the battles were so boring. The main issue of the 3DS game wasn't that it was bad, it was just boring.

Fighting battles in this game increases your paint gauge, so there's an additional concrete benefit to battling in that way. I know you mentioned the paint meter but I wasn't sure if you knew this part specifically, so I wanted to provide that info for you.

I agree with you that there's something inherently bizarre or off-putting about seeing the real world leak into Paper Mario's world like this.

 

[The Main Event]

I'll probably still buy it just for the graphics alone.

 

[Yoshi]

Well considering Sticker Star was a really good game, I look forward to this as well. If the main gameplay complaint was that you couldn't gain anything for busywork, then I have to say: The main gameplay compaint is actually a positive.

 

[Neiteio]

I'd have thought the colorful darkness of this one would be right up your aesthetic alley.

Graphically, it's gorgeous, one of the prettiest games ever. I just wish Nintendo would be a bit more adventurous by now. It's the fifth (?) Paper Mario and they're still trotting out the same NPCs.

 

[jack....]

That's not saying much.

 

[Jonneh3003]

Great writing as always, it's light on memes but there are one or two occasions where they couldn't resist.

 

[Possumowner]

Looking damn fine,cannot wait

 

[Simbabbad]

I admire Max's attempt to inject positivity into Color Splash threads. You can add Nintendo Life's opinion to the "it's actually much better than Sticker Star" pile, but some people will cling at the most mundane detail to continue hating this game.

 

[Mpl90]

The fact that 3D objects turn immediately into cards is already a MASSIVE improvement over Sticker Star. I swear, I lost the count of all the times I had to go back to the hometown just to "paperize" the objects, that's useless backtracking at its worst.

 

[SpookyBlackFish]

Nice! I can see my wife and me really diving into this game together. She loved Sticker Star and played it every free minute as long as it lasted. Now that I hear about the improvements (more useful battles), this should end up perfectly a game for some dark and grey autumn evenings.

 

[RPGCrazied]

Dont worry Paper Mario fans we heard your main concerns and made the puzzles better.

Because you know thats why you played Paper Mario, for the paper gimmick and puzzles.

I played for the writing and followers. This has none of that. Why can't they make a Paper Mario like Thousand Year Door is beyond me.

 

[Neiteio]

I had such high hopes for this game back when it was still a rumor and all we knew is the Koopalings were involved. I had hoped you'd be able to recruit them as party members -- former enemies, working together -- and as you adventured together, you'd get to know them better. Maybe the game would start with Iggy begging Mario to help rescue Bowser from some greater threat, and Mario reluctantly agrees, gathering up the other Koopalings as he goes.

Ah well.

 

[Diddy Kong]

It looks so pretty too bad I won't be touching it with a 10 ft pole. Bring back the RPG with creative characters and partners.

 

[Green Mamba]

The easiest hurdle to cross ever. Far better than Sticker Star can be miles and miles away from being a genuinely good game.

There was another interview with producer Risa Tabata done last week that I haven't seen here before. Some of my favorite quotes:

The old Paper Mario games, they were obviously RPGs and had a lot of good elements, but they weren't just about the RPG elements. They were full of solving puzzles, solving mysteries, the color factor, the visual style. For the Paper Mario series, we're focusing more on those elements — the puzzle-solving.

But I think one thing is that because this is taking place within the greater Mario world, we wanted to focus as much as possible on the familiar Mario characters. All Toads, right? It's just a bunch of Toads.

 

[Biske]

Can't wait! Been excited for this game since day one, looks so amazing and filled with all the paper Mario charm and fun I've been loving.


Can we have a thread without people bitching about how they don't like it and they hate sticker star and it should be TTYD and etc, etc, etc?