Splatoon Review (Updated)

Splatoon takes place in a world where cephalopods can take human forms and use their ink as conduits for transport and mobility. It sounds absolutely terrifying, but thankfully the way Splatoon presents its world in a typically cheery and whimsical Nintendo-esque fashion. As you’d expect, such a premise provides some fantastic groundwork to provide an interesting and unique gameplay experience. In this regard, Splatoon definitely delivers. But there’s a few things missing from the overall package that means players might have to wait to see everything Nintendo has to offer with this deliciously unique third person shooter.

At launch, Splatoon offers two major modes, a single player and a multiplayer mode. These are all connected by the Inkopolis, an Akihabara inspired metropolis which acts as a glorified menu. Players can explore shops, converse with other players (and borrow their load outs) or select any of the different modes available to jump straight in. The options here are pretty well varied, and as mentioned previously it really is just a glorified menu, but players who want to get straight to where they want to go can use the GamePad touchscreen instead. The Miiverse posts which litter the area are quite humorous and work much like Nintendo Land did.

The Inklings and the Octarians utilise weapons that are loaded with coloured ink. As such, most of the “culture” surrounding these people focuses on covering turf in each area with ink, almost as a display of dominance. While this sounds like a boring colouring book, there are some fun twists to keep things interesting. First off, moving in the oppositions ink severely reduces your mobility. Inklings can also change into their squid forms, which lets them glide through ink of their own colour to provide extra mobility and speed during movement. Even better – you can paint walls to move up walls, adding verticality to the level design, as well as pass through or even drop through grates.

It’s the movement options that really give Splatoon its unique edge. It also means that even when you’re not in the middle of a battle with an opponent, you’ve always got something to do. Covering the terrain with ink gives you and your team quicker options to move through the maps, for example, so you’d be remiss to not bother doing so. It really helps give a more active experience when between battles or finding enemies on the map, which is something very little games of this calibre tend to do.

And it’s this freedom to move that makes the combat situations interesting too. Covering your opponents ink is already somewhat rewarding, but exposing an enemy who was hiding in it? Absolutely priceless. Similarly, it’s incredibly satisfying to just hide in your own ink and ambush an enemy attempting to cover your own turf. Even more so, if you’re being chased, it’s super easy to just ink a wall, hide in it, and then jump behind your opponent and gain the upper hand. Splatoon’s use of ink is intelligent, creative and inventive and rewards players who play in such a way. It’s so simple, and yet such a game changer.

If you’re someone who has played any kind of shooter throughout the years, Splatoon may be a game that’s hard to swallow given its rather unorthodox concept and flow. The tutorial that players are forced through when the game begins do a great job at establishing the “rules” of the game, thankfully, but we definitely recommend turning off the gyroscopic aiming whenever you get a chance. It’s probably a better option for children who aren’t as proficient at using two sticks at once, but it’s a must for older players who’ve played a shooter beyond Goldeneye.

But if you’re still not confident after finishing the tutorial, the game does have a single player mode that serves as an extended tutorial. But it does feel like more than that at the same time – taking players through an interesting (but also extraneous) storyline through several levels. Levels are structured similarly to Super Mario Galaxy, in that each area serves as a puzzle of sort that requires players to be savvy with their ink to move on to the next. Each “area” of the game has a boss fight that, once again, rewards savvy and proficient play. The bosses themselves are fun to battle too, and there’s an air of (creepy) humour to them too.

The single player mode only lets players use the Splattershot, but it still manages to provide a pretty varied experience. Your Splattershot can be upgraded using collectibles found during each of the levels too. From beginning to end, you’ll have defeated all kinds of Octopus themed enemies (including ones that behave like yourself) and moved through some pretty well designed platforming segments.

Nintendo could’ve easily half assed the single player component of Splatoon. And while the enemies aren’t necessarily every going to reach the iconic heights of characters like Koopa or Shy Guys, they’ve done a great job at providing an experience for players who might not want to jump online but still want to see how Splatoon works. There’s even certain concepts in the single player mode that don’t even make an appearance when playing online. There’s also some support for the Splatoon amiibo figures as you would expect, these amiibo unlock more challenges based off the single player stages in the game but with a twist. We’ll have more on them in a separate video later in the week.

So when you do decide to make the jump to online, you’ll probably be surprised to find that Splatoon feels rather light in terms of content for the multiplayer mode. There’s only two major modes available at launch and five maps, which seems quite light. But everything on offer here has been very well crafted. The maps have been designed to have choke points like traditional shooters, but instead they’re areas with large surface areas that ink coverers will typically gravitate towards.

But it’s not just this that makes the online matches in Splatoon incredibly frenetic. In a typical match, you’ll see people jumping around, swimming around, inking the terrain or even inking each other. All of the action is shown on the GamePad, which gives a good visual representation of who is winning each match. Even better, tapping a team mate on the touchscreen lets players warp straight to them, so there’s never a dull moment and you can get straight back into the action after a death.

Customisation is easily the name of the game, and your inkling can be customised with different and gear to give them a unique look. There’s several different kinds of weapons too – and while most players might find them to be overpowered initially, they feel balanced and each have their own strengths and weaknesses. They fit the pretty typical weapon archetypes but each have their own unique spins on them. The roller is easily the standout – behaving like a shotgun and being lethal at close range but also useless from a distance or when your enemy is above/below you.

All in all, for a full price Wii U game, Splatoon has a lot of potential. The single player mode provides a solid six to seven hour experience that never gets boring or old. The multiplayer is fast paced, balanced and incredibly unique. It even performs well with minimal lag, to boot. But there’s a distinct lack of modes on offer at launch. Yes, Nintendo will provide free updates throughout the next year (and possibly beyond) but it feels almost too dependent on this support.

Thankfully the game looks amazing too. It’s colourful and it runs at a silky smooth 60fps. And while this makes the ink look fluid and especially slimy, it makes the transition to the Inkopolis, which runs at half the framerate, especially jarring. Thankfully it’s not a deal breaker but it’s something that really should be mentioned. The environments themselves are fantastic looking, and it’s truly a visual feast to see each level be covered with differently (and highly contrasted) colours of ink and ink flying through the air on levels too.

The soundtrack is similarly perfectly styled to suit the game’s atmosphere. The music is very bizarre but feels otherworldly, employing a mix of banging guitar riffs and warbled language that I can only assume is the language of the Inkling people. A small but nice touch is that whenever players submerse themselves in ink, the action and the music are subdued to emulate what it would sound like underneath the ink.

Splatoon is a genuinely genius concept that manages to give a unique and interesting take on third person shooters. The use of ink is intelligent, well thought out and innovative – providing mobility and combat opportunities with such a simple concept. Single player is fun and just long enough to stay fun and multiplayer is fast paced and frenetic, while also being balanced.

Review concludes below.