Games Turf wars with Jackson Pollock

It seems obvious in hindsight. An online shooter where headshotting your mates is totally irrelevant – why wouldn’t it be a smash hit? And so here we are with a second Splatoon just two years after the first game wrapped its inky tentacles around our heartstrings.

More of a Call of Duty-style sequel than a proper new game, Splatoon 2 polishes up the frenetic back and forth of its original while adding a few new extras into the luminous mix.

Know the difference between an Inkling and a Splat Roller? You’ll feel right at home after leaping into a Turf War again. Splatoon’s greatest calling card, this online mode gives you and your teammates three minutes trying to splash as much paint around the map as possible. Cover more of the place in effervescent goop than your opponents? You win. It’s an addictive formula that’ll wed you to your sofa for hours at a time.

Add to this a stack of extra multiplayer modes – including the all-new horde-based Salmon Run – and a breezy single-player affair that teaches you how to handle Splatoon’s vast array of weaponry, and that’s a lot of game for you to be getting on with.

So could Splatoon 2 be the next Overwatch? That depends on how its online play holds up once a slew of new Switch owners join the party. With voice chat and matchmaking with your mates all resting on the success of Nintendo’s free partner app, there’s still a lot this game needs to get right that we’ve haven’t got our hands on yet. For now, we can’t wait to join the fray again.