*Spoilers Ahead!*

Some of you may be familiar with the game Paper Mario Color Splash. Before we dive in as to why it’s good, let’s talk about the faults. 

This game received so much backlash as it was “The Sequel to Sticker Star.” Paper Mario Sticker Star is another game in the saga. The reason people say this is because it was more of an action-adventure game, rather than an RPG. People liked the RPG style rather than the action-adventure style. Thus, making fans upset. Another complaint was the battle system. It used the Wii U, and if you have a Wii U, you know that the controller has a small screen, like the Switch Lite. This game exploits that mechanic by using it as “Mario’s Pocket ‘o’ Cards” and having the battle cards in it. You had to choose a card, paint it (or not, depending on whether it’s pre-paint or not), and swipe up. It was tedious but necessary. This battle system also allowed time for the enemies to steal your cards. Luckily, you can get them back at the end of the battle. Another complaint was too many Toads. That’s fair, though. Now that we have acknowledged the faults, let’s discuss why it’s a good game.

This game is amazing (besides what we discussed above) because of Huey Can, your sentient paint can sidekick. Huey is your paint source who saves all of Prism Island at the end of the game. He provides the best dialogue ever. He has a temper, but it’s just plain funny when he gets heated. Another great part of this game is Bowser’s motive for evildoing. He wants to have a colorful rainbow shell, but when he dives into Prisma Fountain, he makes the fatal error of mixing the colors, thus making ink. The ink turns him evil, and he wants to cover the entire world in the cruel substance. 

We eventually see a segment of Sunglow Ridge covered in ink from a bomb explosion. The ink makes the place smell and hard to breathe in. The flora is potentially dead. Huey gets rid of it by spreading his paint all over the place and it survives. Another upside is the world design. Search one of the places, like Crimson Tower, The Golden Coliseum, Fort Cobalt, Fortune Island, Starlight Cape, and finally, The Emerald Circus. These locations also have another thing in common, they all carry the Big Paint Stars that Bowser threw right after the ink took over him. You have to collect all of them to go to face Bowser. The last thing I’m going to discuss before I wrap things up is the Boss Battle. This one was quite tough for me. My father got to the battle before everyone else. We each took turns trying to kill Bowser but failed. It was years before I finally decided to restart the game. I beat it in about two weeks almost non-stop. When I got to the boss battle, I had the decision to go back or to keep going. I went back. Before you get to the boss battle, you have another mini-boss fight with Roy, and I wasted too many cards. I stocked up at the shop and went back. It took me too many tries to kill Bowser, but I was the first. The battle involves you hitting the ink off of a normal-sized Bowser, which takes a while. Then when it gets to his feet and stops turning him evil, he doesn’t have a clue where he is or what he’s done. Then the ink takes over him again. He doubles in size and is more powerful, and the rest I will not spoil. 

In conclusion, this game is beautiful, and just like the game, all things must come to an end. Go look at the game if you haven’t, you won’t regret it.