Paper Mario: Color Splash

Plot

Paper Mario and Princess Peach get a letter from Prism Island, which they find out is a color-drained Toad. This causes Mario, Peach, and another Toad to set sail for Prism Island. Upon arriving at Port Prisma, the three travelers find the town deserted, with many spots and objects missing color, and that the fountain at the center is dry. A large metal vault appears out of the bottom of the fountain containing a paint can. After Mario tries to open it, the can is revealed to be Huey, the Color Fountain's guardian. After fending off an attack on Toad from a straw-wielding Shy Guy, Huey explains that the fountain is usually powered by six Big Paint Stars, which never run out of paint and are the main sources of it for the entire island. Huey is dismayed to learn that the Big Paint Stars are missing, and asks Mario to assist him in recovering them from Bowser and the Koopalings. While Mario is scouting the island, Peach is once again kidnapped by Bowser.

Once Mario recovers all six Big Paint Stars, they reveal that Bowser attempted to dye his shell in a rainbow hue using the Color Fountain, but inadvertently created black paint, a toxic substance which then transforms him into Black Bowser, possessing him into stealing the Big Paint Stars and draining Prism Island and its inhabitants of their color. With the help of the Big Paint Stars and Luigi, Mario and Huey reach the floating Black Bowser's Castle, where they discover the stolen paint is being used to process and weaponize black paint, which Black Bowser intends to dye the world black. Mario and Huey halt the factory's operations, defeats Black Bowser by draining his color, and rescues Peach, however the chaos following the factory's destruction causes the castle to fall apart. Mario, Luigi, and Peach escape, but Huey stays behind to stop the black paint and absorbs the entire castle. Huey then flies into space, taking the black paint far away from Prism Island where it can never hurt anyone ever again.

Development

Paper Mario: Color Splash was announced during a Nintendo Direct presentation on March 3, 2016.

Release

On September 22, 2016, the game was made available for pre-purchasing on the Nintendo eShop. However, it was quickly discovered that Nintendo of America had accidentally made the full game available through this method, two weeks in advance of its intended launch date. Nintendo pulled the pre-load option off of the North American eShop on the following day.

Pre-release

Upon its reveal, Color Splash received extremely negative reception from fans of the series, who were critical of the game for seemingly continuing the gameplay style used in Sticker Star, which had a lessened focus on RPG elements and story, featured no original characters besides Kersti, and had an over-emphasis on the paper theme instead of returning to the gameplay style of the first Paper Mario game and The Thousand-Year Door. Following the game's announcement, a petition on Change.org was created calling for the game's cancellation, similar to what happened with Metroid Prime: Federation Force (another game that received a poor reception when announced). Nintendo was also accused by fans for using the Paper Mario brand name on an unrelated game (or even a potential new IP) to boost sales, rather than developing a new traditional Paper Mario game.

Post-release

Color Splash garnered mixed to positive reviews, holding a score of 76/100 on review aggregator Metacritic. While praised for its visuals and improvements over its predecessor, problems inherited from it (such as the battle system) were heavily criticized. Alex Jones from GamesRadar stated that it was neither a return to classic Paper Mario nor a "a bold reinvention", however calling it "one of the most heartwarming games you’ll play this year".

It sold 20,894 copies in its first week of release in Japan.