Simpleton

User Score
5.7

Presentation - 9.5
Gameplay - 5.0
Value - 7.0

Color Splash came out during an interesting time in Nintendo's history, games like Federation Force and Amiibo Festival received harsh criticism from fans right out of the gate for completely missing the point of those franchises, abandoning their qualities with forgettable simplicity in place. I haven't played an Animal Crossing or Metroid game so those announcements didn't get me furious as others did, more so I was disappointed, but Color Splash definitely did make me bitter.  Not only did the game look dull from a gameplay and story point of view, it seemed like they were oblivious to any fan feedback. None of those trailers showed signs of a return to form after Sticker Star, and the game still isn't.

To give credit where it's due, Color Splash might be one of the most beautiful games I've played. It may not be the most technically demanding, but when it comes to art direction and aesthetics little come close. While the cardboard art-style serves no purpose other than to look pretty, unlike the first 3 games which had their looks for a specific purpose, Color Splash is still easily the best looking game in the series. The shear level of detail put into the world is insane, if only that same attention to detail applied to the rest of the game.

Color Splash simply isn't fun to play. It has moments of simplistic fun, but too often it's tedious. Really even with the complete lack of story and RPG elements, Color Splash still could've been a good game if it was fun, and it isn't. Color Splash retains the core formula Sticker Star introduced, and by extension retains those flaws. Puzzles are often fairly nonsensical with some items that should logically work that don't, bosses that are either pushovers or literally impossible without a certain thing, and a pointless, dull battle system that takes way too long. Some of these have been smoothed out, a hint toad now can make it more clear where the things are and how to solve the puzzles, the battle system offers hammer scraps as rewards, and the inventory is much more manageable and less annoying. These are improvements for sure, but they fail to address the core problems in a meaningful way. Sure the puzzles aren't as much of road-blocks as they were before, but they should still be more designed well, giving people a win button doesn't mean the puzzles are good. Sure the hammer scraps are kinda a reward, but paint is in such heavy supply that you don't really need it. Really the best parts of Color Splash is the exploration. The haunted house level is the best example of this, it has little to no combat, but is the most entertaining level in the game by focusing on exploration with puzzles that have next to nothing to do with the thing mechanic. Unfortunately this level is an exception to the rule.

Color Splash is a pretty long game. There's not much in the way of extra content or side-quests, but the main adventure is meaty enough to where it isn't a problem. Unfortunately the game rarely ramps up in challenge. It's a very easy game, and it wasn't until the very end of the game where you actually had to try, and in the end while the game is long, there's no desire in me to replay it, as it has no depth.

There is no story in Color Splash, the grand adventures of the first 3 have been replaced with a generic Bowser takes over the world plot. There's a bit more than Sticker Star in the sense you actually discover more of the backstory throughout the game, but there's no surprises and is about as by the books as you get. The writing is fairly humorous though, that's pretty much the one constant throughout this series at this point. The writing can way too on the nose at times, but it remains charming and clever.

Even setting aside the change this series has gone through, Color Splash is still a mediocre game. Is it better than Sticker Star? Yes. The settings, gameplay, writing, story, and graphics have all seen minor to moderate improvements. However just because it's better than Sticker Star does not mean it's a good game. The shallow and easy gameplay still drags down the game into a mediocre experience.