Review: Splatoon 2

Charlie Visconage
Jul 30, 2017 · 5 min read

Title: Splatoon 2
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release date:
7/21/17
Price: $60 ($47.99 if you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber)
Players: 1 (Single player campaign, online multiplayer, online co-op, local networked co-op, but no split screen play as of this writing.)

Walk around Inkopolis Square. Check out some truly fantastic artwork made by other players, often in painstaking detail. Take some screenshots and tweet them to your friends (optional but highly recommended). Get some new gear, maybe a new weapon. Enter the lobby. Connect to a match. Begin the match, and INK YOUR SPAWN, DAMN IT. Splat a few enemies, but mainly make sure your map is covered in your team’s color (my favorite is teal). Feel the rush of minute left in the game as the music amps up to over 100 beats per minute. Try to find those last minute spots, maybe splat a few people or you may get splatted at the last minute. The whistle blows. That’s a game! Your team’s cat, Judd, will either bathe in the cool waters of victory, or schlump over in the agony of defeat.

This is the core loop of Splatoon 2, and why I’ve put in over 40 hours of playtime even though Splatoon 2 has only been out for 9 days as of this writing.

Nintendo’s original Splatoon, released in late May of 2015 for the Wii U, represented one of the console’s best hopes for a fresh IP to re-invigorate the base of this mis-marketed, under-appreciated console. I can recall the base of players drying up as September and October of that year rolled around. The Wii U only sold 13.5 million consoles throughout its entire lifespan (2012–2016), so it makes sense that the other Inklings just weren’t there after the initial excitement of its release.

The Switch, meanwhile, has sold nearly 5 million consoles since being released in March, and it shows no sign of slowing down. If you’re reading this and want one, I’m sure you’ve had a difficult time trying to track one down since retailers can barely keep them in stock. Sorry y’all.

For those that do have a Switch, READ ON.

Splatoon 2 iterates on the Wii U original’s formula rather than rewriting it, but since so few people experienced it to begin with, it will likely stay fresh for the Switch crowd. The premise is this — you’re an Inkling in Inkopolis. X-Zibit heard you like ink so much that he put ink in your ink to ink things. Pimp My Ride Jokes aside, when you first load up Splatoon 2, there’s a central hub where you can buy better gear or weapons, connect to other Switch players via local co-op, upload shockingly realistic photos, participate in Splatfests, play the single player campaign, and play online.

Online is the real meat of the Splatoon 2 experience. Annoyingly, you can’t alter your loadout once connected to a match, so you must choose wisely. Once in the waiting area, you have to wait until 8 total players are connected for a match to begin. I love the fact that matches are relatively short, so even if you’re on a losing team one round, teammates get shuffled around for the next set, increasing your chances of success the next time around. The fun of Splatoon 2 lies in inking as much territory as possible when the round starts, hopefully charging up your special ability to let it loose before your first enemy contact. These special abilities are tied to your main weapon and range from missiles that lock on to enemy players, an ink jetpack/ink grenade launcher combo, a curling bomb launcher, and more. Despite a common ink ammo set, the developers did a great job making all the weapons feel crunchy and distinct. The new Dualies are my favorite so far, but the tried and true rollers and machine guns are also incredibly satisfying. There’s also shotgun-like buckets and brushes. I did not invest in the $30 Splat n’ Chat headset, but I can definitely picture the necessity of voice chat, especially when a teammate plunges headlong into inking other players rather than your own territory and you just want to scream at them to play the objective.

There’s also ranked play, which is accessible after reaching level 10 or higher. Don’t sleep on this mode, if only because the objectives are completely different than regular online play. The modes include Rainmaker, where there’s a single all-powerful weapon on the map that has to be dropped off near the opposing team’s spawn, Tower Control, a kill of the hill type mode except the hill is constantly in motion, and Splat Zone, a more traditional king of the hill mode. Needless to say, the other players in Ranked Modes are REALLY good. Sometimes it’s a little demoralizing how quickly they will cream you. But winning feels even sweeter against slightly more serious Inklings.

Not to be missed is the new co-op mode, Salmon Run. This horde mode features murderous fish in the form of minions and unique bosses. In this mode, you’re stripped of any weapons or gear you’ve bought, and are “loaned” one of whichever 4 weapons are available at that time. It should be noted that Salmon Run is not a constantly available mode as of the time of this writing, which is frustrating because it’s awesome. Hot tip: check your menu for the times when it’s available, the times are not posted outside of Grizzco in the main Inkpolis hub. When you’ve got a great team of 3 other people, it feels so harmonious to splat killer fish, a giant whale that comes up out of the ink, or a mean eel that drives what looks like a street sweeper. My crackpot theory is that Nintendo may be testing out their server loads for Salmon Run while waiting to roll out their online service in 2018. Or it’s a bizarro design decision that will stay that way forever, what do I know?

Finally, there’s the campaign mode. Candidly, I’ve only spent 2–3 hours playing the campaign, exclusively in handheld mode when I’ve had to travel in the last week or so. It’s fun! Just not as fun as the online modes. The campaign follows Callie and Marie, the hosts of Splatoon 1’s Inkpolis Square show. You battle lots of tentacled monsters and engage in some light puzzle-solving. You can also unlock weapons and items for multiplayer, such as meal tickets for Crusty Sean’s food truck. So it’s worth engaging in for that alone.

Control-wise, Splatoon 2 follows the conventions of modern twin stick shooters, but with a twist. It sets motion controls for assisted aiming as a default in both docked and handheld mode. It’s initially a little jarring, so I recommend investing some time in finding the right sensitivity level. While using the unnecessarily expensive but comfortable Pro Controller, I found that “0” on both sensitivity and vertical aim worked best. Comparatively, in handheld mode “-1” for both was slightly better. Although motion controls are addressed in the brief tutorial mode, a little more documentation on fine-tuning them would be great to have from Nintendo. I also find that my accuracy with motion controls is great after 3 cups of black coffee or a cocktail.

For now, there seems to be a hungry set of people ready to play at all hours of the day. If this community continues to participate remains to be seen, but Nintendo has promised to support Splatoon 2 with Splatfests and free DLC over the next two years, which will hopefully keep people invigorated and coming back.

Splatoon 2 displays a high level of polish and represents the best of what the Switch is marketing to gamers: a fun, polished experience that’s competitive but not toxic. Get it, already!

Charlie Visconage

Written by

I’m a visual artist living in Washington, DC and I also love video games. See my art at www.visconage.com.

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