When it comes to Nintendo’s most significant releases of the past 10 years, most would – quite rightly – point towards the towering achievement of The Legend of Zelda: The Breath of the Wild, though for me there’s a game that came out a few years before that’s every bit as important. The Wii U era was a commercial nadir for Nintendo, enlightened by the spark of something new; the lurid splash of colour that was Splatoon, a long-awaited all-new IP from the house that built Mario, and an impeccably enjoyable subversion of the modern-day shooter. For a company that can be too quick to fall back on the familiar, it offered the shock of the genuinely new.
What’s more, Splatoon was a huge success and has since become nothing short of a phenomenon, with convenience stores in Tokyo stocked with official snacks and toys while its knockabout brand of messy third-person shooting action has been embraced by millions. Perhaps a little too successful, mind; Splatoon 2 played a part in the Switch’s busy launch year, a quickfire sequel to the bold original that could feel a little too familiar. That’s certainly how I felt at launch, though the hundreds of hours I’ve since put into Splatoon 2 suggest I might have been wrong, or perhaps they suggest more Splatoon wasn’t such a bad thing after all.
Splatoon 3 reviewDeveloper: NintendoPublisher: NintendoPlatform: Nintendo SwitchAvailability: Out September 9 on Nintendo Switch
There’s a sense in the run-up to the release of Splatoon 3 – which comes a clean five years after its predecessor – that it’s only offering up more of the same, and that’s fair enough. It’s spot-on, even; I’d understand if you couldn’t quite distinguish a game of Turf War in Splatoon 2 from one in Splatoon 3. They’re still both whip-quick, four-on-four, three minute affairs in which you’re claiming territory with your ink gun, spraying the map in liberal dashes of colour and eliminating any enemies in your path, diving in and out of the pools in gracious arcs as you switch to you fast-swimming squid form. It’s the modern multiplayer shooter as pithy pop art, and it’s every bit as fun to play now as it was on the Wii U back in 2015.
Turf Wars is still the bread and butter of Splatoon 3, the casual mode you’re locked to until you hit level 10 and get access to ranked mode – which comes in the familiar flavours of Splat Zones, Tower Control, Rainmaker and Clam Blitz – and the mode I still gravitate towards for the brilliance of its balance, composition and execution. And that execution has been finessed in some positive ways, with two new manoeuvres added to your moveset. There’s an ink roll, pulled off with a flick of a stick when you’re in squid form to give you a brief window of invincibility as you pirouette out of the ink, and a squid surge that lets you speed up surfaces and pop up for a brief moment of vertical superiority – superb additions that are still slight enough you’d be forgiven for not noticing they’re there.
Splatoon 3 Single Player Review – SPLATOON 3 STORY MODE SINGLE PLAYER NEW GAMEPLAY Watch on YouTube
And really the biggest additions to Splatoon 3 don’t feel like the kind of thing that can be applauded too enthusiastically; it’s just that, seven years into its life, this finally has some of the basic features you’d expect of a contemporary online multiplayer game. The lobby system that Splatoon 3 introduces possesses some typical Nintendo flair, while the opportunity has been taken to do away with some old frustrations. You no longer have to sit through the rollcall of current levels every time you log-on, you can actually partner up and play alongside friends and it’s possible to load up replays of matches gone, while the locker system whereby you can display collectibles and badges you’ve unlocked through play is a wonderful extension of the fashion obsession that runs throughout Splatoon.
Salmon Run, the horde-like mode that offers up incredibly tense, increasingly challenging online co-op play is now available 24/7, while the Splatfests that made their debut with the public demo late last month have enjoyed a welcome tweak with the introduction of three-way battles (which look like they might need some tweaking themselves given the balancing issues experienced during the public test, something that’ll surely happen before the periodic Splatfests return). There’s even something akin to seasonal events, with a rewards catalogue you can level your way through being introduced every three months. The action itself might be familiar, but in Splatoon 3 it’s in danger of feeling thoroughly modern at points.
There’s an abundance to it all, too, and a generosity that counterbalances that sense of familiarity. Perhaps the finest example of that is one I’ve spent the least amount of time on, with a fully-fledged 1v1 card battle game playable should you venture down one of the side alleys of new hub world Splatsville. Here you can bring and build your own decks in a witty distillation of Splatoon’s Turf War mode. It’s revealed some neat depth the handful of times I’ve played it, and I’m keen to play more.