Once upon a time, the original Splatoon felt like a big, beautiful reward for those who threw down money for the poor, misguided WiiU. On the micro level, it was wild, wacky, and colorful in ways that too few games at the time were—like Nintendo had distilled all the gleeful memories of old-school Nickelodeon game shows and married them with a 21st-century brand of pop-punk. On the macro level, it was also a big swing with a new IP, something we hadn’t seen from the Nintendo nostalgia factory in years, and as of 2022 it still remains something of a rarity (the last one, the Switch launch title ARMS, at least gets points for trying).
It should be said that Splatoon 3 is all those things. There’s certainly a sizable amount of joy and creativity contained within it, and aside from the delightful but shallow Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, it’s still in a class mostly by itself in terms of a modern competitive multiplayer game that doesn’t solely rely on how good the player can snipe. But if Splatoon 2 represents a honeymoon period, then this sequel finds the series settling in and starting to fall into Nintendo’s most frustrating habit of iterating old ideas rather than innovating them.
Splatoon as a series is certainly not as far gone as, say, Pokémon had been before Arceus. The biggest saving grace is Splatoon 3’s single-player campaign, a semi-open world affair that takes players into an underground research facility buried under desert wastelands. Here, players get to explore the long-abandoned futuristic ruins that humanity has left behind, uncovering a well-conceived and fascinating story of why anthropomorphic sea creatures now rule the Earth. Horizon Zero Dawn this isn’t, though, as there’s a light, quirky touch to everything, bolstered by our two new pseudo-antagonists, Shiver and Frye, and their big, dumb manta ray companion.
The game is largely just a framework to contain the approximately 70 or so immaculately designed platforming and puzzle stages that make up the campaign, throughout which subtle and effective work has gone into the introduction of every nuance without it ever feeling like it’s one big tutorial for the multiplayer—even though that’s largely what it is. But even here the game has a trick up its sleeve. Whereas Splatoon 2’s story mode felt perfunctory until the DLC, Splatoon 3’s is as creative as it is varied. It’s challenging without being frustrating, and rewarding in all the best ways, openly inviting players to forge their own path to the endgame.
Still, especially for those who were dedicated enough to experience Splatoon 2’s DLC, this is largely more of the same for this series, and aside from the added lore, there’s not much to justify why this game stands alone instead of just being more DLC for the previous game. That’s a minor nitpick for the single-player, but a rather pressing concern for the multiplayer, which, aside from two new evasive maneuvers that I’ve yet to see actually make a difference on the playing field, is mechanically identical to its predecessor in nearly every way.
That isn’t to say the multiplayer is totally devoid of interest. Splatfests—seasonal civil wars for territory in the Splatoon games—are now three-way dances for dominion, which is a nice twist. Salmon Run, Splatoon’s take on a horde mode, is now available all day, every day, instead of on Nintendo’s schedule. There’s also an intriguing card-based version of Turf War built into the game that lets you see the seeds of something obsessively fun when it opens up to other players, presumably, at some point down the line. And, yes, it’s nice that the multiplayer lobby is an actual practice space that you can wander around while you wait.
But even that remains a step down from the obsessively fun vertical scrolling platform game you could play while waiting for a full game of eight players in the original Splatoon. It feels strange to complain about simply getting more of a good thing, but Splatoon is still a young and creatively fertile series that can do even more, and should. At present, Splatoon 3 is a good game that could very easily evolve into a great one. The single-player campaign is, largely, proof of that. But it’s far too soon for a series this unique to feel like it’s already in “ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mode. Splatoon is one of the coolest things to happen on Nintendo’s platforms in the 21st century. The least it could do is follow its own advice and try to stay fresh.
This game was reviewed with code provided by Golin.
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Seems this article is written from a beginner level perspective – while the online multiplayer experience has a ways to go until the speed/connectivity is optimized, real Splatoon players know that multiplayer experience is much improved in Splatoon 3. Author doesn’t strike me as a motion controls user but the stability of your aim while using motion is SO much better than Splatoon 2. While opinions aren’t wrong, to say that the single player campaign is the only thing that saved this game is just incorrect.