Ok, i'll admit one thing... The name idea "Splash or Trash" came from a YouTube video. Everything else is just my own experience, trust me. No other copying. I just really liked that pun. Well, let's get on with it.

Ok, so Paper mario is a spinoff franchise beloved by many. Usually the games are RPGs, but that's, surprisingly, only the case for 2 out of the 5 games. There was the original, then The Thousand Year Door, who has some really annoying fans that only ever want TTYD remakes/sequels that they should know, like the Earthbound 2 fans, will never happen. Then they had Super Paper Mario, the first drastic change from the series' previous RPG style. But it all started rolling downhill at Mach 10 after Sticker Star, which was seen by many as boring, bland, and lacked all the charm the original 3 games had. When Color Splash was announced, it seemed like Nintendo had learnt nothing. But several people have received the game before launch, whether it be for previews or reviews, and it looks like it's regained some of the charm that was found only in the original trio, while still being different enough to spice it up. I'll talk about my observations of the game, when i receive it tomorrow or the day after- For now, i'll go with what i've found from Youtube videos and reviews. Oh yeah, and not IGN's review. It's Mario so they'll just paint it in the best light possible. (HAHA, GET IT?) So to remove all possible bias, i'm not doing reviews from people like IGN. I want this to be as objective (Or is it Subjective?) as possible. I want this to contain the cold hard facts. So without further adieu, let's-a do it. And our first subject will be Story.

-Story-

Unlike the original 3 Paper mario games, which included a whole cast of new characters, villains and areas, this game is your typical Mario setup, while still being a bit more complex than the usual "Save the princess" of the OG Mario franchise. The story is that Princess Peach has recieved a strange letter, being a folded-up, colorless toad, rather than a letter, late at night. She visits Mario to tell him about this, but Mario realises that it was sent from Prisma Island, so they set off for there. There they find a paint bucket called Huey, who helps Mario and co. along on his adventure. You need to find the Paint stars to help restore Prisma island to its original form, as color has been taking from the island in places. You later find out that these Paint stars you need to find were stolen and scattered across the island by Bowser. Which is why i say it's your typical Mario affair, because Bowser. I give the story a 7/10, because while not being the best the Paper Mario franchise has seen, this game is closer to a normal Mario game with Paper Mario characters, and the story beats most normal Mario games by far. Next up on the list, Gameplay.

-Gameplay-

Now, this is where it would have hit the roof... But luckily, it's changed from what we thought it would be. This part will be divided into 2 sections, Overworld and Battle. Let's take a look at the Overworld gameplay, as we need to to understand the battle system.

-Overworld Gameplay-
It controls like a typical Paper Mario game. Jumping, using your hammer, first strikes, etcetera etcetera. But. Remember how earlier i said that the island has color taken from places? Well, using your hammer you can restore color to these spots. This can do things like give you coins and paint refills, more on that later, to coloring in a whole house to let Toads out of it. Did i mention this game has a thing for Toads? A-Anyway. You have a meter of 3 colors, Red, Blue and Yellow, that can be refilled by coloring in spots or winning battles. I'm pretty sure that's about it for the Overworld gameplay, as there's not much to it. Onwards to battle!

-Battle-
This game borrows from Sticker Star and improves on it in every way. You have disposable cards that you need to paint to be able to attack- Select up to a certain amount of cards, and paint them all how you wish. This is where it gets deep. Painting cards uses paint from your paint meter- So you can't just paint every card you get fully, or you'll be out of pain in no time. Instead, you can paint a Jump card, say, half the way, for the same damage, however you do less jumps using Action commands. Oh yes, action commands. A staple in any Mario RPG. Press a button at the right time to either do more damage, or take less damage. Standard Mario RPG affair. Anyway. I can't be sure that's how the card painting works- I just know you can paint cards only partially for a weaker effect, what effect will be weakened depends on the card, and i don't have the game so i don't know 100% how it works yet. I just know that's how it works- Paint cards partially for a different effect.

Winning battles actually gives you some form of XP, being Paint points, allowing you to hold more paint. How these work, i'm not sure either. I'm not sure if 1 point will increase your max by one point or if you need a large amount to increase your max by a lot.

-Visuals-
Oh boy. OH BOY. This game is GORGEOUS. This game is drop-dead gorgeous. *Ahem* Sorry about that. This game is one of the best looking games on the Wii U. This, along with Zelda: Breath of the Wild are going to be the true testament to the Wii U's unseen power. While it may not be PS4/Xbox One, it's getting pretty close with games like this.

This game takes the Paper look to another level. As far as "Paper" goes, with older games all you had was the fact it was all 2D sprites. That's all that the Paper idea had going for it. But this game, this takes Sticker Star's graphics to a new level.

One thing i admired about Stick Star was its' graphics. It wasn't just 2D sprites, but you would see HUD being made out of cardboard, even with the Zig-zag pattern inside, and even some environments were made like that. While the graphics were toned down for the 3DS, the "Paper" atmosphere was turned up to 21. Take that, and multiply it by, say, 50, and you get Color Splash. Everything matches the paper atmosphere. Everything was made out of cardboard and cardstock-looking stuff for the characters, and even some felt and other textiles here and there. Think Tearaway on PS4, Then port it to the Wii U and act like you were told to make it Mario-based by Nintendo. You get this. And it's bloody amazing. Everything is made out of card stock, carboard, felt, paper, and all those other arts-crafty textiles and materials you'd get. Ok, let's look at it this way. I don't like Lego games. I don't like the gameplay, and i don't like how it's realistic graphics are mixed with lego builds. It looks wrong to me. And while that sort of thing isn't as big a problem in Paper Mario, i always thought it never looked... Paper. And now it does! And 21 other materials too! I mean, just look at the coins! Cardboard, with gold shiny paint! There's so much attention to detail with graphics here, and it's absolutely amazing! It is easily one of the best looking games on Wii U, and if this is how it looks on Wii U, hot damn, i can't WAIT for a Paper Mario game on NX! Or whatever it will be called.

-How does the charm stack up against the other Paper Mario games?-
Ok... I'm gonna be blunt here... This game at least matches, or even outdoes ALL of the other Paper Mario games. It's lines like "Stay crisp in the face of crumpling adversity" that you ONLY see in this game. It all adds to the fact that the world IS REAL PAPER now! It looks like real materials, and that just adds to the immersion, for lack of a better term. The dialogue all seems hand-crafted for all the characters and they all have very distinct personalities, not something that could be said about Sticker Star. Hell, when this comes out, i wouldn't be surprised if this is the kind of game to replicate accents in text perfectly! Like, let's talk Majora's Mask 3D for a second. Y'know the fishing pond guy who was from the bazaar in OoT? His stereotypical aussie accent was replicated masterfully, and that's the kind of thing i'll expect from this game upon release. I expect there to be someone Scottish, British, or even Irish. I expect there to be all sorts of accents from all kinds of characters in this game! Y'know that one sombrero shy guy? Give him a Mexican/Spanish accent! How amazing would that be? What about someone French?

*Ahem* Excuse me for that little tangent. Now, i haven't played the game, but from what i've seen it's stacked with all sorts of charm. Now while there's no new characters to create a personality for, that's easily made up by the dialogue here. The dialogue in this game is mastery. I will leave this section with one more line. ""Stay crisp in the face of crumpling adversity" Charm: 8/10, because while there's no new characters, the dialogue easily makes up for it.

-Controls-
Now, like i said. Your typical mario affair. B to jump, A to interact, X for your hammer, etc etc. Now, then there's also the gamepad, which is used to check the status of the area- How much color you've restored, whether that be items, characters or things like gates, under a percentage just called status. It basically shows how much of the level you've completed. You can sort battle cards there, and other things i don't know because NO ONE ON YOUTUBE HAS SHOWN THE GAMEPAD SCREEN IN VIDEOS. *Sigh* Can gamepads not be recorded yet? Or am i missing something? Anyway. Standard mario affair, jumping, attack, gamepad stuff, all that stuff you should know.

Overall, i give it a 9/10. It's stacked with personality and charm, and is better than anyone could have expected. It's not what Paper Mario used to be, sure- But if the next 2 games are in the same style and better than this one, i have a feeling we'll all be talking about Color Splash, and not TTYD.

So, that's it for now. I'll tell you more when i get a copy of the game- Tomorrow i'll be getting either this, or Majora's Mask 3D, which all depends on how much money i get from trading in a bunch of games at EBGames. (Yes, i'm Australian.) Should i get less than the 80 bucks i need, i'll get Majora's Mask 3D, and i'll get Paper Mario for Christmas and complete this post then. Until then, this is the review. The visuals are stunning, the controls are just the usual, nothing too knew here, and the story is fairly simple, as well as the battle mechanics being both simple and deep at the same time. Simple to grasp, but unless you know the enemies perfectly, you never know exactly how much paint to use. "Simple to grasp, impossible to master." Hate to be cliché, but it's true.