Splatoon 3

each and every animation, action, and voice line was meticulously crafted to bring the most personality out of the inklings and octolings. brimming with amazing sound design (listen to how clam blitz sounds!), wild artistic direction, and shockingly unforgiving gameplay, i would recommend this to so many people if this game wasn't so expensive.

While this score and general opinion on this game is certainly not final, both due to the way online experiences like this can wildly change and develop with further experience and knowledge being gained, and because I know that the game will be getting more post-launch content over time, I feel decently versed enough in the basics of the game now to at least feel like I can formulate basic thoughts. Coming into this series with this first entry and having close to no exposure to the game beforehand, I can't really comment on how alike this might be to the previous entries and the like, but what I can say, is that I absolutely love what's going on here to the point where Nintendo's inability to craft an online experience that doesn't feel 15 years outdated isn't enough to dampen the experience by all that much. Nintendo's always had a real knack for being able to craft very easy and accessible entry points into a more intimidating genre, and this take on an arena shooter is certainly no exception.

The thing that immediately stands out to me is how strong the aesthetic of the game is and the strong way the art direction ends up feeding back into the core gameplay. Fighting it out in these sprawling urban environments that were once the ruins of a time long past evokes such a wonderful vibe of "the world might have ended at one point but we're not going to let that stop us from having a great time", which when mixed with the super cartoony, goofy nature of the game as a whole makes it feel inherently fun to just mess around in the various arenas presented to you. The way that there can be such varied landscapes while keeping things constantly clear is where this further shines however, always feeling like natural extensions of the world around the player, yet being instantly intuitive at the same time, despite the visual language of the game not quite being as 100% overt and clear cut as I've come to expect from games like this. Basically every mode feels really fun as well thanks to that core dynamic of shooting contributing to mobility, tying the whole idea of shooting and covering the ground rewarding you not just with accomplishing the goal of a lot of the multiplayer modes, but being a more intrinsically rewarding element of gameplay due to it opening the door for more advanced and satisfying movement as a result.

The basic turf war is the perfect entry point into this genre with the way it de-emphasises precise aim while still having it as a relevant elements of gameplay, with making the central objective to hit the ground a lot immediately shaking things up in a way that makes you feel like you're able to contribute to something even if you're a pretty bad shot. Other tools like the roller further contribute to this by making you feel more or less just as useful while having a playstyle that's more strongly focused on positioning and movement over the gunplay elements, making it feel as if there are a lot of options present even for those who are new and a bit hesitant to jump straight into a more precise playstyle. This isn't to say that this is entirely devoid of nuance or strategy either, it's just that it feels a bit more directed towards certain other elements of gameplay instead, notably being able to more cleverly position yourself and read the flow of the battle to know your best course of action, all of this ultimately being pretty low stakes and breezy thanks to the 3 minute match length. More than anything it just ends up being an incredibly fun time through and through which is especially cool considering I normally find myself not getting all too into online games.

The single player campaign further reinforces a lot of my love for the rest of the game due to the way it basically acts as an extended tutorial in the form of a clever, creative 3D platformer. I love the way that basically every level serves to teach the player how to utilise a certain mechanic or technique that will help them with the rest of the game or at the very last will show off different situations in which these are applicable, all while keeping a strong sense of variety and appeal in their own right. Each level has its own unique gimmick with the vast majority of them being rather engaging, and even if they're often a bit on the easier and shorter side, the more open ended nature of how the player is able to tackle these obstacles makes for an appealing time that is able to teach the player not just how to use things in their simplest forms, but how to think on their feet and adapt to the situation ahead of them, which is a clever way of conveying more abstract concepts that need to be learned to get the most out of the multiplayer. The constant moments of pure spectacle also add a lot, with great setpieces like climbing up a tower as it slowly sinks into the water, or the entire final fight especially being highlights in this regard, being really awesome in a comfy cartoon sort of way.

As a whole, I still do think there are some inconsistencies with Splatoon 3 as a whole however. There are multiple elements of the game that feel woefully underexplained, as if they expected the majority of people to play this already being fans of prior games, the internet connectivity can be atrocious at times with the constant communication errors, and the single player, despite being really fun, has a strangely erratic difficulty curve, but even despite all this, I still wholeheartedly have been loving my time with this game so far. It strikes a perfect balance between accessibility and nuance, the gyro controls feel like the only acceptable way to play a shooter on controller now, and the vibes are just absolutely immaculate. Everything radiates fun and just feels like the kind of experience you can pick up and play at basically any time and end up getting absorbed for hours and I just feel like it's a game that will get even better with time if it keeps getting attention from the devs.