Paper Mario: Color Splash Deserves a First Chance
Вставка
- Опубліковано 27 чер 2024
- To say the new Paper Mario games are controversial would be an understatement. Sticker Star was widely reviled, acting as one of the hallmarks of bad game design even ten years after its initial release. The Origami King, while certainly much less divisive, still has its fair share of detractors, people who reasonably wish Paper Mario would commit to its own, unique vision, rather than straddle the line between old and new. And then there's Color Splash, the awkward middle child, the Sticker Star sequel, the game discarded by many, played by few, and remembered by even fewer. It would be easy to write off Color Splash, a game that has ultimately made zero impact on the public conscience, but the question remains: does Color Splash deserve better?
You can read my initial essay here: docs.google.com/document/d/17...
Chapters:
00:00:00 - Prologue
00:05:02 - Chapter 1: A Story in Pieces
00:19:31 - Chapter 2: Painting the Town Red
00:27:12 - Chapter 3: Filling in the Blanks
00:53:53 - Chapter 4: Death by a Thousand Paper Cuts
01:15:19 - Epilogue
Credits:
Origami King Interview with Tanabe & Tabata: www.videogameschronicle.com/f...
Color Splash Interview w/ Tanabe: www.gameinformer.com/b/featur...
Color Splash Graphics and Images From Super Mario Wiki (Extremely Helpful!):
www.mariowiki.com/Paper_Mario...
@packattack04082 for the Color Splash Footage
@mariopartylegacy for the Color Splash Footage
@ZackScottGames for the Color Splash, Sticker Star, & Dream Team Footage
@NintendoMovies for the Paper Mario, Thousand-Year Door, and Super Paper Mario Footage
@PKSparkxxDH for the Shy Bandit Footage:
• Paper Mario Color Spla...
Kyle1022 for the Shy Bandit Footage:
• Paper Mario Color Spla...
@Linkums for the Gamepad Combat Footage:
• Paper Mario: Color Spl...
@Twilitblack for the XC2 Full Burst Gameplay Footage:
1: • Xenoblade Chronicles 2...
2: • Xenoblade Chronicles 2...
@BarelyAlec for the Sticker Star Bosses Without Things Footage:
• First 5 Bosses No Thin... - Ігри
A: this video is really well done, amazing work
B: the idea of Color Splash with an actual deck-building system and paint being a real mana/SP mechanic sounds so good why can't that be real 😭
One of my favorite things about this game is the manual. Like most people I never bothered to look at the manual because why would I? One day though I decided to and I’m so glad I did. The manual is hysterical Just like the rest of the game and gives some really interesting insight to the development of the game. Like for example when they were trying to make the steak look perfect, During a company barbecue event, they had a professional cameraman take pictures of it during various stages of preparation. It also tells story details not stated anywhere else in the game. Like the real reason Bowser drained Peach of her color was because he got enamored by her pinkness and wanted to have it all to himself. The manual also give us a lot more information about the lore of the dark blue inn. This game easily has the best manual I have ever seen which doesn’t sound like that much of a compliment, but it really is. I recommend looking at it if you haven’t
You're totally right, the manual for color splash is a must read for anyone playing the game.
Wow, someone else who actually knows about this game's e-manual? I 100% agree here, the manual is such a treat to read through (and as such I actually do that myself occasionally when the mood strikes), especially the section on how they made the steak fight (where was that lobster fight in Origami King, Nintendo? smh my head)
genuinely one of my favorite e-manuals, and probably manuals in general, but then again I suppose the bar isn't that high when the only other stellar e-manual that comes to mind was the Super Mario Maker one (and at least the SM3DW one had a hidden Luigi or two going for it)
Very underrated li'l thing, and I love it dearly :)
685 views? This is a high quality breakdown of the entirety of Color Splash, a full retrospective, hour and a half long and I watched this whole video engaged the whole time, expecting this to be some big well known video that everyone's talking about and NOBODY'S EVEN SEEN IT?
Thanks! I made this one quite a while ago, but that's the beauty of evergreen content, I suppose: it can get a second wind at any time
Sorta like the game itself.
most of the views must've been me, I really wanted this game and didn't get it until 2023
@@misk-ivus2990 Lol extacly what i was going say
Well it definitely has more views now!
This might be the only time in Mario history where Larry was the standout Koopaling
I remember watching a review of this game six months ago from someone called The Red Guy and they went into a point about the theme of the game being a celebration of uniqueness and a rejection to conformity. The Toads in Port Prisma represent a celebration of their uniqueness as they cover themselves in the colourful paint that is in the fountain as the things that make them individuals are celebrated, while Bowser's minions (the only characters on the spectrum with different designs from each other in the game) are unsatisfied with their positions in their lives. I think that this idea was done more cohesively in The Origami King as that game's theme was about life being based on how one person conducts themselves as an individual and the two emotional moments in that game were all based on trying to undo someone's attempt at making people confirm to one side.
Honestly, I’m just realizing how similar Color Splash’s story is to Thousand Year Door.
-Peach and Mario are called to a new island location that we’ve never heard of before, and they travel there by boat
-Chapter 1 primarily has us going through grasslands, ending with a boss against a (significantly) larger opponent with an easy to exploit weakness (Hooktail has the Sound Badge, Morton’s petal stool is weak to hammers)
-Both games feature a segment that involves some sort of fighting Tournament (The Glitz Pit in TTYD, Golden Coliseum in CS)
-Both games involve you commanding a pirate ship in order to navigate the ocean towards the location of one of the objects to collect
-The third-to-last chapters in both games revolve around Mario helping a train reach its destination without issue
-You can access the final area of the game from the hubworld
-A force of darkness manages to possess a major Mario character, causing them to act evil (or in CS’s case, eviler then normal)
Yeah, it’s kinda weird how both of these games have weirdly similar stories and almost nobody mentions that
Rogueport and Port Prisma have very similar layouts (three sections arranged horizontally with a port section south of the middle)
I don’t mind color splash having a Basic story because it’s not trying to have a grand story. It’s just trying to be a funny Mario adventure and I’m fine with that. My only problem with the story is that it’s heavily implied and then revealed that Bowser was possessed by the black paint the entire game, but they never do anything with that and then at the end of the game everyone acts like he was the bad guy the whole time even though he was doing everything against his will. It’s just so weird. I also don’t buy that Kamek didn’t know bowser was possessed. He’s smarter than that. The game also could have made the black paints plan be a lot more interesting just by using what’s already in the game. In the game black paint is extremely toxic and can kill you and it can also possess you. The paint possessing Bowser wanted to cover the entire world in black paint, so why not reveal that the reason he wants to do that is because he would kill everybody on the Earth, and then the black paint would possess their dead bodies creating a new world of paint folk that he would be the ruler of. All of the pieces are there it’s just that the game doesn’t use any of them
Agreed. I don't really know why Peach says she hopes "Bowser has learned his lesson this time." As far as I'm concerned, he didn't do anything wrong?
@@AurumAlex64 exactly! It’s so weird. Even when I was a kid and I first played the game I thought it was weird
I have a rebuttal foe the Larry battle. Although it is a good puzzling challenge to have you face enemies before you can attack the boss, this too has its flaws. If the player goes into the battle without bringing in enough multi-hitting jump cards or multi-hitting hammer attacks, which is very possible as they were never conditioned to do so before in any other fight, then they would fail at not fault of their own. It seems as if the game developers couldn’t decide if this gimmick was made with the purpose of giving the player many options on how to approach a battle or to give a puzzle in which they defeat all enemies in one turn.
This is a fair critique, one that unfortunately applies to many battles in Color Splash
I mean, for the regular battles, you are able to flee and continue forward. Along with killing the enemy no consequences… which is over powered.
Exactly the video I needed tonight, much like with Super Mystery Dungeon this is a game I beat at the time and have long forgotten almost every aspect, but this one I truly liked at the time. I couldn’t have told you much more than “it’s funny” and “the train levels were cool”, but this has refreshed my memory very well. I couldn’t believe my eyes when the SMB3 level appeared as I just don’t remember it at all. But most importantly, I never played Origami King, so the comparisons here and why Color Splash is often better, is an input I really wanted to explore. Subbed!
Yeah the more I reflect on this game, the more I realize that, despite the last few lines of the video, I think I prefer Color Splash over Origami King.
It is interesting to me that I kinda feel the same about SMD being not so memorable, I'd argue as well that it suffers in the same way Color Splash did from Sticker Star: SMD got overshadowed pretty hard by Gates To Infinity's poor reception (at least from what I can tell it wasn't taken well, I certainly feel it's the weakest of the series) so there was somewhat of a sour aftertaste still in people's mouths
SMD's connection orb and non-repeating requests does cater to my preferences as someone who still wants a to-do list of some sort even after the formalities of plot and such, but there's not a lot I could tell you about from immediate memory (it's been years since my playthrough of SMD's main-game but still)
If this makes you feel any better, the Wii U's final major release was one of the most acclaimed games of all time... but it was the version no-one played.
Hi! This is my first time making something like this, so any thoughts and feedback are more than welcome!
Sorry about some of the audio oddities for about the first 20 minutes or so of the video, I was attempting to figure out different ways to record audio, and clearly some of them were better than others. Luckily, I figured out a decent setup fairly quickly. Hope you enjoy!
That one moment in Sticker Star when Kersti is stuck in a spider web upsets me, it really seemed like writers ALMOST wanted to show her attitude changing but then they totally went back on it. Really frustrating, Huey seems way more enjoyable as a character.
I was one of those who slept on Color Splash after the severe disappointment that was Sticker Star so it was really interesting to see the good and bad that the sequel has to offer through this well put-together retrospective. It also brought attention, and made sense of, something that always infuriated me with Sticker Star - the fact that you can't choose which enemy you want to target in battle. But with the whole puzzle philosophy the devs had in mind for the combat system I can sort of see what they were going for.
I really do think there's a world where both Sticker Star and Color Splash could've had an engaging combat system. But that ship has long since sailed...
i don’t know if anyone remembers this but around a month before the official launch of the game, nintendo fucked up and allowed you to pre order the game on the wii u eshop whilst forgetting to lock the game until its intended release date. they quickly fixed this but if you pre ordered the game within that specific hour time span in September 2016, you were able to have full access to the game a month early. i was one of those people and it’s a memory i will always cherish!
Something I do find interesting is that Color Splash and Oragami King begin with a horror vibe.
Origami King leaning more into it and keeping it a bit more consistently. The opening scene of the game with the origami Peach is legitimately chilling I feel.
Be interesting if the team is slowly edging the games not just back to a darker more serious tone, but also closer to a G Rated "Are You Scared of the Dark" kind of horror for children, in spite of Miyamotto and under his nose.
I've been avoiding Paper Mario related content like the plague for the last few years, simply because of a lot of issues with the community, but the title of this video intrigued me enough to watch it, and boy am I glad I did
Despite the many problems with color splash, this was a very fair breakdown that is able to recognize the good in it, and not just bash it for what it did wrong. The fact that you went into a lot of detail for EVERYTHING makes it even more amazing
Great video, and I agree that Color Splash Deserves a First Chance :)
Glad to see these videos are taking off, I hope you continue to cover the Paper Mario series, I’m looking forward to seeing what you have to say about Origami King
Man, I love that UA-cam is recommending smaller channels now! I never played this game because I abhorred Sticker Star, so it was nice to get (what seems like) a fair perspective on it. All around great critique!
I absolutely love color splash and I think it is easily the best out of the modern paper Mario games. It’s easily the funniest Mario game ever made, the music and visuals are fantastic, almost every level is unique and interesting and even the more standard Mario levels have at least something memorable about them that help them stand out and exploring all of these locations is fun. The battle system isn’t the best but I honestly really don’t mind because I don’t really care about battle systems in games but it definitely is a problem. Color splash absolutely has problems but those problems don’t ruin the game and it’s a game that more people should give a chance. I actually just played and 100% color splash like three days ago. Some of it was annoying but 95% of the experience was nothing but fun. Also dude you are so underrated. How does this video only have 800 views? That’s insane
Love Color Splash as well. Over time, I think I've come to like it more than Origami King, even. Except for those Roshambo Temples. Those are no good.
@@AurumAlex64 thankfully the temples are only necessary for 100% completion. Thank God you can just completely ignore them if you just wanna play the story. Although I will say it is kind of weird that characters never really mention the temples. Like for an island that has eight temples dedicated to rock paper scissors, you think they would bring that up more💀
This being the game that actually gave the Koopalings character and personalities made me like it even more, alongside its jokes and music. The only things I disliked were the amount of toads and battle mechanic, but that was it.
Incredibly high-quality analysis of Color Splash, this video was great and quite insightful! Especially the overview of the Larry fight, a segment I loved when I first played it through. I had a fun and enjoyable time exploring this game and playing through. I recognize many flaws it has though which I'm glad you addressed, I also wish people at least gave it a proper look rather than letting it be immediately dismissed, though that isn't only this game's fault but also an unfortunate position of being part of the Wii U lineup and the contentious feelings towards the games coming around at the time.
The puzzle elements of the battle layouts were not lost on me when I first played, I actually quite liked them! But I also wish they went further with it and properly balanced the attacks and removed colored in cards from the shop (or at least made them much more expensive and fixed the economic issue with the Roshambo Temples). It is unfortunate some of the choices they made for the game, though similar to you I still enjoyed Color Splash's qualities after playing Origami King and even the original TTYD, if that can be believed. Like you said, Prism Island is pretty cohesive despite segmented level design. As you said, there's a lot to love and a lot to hate. I happen to mostly like the game 😄
For me, Color Splash has always been my favorite game that I've never owned. And after watching a person actually give the game a fair chance and judged it based on it's own merits instead the series it's attached to or the expectations it was built up for, I can see why my experience with the game might have been optimal.
Also 51:02 I've had an image of that toad saved on my computer since Origami King dropped XD
Color Splash is a game I've loved since it's release. And that Toad image is indeed great meme material
I originally saw the paint as a sorta FP system, as the stronger attacks consumed a greater amount of this resource while regular attacks such as a jump take basically nothing. If they went in with that mentality while designing battles I wonder how different they game’s combat would have been.
I very much appreciate this analysis of Color Splash. I enjoyed the game a good deal, but I can admit it’s not flawless. Like, when it was first revealed, I didn’t rage, but I wasn’t interested at all, until I saw a playthrough. And you pretty accurately hit the nail on the head for what the game’s flaws and strong suits are.
This was a really great video. Imagine my shock when your community post showed up in my feed where you've just hit 1k subscribers. How can you only have 1k??? Well, you can add one more subscriber to the list! I've watched a couple videos and they were done very well. Gonna watch a few more. Thanks for the content!
Really hope your videos start getting more traction. Love your writing about these under-appreciated games!
Jeez. It seems that like Color Splash, this video was seen by few and remembered by fewer. And like Color Splash itself, I feel it deserves better! Hopefully this video will flood people's recommendeds in a few years.
For years now I have put Color Splash on the backburner due to most opinions about it on the internet making me question if it was worth the time of day, but after watching your video I'm actually pretty excited to pick this game up and try it myself.
My first Paper Mario game was Sticker Star. I agree with the motion that both it and Color Splash ARE, in fact, the weakest in the series, but as someone who literally grew up with and alongside the Wii U, Switch, and 3Ds, I can thoroughly say that I love ALL paper Mario games. Obviously some more than others, but Color Splash is like a brother to me. We don’t always get along and I’m sick of hearing it’s extremely repetitive shit, but at the end of the day I’ll always remember and appreciate the fun times we had.
Another excellent video. I really appreciate you measuring this game against Origami King. It's a very helpful comparison for understanding both of them, but very few people actually do it because so few people have even played Color Splash. I also appreciate how you can be so harsh and yet still express genuine admiration for this game.
Out of curiosity, what's your opinion on Super Paper Mario? I'm always interested to hear about this from any thoughtful fan of the series. I've always considered it the best of the six games, though I know I'm in the minority with that view.
Super Paper Mario is always a game I've wanted to like more than I do. I really love the tone of the game and (most) of its story, but I honestly think the level design really hurts it for me. It feels like 75% of the stages end up becoming glorified mazes, and so many chapters just feel like they bleed together. I think the game is much more successful when it gets to some of the interesting set pieces, like Fort Francis, The Whoa Zone, or The Underwhere, but for every one of those, there's a Tile Pool, or an Outer Space, or an Overthere Stair, or... basically all of Chapter 5. So it's a game I like to think about more than I actually like playing.
for my first comment on my long journey of binge watching all aurumalex64 videos i wanted to make sure i actually understood the video lol (watched three times, fell asleep one. honestly, falling asleep is trademark of a good video essay, especially if you want to continue after waking up.)
i dont know much about paper mario besides the 90000 fans of the thousand year door, but i actually did play quite a few of them while i was younger, particularly the alphadream games even if i i dont remember them entirely. i played color splash as well, but for pretty much all of these mario rpg games i was terrible at them in my younger child mind i just couldnt comprehend the mechanics lol, so i never beat them. what i do remember is the comedy and general visual appeal, and im glad this video delves into the lackluster gameplay of color splash in a way that makes it make sense to a mind that doesnt really remember.
this video gave me one billion flashes of nostalgia and reminds me of why i enjoyed this game, even when i probably got nowhere close to beating it all those years ago.
regardless, this is a good start of a great channel. well spoken, well written and well edited video essay that explores multiple perspectives while explaining your own. especially great since its a first video.
in the future, i hope to see reviews/retrospectives on the alphadream games which i actually remember quite fondly, though im sure that will come with the baggage of the entire "controversy" of the shutdown.
great vid, thanks for making it. hope the algorithm picks you up soon :) on to the xenoblade video
Thanks! I do plan on covering some of the Mario & Luigi games at some point in the future, they're a lot of fun.
Thanks for the awesome video! ^^ The analyses and the way you do the comparisons between Colour Splash and Origami King are really interesting to watch/listen to, too! X3
Origami King may be the better game, but I'm personally fonder of Color Splash.
Got this recommended to me and I wasn't going to watch at first since I've had the same stance on Color Splash ever since the game was first revealed but decided to anyway.
I'm really glad I did though.
I totally misjudged the direction this video was going to go for and instead got an amazing analysis on the good and bad aspects of the game.
It still doesn't change how I feel about Color Splash, I still hate the game for what it said about Nintendo repeating the same mistakes and refusing to allow Mario games to be more creative during that era but your video helped me see what the best version of the game could have been.
I really liked this game. My favorite is 64 for its more simple gameplay and more consistent, puzzle based levels. And most of that is here.
What I don’t quite understand is why people always reference the origami king interview referring to the lack of original characters, when there were interviews basically saying the same thing way back around the sticker star release
Honestly I still personally think Origami King has the most memorable moments of the modern trilogy. Shogun Studios, Snif City, Temple of Shrooms, Diamond Island, and Shangri Spa are all amazing.
Edit: The only Origami King tracks that I feel blend together are the tracks that are literally remixes of other ones, which would make sense. I like the Color Splash soundtrack, but personally I find way more memorable music in Origami King. Origami King also has top tier humor, but I do think Color Splash is better in the humor regard.
Edit2: Why do you hate Origami King so much? I understand the dislike of Non-Bottomless Pits but the Folded Toads are great and have neat dialogue every time you save one, and even though the whole Cut-Out gimmick in Color Splash is cool, it wouldn’t fit Origami King’s more open ended nature and would get even less use in it than in Color Splash. At least you can admit Origami King’s combat system while dull is much more enjoyable than the slow burn of Color Splash’s, right?
Edit3: The Handaconda actually has a fairly predictable strategy which is that when a turn begins whatever shape the Handaconda’s hand is in will be what it plays, and if it changes it’s hand’s shape, it will still be what it was shaped like initially. Still not told to the player, but it isn’t random chance at least.
1:04:49 I'd say Sticker Star's one enemy health bar *could* world well as a sort of "overall puzzle" of figuring out enemy healths as you encounter them, and using the healths of enemies that you've already fought to work out the healths of newer enemies... but Sticker Star doesn't have the battle variety to really make that work in an interesting way.
I'm pleasantly happy to see that a few comments mention the view count and I can compare to the count more than quadrupled as I am watching and typing this. I still hold a very soft spot in my heart for Colour Splash, and I hope one day when we inevitably move on from the TTYD remake and see another new Paper Mario with a style more like the original games (maybe also mixed with some direction from Origami King), more people can see Colour Splash and Origami King for what they do right. I do feel like these two have a bit more of a mini-cult following overshadowed by the loudness of the outcry from both.
In terms of the video, I am incredibly glad especially you touched upon Huey and his writing, he's one of my favourite Mario characters for just being so funny and memorable. And I'm overall extremely glad this arrived in my recommendations, as well as the recommendations of many others already and to come! The amount of effort for an under-appreciated game feels great to see!
Isn’t it funny that as you were announcing your Paper Jam video, Brothership was announced? Are you going to play it when it comes out?
I am absolutely going to play Brothership when it comes out. Dunno if I'll make a video about it right away though, that depends on how much I feel I have to say about it.
9:28 I think in bowser’s temper tantrum he had, he didn’t think about what he was doing when throwing them around, and when he realized he could make more black paint with the stars he then ordered the Koopalings to hunt them down.
Hey, don't diss my boy Origami King.
Just kidding, I actually agree with a lot of what you said. I've been a diehard fan of Origami King and Colour Splash for YEARS, and it just feels like people unfairly compare it to the first three (two?) games, when it's kind of evident that they're just two different things at this point. I don't even think they NEED to be the same anymore!! People just don't give this game a chance. Although I never played it, I used to watch playthroughs of it and I was extremely in love with its sense of humour. Lack of story? Don't care. It's very memorable, and this is an extremely good argument in defense of it. Props to you. I beat TTYD recently, after beating TOK twice a few years back. I can confidently say that TTYD is my favourite game of all time, and TOK is up there as well! They don't need to be compared to be enjoyable...
BTW, your style of video-essay is really good. I'm shocked you only have 1.7k subs. It might sound worthless, but I mean it when I say your channel is an underrated gem.
Colour Splash is my favourite Paper Mario game. It may not be the best, but I'll always love it.
The best breakdown of the Color Splash experience that I have ever seen. How have I not seen this before? On to the next video on your channel
Say if you like paper Mario like you say, you should try the origami king refolded mod that's coming out soon.
It basically fixes some major flaws the game has, like npc variety, lack of attack variety etc.
You know this was my first paper mario game, so it's my personal favorite.
No matter how much I try to show people how good the game is, people will never be on my side because of the battle system. I never was so addicted to a video game as I was to Color splash. I wanted to keep playing and find out what was next, because every single area was something unique, fresh and suprising. From fighting a giant steak, to solving a time loop in a haunted mansion, to literally playing a SMB3 level with super paper mario mechanics, every single level is amazing. In addition, the game looks super pretty, coloring all the spots was really satisfying, the ost is AMAZING, I actually cared about reading the dialogue, because it was really good and the battle system never bothered me, I actually enjoyed it a lot figuring out the way to optimally beat enemies and bosses.
When I recently finally got the chance to play the thousand year door, the one and only game people claim was peak paper mario, I couldn't help but notice how a lot of the areas were pretty linear, small and empty. Characters were amazing, story was amazing, but otherwise the adventure itself felt pretty standard and a lot of areas felt pretty basic if that makes sense? The backtracking was especially really bad (Except for chapter 3, that stuff was exactly what I was looking for in a paper mario game)
Im glad that I'm not the only one that loves color splash, because this game truly doesn't deserve all that hate. It's my favourite Wii u game and one of my favorite games of all time.
If the characters were allowed to look like things other than Toads, and the combat system was overhauled, Color Splash would genuinely be my favorite Paper Mario. People complain about the endless paper jokes, but I'm tired of pretending that a Toad wanting to sail to the "margins" of the Earth isn't a really good joke.
Recontextualizing the combat as more of a puzzle is something that I don't see a lot of, and it's great
Color Splash didn't handle it well, but to that end I'll point you to "One Shot Rogue", an indie deckbuilder built around the perfect bonus condition idea: each fight ends after one turn, with your goal being to bring the enemies' HP totals _exactly to 0_ or else you take damage based on how far off from 0 you got
And yes, you'll still take damage if you bring them into the negatives
Interesting recommendation, I'll take a look!
I just wish people wouldn't get so unreasonably mad all because I happen to enjoy this game.
Holy hell, classic fans really opened my eyes to just how nasty people are to those they deem "lesser."
So nice to see someone actually appreciating this game for what it is. Me and a couple friends thought this game would forever be underrated, so thanks for actually playing it before you talked about it.
9:40 I’d like to say that bowser didn’t send the mail to Mario, he sent it to peach. Mario only knew about the letter because peach went to him. Bowser’s goal was most likely just to lure out peach, and not Mario.
Amazing video
The problem color splash has always had, is that it shares a branding, and thereby expectations, with Paper Mario (Mario's story in jp) and Paper Mario: The thousand year door. That's the bar this game had to clear for audiences. A bar two prior games hadn't even tried to aim for, and so, Color Splash was never gonna be given a chance unless it was a return to form. People we not gonna accept this from mario's premier story franchise. The closest many thought mario would ever come to a movie level story.
This was a great analysis. Wish it had more views
Engaging so more people get to see this high quality breakdown
As much as I dislike TOK’s combat, I adored the rest of it.
Hell, if done right, maybe Color Splash’s card system would have been good. Like maybe making better action commands or fully fleshing out the deckbuilding aspects of it.
i just completed origami king with 120hp(was trying to stay at 100) and limiting weapons
i enjoyed it
Have any recommendations on making color splash or sticker star more engaging? I haven't played either.
Is the 3ds sticker star and color splash better to play?
The combat is really the biggest sticking point with Sticker Star and Color Splash. Of the two, I'd definitely recommend Color Splash over Sticker Star. I personally prefer CS to Origami King, but only very slightly.
I remember the Ro Sham Bo temples being fun, but I played color splash when I was like 11.
Very good video. One of the best breakdowns of Color Splash and its highs and lows.
Bro i loved color splash!!!
I remember getting the secret ending the first time I beat the game and I know for a fact I did not beat all the temples
UA-cam, show this channel to more people immediately
In spite of this feeling like review reinstates that TOK is always gonna be the lesser younger brother to its predecessors this was an enjoyable review to watch in full on a game… I have yet to play.
man…as i watch this video all i can think is…imagine if this game was actually a deck builder rpg…i feel like that would give the players a lot more freedom and creativity when it comes to the battle system honestly! Its such a shame they use the cards as an aesthetic rather than a full system…
like if you balance the money more and make cards more expensive to obtain and not one use and limit your max deck to a smaller amount and have a pool drawn every round and having the rarer and stronger cards be more expensive to use compared to the weaker but more affordable basic cards gahhh i wish this game was a deck builder soooo badly
Fuck brother u have the voice for this u have the mario video essay voice kudos
I'm glad you feel that way, because I thought the audio for this video is very jank
This is such a friggin good video
Great video! Glad it seems to be getting a second wind. Speaking as a Paper Mario "gen wunner," who has at least played every entry at this point, I honestly think Origami King's combat is worse than SS and CS's. It's something I've wanted to make a video on myself for a while. As you covered here, the sticker duology has some interesting and fun ideas in its combat, which are marred by a lack of adequately specific information being communicated to the player in order to consistently plan out the most efficient possible turn (as well as other macro level issues which disincentivize engaging in combat at all, of course). But the bones of classic Paper Mario combat are there - they're just obscured. And the attacks themselves resemble things like the badge-based special attacks from older PM games.
Origami King's combat meanwhile STILL largely carries over the macro level issues, and then plugs in a completely divorced puzzle mechanic, where the actual attacks are little more than a formality. And the fact that weapons have durability means the single-use item issue is really only mitigated, not resolved. Honestly I'm surprised people think OK's combat is better. Imo, it's at best apples and oranges, and at worst the worst in the franchise.
Definitely agreed that (at least the base idea of) CS and SS's combat is more interesting. Although I did really enjoy the boss battles in TOK. I thought they were fairly original.
Enemies can stack up 10 at once but you can’t stack the cards in your inventory???
Am I weird for really liking this game's battle system? The lack of exp never bothered me, and I thought it was a fun spin on the formula that fit the game quite well, and I liked the variety of attacks I could use. Battles themselves were also fun to do, and I loved the bosses. My only complaint is that for some of the thing cards, it would be nice to have an indacator of when I'm supposed to press A, and it would be cool if we could upgrade our paint (i.e upgrading anything that uses red paint) but other than that, I had a really swell time battling stuff in this game, kinda sad to see how much flak it gets.
And this is coming from someone whos played plenty of traditional rpgs, including paper mario 64.
Man I remember playing color splash on launch as a kid, me and my brother got to like the 2nd or 3rd big star (i forget the name) but we just got so bored of doing the same level over and over
42:59 didn’t sticker star also have this banner mechanic?
Yep, it did, but if I recall correctly, the banners in that game were way more tedious to fill out.
@@AurumAlex64 i actually did 100% sticker star when I was in high school, but I can't remember what they even were
I've played color splash and it's a 6/10, no annoying partner character that berates you for everything which is good. Combat is okay, origami king had way better combat. Most characters I can't even remember. And it's just okay of a game.
If you could remake color splash, fixing all the flaws, would you?
49:52 Hold on, RPS in the Handaconda fight is completely different. You can literally see what it’s going to throw before you lock-in the rings, there’s no luck
Is it? Because I've done that fight several times, and I swear it does not always throw the same sign it's holding during the turn.
Edit: Looking online, it seems the Handaconda changes sign while you're walking along the rings, so the sign you see while you set is not necessarily the sign that will be played, because it could change in the interim. That feels a little silly.
@@AurumAlex64 Oh that’s dumb. I guess I avoided that issue in my playthrough. Maybe they expected the player to judge if the cycle was going change since it is on a pretty regular timer? Still a bad choice
i saw the title and clicked subscribe.
replaythroughs are annoying tho
Useless fact:I only played Color Splash and Origami king and kinda liked it.They are good games and i agree,they deserve a chance to prove themselves.However,when i heard of the TTYD remake,it was the first time i ever came to know that there are games before Color Splash.AND BOY ARE THEY GREAT.I 100% the remake the other week and it was so much less painful than CS and OK. In fact,it was....a strangely pleasant experience.Thank you so much for making a video of a game i grew up with.❤
i have a hard time finding anything positive to say about modern paper mario even if some concepts are good on their own as i dislike the direction things took after sticker star, paper aesthetic took over, character designs became generic and the story became less interesting as a result with perhaps the exception of origami king but that had way to much gimmicks, spm might be a platformer more then a rpg but it still feels more like a paper mario then any game after it because of it's rich plot and characters, so to me this game is a average at best type.
One big issue i have with Paper Mario from Sticker Star is what they did with bowser as They changed Bowser into a mute and make him into a total goof "such as how he is portrayed here in this game before he gets corrupted" even by mario rpg standards, and also he still doesn't talk which is a real gripe of mine that they sort of fixed with origami king where he did talk so i will give that game some credit even though i also have issues with that game to mainly as i do with this game it had a over reliance on the paper aesthetic which i think over took the identity of the series for the worst. which i know people have beaten over this conversation involving the overused paper theme like a dead horse many times before but it really is a problem with paper mario starting from sticker star.
Lastly i will say the shyguys with straws and the creepiness of them is kind of cool but besides that i can't really think of anything else positive besides at least it wasn't stickers again or the color concept is kind of neat but would have been suited for any mario game tbh, but I am so thankful that recent years it seems that nintendo has changed their tune on rpg games with all the remakes and the new brothership game clearly going back to it's roots, Let's just hope that nintendo keeps it up this way after releasing Super Mario RPG, TTYD remake and this new Brothership title and doesn't revert back to their bland days of rpgs with overly contrived gimmicks such as the *cough* stickers.
Great video ! I agree with all your points, altough i can’t help but feel like you’ve forgotten one thing. One single thing that makes me boil. I loved playing through this game as a child, but i had one problem. I would keep doing the first chapters over and over, because there was one point i could NOT pass. One fight that i feel is absolutely unfair.
The steak.
To this day, i have never beat this stupid steak. I have tried replaying the game, but i think replaying the beginning so much before really made me lose interest. Tho maybe i could find the savefile where i was at the steak and try to finally beat him. Since what comes after seems to be the peak of the game. But yeah, i just needed to vent about this fucking steak. I am planning on maybe making a game myself in the future, and i want to have a section where you beat a steak to cook it out of PURE SPITE.
You gotta beat the steak, even if you have to look up the solution. Sunset Express, Green Energy Plant, and Emerald Circus are absolutely levels worth experiencing. Also, remember that the toads eating in the diner give hints as to the order you should play the Things, as well as when to play them
@@AurumAlex64 i did listen to the toads, but the advices always felt... Criptic and it felt like it didn't work. But i will try. I don't think i'm the only one with this problem either, i've watched like 4 retrospectives on color splash before this one and you're the first person not to mention it, hey, more power to you !
The Book Of Mario version was really funny too.
THE BEST ANSWER… IS A CREDIT CARD!!
You gonna make a video on The Thousand Year Door’s remake and how it might spell good for the future of Paper Mario?
Not to mention Mario & Luigi being brought back from the dead-
well I noticed that you had some complaints about the coins and cards but as a huge fan of this game I'm going to say something blunt that could save the problime for you or at least leesn it (sorry) don't play rosambo until at least you've unlocked the final level that way it's a lot harder to grind up coins and just buy everyTHING you need (ha ha get it every-THING like THING cards... ok I'll admit it that was a very bad joke)
I love Color splash
I will forever die on the Hill that Huey was my favorite companion. Others from across the series as a whole were good in their own rights, but to me, Huey felt like a genuine friend.
Same here. I'd even go as far as saying that Huey is my all time favorite mario character period.
I remember when I saw that I didn't meet the requirements for the "true" ending, so I spent an extra hour and a half finishing everything, just so I could see Huey fall back into the paint fountain at the end. Bless him.
I actually like a lot of the games that were released later into the 3DS and Wii Us life. I like Starfox zero, color splash and hey pikmin. I think federation force is super underrated and over hated and it’s my third favorite Metroid game. I like animal crossing amiibo festival because even though it’s not a good game, it’s really fun to play with friends. I even like Mario party 10, although that could just be because of nostalgia
Unfortunately I haven't played most of these just due to word of mouth. But it would be interesting to go back to them after all this time.
@@AurumAlex64 Starfox zero is a love it or hate it kind of game. I love the controls. I think they work fantastically. A lot of other people agree with me and then a lot of other people completely despise the controls💀. Hey Pikmin is very over hated. I think the idea of a 2D Pikmin game has a ton of potential and I think hey pikmin handled it decently well but a sequel could definitely do a lot more with the concept, but we will probably never get a sequel because of its reputation. Hey Pikmin isn’t the greatest game you will ever play or anything, but I think it’s decent for what it is and I had fun with it. Also I am not kidding when I say that the final boss of hey pikmin is genuinely the most badass and coolest fight in the entire series. The hate for Metroid prime federation force has nothing to do with the game itself, only when it was announced. It was basically announced at the worst time possible. Before Federation force the most recent game in the series was other M so for Nintendo to announce the next game to be a spin off where you didn’t even play as Samus, that rubbed people the wrong way. It’s very similar to Hey Pikmin in that way. The majority of people that hate on federation force and hey pikmin haven’t even played them. As someone that actually has played Federation force it’s really fun. It is genuinely one of the most fun multiplayer experiences I have ever had. Mario Party 10 is worth playing just for Bowser party alone. If you get a group of friends together and you play Bowser party together, you will have a blast. And lastly animal crossing amiibo festival is in fact a bad game but it is so fun to play with friends that I love it
@@theghostwiththemost789 "The majority of people that hate on federation force and hey pikmin haven’t even played them."
If anything, this seems to be the common thread that binds all of these games together. I know it's true of Color Splash as well. These kinds I'm sure have all kinds of significant problems, but they also (probably) each have their own merits, something that can never be explored because most literally haven't touched them.
@@AurumAlex64 that’s the reason I want a lot of these games to get switch ports because these games deserve a second chance. Color splash has problems, but it also has a ton of great stuff about it. Maybe a port could even fix some of color splashes issues. Federation force is a great multiplayer but a multiplayer game on the 3DS was a very weird decision so giving it a switch port would make a lot of sense and people could actually experience it and make their own opinions on and that would be great. Same goes for Hey Pikmin. A lot of these games aren’t hated for what they are, They’re hated for what they aren’t and some of that hate was definitely warranted at the time. If I was a Metroid fan when federation force was announced, I probably would’ve been pissed too but We aren’t at that time anymore. Metroid dread exists and it’s one of the switches Best games and Prime 4 is coming out next year. Now that the dust has settled I think we should look back on these games and give them the fair chance that they deserve. I doubt that any of these games will ever get ports because of their reputation but I do think that they deserve a second chance
I loved this game on my first playthrough, but my other two playthroughs remain unfinished. Without my curiosity to motivate me, nothing has enough depth to keep me interested. Nothing works, even the main world gimmick of paint spots and cutouts basically begin and end with you finding the relevant location and that's it. Colour spots are always out i the open and you can tell when you're meant to cut out because the camera holds in place. I defended this game once, but I just don't care for it.
UA-cam algorithm doing good things today.
They need to bring this to switch!
I'd like that to, but I doubt it will ever happen lol. Color Splash will probably remain one of the few first-party titles stuck on Wii U.
@@AurumAlex64 anything can happen I mean there's rumors about a possible kirby and the rainbow curse coming to switch despite the lack of sales and mixed reviews Nintendo is giving that game a second chance for switch the same can be said for miitopia!
@@ajenethedrawer3718 That's true, I should never say never. But with TTYD just releasing, I'd imagine it's going to be quite a while before we see more Color Splash. The fandom reaction to it will be... something, that's for sure.
@@AurumAlex64 I even wrote a letter to Nintendo if they could make it happen and the only words they have to say is there have yet to be announcements for that game!
ur based for showing off that xc2 footage and explaining how cool the battle mechanics are
I hope going forward IntellegentSystems finds a way to marry new and old Paper Mario. At times I really love how this game, due to its limitations tends to use older Mario characters, but I don't want it to be the whole game. I tend to prefer how the Toads are portrayed in the recent games as they are simply put a lot closer to how I imagined them based on the mainline games, but I would like it if they took Toad looks a bit further out, like Thousand Year Door while still preserving the whole "Toady" vibe that the new trilogy has. I kinda like that while all the toads are different characters there's something remarkably similar about them. I think it'd be really funny if we find out that while yes, in Toad culture the Toads do have unique names, there is an aspect of secrecy with their names.
An example of what I mean is I like how the Professor is just named "The Professor". It's funny, but maybe he could tell us his real name later on, sort of you could say like a badge of "getting to know a toad". That and... give him a more unique design. I tend to think a lot of the TTYD toads are overdesigned, but I think the Rescue team from this game is moreso what I'd want for most Toads. Costume changes while still clearly toads biologically.
On a side note: TOK was ok. I love how Color Splash is simply a rapid fire of new ideas, but also giving us enough time to fully enjoy each area. It reminds me a lot of Super Mario Galaxy or 3D World in that aspect. I don't mind the World Map, but I'd prefer if it was a quick travel method so everything could still be connected.
WHY ARE THESE VIDEOS SO UNDERRATED
Also wow dude your voice is so soothing
Im always surprised how the algorism works. You can make a Video and never gets any credit for, and then a year later, all of a sudden, ppl "SEE" your Video and it goes "viral". I hate and love YT for that at the same time. There are so many other stupid bad made one try videos of some dudes and girls who give a shit anymore, because they already big enough.
And here we see a channel with under 3000 subs(maybe lower until findig this video) and alot of work in one video. Im not sure if the release of Paper Mario on Switch was the reason, but this is always the case of "the best video is the worst, if noone know it exists".
Im sure there are many "1-10 views Videos" out there, would go crazy, if ppl know there is something good to watch.
Im a stupid YTber myself, sticking with stupid Let's Plays that died long ago, nobody cares if i have fun with a Game, (because, im a nobody) for 9 years now and i relise more and more, that making videos for the long term (something ppl search, even if they don't know you) are the way to go. Not because of getting money out of it, but more for the honor that ppl like what you did and the work/time was not wasted. (even if it's just a small helping Game Guide of a Game only a few cares)
I Let's played this Game to 100% long after release (2018, yeah the Switch was already out, why playing Wii U this time right?) and i had alot of fun with it. But this is nothing ppl search for. A Random dude playing a Random Wii U Game everyone hated before playing.
tl:tr im happy, that your work here is now seen.
My wife left me!
Tunic fox. Based.
Love this game
Color Splash was my first Paper Mario game and it immediately got me hooked on the series and it sucks how people talk about it
Pov me who loves paper mario, pmttyd who find Super paper mario to be good but less good as the other two, paper jam same, I ABSOLUTELY HATE STICKER STAR IT SUCKS, I Love color splash as much as the the thousand year door, i like origami king but the battle system is a big NONO i just watched all the cutscenes or avoided fights
As someone who's played this game.
Yes it's funny but it's still kinda mediocre and bad.
good video
You know you can praise Color Splash without feeling the need to shit on Origami King, right?
as somebody who actually hates sticker star and despises origami king, i... actually liked color splash? it was funny, besides the boring animation and ugly post super charecter redesigns, i love the artstyle too! and the battle system is very easy to ignore, so again, not a big problem.
i think the main thing behind why i like color splash and not the other 2 is the awful gameplay is... easy to ignore, sticker star has alot less going in terms of story, therefore it gives you more fights, and origami kings fights (imo) are worse, due to the repetitive ring mechanic, not to mention running was almost impossible to perform (and alot more fights in general), while color splash focus' more on charecter interactions, meaning less battles, besides the battle system is very slightly improved anyway.
ofcourse origami kings story is better, and sticker star has a place in my heart due to my love for the games beta and development history, and while id never play color splash over the first 2, id say its a good game, i had fun, and i hope some more people give it a chance.