Get set to paint the town red (and blue and green)
WHAT a wild and crazy game Splatoon 3 is. It begins, in the far-flung future, with a news report announcing that, due to supply issues, the population will have to save energy by turning off the lights.
Actually, sorry, that sounds just like the mundane present, doesn’t it? But don’t worry: the rest of Splatoon 3 really is wild, crazy and tremendously fun.
This is the second sequel to the game that Nintendo released in 2015 to shake the online shooter out of its lethargy.
Instead of spraying bullets, you spray fluorescent ink. Instead of offing your enemies, you paint their territory. And instead of being a muscle-headed soldier, you’re a squid-kid in a cartoon world.
It felt brilliant then and, in Splatoon 3, it feels brilliant now. Except that’s also the problem: it is almost indistinguishable from its predecessors. It adds a few new moves and weapons, alongside some changes to the architecture of the game, but they’re refinements rather than revolutionary.
So why play it? Well, if you’ve put hundreds of hours into Splatoon and Splatoon 2, then you’ll certainly appreciate those refinements — and, besides, all your cephalopodic buddies are going to be moving here.
And if you’ve never played Splatoon before, this is the best place to start. It’s not just the joy and precision of the online matches. It’s also the generosity of the single- player campaign, which teaches you all the moves as you hunt for an electric whale whose theft caused the energy problems in the first place.
Now there’s a thought: anyone know where I can get my hands on an electric whale?