Splatoon 2

(written jul 26, 2017)

Splatoon 2 is the game for playing on Saturday night sleepovers, controller in one hand and pizza in the other. Squid-human hybrid teenagers, sporting only the most au courant fashion, hang around their local galleria and play paintball, covering construction sites and concert stages in thick, neon ink. Occasionally, their favorite pop singers will host parties and paintball tournaments.

Nintendo was a bit confused on what tone to market the first Splatoon with, but Splatoon 2 has been established as the pop-punk hit of the summer, soaking in the essence of 90s ethos. Sequels are nothing but beneficial to IPs that assert such a strong presence, and Splatoon 2 does more than enough to stay fresh (no pun intended).

“Out with the old, in with the new” is Nintendo’s maxim. In the place of the first game’s “Squid Sisters,” Callie and Marie, a new duo called “Off the Hook” takes center stage at Inktropolis Tower. Pearl and Marina are fresh faces, but it’s when the player hears their dialogue that they make such colorful and charismatic first impressions. The same goes for every NPC in Inktropolis, backed by lovable designs and clever localization.

Of course, the Squid Sisters aren’t completely out of the picture; another single-player campaign is in store, as Marie leads the player to go save her sister, who mysteriously disappeared sometime after the first Splatoon. A cute premise, and I applaud Splatoon 2 for actually weaving the Callie vs. Marie Splatfest of 2015 into the narrative.

With a solid campaign and main online mode in place, Splatoon 2 doesn’t stop there. Added is a horde mode called Salmon Run, an addictive as hell part-time job at “Grizzco Industries,” where players retrieve eggs from waves of salmon-themed enemies and bosses on a remote island. Inktropolis Plaza has spiced things up a bit as well, with the installation of a new arcade machine. Music is important to Splatoon‘s atmosphere, so now players can access a gallery of rhythm minigames to play, each song right out of the games soundtrack.

The biggest flaw of Splatoon 2, however, comes from the technical design of online play. Many players are audibly frustrated with the inconvenience’s of Nintendo’s online Switch phone app, like the fact that it stops working if your phone so much as enters sleep mode, or that the basic functionality is not much different than that of Skype or Discord. Nintendo missing out on all these QOL opportunities gives me the impression they’re still on the cusp of understanding what a smartphone is and why strangers enjoy interacting with each other online. I can only hold my breath for a lengthy patch.

But let me end on a less negative note. The best advice I can give to struggling players online is: stick with a teammate.

This sounds like a no-brainer, of course maps and enemies are too big of a workload to face single-handedly; but there’s an unspoken energy when two players follow in each other’s footsteps. It causes opponents to scramble and panic, increases speed of ink spread, and makes kills much, much easier. Closing the space between you and your fellow squid-kids makes the feedback loop much smoother and paves the road to success with more ink that one could ever do alone.

Splatoon 2 is a proud and strong IP in Nintendo’s line-up, and one that takes full advantage of it’s color and style. I’m always happy to see another Wii U shackle released so games like these can see another consumer base in the light of day.

I was a pretty big fan of the first Splatoon back in 2015. Nintendo's family friendly answer to online shooters was one that was greatly appealing both conceptually and mechanically. I don't wanna make this review too much about the first game so I'll just carry on as though you're already familiar with it. Splatoon 2 carries the frantic and colourful shooter over to the Switch with some added bells and whistles along with the platform's trademark portability. There's more features and modes included within the game "at launch" than on the previous title, plus the single player feels much more refined. At the end of the day however, this is so similar to the first Splatoon in design that it does struggle a bit to really prove itself as a proper sequel.

Multiplayer first... Really not much has changed here, there's a higher level cap (which is a smart idea), new arenas (along with a couple brought back from Splatoon 1) and a small handful of new weapon types. The new weapons you'll see this time around include the double wielding "splat dualies", the "gatling cannon", and a dope "splat umbrella" type shot gun weapon that can block enemy ink and can launch the umbrella portion out at foes like something pulled from of a gangster film! You get all of the same online modes and options as before like your regular turf battles, ranked and league battles including your favourite tower control, splat zone, and rainmaker (i.e. capture the flag) modes. On top of all of this is an exciting new Salmon Run mode which acts like a sort of online horde mode fit with boss encounters and interesting rewards, only Nintendo made a rather baffling decision to limit this mode to certain times of the day (which just so happened to conflict with my gaming schedule more often than not...).

The new maps are passable I suppose? IDK none really stood out in terms of aesthetics or design, they all sort of share a basic symmetrical and relatively flat design pattern (with the exception of Moray Towers which is a carry over). It would have been cool to see more bold level design choices made with regard to the new maps. I also can't say that Nintendo improved the overall online experience here since a lot of the problems from the first game are still problems here. Not being able to change your load out in the lobby and the ridiculous concept of cycling between the same 2 maps over and over for several hours are the biggest annoyances for me personally. Voice chat is an absolute mess here too with confusing apps and wires and stupid nonsensical jargon; but thankfully I've never been too bothered by it since the game's objectives are so easy to grasp and the map layouts are so simple; voice chat is flat out not necessary for success in this game, especially at higher level play where players generally know what they're doing.

I bought the game on launch so I have to admit that within the first two or so weeks of online play I experienced TONS of connection problems, it got so bad that I'd frequently receive messages from Nintendo blaming my router and threatening to ban me which was totally sketch. As of now these problems have almost completely vanished and their servers seem to be running fairly smoothly. They're still keepin up with the Splatfests too only I think they're starting to run out of ideas for themes... The game still looks and feels great, again I don't wanna say too much on how it plays mechanically because it essentially feels the same as in the last game, and the world of inkopolis is still as marvellous and colourful as ever. The game's soundtrack is similarly solid with some returning classics from the last game as well.

I'd mentioned earlier that the single player has been improved overall. There's tons of new and inventive platforming challenges that make excellent use of the game's mechanics and weapons. So yes, you now have multiple weapons available for use in the single player which adds to re-playability and design potential. The bosses are really wacky and interesting this time around and overall I'd say that this single player mode is more challenging than the last one which I appreciated. The "story" is completely phoned in; a total after thought really (this IS Nintendo after all). But IDK, in the first game they kinda used the single player to build on the world of Splatoon and give out a little background and history, yet in contrast the single player in this game feels totally isolated from the main game... Not that it's a huge flaw or anything, just an observation I guess...

Yeah this is a good game what can I say? It's pretty much the same game but with more content and modes, not to mention an improved single player experience with terrific boss battles. It's a bit disappointing that Nintendo didn't try at all to make this game's multiplayer feel distinct, nor did they address any of the glaring flaws in their online experience that have carried over from the previous game. Salmon run is a cool new addition but is undermined by silly time constraints, and the new map designs leave a little to be desired. But with some enticing content coming down the road I have a feeling that Nintendo will try to keep me coming back to this game in 2018 and beyond. As of right now this is still a good game for Switch owners who are looking to beef up their library.