I'm certainly getting a real Partners in Time feel from the story from what we've seen (Though not NEARLY so grim) and I am of course looking forward to all the paper puns like, "Join the fold!".
The second game is usually seen as the best. I was never that into the series, but that is what most fans tell me.
No? TTYD was better than the first, and Super Paper Mario was different but still a beloved game, Sticker Star is the only really poor one with Color Splash at least having personality and style.
I've said it before... Miyamoto does AMAZING work and absolutely deserves his reputation. However, sometimes I feel like he's stifling far more than he's helping these days. Claiming F-Zero "needs a new user interface" to make it worth keeping up, screwing with Paper Mario to the point it slammed the series into the ground, mucking up Star Fox, etc. The guy's great, but sometimes it's just, like... dude, let things be normal for once
Which is my exact problem. He earned his reputation and has done amazing work, yet he is stuck in stubborn old ways or feeling every new entry has to innovate. Innovation for the sake of it is not always a good thing, and can make things worse, or cramp creative freedom.
I still infinitely prefer having him there and encouraging everyone to try to innovate as apposed to the alternative. I think trying new ideas is the best course of action for them to take with their series but that they take them in the wrong direction at times.
If you have a WiiU I would still recomend you get Color Splash. It's a beautiful game and is also probably the funniest game Nintendo has ever made, the humor is just spot on with it. It's not as good as first three and is held back by the mechanics it inherited from Sticker Star but I think it's still worthwhile to play it.
Once again, not opposed to it, but if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Especially when "fixing" it by removing options that were helpful or new options that are useless compared to the older, better ones, will make the overall experience worse. If you need to innovate that badly, stick certain ideas to a new IP or completely different spin-off. And yeah, Paper Mario itself is spin-off/sub-series of the Mario franchise.
I mean, the Mario games (and Paper Mario in particular) haven't exactly strayed away from horror elements (old-school spiritual J-horror in particular). Haunted house levels are a staple of the main series and Luigi has a whole side series based on ghost hunting.
