2030: Splatoon is Pretty Damn Good

Wandered into town today to take care of a few bits of business, and decided that I’d trade in some games I didn’t really play any more and that wouldn’t be difficult to find again (Uncharted, Uncharted 2, Need for Speed, stuff like that) and pick up Splatoon.

I’ve been idly following Splatoon since it was released, but I’ve held off picking it up because I’m generally not a massive fan of competitive games, and while Splatoon does have a single-player mode, it’s most well-known for its online battles.

Well, after spending a couple of hours with it this evening, I’m kind of sorry I waited; it’s really, really good.

Most of you reading this are probably already familiar with Splatoon but on the offchance you aren’t, it’s a Wii U game from Nintendo that is a rare example of them putting out a non-Mario or Zelda-related IP. Moreover, it’s actually an all-new IP, and one that deserves to do well, since it has some great character designs and witty writing, even in a game so focused on competitive multiplayer.

I haven’t tried the single-player at all yet and I’m only level 6 in multiplayer, so I can’t talk about the complete experience as yet, but what I’ve played so far has been a whole lot of fun.

In your early hours of Splatoon, you’re restricted to playing “Turf War” mode; a four-on-four affair in which the two teams compete to cover as much of the level with ink as possible over the course of three minutes. At the end of the match, the area covered is totted up and a winner declared, and individual rankings are shown so you can see who was pulling their weight more than others.

The genius of Splatoon is that it’s a competitive shooter (third-person in this case) in which the emphasis is not on killing other players, but instead on surveying the overall situation of the battlefield and acting accordingly. There’s no voice chat, but this isn’t really a problem, since you can coordinate your efforts with others simply by glancing at the overview map on the GamePad screen and seeing what regions need your attention. The fact that all you’re expected to do is cover as much of the level as possible with ink keeps things simple and accessible — though you will give your team a small advantage if you can fend off your opponents, sending them back to their base and wasting a bit of time as they respawn and make their way back to where the action is.

The other thing I like about Splatoon is that it’s apparently possible to pick up and play it and immediately be quite good at it. Out of the fifteen or twenty matches I’ve played this evening — they’re short and snappy, which is lovely — I was on the losing team only twice. There’s plenty of variety in the weapons, but none of them (so far, anyway) feel like they’re massively overpowered or anything; most of them can be countered in some way or another, and even the “superweapons” can be dodged and avoided if you know to recognise the warning signs soon enough.

I’m convinced, then; this is a good game that I’m looking forward to exploring more in the coming days. And it seems there’s a really active community, too, both on Reddit and Discord, so I’m looking forward to getting to know some new people.

I can officially confirm, then, that I am indeed a kid now, a squid now, a kid now, etc. So that’s nice.