I’ve been anticipating Splatoon for quite some time. I’ll admit that when I first saw the initial preview last year a E3 I wasn’t really too interested. But after hearing more about the game and getting a peak at more of what the game was about my interest level began to rise. And while there are some small things that I would have liked to have seen added, there is a lot of greatness in Splatoon.
Splatoon is a very fun game to play, with the multiplayer “death match” battles satisfying and rather unique when it comes to online multiplayer shooters.
Instead of the usual alien battles, warzones or street shoot outs we get a more friendly paintball type battle. When you are defeated you get splatted and then your squid form shoots up into the sky and back to the respawn point. No one dies and it’s a lot more kid friendly.
The controls in the game come in two varieties. One where you use the motion of the wii U gamepad to look around and another where you can simply use the right stick to look around. In the motion controls you can still use the right stick to look left and right, but can’t look up or down. For those who are used to this type of shooter the motion controls aren’t even an option. But since it’s been a while since I’ve played a first-person shooter, I found the motion controls much more intuitive.
I actually couldn’t go back to regular controls once I fully embraced the motion controls. I found myself instinctively moving the controller around to aim, which didn’t end well.
The battles really feel balanced as well, with no one weapon having a distinct advantage over another. Sniper type weapons have their advantage to be sure, but when you have to really charge them to make them effective there is huge downside. The game also comes packed with a roller, which is great for covering a lot of ground in turf war. You also have the added plus that you can roll right through an opponent hiding in squid mode and squash them flat. But this weapon has the downside that you can’t really flick your ink out too far, making it tough to take down opponents at a distance.
Some weapons have a fast firing rate and some consume a lot of ink. I won’t go into a lot of detail about the weapons, but each does come with a sub weapon and a special move. The sub weapon is usually, but not always, a bomb you can throw. The special move can give you a period of invulnerability, a powerful weapon, the ability to see your enemies on the map and a host of others.
So selecting your weapon is like striking a balance between the attack style, how you use the weapon as well as finding sub weapons you like and find useful.
Doing well the turf war battles will earn you points, which level up your character and give you money to buy new gear.
The gear in the game is also very varied.
There are a ton of hats, shirts, shoes and weapons to choose from in the shops you’ll find in the main square. And while each item comes with it’s own unique style and flare, they also come with unique abilities. Some boost your speed, reduce the ink you consume when using your sub weapon, speed up your respawn rate, and way too many to list off. There are dozens of them. Each article of gear you equip has a few different abilities, which become unlocked as you earn experience in battle with them equipped.
If only the gear I really liked also had the abilities that I wanted to have.
So far Nintendo has been releasing DLC for the game for free, though it’s been less downloadable contest and moreso making available new weapons and maps that are already hidden in the game. It makes me wonder if paid true DLC will be on the way, including not only weapons and maps, but also new gear.
With all the customization of the look of your character, there is some limitation in what you can do.
The one thing I would have liked would have been more control over character design. You really only have three options for customization. After you select your gender you have a choice of skin tone and eye colour.
That’s it.
The ‘hair’ colour isn’t even an option, since your colour changes with every turf war battle. You may be blue to start but soon end up yellow, purple, pink and so on. Though this does make for a nice added variety in the gear you wear, in which the hats you wear change colour to coincide with your colour.
While I don’t expect a Mii level of customization, some variety of nose and eye shapes, as well as perhaps some other physical options would have been welcome. It could have given the characters just a little bit more personality.
Not that the game doesn’t have this. Splatoon has personality in spades.
The single player missions are really something that makes the game shine. Single player is very fun and you’re tasked with rescuing Zapfish from each level. This involves blasting, inking and jumping from start to finish while also blasting the Octarian army. This mode is filled with not only single player goodness, but also boss fights that are tricky to figure out and then satisfying to take on a second time.
And you will definitely want to do this.
If you’ve picked up one of the Splatoon amiibo you can use them in the game to replay some of the single player missions with special conditions. And if you complete a series of them, including the boss battle, you’ll get exclusive gear for your Inkling. There are three amiibo to pick up, with the boy and girl available on their own and the squid amiibo only available in a 3pk.
You’ll also find a local multiplayer mode which is unfortunately just a one on one balloon popping game. Though the online multipler ranked battles are somewhat more of a challenge with the goal not total domination. Your team needs to control a small patch of the level for the most amount of time by the time the timer runs out, or hold on to the patch until your own counter reaches zero. It’s a bit more of a strategic and challenging game mode.
One last thing I want to touch on before I wrap up this review is the music. If you’ve been in the Nintendo eShop on the Wii U you’ve no doubt heard the Splatoon theme. There is a lot more music in the game and I love it. Great up beat music with a great tempo. Truth be told I made the weapon select screen my ringtone. You can listen to all of the music already on YouTube, and I made great use of that to play in the background of this review.
The game has only been out for a short time and Nintendo has already released a few new weapons and a new multiplayer level for free. With new events already starting up there is sure to be lots more fun to come.
Because this game is truly addictive. Just one more is something you’ll be saying after every turf war battle.
Isn’t it about time to take a break? You look tired. Every Nintendo game reminds you this, and usually I think seriously about hanging up my controller. Not this time.
Just one. More. Battle.
