Paper Mario: Color Splash is headed to the Wii U October 7, 2016. The release date was revealed during Nintendo’s Treehouse: Live at E3 stream yesterday, and we got a great look at some early portions of the game. We saw a brief intro sequence where Mario learns that someone or something has been draining the color and life out of the inhabitants of Prism Island. It’s up to Mario, Peach, a cheeky paint can named Huey, and a colorful cast of friends to restore color to the island and solve a deeper mystery.
During the stream we saw plenty of combat and, yes, this does look a lot like Sticker Star . You’ll collect various cards which contain attacks and abilities, and use those cards in battle after giving them a splash of color (how much color you pour into them determines their effectiveness). Now you listen here, and you listen good: Color Splash looks like a fun, wonderful game, and you owe it to yourself to go into it with an open mind. Confirmation bias is a terrible deceiver, and if you expect to hate the game because you didn’t enjoy Sticker Star , then you’re very likely to notice every little thing that you’re not enjoying. From the demo it looked like there was no shortage of cards, special enemy-summoning cards are collected from battle so there’s no need to avoid fights, and the special cards you need for bosses seem to be clearly indicated as unique. What’s more, the writing and characters seemed funny and full of life. I’ll be checking this one out come October, and I hope you will too.