Just because we are months away from E3 doesn’t mean we can’t start imagining what unannounced games, announced games, remastered games—gotta love those—and surprises will be at the show. It’s always fun to jump on the big Electronic Entertainment Expo hype train in advance. If nothing else, it’s always fun to create unreasonable expectations early and then have all our dreams crushed within the span of a few days.
My first hotly anticipated title for E3 2016 is Paper Mario Colour Splash—or is it spelled “Color”? Forgive me, I’m Canadian. Now I know you’re probably thinking that this is an odd game to be excited for since it was just announced earlier this week, but just knowing that another Paper Mario game is on the way is enough to excite me.
The fact that the game was shown briefly during the Nintendo Direct conference tells me that they have much more to show during E3. The game is set to launch in 2016, for goodness sake; I sure hope Nintendo has more game to display. Anyway, what better time to give more detail than during their E3 Press conference, or Direct, or whatever venue the goofy Japanese folks over at Nintendo decide to use?
Let’s discuss what we know so far about the upcoming paper quest, and it’s not much. We know that the setting of the game is a once pretty island named Prism Island that’s been attacked somehow and is losing colour—reminds me of my complexion as Nintendo takes their sweet time to unveil the NX. This is where Mario comes in. He has the duty of restoring colour to the island using his, ahem, paint hammer to ferociously splash the monochrome landscapes with some well-deserved hue. Unfortunately he won’t be doing anything about putting the NX rumours to rest, just yet.
Like Paper Mario Sticker Star, our 2D friend seems to have to make battle moves using collected items, here known as battle cards. I guess pressing a button to command an attack is too drab for the folk at Nintendo. Instead, you have to obtain battle cards and paint them with your grubby fingers on the Wii U Gamepad. Let’s have a moment of silence for all gamer parents who deal with children and their diseased paws scrubbing the tablet screen.
You’re probably thinking there is nothing grand or exciting about this paper fetishists dream, but there are a few reasons why I’m excited for Mario’s new adventure, outside of it being a part of one my favourite series. For one, it’s the very first Paper Mario title that we are getting in HD. Paper Mario games have always looked creative and colourful but having that extra graphical bump never hurts.
Also, few original titles have been coming to WiiU this year, and there aren’t many with confirmed released dates. Last year was great because of games like Super Mario Maker and Splatoon. 2016 looks to be a very different year for the console, as we are led to believe the NX will soon replace Nintendo’s current console generation. With great games to look forward to like Star Fox and Zelda, I like that we now know of a third original title for the system. And at this point, I’m all for putting the Wii U to bed shortly after the successful release of what I hope to be some of its best content.
With its sparse details, Paper Mario Color Splash is definitely a game I look forward to hearing more about during E3. After all, Star Fox Zero is set to release before the end of April, so we are left with only this and Zelda as potential show topics related to Wii U software. Let us know what you thought of Paper Mario Color Splash, and tell us what games you are most excited to hear about during E3 2016.