Sam Brecknock
You're a kid now! You're a squid now!
Splatoon is the recently released, super-colourful 3rd person shooter from Nintendo. I had zero interest until I saw how fun and and hectic the versus mode is! You get to play as either a guy or girl squid... thing... but other than changing your eye and skin colour there isn't much customization for your physical appearance. The gameplay focuses around your ability to turn into a squid, as well as your ink-shooting water gun. As you gain experience, you can unlock many different attachments that alter the playing style of your gun. You also have access to different sub-weapons like grenades and turrets that spray your colour of ink.
Where this game really shines is its team-based versus mode. With four players on each side and short match times, you can easily get addicted to re-queuing for hours! In this mode, the aim is to cover as much of the map in your colour as you can. Rather than Call of Duty or other shooters where the aim is to kill as many people as you can, killing other players in this game only serves to temporarily give you a respite from the action. You can maintain control of one corner of the map and have a huge kill count, but unless your team works together you'll probably lose more games than you'll win! I think I really like this because the nature of the game is more casual and friendly for people of all ages. I find the different gun types work well for different team roles too.
For instance, I really like the paint roller so that my team can race forward to secure more territory while I paint the base! Plus, it has a large area of coverage so it feels super epic when you find a spot that isn't painted. On the other hand, the PVP of the paint roller isn't very strong since it's very close range, so someone with a strong gun can shoot you from afar! It's all about what you want to bring to the team...
I've only played a little bit of the story mode so far only because PVP is so much fun! What I can say though is that story mode aims to hone your skills (which is should), while providing a fun platforming experience. The puzzles aren't necessarily hard at first, and I think the difficulty is gradual. The bosses are really silly, with tiny little feet and funny character design. One thing about story that I feel they missed out on was the concept of more collectibles. So far, you only need to collect pages of lore in each level, but I think it'd be neat to also have areas where you can fill in outlined graffiti with ink that provide other little boosts or maybe Miiverse stickers! Something extra to reward your exploration of the world would be appreciated, I think.
Another thing I think may put some players off is the ultra-cutesy and 'hip' style the game fronts. For instance, the fashion in the game is very urban so some players might feel limited in the customization of their character. Especially at first, since you have to play the game a ton first in order to even unlock the ability to buy different clothes! There's this whole theme in the game of being fresh enough (seafood joke, anyone?) and practically every NPC says this on a regular basis. It's a bit cheesy, but kind of endearing at the same time.
Finally, I think one other thing this game excels at (especially for Nintendo) is the integration of the Miiverse messages players can create in-game. In the Plaza, the overworld in a way, players can access their Miiverse and created messages. These messages will be displayed with your character as they appear in the Plazas of other players. After a PVP match, your Plaza will refresh to display new players. It's really fun to walk around and look at all the neat artwork people have created for the game! A lot of Squidward memes though, haha! Your artwork can even be featured as graffiti in the Plaza, or in the arena during PVP matches. I was able to find one of my drawings during a match today!
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