I was not a fan and at first was skeptical of it's concept. So I shrugged it off as a game I'd buy on a whim. And I had enough cash to do so. When I got the game, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the game's hype was not merely just that, but an exciting, fun, and colorful Inksperiance.
So now Squido's and Octopi alike. Let us get started with my review of Splatoon
Introduction
The game starts off with having you pick a boy or girl inkling. You can change your inklings skin and eye color. This all thankfully is changeable later on, even changing your gender should you feel obliged to be honest with yourself and represent yourself as a boy
After making said character, you are put through a simple tutorial that teaches the basics of Splatoon, from movements, to aiming, shooting, etc.
After finishing the tutorial, you are brought to the main area Inkopolis. Where you will be greeted with the two news cast popstars Callie and Marie (You shall see more of these tentacular puns later) They will tell you the battle stages that are used for online regular and ranked matches. Afterwards, they will tell you that the precious power source of Inkopolis, the Great Zapfish, had been abducted, and is needed for the cities electricity. The Inkopolis also acts like a Miiverse, showing other inklings online and their comments in the miiverse regarding the game. Whether these comments are written or drawn. You can view any inklings and see their weapon and stats. Some of the drawings on the Miiverse can even be popular enough to be shown on the plaza area's walls like graffiti
The game will also have online events called Splatfest. these act like a voting segment that has a This VS That Theme. This plays a role on a certain timeline since the votes can be based on participation, representing the side you picked. These events hand out special gear that are used to represent your side, but are temporary and will be returned once the event is over. The winning team will receive a bonus prize for winning
Gameplay
Gameplay wise, Splatoon is indeed a shooter game, but the importance of the battles aren't to rack up kills, but to cover territory from each stages you are put to.
The game's controls are easy to learn, using the WIIU gamepad's gyro sensor to allow swift movements of your camera. The Sensor works really well and is sensitive enough to allow left and right viewing angles without too much movement, but is subtle enough not to be an annoyance. Sensitivity can be dubbed down more or increased to better suit your style. Of course for true shooters, there is an option to disable motion control and instead use the right analog stick for camera movement.
You have two forms to take in battle. Inkling and squid.
In Inkling form, you are a humanoid creature that can cover ink using your weapons and move around.
In squid form, you are a squid that can traverse through your own ink to travel faster. This also lets you recover ink much faster and even climb walls and pass grates.
Switching between these modes will be of utmost importance in battle
Your Inkling will start out at level 1. In order to level up, you have to participate in online matches to increase your experience points. These also let you build up cash, which then let you buy clothes for you Inkling. There are 3 types of clothing equipment.
Headgear: Headgear is the headpiece that the Inkling wear. this varies from hats, headphones, etc. The Shops name Cooler Heads and it's owner Annie Run the shop
Body Wear: Body wear is the shirt and pants your Inkling wear. The shop Jelly Fresh and it's owner Jelonzo, sell these items.
Foot wear: Foot wear are shoes your Inkling wears. The shop Shrimp Kicks and it's owner Crusty Sean will sell these to you.
While looking fresh in the clothes you buy is important, the clothes also have stats that affect your performance on matches. Some abilities let you reserve more ink when firing, while other can reduce damage taken, and even have support roles. As you progress through the game, better gear with better stats are available to you for purchase. The shops will change in selection each day as well, so check everyday for clothes you want.
There is also a weapon shop in the game called Ammo knights, a shop owned by Sheldon. He will sell you various weapons, and his stock will increase the more you level up. Weapon selection will also increase as there are DLC that get released that give out new weapons.
One other character named Spyke, who doesn't have his own shop, has a unique role as he will order items for you that you find interesting in the Plaza. When looking at other Inklings, if there's a gear you like, then Spyke can get them for you and give them to you the next day. The cost of getting these gear however isn't cheap. He can order up to three pieces of gear at a time and is only able to give one each day
Also, the shops will not sell you anything until you have reached a certain level in the game, which as mentioned before, can increase as you do more battles
There is a local multiplayer mode which lets you battle it out with another person using a Wiiu controller pro or a Wii controller pro. This mode really doesn't hold much benefit besides training. The goal is to simply shoot more balloons than your enemy.
If you have an Amiibo for the game. You can use these Amiibo to play mini games, which will allow you to unlock exclusive gear that you can only get by using Amiibo's.
During battle, you can spread ink with your weapon of choice. There are mainly 4 weapon types, sub weapons, and special weapons
Main weapons "Your main weapon for covering area's with ink as well for offense and defense."
Shooter: Shooter weapons are like the "Machine Guns" of the game. They allow rapid fire by holding the fire button. Most of these weapons have mid to low range, but because of it's fire rate, allows for quick ink coverage. The most important factor for these weapon types is it's fire rate. There are those with slow fire rates, but are greatly offset of either increased range, or increased damage
Charger: Charger weapons are the "Sniper Rifle" weapons of the game. You hold the fire button to build up a charge. when fully charged, the ink range is huge and allows to cover a straight line of ink to wherever you fired. These weapons vary in types, but most have excellent range, and have enough power to instantly take out an enemy. They can be rapid fired by pressing the button repeatedly, but it's range and power is greatly diminished
Roller: Roller's are a weapon type specifically created to allow more ground coverage. These weapons are also considered as the "Shotgun." Of the game, as when pressing the fire button, releases a wide spread of ink that deals massive damage to opponents nearby, usually splatting them in one shot if too close. These weapons do more than just fling bursts of ink. If the fire button is held, the roller is set to the ground, and you can move around to cover the ground. Rollers are effective for quickly gaining new territory, or recovering ones that have been covered by the enemy
Burst: Bursts aren't considered an actual weapon class, but I felt the nature of it mechanism is unique enough for me to make it a class. Burst weapons are ones that fire a blob of ink that burst after a certain range. The explosion that results in it cover the area with ink, and deals massive damage. They also cover any area that it travels in with ink. These weapons are closer akin to "Pistol or Revolver." Firing single burst ink that deal deadly damage.
Sub weapons "Weapons that can be used to cover more area with ink, defeat enemies, or even support roles."
Splat Bombs: Splat bombs are the basic sub weapons. It uses a ink bomb that detonates after a certain time like frag grenades. They cover the blast radius with ink, and can even defeat any squid too close
Suction Bombs: These bombs act in a similar manner as splat bombs, but have the ability to stick to walls. It take a little longer to explode, but it can reach be useful to deter enemies
Burst Bombs: These bombs are a weaker version of the splat bombs, but these bombs use less ink, and explode immediately after thrown, making great use for distractions of desperate acts of survival.
Seekers: Seekers are like the bombchu's. They will target an enemy nearby when in sight by holding the throw button. When released, they leave a thin trail of ink that you can use to swim behind it in ink form
Point Sensors: These sub weapons deal no damage, but are useful for reconnaissance since they detect enemies within it's range
Ink Mine: Ink mines are bombs that explode when an enemy squid gets to close. It's explosion takes time, so it can be avoided. But it can be used to distract an enemy. The explosion will also occur after a set time
Sprinkler: These sub weapons can be thrown to any surface. it will then spray ink in it's radius. It can deal damage, but has more uses to either deter an enemy, or keep certain area's that much harder to reach.
Squid Beacon: These are more like spawn points than weapons. These are great for support since the player can throw 3 at once. The teammates can then jump to these locations for strategic landings. The beacons will break once used.
Splash Wall: Splash walls are support weapons that release a wall of ink like a shower head. These can be used to block paths from enemies or provide ink to support. These can be broken easily after being fired by enemies however
Disruptor: Disruptors are weapons that deal no damage, but are capable of messing the the opponents controls for a short time, allowing the user to finish off the enemy with little resistance.
Special Weapons "Weapons that are available for use after accumulating enough points for covering territory. These weapons can turn the tide of the battle very quickly, and are more wisely used immediately so that you can accumulate points to used them again
Inkzooka: This weapon is capable of firing a long range burst of ink that shoots straight. It can cover massive areas with ink quickly and instantly defeats enemies that get hit.
Killer Wail: This weapon fires a sound wave that passes through walls and obstacles. These will instantly splat any enemy squid in range.
Inkstrike: Inkstrickes are a weapon that can launch a missile to a designated area chosen by touching the gamepad anywhere on the map. It fires a large, tornado of ink that covers a wide area and kills enemies that are too close.
Bubbler: Bubbler is a special that protects the user from enemy fire and ink for a short time. This ability can be shared with others by simply making contact, making it perfect for support roles
Bomb Rush: This special allows the user to rapidly throw bombs without the use of your ink gauge. It also fires faster, allowing for a barrage of attacks that can cover a wide area with ink or pressure enemies into a corner
Kraken: Kraken will turn your normally small squid form into a giant one. In this state, you leave ink trails similar to a Roller. You are invincible during this time and even lets you do a jump that will instantly splat enemies in one hit
Echolocator: Echolocator is a support special that when deployed, shows the enemies exact position for a short time. This gives you're team the advantage to fish out any stragglers.
Now let's talk about the two types of battles. These battles whether Rank or not are done by 4 by 4 teams.
Regular Matches: Regular matches are 3 minutes battles for territory. the goal is to cover the most area with your own ink. Whoever covers the most by the time runs out wins. Kills are not important in this mode, but rather it's more important to keep territory you have covered with ink your own. It's vital to cover every possible spot in your way with ink at the start of the match. You can of course ink area's that the enemy has inked, covering it with your own. Do not splat enemies as your main priority, as your score is determined not by kills, but by the amount of area you covered. The only advantage of splatting an enemy is to stop them from inking your turf, slowing them down for a few seconds, and when defeated, the enemy will explode with the ink you covered them in, covering the area with more of your ink.
By the end of the match, a cat named Judd will Judge who covered more ink. If your team wins, you get a bonus 300 points. If you loose, the points you earn are individually earned, so as long as you did fine, your score shouldn't be too bad
Ranked Battles: Ranked battles are a bit more chaotic, and is only accessible after reaching a certain level in the game. These battles are closer to King of the hill style, as you must ink a certain area or two within the map and claim it as your own. Once claimed, you have to keep it that way until the point meter which indicates the time you must keep your turf yours until the numbers drops to zero, or if the time runs out, and the score you have is lower than that of the enemy. These battles give more points and coins as well as increasing rank. The Rank system is based on a letter system. There are high risk for loosing however, as your rank will go down, and the amount of points you earn is even lower than ones you can earn from lost matches in regular battles. Rank battles usually distribute points evenly to all teammates, so teamwork is at utmost importance in this mode.
There is also a story mode in the game, which has you gathering Zap fish to power Inkopolis. While the story mode doesn't let you rack up cash, it does however let you get important battle experience that may help in online battles. The story mode plays in short segment stages with checkpoint marks for each area you beat. Each stage has a hidden note that explains the games lore. Collecting them all will net you a sweet bonus as well as obviously beating it. The one who will give you tips on these stages will be a character named Cuttlefish, and old squid man that believes the enemies known as the Octerians are trying to wage war once more.
Octerians are similar to Inklings. Most take tentacle like forms while specially gifted ones can even turn human classified as Octolings, they can do battle like inklings can.
Finishing story mode has it's benefits, but I wont spoil.
Graphics
Spoiler: show
In online multiplayer, I found very little issues with lag. The frame rate for the most part stayed at a nice 60 FPS. The way it shows lag sometimes is that it will not show you the ink area you covered until a few seconds have passed, this also applies to splatting and getting platted. These delays can be a bit annoying, but should no diminish the experience. And mind you that with my experience, I played online using a wireless connection, and it still went smoothly.
Music
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The music in the game is a bit on the short side. There isn't much music that plays in the game during both story and battle mode. They often cycles through a short range of songs. But the amount is usually compensated by quality, as these songs are often very catchy and zany. In a way, I never minded hearing the same song over and over again because it was so upbeat and fun to listen to, It really blended well with battles and just made it more fun to play. Even if I wasn't playing the game, some of the few songs in the game are enjoyable enough for me to just listen to.
Verdict
So to sum it all up, Splatoons hype is as good as the game. Fun and addicting gameplay, great graphics and consistent FPS. Fun, but short single player campaign, a massive amount of gear for unique customization of your Inkling, and a massive community of players of both children and teens alike flooding the Miiverse community with Memes to make this game one hell of an enjoyable experience. I'm glad I bought this game and Highly recommend it to anyone, whether a shooter pro or not.
Gameplay: 10/10
Graphics: 8/10
Music: 7/10
Overall: 8.5/10
