Dark Aspects of Paper Mario: Color Splash | A Complete Analysis

Warning: in addition to Color Splash, there are a couple of spoilers for The Origami King featured in this video. I forgot to mention it in the disclaimer...sorry about that! Correction: (2:33) - commenter "Skypatroller_BenCD" informed me that fire is not the only way to defeat a Shunned Guy. They can also be defeated with Ice Flowers or Thing cards!

Ok but i love how Bowser, in his confusion on why Mario's there, asks if they have a kart race scheduled for that day, showing that they arent just hero and villain, but enjoy other hobbies too

I laughed so hard I cried when I first saw the toad say "My wife left me!", the idea that it could be the last thing Mario hears before he dies made me laugh even more... i love paper mario

I love my Paper Mario games with blood and lifeless bodies

18:50 fun fact related to a personal experience of mine: After i defeated that Shy Guy i got a Red Shy Guy card as a reward so to me he's still alive in some way

The black paint factory blowing up is nightmare fuel no cap. These guys are just working their job and Mario blows up the deadly super acid tank and now the room is rapidly filling up with flesh melting liquid. Those minions had families. Wives, Husbands, kids, siblings. How many families did you just ruin?

15:00 I’ve interpreted it that all of the black paint coloured the night sky in that instant. It doesn’t make a lot of sense if you think about it for like… ten seconds, but that was my immediate thought, and I can’t change it.

I think the creepiest/weirdest moment is the black paint bowser’s final attack. Imagine just chilling, being possessed, and the creature possessing you decides to take itself, and all of YOUR life essence to kill some guy with a moustache that you don’t like.

I can't believe "Mario the war criminal" is a real line

I like the comical horror elements in both Color Splash and Origami King. I haven't beaten Color Splash yet just because I've been busy, but the amount of humor in that game, and Origami King is just cute fun! And even without too many unique characters, I think they did add real humanity to the ordinary Mario NPCs and Enemies that can make you laugh...and even cry. (Rest in Peace Shy Guy I met on the train.) :( And for the few unique characters, like Huey, and later Bobby and Olivia in Origami King...it still has that beautiful children's media kind of sacrifice at the end of the story.

My theory about where Huey took the black paint is that he used it to paint space. We know our universe is still expanding, so that means he’s still out there, using the black paint to color the night sky.

Remember when Mario was watching Toad’s color getting drained and did nothing? 3:04 Mario gets his color drained, but no one is there to help him

I don’t mind this game having a Basic story because it’s not trying to have a grand story. It’s just trying to be a funny Mario adventure and I’m fine with that. My only problem with the story is that it’s heavily implied and then revealed that Bowser was possessed by the black paint the entire game, but they never do anything with that and then at the end of the game everyone acts like he was the bad guy the whole time even though he was doing everything against his will. It’s just so weird. I also don’t buy that Kamek didn’t know bowser was possessed. He’s smarter than that. The game also could have made the black paints plan be a lot more interesting just by using what’s already in the game. In the game black paint is extremely toxic and can kill you and it can also possess you. The paint possessing Bowser wanted to cover the entire world in black paint, so why not reveal that the reason he wants to do that is because he would kill everybody on the Earth, and then the black paint would possess their dead bodies creating a new world of paint folk that he would be the ruler of. All of the pieces are there it’s just that the game doesn’t use any of them

i genuinely wish colour splash was more loved in the fandom sure it's not the gameplay return to form with a deep and interesting story people wanted after sticker star but the game still oozes so much charm i still hold it towards the upper edges of my favourite games even all these years later

3:22 Paper mario, the game where you can care more about a paper flying paint bucket, more than a sentient crown sticker

I love color splash. It gets more hate that it deserves. At least its not sticker star.

The manual for color splash is actually so good. My favourite part is when they talk about the meat boss, they mention how they actually went out and bought actual meat using company money and had a cook-out, even showing and comparing the meat they cooked to the one in game. I love it

I think color splash is by far the funniest Mario game ever made

It's really nice to see some Color Splash love in the comments. I understand how the modern PM games have issues like the battle systems, but I've gotten REALLY tired over the past several years of any and all praise towards the modern games always being undercut by someone bringing up those issues. It's perfectly valid to dislike the modern games for those reasons, don't get me wrong. But there's still a lot to like about them and I wish more people would be able to see past the "old games good, modern games bad" filter.

That “so long gay bowser” part was good lol