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Second Opinion: Splatoon (Wii U)

by Daan Koopman - May 27, 2015, 10:01 am EDT
Total comments: 6

Not Scored

Splatting the world for many hours to come!

A few weeks ago, sheer excitement just filled the air around me. Splatoon had arrived and I wanted to experience all of the things on offfer. I was always excited for the game and this all started when I played it at E3 last year. There was a certain worry attached to all of this though and this showed its ugly head again during its dedicated Nintendo Direct. Could Splatoon have enough content to sustain and keep you engaged for a while? If the answer you are looking for is yes, then continue to read along!

Splatoon's experience starts with the tutorial that you played in the Global Testfire and it is where you put together your Inkling with some basic options. Once the swift intro is over, you are thrown into Inkopolis and this square features all sorts of stuff for you to do. The journey began for me by jumping into a manhole and this brought me to the single-player campaign known as Octo Valley. Honestly, Octo Valley was the thing I really wanted to try first, considering I have been curious about it since its reveal trailer. While the experience wasn't sadly everlasting, it was an absolute blast from start to finish.

The levels in Octo Valley were so incredibly well designed. Every level has unique attributes that will keep you engaged and it mixes the shooting with fun platforming sections splendidly. You will be jumping and swimming through gigantic sponges, battling bosses in traditional but fun ways and fighting against the evil octopus troops. Those troops will give you a hard time later on as they offer more resistance and try to blast you into oblivion. With a gun and arsenal that you can constantly upgrade, I was ready for action and willing to take them all on.

With the experience only lasting for a few hours, you will be stuck with finding the remainder of the Sunken Scrolls. These offer you great insight into the world of Splatoon and they are totally worth collecting, so keep an eye out for them. If you want more, the amiibo challenges seem like a good way to keep toying around. Sadly, I haven't been to really try these challenges yet, due to the amiibo not being available right now. I am willing to give it a look though, considering I would love new reasons to play through the stages again. With inventiveness that is only challenged by Mario's finer 3D offerings, I will gladly hop back in.

The star of the package are the online multiplayer options in Splatoon and it is here that you will get the most bang for your buck. Turf Wars is an absolute delight and it never became old for me, even after hours upon hours of playing. The five maps that are there at the launch are built to last and it constantly gives you new ideas how to approach them and outsmart the opponents in battle. It goes together with a grand selection of weapons that grows the more you play Splatoon. The game allows you freedom to play it the way you want and it broke the mold where I barely would give multiplayer games a shot.

While Turf Wars is absolutely fine in its current state, I took more issue with the Ranked Mode named Splat Zones. While the mode seems straightforward enough, it would have helped if there were better communication options. With the mode’s focus of attacking and defending a small area, you need to grasp what the others are doing. The pre-written messages work in Turf Wars, because everyone is so focused on their own task. Next to that, you can easily see on the Wii U GamePad where everybody is. The limited communication options do hinder Splat Zones a bit.

Even with those problems, the game is the most fun when you are strategizing. I was constantly looking around me and finding the best places to continue my painting conquest. With the majority of points given by painting in Turf Wars, this is how you spent the majority of your three minutes. Sure, there is some battling involved, but it does play second fiddle to your ultimate goal. The combination of two though make a single match never feel the same and I was thrilled to be in the heat of the battle. Sometimes I would play it for like 17 matches straight with the same two maps and still feel that I got a quality time out of it.

Not everything is flowers and sunshine though. I felt stuck in the lobby when I continued to stay and there was no real way of opting out. I coudn't even change my weaponry or clothing when I thought I was better off trying something different. While the Squid Jump game is fun to play while you wait, I found it more important to just prep and see who I was facing. In my pre-launch moments, there was a lot of waiting involved and I hope that isn't the case in the final game. Next to that, I really hope that the servers can keep it together so I can keep enjoying myself. While my internet connection isn't amazing, Splatoon dealt with it and made sure that I could play a steady game.

Finally, there is also a local multiplayer mode called Battle Dojo. While I found it the least amount of fun, that doesn't mean I hated it. The concept of duking it out against one another is truly novel, but with the focus on shooting balloons and your opponent, it just feels very different from anything else in the package. What is fantastic about it though, is that one person plays on the Wii U GamePad and the other on the television. This gives the matches a cool edge and it is made better with the fact that you can choose out of a nice variety of weapons and pick any map you want.

As far as the look of Splatoon is concerned, it is simply brilliant. There is a 90's vibe to the whole thing that almost immediately struck a cord with me. It is bright, colorful and downright beautiful to look at. The look of the game truly delivered and I got everything I wanted and more. The music is fantastic as well, though just like the single-player, there aren't enough tunes in the package. Songs repeated more often than I would have liked and that is the biggest shame about it. It all sounds so quirky and I wanted even more of it.

Splatoon is a game that I really liked and still very much enjoy to this very day. The online multiplayer is incredible and with ever changing strategies, it never becomes old quick. Every match is different, as you have to pay attention to the weapons that everyone is using. While I wanted the single-player to be longer, I just had a blast going through it and I will likely replay favourites ever so often. The local multiplayer is somewhat of a mixed bag and I wish there was more music to enjoy, but both complaints should hardly stop you from playing Splatoon. The world is beautiful and there’s enough content to like in this bold shooting game.

Summary

Pros
Cons

Talkback

MythtendoMay 27, 2015

Is there a way to play Turf Wars offline with bots? I always hate when a multiplayer game doesn't let you play with just bots, this is why I loved the TimeSplitters games.

EnnerMay 27, 2015

A nice read.

Quote from: Mythtendo

Is there a way to play Turf Wars offline with bots? I always hate when a multiplayer game doesn't let you play with just bots, this is why I loved the TimeSplitters games.

Sadly, no. The multiplayer maps are used in the single-player mode to fight against octolings. That's sort of like a bot match. However, I've read and heard comments that these levels of the single-player are the weakest.

MythtendoMay 28, 2015

I really hope Nintendo later adds in the option to play with bots, there's no way I would have bought the Smash games if I could only play multiplayer with other humans.

StrawHousePigMay 29, 2015

Still not convinced it's worth $60.

LudicrousDa3veMay 30, 2015

Fantastic, clever, and the metagame will prove to be super deep, I think.  ;D

The strategy to roll out features and maps is, in my opinion, a blessing. This will keep the overall skill level easing up at a nice tick. This will help new players (especially those new to shooters) become acclimated, and not too intimidated in the beginning.

Some more rounded out local features such as 2p turf wars w/bots would be excellent, and I hope they come as well... but it feels wrong to worry about what a game isn't as opposed to what it is.

There is an increasingly prevalent notion that games should check off prerequisite bulletpoint features on a list. It's sad, and undermines truly important things like personality and charm.

PhilPhillip Stortzum, May 30, 2015

Yeah, that's the only thing that's sorely lacking to me is bots. The solo mode shows that the humanoid Octolings who behave like online opponents would work well as bots. *nods*

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WiiU

Game Profile

Splatoon Box Art

Genre Shooter
Developer Nintendo
Online1 - 8

Worldwide Releases

na: Splatoon
Release May 29, 2015
PublisherNintendo
RatingEveryone 10+
jpn: Splatoon
Release May 28, 2015
PublisherNintendo
RatingAll Ages
eu: Splatoon
Release May 29, 2015
PublisherNintendo
Rating7+
aus: Splatoon
Release May 30, 2015
PublisherNintendo
RatingParental Guidance

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