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Paper Mario: Color Splash is deeply influenced by the reception of the previous title, Paper Mario: Sticker Star, which was released for the 3DS. Since Sticker Star was heavily criticized for its barebones story and strange combat system, Color Splash tries to present a more developed narrative and some additions to its core design to shake things up.
Color Splash‘s story begins with Mario traveling to Prism Island, where he discovers that the place and all its inhabitants had their color drained by Bowser’s minions. The goal, then, is simple: with the help of a can of paint called Huey, Mario needs to rescue six special stars to return life to the [...]
Paper Mario: Sticker Star is one of the most unusual entries in its franchise thanks to a controversial decision by Shigeru Myamoto. Treating the great volume of story in the previous games as unnecessary fat, Nintendo’s most important developer advised the development team to rip it out from the adventure as much as possible, thereby shifting the focus to its main mechanic: the use of stickers.
The story, however, has not been completely removed from the game, being only simplified. In the midst of festivities commemorating the passage of the famous Sticker Star, Bowser performs the only action expressly forbidden by local conventions – touching the star –, which results in [...]
The multiplayer moments that Mario Kart games provide are always entertaining. It’s an ever-shifting chaos of flying and exploding items, but the secret is that it’s usually a controllable one. A rookie can take advantage of the invulnerability of special stars to not finish in the last place, for example, while experienced players can break when they realize that someone has picked up a blue shell, letting the new first place take the fall. That is, they tend to be games that manage to entertain any type of player and always maintain a good level of competition. In this sense, Mario Kart 7 is a successful new entry that tries to expand the [...]
3D Mario games have always excelled at renewing themselves, making their most basic mechanics – like jumping – more interesting in the most imaginative ways possible, either by abusing and twisting gravity in Super Mario Galaxy or by prolonging the jump in Super Mario Sunshine. The current 2D titles appear to follow a different guideline, basing their design on familiar elements while highlighting their main gimmick: the Wii version, for example, focused on its multiplayer mode and was reasonably successful. The point of New Super Mario Bros. 2, however, is the collection of coins, which is a poor decision that goes against the intricate level design that [...]