VideoGame A refreshing change of pace in the world of multiplayer-based shooters
If you're the kind of person who enjoys multiplayer shooters of any sort where deathmatch is the only mode you enjoy and you strive for that high kills/death ratio, Splatoon isn't the game for you.
If you enjoy silly combat with focus on team work, Splatoon is a great game to get into. The rotation of maps coupled with the randomization of who's going to team makes for a fun experience. And while the lack of voice chat may be a bother, it breeds a dynamic that requires you to stay on your toes in the fray. You must proactively be a team player. See a spot of the map that nobody's paying attention to? Be that guy and go snag it.
Despite the lack of content (which honestly, most servers on shooters boil down to a few maps and game modes), Splatoon is a great fun and it has a pretty good single player part that works well as a distraction.
The only bummer is the Amiibo locked content.
VideoGame To shooters what Mario Kart is to racers
First you choose ahead of time what your loadout will be, and proceed to begin painting. Weapons range from paint-related versions of various guns, to a paint roller and a paintbrush. The weapons tend to have massive pros and cons. The sniper rifle leaves you open to surprise attacks but lets you hit targets (and paint floors) very far away, while my current favorite, the paintbrush, allows you to spread paint super quickly.
Even though the game doesn't toss out random items (a la Smash Bros) or provide help for losing teams/players (a la Mario Kart), it still feels like anything can happen. I've seen massive victories where one team leaves the other in the dust, and really tight matches with thin margins. I've seen many many come-from-behind victories where a losing team caught up. And I suspect this isn't just because the game places players on random teams with every match. You never know what will happen, and I mean it.
Splatoon clearly has Western inspiration. It has leveling up, weapons that can be earned when you're a high-enough level, and perks. These all add depth and strategy to the gameplay. I also like how you can dress up your character. The game's cartoon graphics make your outfit far more noticeable and attention-grabbing than in other games.
Between matches, you get to walk around a very small, yet insanely detailed city based on the real life Shibuya. Nintendo must have considered just how often players would see this city, because they loaded it up with tons of subtle details you can see and hear, from trains going by to planes flying overhead to butterflies flying around a garden, to a large TV right above a studio featuring two TV hosts that you can look at through the window. The sound design there is also great, with various shops playing music from their local speakers, and other miscellaneous city noises that I can't quite pinpoint. For a place that's so tiny, it's amazing just to soak in the atmosphere. You can tell this game is made by the Animal Crossing team.
The game also has a single-player campaign. It really only gets good near the end, IMO, when the difficulty goes up and the level design gets much more creative. The final boss is excellent. Overall, though, it's only okay.
Still, fantastic game, for its online multiplayer.
VideoGame Exciting arcadey fun, but little in the way of content
Story: Nonexistent, though the breadcrumbs of backstory are extremely interesting and make collecting the Sea Scrolls in single-player worthwhile. N/A.
Design: Shooting feels responsive and accurate with motion controls and have a number of failsafes (thank you Y calibration button) to make it easy to use and even preferable to stick aiming, though they are optional. All the weapons are amazingly fun to use due to great sound effects and feedback. Weapon types are also varied enough to never get boring. Maps are designed extremely well with narrow paths, open areas and more, making every map fun to play. The addition of the map on the gamepad is also nice, and features that eliminate downtime like Superjumping make the game go by at a wicked pace. Unfortunately, the game has little in the way of content at launch: 5 maps, one mode to player in and 25 or so weapons. All of these will be rectified in later updates, but the jarring lack of content could put some people off. Classic Nintendo stuff, though marred by sparse content. 7/10.
Gameplay: Fun, deceptively complicated and strategic and endlessly replayable. Shooting ink feels good, launching special weapons feels good, sneaking up on an enemy while in Squid form feels good, etc. The game just feels good, and that's all that matters. The Singleplayer campaign is loads of fun and is definitely worth beating for the creative boss encounters and building on the ink abilities in ways that the multiplayer doesn't. Multiplayer is obviously the meat of the game, and it's very fun. Both Turf War and Splat Zone are fun, and i'm looking forward to new gamemodes added in updates. 9/10.
Presentation: Beautiful, colourful and detailed. Ink looks great, all the different clothes are stylish, the game pops and shoots out colour from every orifice. Subtle effects like the trail that speeding through ink in squid form leaves behind or the way ink looks on textures and surfaces looks excellent. it also runs at 60 FPS.
Final Score: 8/10
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