Splatoon is a masterpiece. Incoming review Feb 1st.

Release Date: May 28, 2015
Developer: Nintendo EAD
Director: Yusuke Amano / Tsubasa Sakaguchi

Rating: 5/5

Paintball mode has come a long way!

In Super Mario Sunshine it was possible to create a huge goop trail by sliding around in goop. If you really stuck with it you could cover a significant portion of the island. This game Nintendo flipped the switch on Sunshine’s “clean is better than dirty” tagline and let gamers go to town with goop. With this new feature, Splatoon vastly separates itself from other shooters as your projectiles aren’t bullets. They’re a super soaker with ink. Your gunfire is now a colorful spectacle, which allows you to enjoy watching your shots at work. Careful not to step in enemy ink, or you’ll get stuck trudging around in it. Let’s talk about stepping in your own ink.



The core game mechanic is the ability to go from kid to squid like that of Samus’ transformation into a ball but with higher morphing speed. When you’re a kid you can shoot inkguns and throw ink grenades. When you’re a squid you can glide around submerged in the ink you’ve laid down (this is much faster than your running speed) while also refilling your ink tank. There is this smooth friction of sliding around that reminds me of the Tony Hawk Pro Skater games when you move up a ramp. Just like how you could simply keep trying to gain air in THPS to do a 1080, Splatoon has this satisfying swashing back-and-forth on small half pipes that is an immensely satisfying way of strafing in the game. But unlike Hawk, you can climb straight up walls splashed with ink.

Quirky adventure fun. The campaign’s focus is on traversal with combat given second place. Watching a friend play made me aware that the campaign is setup to guide players into outmaneuvering enemies instead of rewarding brute forcing your way through them, a strategy that more often than not ends with shunting of progress or getting knocked back to a checkpoint. Because the game offers a new way to move around than other third person shooters, it requires a longer learning time on how to move around and interact with the level to fully enjoy the game. Because the game offers a new way to aim via gyro controls, it adds on to the learning curve with that aspect as well. The campaign is a success in adapting players to this new Nintendo world by giving them breathing room to perform.

So you go through interestingly segmented sky worlds accompanied by a very Nintendo take on upbeat music genres from ska to metal. A creative zenith in videogame music. The single player rewards player’s curiosity in finding their way around the level by hiding scrolls with game lore cleverly in the world. The enemy attacks critically damage the player, you can be one-shotted by enemies starting from level 2, but dying is super unlikely due to armor that is plentifully provided in levels. Substantial, but temporary loss – health system is regenerative health ala Halo with a faster recovery rate and fast respawn rate; the latter is nice compared to a lot of current gen games where dying means looking at a loading screen for 2 minutes before getting back to the action. Dying barely harms stage progress with the life system and multiple checkpoint in place. Enemies later on function in a survival horror manner where they become invulnerable to attacks and are required to be evaded while the player solves simple puzzles.

This game has perfected combustible action with crate stacks that you can walk on top of at a towering height as enemies whittle down your vertical structure box by box.

The story mode was not as action-packed as I wanted it to be. It was more about amusement than action. The music later on got annoying at times when it introduced wonky tracks. The enemies were pushovers (they didn’t make any aesthetic mayhem — why couldn’t they swarm me in hordes?) and it boiled down to getting from point A to point B in that amusing way only Splatoon can provide. The hub had this same feel; Something more could have been done with it than traversal but than I suppose you’d never want to leave. Going through the hub is immensely satisfying and reminds me of the first time I played Super Mario 64 and bounded through the courtyard.

The bosses are giants dwarfing our hero and have a great cinematic presentation to them most likely inspired by Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat’s bosses. Beating them requires moving about on a large platform mat to find a way to shoot their weak spot 3 times. The final boss is PN03 awesome tier by encroaching on the player’s stage space with large attacks; by incorporating a journey aspect moving the player from stage piece to stage piece; by giving the player a back-and-forth volleying of attacks, and topping it off with the game winning bazooka (Inkzooka) finishing shot. Nintendo really knows how to do final boss battles in their games.



MULTIPLAYER

Splatoon’s multiplayer can be described as D-Day in colors. Lots of colors. In a word: hectic. The stage is battered with color from gunshots and grenade explosions. The ground is constantly morphing all around you as the two teams go back-and-forth on laying down their color battling for victory. Vanquishing an opponent sends out a rewarding explosion of ink in your color. It’s a good-natured goopfest.

Combat is endless fun, endless possibilities, being who you want to be [gear], etc. Stray weapons and ammo packs are gone as you have an infinite ammo reserve. Big Gatling guns that other shooter games have the player lug around can be transported swiftly through squid movement or super jumps to teammates or beacons. The whole grenade toss into a room before entering tactic in Halo: Combat Evolved gets amplified here because the grenades are more plentiful and the ability to move upwards and along wall surfaces makes close quarter combat even more tense. Which can lead to ninja style play of creating the impression of being in two places at one time, or everywhere, or nowhere; of anime style teleport-like movement that is possible by submerging in-and-out quickly from inked ground while advancing.

1 v 1’s are silly and “don’t prove anything”.

A stream of stages and weapon variants as well as brand new weapon types were added regularly. This was a cool way to create game events instead of just throwing everything at the player at once. The gear can also be leveled up to allow up to 3 mini abilities.

Modes – Turf War, Splat Zones, Tower Control, Rainmaker, Battle Dojo

Battle Dojo – gamey mode with powerups that is a cool divergent, but not a good way to showcase the game to someone for the first time if you give them the gamepad due to its lowered fps (same for 1p), small screen, and dual stick controls.

Stages – The original stages were well-designed symmetrical levels that offered matches that always played out differently with the exception of two stage: Urchin Underpass and Arowana Mall. Those levels allowed Dynamo Rollers and snipers to camp like crazy above ramps on major stage access points. Both levels were later redesigned with Urchin Underpass receiving a massive makeover, so that took care of those problems. My favorite stage has to be Blackbelly Skatepark. The stage feels asymmetrical by having a thick circular column smack dab in the center.

Unlike Halo where I felt Damnation and one other stage were worth being stuck on forever, every level in Splatoon feels well-designed. I do feel that the best early level was Blackberry Skatepark followed by Walleye Warehouse. Later added levels ended up outdoing all the older levels except Blackbelly with their dynamic stage elements (Museum D’Alfonsino, Ancho-V Games, Mahi-Mahi Resort — all awesome pit like levels which fill the void of removal of the OG Urchin Underpass).

Abilities and specials – Bubbler, Inkstrike, Inkzooka, Kraken, Bomb Rush, Killer Wail, Echolocator

As far as the most aggravating abilities go, I would rank them as follows:
1.) Special Charge Up + Bubbler – extremely cheap on Splat Zones on the Port Mackeral stage. All they have to do is push into your territory and there is little you can do to break the formation or fight against 4 bubbled opponents, especially as a brush user. I’m sure teams have thought out ultimate cheapness by combining this ability with another Bubbler and chaining them endlessly together. This ability ensures a QR newb can jump to you for invulnerability without consequence.

2.) Quick Respawn + Stealth Jump – extremely irritating to deal with when stealth jumpers start camping. Just like Special Builder, I don’t think there is much to do when a team can position themselves in advantageous locations with this ability. Moray Towers lets users kamikaze well since the tower is generally suspended over a chasm, but I find Moray Towers is fairly mindless on Tower Control regardless. Doesn’t seem cheap on Turf War. I think QR can be beaten with one particular strategy that requires everyone on the team to be in-the-know. Outside of that I think you have to capitalize on the enemies mistakes of jumping at a bad time.

3.) Ink Resistance – which practically gives the enemy Ninja Swim in your ink. This should be removed from the game because it is extremely irritating to have to “repaint” over your ink for enemies as if they’re on your own team. Fighting enemies that slide around unabetted by your world shaping goop to only pop out for a OHKO on you after camping makes the game look fake or like cheat codes are on. It’s hard enough to examine small patches of ink laid down for enemies.

Balance – “Harness the bullshit”. More than just a weapon set of shotguns, assault rifles, and snipers. Spacing your shots becomes critical when you are outranged, which you can bet on unless you choose a Heavy Splatling or E-liter. If you are out-ranged then expect to have to deal with retreating fire from enemies. You’ll need to take advantage of walls and trench shaped terrain (i.e. bowls and ramps) and find a way to slip into range to hit them. Thankfully, you usually get a subweapon that allows even the shortest of range weapon users to hit further.Choose your weapons (weapon balance) – Blaster, Scope, Splattershot, Inkbrush, etc. all viable. The snipers in this game are even tolerable due to the lack of obnoxious camouflage, revealing laser sight, and distance for a sniper to hit you.

Carbon rollers are easy to win with due to short-range OHKO wide splash range and long range Inkzooka projectitle. Tentatek users also have this strength.

The initial modes and weapon selection were limited but it evolved so quickly I never felt limited. Of course in the future I would suggest they not limit modes. Though again maybe for everyone to properly adjust to the game Nintendo should let users get the basics down avoiding an unpleasant first experience of getting repeatedly annihilated by camping carbons with their death splash and Inkzooka shots.

The original Splattershot Jr is very viable with its Bubbler, but its variant with disruptor subweapon and Echosense has been deemed the least effective (i.e. worse) gun in the game.

Specials and Team Balance – Always going long-range means you don’t have to worry about getting a team with no zero long-range support, which happens frequently when you choose short-ranged weapons in Ranked mode.

->team attack off – that means players can coat their team members with the right ink if they step in enemy ink. that also means they can absorb teammates shots from hitting enemies though this is almost unheard of. stepping into small amounts of enemy ink (i.e. from a flick from an Inkbrush) causes great movement debilitation or no noticeable effect if you equip ink resistance.

Moments – Tons of cool moments in multiplayer: Moment 1: sandwiched between 2 screen-filling Killer Wail blasts; Moment 2: reversal of enemy spawncamping my Inkbrush inkling by spawn camping them with an Inkbrush in a bank-like spawning area in another stage; Moment 3: running underneath a OHKO jump attack roller-weapon flick; Moment 4: wining at the last second in rainmaker or tense overtime comebacks in Splat Zones; Moment 5: waiting, lurking, unleashing the Kraken!: Moment 6: teleport-styled samurai kills with Inkbrush by swiping -> submerging temporarily + moving forward -> swiping and following again but this time opting to run with the brush to then final swipe them; Moment 7: two Inkbrush users running in unison attacking the other team like raptors from Jurassic Park.
Super Special Moment 1: jumping repeatedly soaring into the air with multiple teammates while in a huddle hangout casual match.
Super Special Moment 2: Super Metroid moment in multi-player where I got the other inkling player to alternate with me subbing in-and-out of squid form (visual communication).
For every good moment there are a few controller shattering (jk – the Wii U gamepad is indestructible) moments: Moment 1: getting annihilated by super jumping into a special attack; Moment 2: getting brutalized by 4 Bubblers who have figured out perfect spots to camp out in Splat Zones.

Inkbrush spinning around as a juke or just spinning around ceaselessly
Super jump -> Kraken onto tower

Online Connection and Communication – The netcode is reliable for the most part though on rare occasions my Inkling would explode after “safely” darting behind cover.
PreyingShark wrote:
Originally Posted by UnisonDid anyone see any funny business in the netcode that could be attributed to this issue? I sure didn’t.

When you hit someone with a fully charged sniper shot, you get a ping sound that means you killed ’em. I would often get that, and the enemy would explode in a timely matter, but I wasn’t rewarded the kill.

This is because a teammate actually killed them in-between ticks. Because the tickrate is just so low that that can happen a lot. It could happen in 1 but not nearly as often, and that game didn’t have ping-based matchmaking like 2 does.

Communication: there is no voice chat and it does not matter that much because everyone has no voice chat. (Of course now people are “cheating” by using third party software to voice chat each other.) The action is too fast and the stages too small for commands outside the default “Come On!” and “Booyah!”.

Lacking voice chat helps maintain the charm of unique sound effects of the Inklings vocalizations. It also eradicates expressing negativity or frustrations into the game. Good fun [play] > Mean winning [humiliate] — this means to me that the multi-player differentiates itself by getting rid of teabagging (unique to the game is squidbagging which is a flopping motion) and talking smack.