Splatoon 3: The Refined Splatoon Experience We Have Been Waiting For?

 

By James Pepper
jpepper@lc.edu|

Splatoon 3 is now the third game in the Splatoon Franchise. Ever since Nintendo released the first iteration of the game back in 2015, we have seen slow but steady improvement to the franchise through the releases of patches, the release of Splatoon 2 in 2017, and now the release of Splatoon 3 last week. This game has hit the world by storm, already selling 2 million copies since its release seven days ago. It is also now the best-selling switch game in Japan.

What is Splatoon?

Splatoon 3 is a multiplayer third-person shooter game made by Nintendo exclusive to the Nintendo Switch. Splatoon is known for its fast-paced fighting gameplay as well as its smooth feeling movement. Instead of using normal guns, Nintendo has implemented water gun-like weapons where instead of bullets, it shoots ink. On top of water guns known as Splattershots, they have added buckets (Sloshers), paint brushes (ink brush), paint rollers (Rollers), and even Umbrellas (Brellas).

Between these and many more weapon classes, there is no shortage of weapons and playstyles to try out. The game allows you to transform into a squid character at the press of a button. This allows you to swim through your team’s ink. You can ink the floor, walls, and ceilings with your weapon as to allow for more space to swim around. The amount of movement options that swimming through ink unlocks for you really makes the game feel unique compared to other shooters.

Game Modes

Splatoon 3 offers five player vs player modes, a player vs computer mode, and a single player campaign. Of the five PVP modes, the simplest game mode would be Turf War: Your team of four has three minutes to paint as much of the arena (also known as a map) in your color before time runs out, and in the meantime another team of four is doing the same trying to paint over your ink in a different color. Whichever team has the most amount of their ink on the ground at the end wins.

Turf War is the starting mode that you unlock at the beginning of the game. After a while, you will unlock the other four “ranked” game modes: Tower Control, Rain Maker, Splat Zones, and Clam Blitz. All fun and exciting modes to try out after unlocking “Anarchy Mode” at level 10.

Splatoon 3 also offers a PVC mode called “Salmon Run the Next Wave”, an improved version of the mode “Salmon Run” from Splatoon 2: This mode has you team up with three other teammates as you go through 3 waves of enemies called “Salmonids”. The objective is to collect enough “Power Eggs” before the end of each wave. There is also a potential of a fourth wave where you fight an extra boss; however, this happens sporadically. Salmon Run is an incredibly fun and relaxing game mode to play with friends reminiscent of Call of Duty’s Zombies game mode.

Single Player Campaign

The Single player campaign found in Splatoon 3 is by far the best single player campaign found in the Splatoon series. After mediocre reactions for Splatoon 2’s single player campaign, it is nice to see Nintendo take notes from their far better Splatoon 2 DLC “Octo Expansion”. Octo Expansion really mixed up the formula after the campaigns from Splatoon 1 and 2. Splatoon 3 is following in the footsteps of Octo Expansion while taking some good ideas from Splatoon 2’s base campaign. This allowed for a unique blend as well as adding new features and ideas. Splatoon 3’s campaign gives you a whole new area to explore with an entirely new story. Very well done and a must play!

Final Thoughts

As a veteran Splatoon 2 player, this truly is the best time to try out the Splatoon Franchise. The aesthetic Splatoon is very colorful and a breath of fresh air from the more realistic first-person shooters of Call of Duty and Counter Strike. This game is fun for the most casual of Nintendo Animal Crossing players all the way to the top Immortal Rank Players of Valorant. I recommend buying the game at Walmart or GameStop where they have a return policy to try it out, as it can be hard buying a $60 game especially if you end up not enjoying it.

 

About James Pepper

James is pursuing a certificate in Photography and plans to graduate in the Spring of 2024. After, he plans to finish his education at a 4-year university.
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