Paper Mario: Color Splash is a 2016 role-playing video game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Wii U console. It is the fifth installment in the Paper Mario series, within the larger Mario franchise. The story follows Mario and his new ally, Huey, on a quest to save Prism Island and rescue Princess Peach from Bowser.
Color Splash contains elements of the action-adventure and role-playing (RPG) genres. Players control Mario as he traverses levels made to look like craft materials, reaching endpoints and retrieving each Big Paint Star through linear gameplay. Mario is equipped with a paint hammer, which is used to solve coloring-themed puzzles and collect awards in levels. In turn-based combat phases, Mario uses a selection of cards that endow him with attacks and other abilities.
Nintendo's vision for the Paper Mario series following Paper Mario: Sticker Star was to differentiate it from their other RPG Mario series, Mario & Luigi. The development team focused on puzzle-solving and comedic elements and, to make each game different from one another, emphasized an overarching gimmick. The paint theme was conceived by Atsushi Isano, the director for Intelligent Systems, and developed to take advantage of the Wii U GamePad. A card-based battle system was implemented to use the GamePad touchscreen to sort, paint, and flick cards. The artists focused on making the paper textures as realistic as possible.
Color Splash was announced via a Nintendo Direct in March 2016 and released worldwide in October 2016. Upon its announcement, it drew controversy for continuing an action-adventure and gimmick-oriented format introduced in Sticker Star. On release, however, it received praise for its graphics, soundtrack, comedic writing, and improved dialogue. Conversely, the combat system and its lack of RPG elements were criticized, much like its predecessor, although some critics cited improvements to its structure. The game was followed by Paper Mario: The Origami King for the Nintendo Switch in 2020.
Gameplay
Paper Mario: Color Splash has elements of both action-adventure and role-playing genres. This follows the template established by the previous entry in the series, Paper Mario: Sticker Star. The player controls a two-dimensional version of Mario using the Wii U GamePad, and follows Mario as he explores a paper-craft world designed to look like craft materials. The main objective is to retrieve the missing six Big Paint Stars stolen by Bowser, all of which occupy a different portion of the world. Players traverse through a world map containing stages; the goal of each is to reach the Mini Paint Star at the end. Upon reaching a Mini Paint Star for the first time, the player unlocks access to new stages. Some stages contain multiple Mini Paint Stars.
In these stages, Mario can collect items and coins, talk to non-player characters (NPC), and complete puzzles and platforming challenges. He can consult Huey, Mario's ally, for assistance. Mario is equipped with a paint hammer, which can fill in colorless spots found throughout the world. Upon filling in the spots, Mario is awarded items such as coins. The hammer uses Mario's supply of paint, which comes in red, blue, and yellow varieties, which can be obtained by striking objects with the hammer. The type of area the player is filling in determines the color and amount of paint used. If the player collects "hammer scraps", they can increase the maximum amount of paint they can carry. Another ability, called the "cutout", allows Mario to reach otherwise inaccessible areas in stages. To use the ability, the player traces a dotted line on the GamePad's touchscreen, causing part of the environment to peel off, exposing secrets and new areas.
While exploring, the player will trigger a battle sequence when they encounter an enemy. Depending on how the player collided with the enemy, they will either deal or take damage immediately. The combat system in Color Splash is a turn-based battle system; the player's possible attacks are represented by cards the player can either collect from stages and defeated enemies, or purchase from shops with the in-game currency of coins. Cards can be used to attack enemies; they can also be painted to increase their strength. They range from basic jump and hammer attacks to "Thing" cards that resemble real-world objects, such as a fire extinguisher. The type of card determines the amount and color of paint to use, as well as how Mario attacks the enemy. The cards can also be used for defensive purposes, such as preventing some damage or healing Mario. Players choose, paint and sort cards with the GamePad's touchscreen. Enemy attacks will damage Mario, and the game is over once Mario loses all of his health. If the player defeats all the enemies in the encounter, the player returns to the stage and is rewarded with a random assortment of coins, cards, paint, and hammer scraps.
Plot Mario and Princess Peach receive a letter from Prism Island, which they discover is a Toad that was drained of its color and folded into a letter shape. They sail to Prism Island to investigate, where the three travelers find the island's town deserted, noticing colorless spots and objects. The fountain in the center of the island is dry, missing its famed Big Paint Stars. A vault appears in the fountain, containing a paint can. After Mario tries to open it, the can is revealed to be Huey, Prisma Fountain's guardian. Huey explains the fountain is usually powered by six Big Paint Stars, which supply the island with infinite paint and color. Mario agrees to help Huey recover the Big Paint Stars. While Mario further scouts the island, Peach is kidnapped by Bowser.
Mario traverses six areas to retrieve the Big Paint Stars while helping the local Toads. Mario also fights various enemies, including the Koopalings who serve as bosses. As Mario collects the Big Paint Stars, each one incrementally tells the duo about their memories of an attack on Port Prisma. Once Mario recovers all six Big Paint Stars, they learn that Bowser attempted to dye his shell a rainbow color using the Prisma Fountain but inadvertently mixed all the colors together, creating black paint, a toxic substance that possessed him and transformed him into "Black Bowser". He proceeded to summon his army to steal the Big Paint Stars and drain the color from Prism Island. The duo also discovers that Bowser was the one who sent them the color-drained Toad in order to coax them to come to Prism Island.
With the Big Paint Stars, and later joined by Luigi, the group reaches Black Bowser's Castle. Upon entering, they find that Bowser is mass-producing weaponized black paint in a factory, aiming to paint the world black. Mario and Huey then halt the factory's operations. The duo defeat Black Bowser, rescue Peach, and destroy the factory; that destruction causes the castle to fall apart in the process. Peach, Mario, and Luigi escape, but Huey stays to stop the black paint and absorbs the castle. Huey flies into space, taking the black paint far away from Prism Island, and then sacrificing himself in the process. In a post-credits scene, if the player has fulfilled certain requirements, Huey falls back into Prisma Fountain.
Development
Paper Mario: Color Splash was developed by Nintendo and Intelligent Systems. Due to the poor reception of the previous game, Paper Mario: Sticker Star, Nintendo kept its negative feedback in mind during the development process. The focus of the Paper Mario series shifted toward the action-adventure genre with the introduction of Sticker Star, and Nintendo conceived the notion that the Mario & Luigi series would replace Paper Mario as the Mario franchise's RPG series. This was confirmed by co-producer Risa Tabata at E3 2016, in an interview with Kotakus Stephen Totilio. She also noted how the Paper Mario series will focus more on "puzzle-solving [and] humor" over its gameplay elements. In addition to the genre shift, some gameplay elements were altered to address criticisms of the previous games. For example, the storyline added additional layers to improve its complexity by focusing on the relationship between Mario and his allies; the card system also had more depth via a larger inventory and a new hint system, due to critics expressing frustration with its extreme limitations in Sticker Star.
Design and characters
Producer Kensuke Tanabe explained that the idea of repainting the world originally came from director of production, Atsushi Ikuno, in 2012. Ikuno was inspired by watching his children having fun while painting, a new hobby they picked up. Ikuno told Tanabe about the story, and Tanabe pitched the idea to Intelligent Systems, the developers behind the Paper Mario series. According to Tanabe, a lot of trial and error was required before coloring with a hammer felt comfortable. Tabata explained that because the Wii U hardware was more powerful than previous Nintendo consoles such as the Nintendo 3DS, the artists were able to make realistic in-game paper. A paper-like art style was achieved by using different textures of paper for different environments; the staff purchased and reviewed different types of paper to determine which style expressed papercraft the most. Thing cards were created to create a visual distinction from the paper-like graphics, to be used for comedic effect.
The combat system was developed to take advantage of the unique controls on the Wii U touchscreen. With a larger touchscreen, it allowed the developers to implement the card-based battle system so it could be controlled directly from the screen; this was not possible in Sticker Star, as the 3DS's touchscreen was too small. A system where the player could sort through cards on the gamepad and fling them onto the screen using the touchscreen was also implemented; the development team found the use of player interaction to be entertaining. Tabata also explained that the amount of cards the player can hold were limited to make players think strategically. Multiplayer and Miiverse functionality were ultimately never considered. The game did not use a typical RPG system but instead focused on puzzle-solving, with most of the character upgrades focused on increased paint capacity. Overall, combat was designed to be an additional hindrance rather than one the game's main focal point, according to Tanabe.
Shigeru Miyamoto, the lead designer of the Mario franchise, insisted that only characters previously instated in the franchise should be used for the game, and no new ones would be used. Former Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata suggested that the philosophy of development was to limit options to help bring out more creativity. This led the team to create various Toads with multiple color schemes to represent their different personalities. When creating characters, major emphasis went toward Toads and other familiar characters in the franchise, while still keeping variety and interest. According to Tabata, the character itself does not matter as long as their personality is adequately expressed through character dialog. Taro Kudo was the lead writer; Tabata expressed pride in Kudo's work, stating how he was good at coming up with jokes and story design. Tabata also noted that during playtesting "there really were people who cried at the end". Instead of translating the game from Japanese to English for release, most of the one-off jokes were re-written so they would make more sense and appeal to English markets.
Release