SPLATOON 3
Another fine mess… ★★★★★ OUT NOW SWITCH
Stay fresh!’ was the motto of 2015’s Splatoon, a vibrant and typically offbeat Nintendo take on the multiplayer shooter, in which two teams of four squid-like characters competed to mark territory in their squad’s ink.
Seven years on and two sequels later, and there are signs that those fashion-focused Inklings aren’t quite as vital as they once were. Splatoon 3 is a refinement of a refinement: it feels less a sequel to 2017’s huge-selling Splatoon 2 than an expansive update. But its cephalopod heroes have evolved just enough to make it worth diving in – those predecessors aside, there’s still nothing else on the market quite like it.
Since ink is both your ammunition and your method of traversal, it’s only right that there should be more ways to shoot and get around.
All weapons from the first two games return, alongside a windscreen-wiper blade that’s deadly in close quarters and a bow that fires a trio of shots. Meanwhile, new specials range from a crab tank to an explosive shark. Inklings can surge up and over walls to surprise opponents, or pull off backwards spin-jumps that deflect enemy ink in a pinch.
Otherwise, gameplay is rooted in the standard Turf War, albeit with a host of new stages, including a sun-baked gorge and a seaside fish market, joining a generous selection of favourites from the first two – making for a more complete package at launch than its immediate precursor. The co-operative wave-based Salmon Run, meanwhile, is no longer bound to a timed schedule, letting you take a shift at any time. Here, the golden eggs you’re tasked with retrieving can be thrown towards the basket, a time-saver offset by a range of deadly newcomers – including kaiju-sized special enemies that occasionally show up for an exhilarating climactic round.
Nintendo has once again built a captivating world around all this, its busy city hub enjoyable simply to mooch around (and take selfies in) between matches. Which is why it’s disappointing that its single-player mode leaves the urban sprawl behind, instead setting its story within an icy archipelago where you’ll find a host of smartly designed but overly familiar obstacle courses. The exciting, grandiose finale almost feels out of step with the rest: a burst of invention and spectacle of the kind that’s conspicuously lacking elsewhere. Still, if Splatoon 3 isn’t the leap forward it could have been, those splattery skirmishes haven’t grown stale just yet.