I played Pepper Mayro Cucker Shit (funny title edit to make you xD, the real name of the video game, is, in fact, Paper Mario: Colour Splash!

) and it's alright. Once you get into playing the actual levels I think there's enough to keep it fun and interesting, although the gameplay doesn't really have me as involved as older Pepper Mayro games have. There's a lot of little challenges and things which for the most part are all fun, and it all flows pretty well, but I haven't really felt like anything genuinely stood out about the gameplay.
==The Battle System Rant==
The battling is fucking terrible unfortunately, the time it takes to enter one to actually attacking is way too long, and I hate that even if I just gotta quickly get one more hit in to beat an enemy I still have to do the boring ass card selection thing. Even just the fact that "FIGHT" text has to appear on the screen each time you're ready, it's just another little delay that makes the battle system more about waiting than playing. Then the actual battling itself is mediocre too - Even regular cards are overpowered, blocking is easier than ever before, enemies are often beaten with one hit, and you never really run out of cards.
There are options in the settings to change the way it works, but it's picking your poison: One option lets you control with the buttons instead of scrolling with the touch screen (why is that a different setting and not just an option?), and the other lets you skip the painting aspect so you can just flip the card out right away (which kind of implies just how pointless and gimmicky it is). I don't get it, they won't have battles unless it's heavily dumbed down, they say they don't want Paper Mario to really be an RPG anymore - why not just make it an action-adventure game?
==Everything Else==
I really would've rather had the original aesthetic in an HD setting but seeing a literal interpretation of the pepper aesthetic has its charm and I like all the creative ideas they came up, but this needs to be the last one of that series. They've done the whole "Everything is made of arts & crafts so scissors are dangerous and you can stick to like, glue! ahhah" before and, y'know, whatever.
The writing is probably my favourite part of the game, it makes the generic characters a little more forgivable. Huey is a much better partner than Kersti, and I actually kind of like the idea of having a partner who's always commenting on everything.
The music so far is great and I can get behind the jazz/violin/band thing they're going with, but it's not really as memorable as TTYD's soundtrack or the N64 game. It gives the game kind of a happy-go-lucky tone which does fit Mario really well, but also kind of implies that the game will never try something else. I get the impression the whole game is going to have the same "feel" throughout.
=="Buhh nintendo sucks now all their games are shit the wii u is for BABIES"==
And that's a problem I have with this game, or a lot of Nintendo games right now. They don't seem to have any faith in their audience, and if just one thing might cause the player to be a little frustrated or they have to think a little more to grasp something, they don't want it. So you get games like 3D World with invincibility rewards for messing up too much, or dumbed down gameplay in Colour Splash. Huey can also give Mario advice which often just indirectly tells the player what to do. Don't give me a puzzle and then put half the pieces already in place for me.
And it's not just gameplay either, it's also the general presentation. Colour Splash is wacky, funny, and more wacky (no not in a Tido Dickman Origins kind of way). TTYD is funny and wacky, but it's also got moments where it'll aim for something a little more creepier or dramatic, or a t m o s p h e r i c. And I think kids like that better, I think they want to take the game seriously sometimes, feel creeped out, or like they're exploring somewhere mysterious. Games like Colour Splash don't do that, they just want to hold your hand and crack a joke. Even a ghost mansion level still has a "teehee! silly!" vibe to it - I think it's actually disappointing for kids to be hyped up with the idea that they're gonna explore this creepy place, and then they get there and it's just, kind of the same again.
There's nothing wrong with a game that just wants to be dumb fun, but that's not what Paper Mario is. Mario & Luigi does that, and it's fine, they can have a series that's that and another that takes itself more seriously, but instead Colour Splash seems to just be making the two more alike. Now we have two turn-based Mario games that want to be funny, wow pepper mario feels so unique and different unlike those old games1111111.
But anyway yeah, that's me spilling beans. It's a fun game that I think will make most of us happier than Sticker Star did, but fuck. It's yet another Nintendo series that's become a "kind of fun to play without really thinking much about it" thing, and the next gen seriously needs to step away from that. I don't want another Paper Mario without story, Yoshi's Island without clever level design, or 3D Mario without exploration. pleahs maek vidyo game GREAT AGAIn ok?