Paper Mario series focus is on puzzle solving/humor, Color Splash has a story, says Nintendo

Coming from a Kotaku interview with Nintendo producer Risa Tabata

“This game is an action-adventure. I’m sure you’re aware that, at Nintendo, we also have another series called the Mario & Luigi RPG series and so since we already have that established Mario & Luigi RPG series, in order to differentiate these two series that we have running concurrently, we’ve tried to focus more on the non-RPG elements for the Paper Mario games. In terms of what we focus on for the Paper Mario series, we focus on puzzle-solving [and] humor.

This time we have–I don’t know if I want to say a proper story–but we have a story. It starts from kind of mysterious opening.. You’re not sure what is going on, and as you go through the story, you’ll realize, oh this is what happens. And there’s a lot of interesting stuff that happens with you and Huey.”

- Tabata said the paint mechanic is the result of one of the development team’s kids getting into painting
- game will let you carry 99 stickers
- hints are optional and players will only be able to get them by asking Mario’s partner character, the paint can Huey