i've realized just how comparatively hard it is to get existing friends into splatoon after introducing a friend to it
games like valorant, overwatch, paladins, pretty much every game i play with friends is free to play
these have in game voice chat, easy to understand menus, and feel designed around playing with friends
splatoon meanwhile has a $60 price tag, no voice chat, doesn't have any support for discord,
and instead of having a menu the game drops you into the hub world after beating the tutorial
i feel like these other games are made with the idea that you bring your friend group into it and so they lower the barrier to entry as low as possible
splatoon in comparison feels like a game that you make friends through playing and joining the community.

i think this helps splatoon stand out and makes it more unique, and creates a dedicated community of players.

Playing this every few weeks with friends has been and continues to be a great time. Technically, this game works wonders on an extremely dated console and the core gameplay is awesome. This is my first game in the franchise and it's easy to understand why this series has elicited such a positive response from Nintendo fans.

That said, I have no real desire to jump into the single player or spend significant amounts of time playing solo. At this point, the game is just too competitive for me with a lot of very experienced players and a tough as nails Salmon Run mode. Multiplayer games in general have a tough time grabbing me at this stage in my life and it's probably more of a me problem, but I'm content to leave this as a game I play with friends. When it's fun though, it's excellent.

Splatoon 3 is another incremental sequel in the franchise, but unlike its predecessor, serves very little purpose as a unique product. Yes, Splatoon 3 is quality and is the best game in the trilogy, but how much does saying that really matter when it is clearly so similar to Splatoon 2 that released half a decade before it. The single player campaign did entertain me, and the lore of these games have always been fascinating to me, but outside of that it doesn't feel very unique when compared to the Octo Expansion. Outside of the undeniably incredible new lobby, the multiplayer changes are interesting, however don't feel superior to what came before it, rather just different. I am honestly of the belief that a third Splatoon game would have benefited being reserved for a new system, but Splatoon 3 should still be entertaining for hardcore fans and newcomers.

Я не грав в попередні частини і тому мені важко оцінити її як тим хто пройшов та награв багато годин у неї.

Щоб повністю відчути все, що дає гра, я пройшов сюжетну лінію. Сама по собі сюжетка доволі проста але як же талановито і творчо підійшли творці до розробки рівнів, локацій, загадок.

Особливо хочеться згадати музику, вона неперевершена, в плані самого жанру і стилю, це щось дуже абсурдне і попсове, важке і в той час електронне з додатками джазу.

До сюжетки я тільки грав в мультіплеер та досі продовжую, це завжди цікаво і особливо коли ще є з ким зібратись у команду. Так є свої мінуси в плані технічному або юзер експіріенсу але сподіваюсь, що в новій частині вони прислухаються до фанатів та виправлять їх.

Загалом, я високо оцінюю цю гру, саме за геймплей, реіграбельність, дизайн, музику та багато чого іншого

Before I begin, I want to clarify that while story mode is great, I’m focusing on multiplayer here.

I adore this game. Splatoon 3 is a blast to play with friends, with the game housing a strong community, creative art style, unique gameplay and a lot of weapon variety. Each game mode offers something fun and interesting while offering gameplay variety, and the number of different weapons with different play styles means there’s something for all kinds of people and most people can find at least one weapon they enjoy. but in fairness, a lot of that goes for splatoon in general. splatoon 3 added stringers and splatanas along with some new main weapons, but those points apply to splatoon as a whole.

But 3 builds on 1 and 2 in ways that make the game so much more enjoyable. Slight reworks to Rainmaker and Clam Blitz, for example (checkpoints and decreased clams needed for a football respectively), do wonders for the two modes. And on the subject of ranked, open ranked is a fantastic addition. It makes ranked easier to play with friends and allows for a less stressful setting to play ranked, without the higher stakes of series mode. Getting into ranked modes is so much less daunting in 3 compared to 1 and 2, and I think that’s a great thing. Salmon Run is also always open rather than the weird schedule system used in 2, which… okay, that shouldn’t have been a thing to begin with but still an improvement. Stylistically, 3 almost has a more matured look compared to 1 and 2 that makes the game look so much better than its predecessors. Squid rolling is such a nice movement technique that, for being just one new change, makes movement and gameplay feel a lot better when you know how to use it. And as a Range Blaster main I am obligated to point out that Intensify Action improving jump RNG is a blessing for blasters, it makes me so happy. This only scratches the surface of the great things 3 adds that make it so much fun to play.

I think 3 has a lot of double-edged swords though. For one, 3 has a whopping 19 possible specials for a weapon to have. On one hand, it means there’s room for a lot more kit variety, but in execution it means that specials end up being way more limited since fewer weapons get each special, and sometimes a special will go several seasons without getting a new kit. While I think the variety is great, there’s just too many specials. This problem is made worse by the other big double-edged sword for me of seasons. 3 does big updates every three months, adding new weapons, gear, and stages. There are some ways where this is cool, it makes updates feel more exciting, the catalog that comes with each season is fun to fill, and it’s fun to get together with friends when a new season drops to mess around with the new weapons and stages. In execution, however, I despise seasons. Updates feel way slower, and it ends up feeling way worse when a weapon you were waiting to see a new kit for has to wait another three months before it has a chance to get a new kit. Not to mention, the amount of weapons released each season has dropped a notable amount each season compared to launch, which has made weapon releases feel even slower than they already are.

And for the straight up bad, jesus christ Splatoon 3 stage design is just not good. There aren’t many truly great stages, and many of the really good stages from earlier games became worse in 3. They’re smaller, often lacking flank routes, and a lot of maps end up being completely shut down by snipers who can reach the majority of the map without leaving spawn. And there are some maps that are genuinely atrocious in certain modes, like Hammerhead Bridge in Clam Blitz. Maps in 3 shouldn’t be for every mode, because some maps don’t translate well into every mode, and need to be bigger and offer more flank routes and options. There’s also some balancing decisions (AHEM zero startup lag for Trizooka) that just… don’t feel great to play, especially as a casual. And for the weapons themselves, Nintendo seems to want to balance the game around shooters being the best class, and they also really like to make gimmick kits for weapons?? Like, Undercover Brella's base kit is designed around the gimmick of being a spy, but the kit is absolutely atrocious for the weapon. It's... not a great balancing philosophy.

There’s a lot more I haven’t said for both Splatoon 3’s strengths and weaknesses. Like I haven’t even touched on Splatfests and Salmon Run all that much (especially Big Run oh my god there’s a lot of praise I can sing for Big Run). Splatoon 3 is a big, complicated game. And I adore it to bits. While Splatoon 3 is certainly one of my favorite games and is a 5/5 in my heart, the bad map design makes me lower my grade if I look at the game objectively. I just adore this game a lot, and it means a lot to me. The game’s issues aside, 3 is fantastic and is a very important game to me.

after abandoning it originally back in 2022 when it came out, thanks to xenoblade 3 and its amazing side content consuming my life, I have finally come back and finished the main story of splatoon 3. i needed a game to hold me over until No Rest For The Wicked released. and wow, yeah, i should've finished it sooner. that finale was fucking awesome. the singleplayer is, of course, quite fun. the lore was actually super sick this time around too! but man... nothing about this game shouts innovation to me. nothing about it seems worthy of an entire new game on the same system as the last game. its basically just doing the splatoon 1/2 singleplayers again, with some octo expansion type levels in there too, but now with smallfry (who i barely used outside of clearing fuzzy ooze). and thats just... disappointing to me. even the multiplayer is basically just more of the same. Its not like i wanted them to remove the previous gamemodes, but they couldn't at least add a couple? we got clam blitz out of Splatoon 2, but we got no new gamemodes here, and barely anything else new in the game either. it really sucks to see. I love this series, been a fan since the early days of splatoon 1! so I say this from a place of love: despite it being a great game, i just can't help but feel let down. I still need to play side order, that very well could be the originality i'm looking for like octo expansion was for splatoon 2, but until then... lets just hope that splatoon 4 is more than this.

Never finished the main campaign back when the game first came out so I thought I’d give it another shot in preparation for Side Order and it’s…fine? I don’t know, it kinda lands like a wet fart after Octo Expansion but that’s what happens when you set the bar too high. I ultimately enjoyed my time with it but half the levels felt like a slog to play through and after three games, the aesthetics are no longer interesting enough to carry it. Three games in and it already feels like Splatoon is running out of ink.

(This is purely a review of the single player campaign. I have no intention of diving into the multiplayer side of the game and therefore cannot judge it on that front)

A lot of my problems with this game are things lifted from Splatoon 2, and tripled down on. As a quick recap - 2's Maps are smaller and WAY more focused on nonstop PVP. Splatoon as a concept was designed originally for people who weren't really into traditional shooters, the maps in the original game were big enough to give you breathing room and genuinely strategize on how to help your team even if you couldn't 1v4 the enemy. Now in 3 maps are so cramped that some barely even feature floors to heckin ink dude. It's a nonstop teamfight and it sucks. I was never this actively frustrated playing 1 or even 2 despite the problem cropping up there. Even games where my team ends up winning I find I'm just straight up not having any fun.
Sploon 3's improvements are small but felt really cool at first. The lobby is nice, not locking hairstyles to gender is HUGE for making the male inkling a viable aesthetic choice. The hub is unnecessarily large which is nice coming off of 2's miniscule hub. Salmon run is more properly integrated and feels worth playing now. There's more to unlock than ever with a rotating free battle pass and daily loot box along with a fully customizable locker.

But at the end of the day, I find I'm only playing for worthless FOMO content. They really have us out here grinding for 50+ hours for a dabbing emote, png's, and objects to put in your locker that do absolutely nothing. Man having 2 of these games on the same console already really harshes the "keep it FRESH" counter culture anti-online shooter nature the series was founded on...But if I'm gonna be grinding out meaningless slop content I'd probably genuinely have a better time playing one of this game's contemporaries that have got this trash down to a science. Another splatoon comes and goes and I'm still a bit let down by how few stand out character customization options there are. Ten years of them drip feeding just a morsel of new pants and hairstyle options and almost nothing else has me going delirious.

And while I enjoy Salmon run's implementation more here...What the hecc is big run? I kept hearing people clamoring for it for a few months and we finally get it and it's just Salmon Run but on one of the turf war maps? Is this where we are that we're waiting months for lazy asset flip content? I just don't get it.

Complete with a fourth campaign that I've lost any and all tolerance for. An absolute snoozefest that's supposedly taking after the octo expansion? Idk, the octo expansion was already taking after base splatoon 2, which was "inspired" by the nothing single player of the original game. Batting 0 for 4 with no legitimate improvements here had me feeling burnt out and not wanting to even finish the incredibly short campaign. It's got some actual boss fights so it's better than octo expansion I guess, can't say I remember anything about any of 'em besides one of them being a mario sunshine reference - Love when mid games reference significantly better games to inject artificially positive feelings~ The lore additions aren't as interesting as Octo Expansion though so eh it's really whatever.

Splatoon 2 was carried for me by Pearl and Marina, their dialogue/dynamic made the Splatfests fun to participate in. I didn't even once use any of the crystal mushroom things you get, I just enjoyed playing 'em for the sake of it. That and the devs basically admitted they ruined turf war by making the only good turf war maps exclusive to the splatfests. They were a highlight of 2 that gave me the fun I needed to have positive associations with the game. This time around there's no splatfest exclusive maps, so even these events are hurt by the pvp first focus that Splatoon as a concept was designed to not be about. And I really tried but I just can't get into the new idols. I barely even know what they're babbling about half the time and I find their dialogue pretty dry and I don't really closely identify with any of them enough to fight for their side. The prompts are pretty mid and the system doesn't seem very well thought out as they've had to change it four times already. There was criticism towards how 2's victor was handled but I never felt like what I did didn't matter like in 3. 2's results being rigged was more of a conspiracy theory and in-joke than legitimate major design issues that hurt the experience much. Just like the normal game itself, Sploon 3 has me annoyed and feeling empty even when I do win. For the first time I found myself actively not caring when a Splatfest came around. I've done a handful of them but the tri battles aren't strong enough in their implementation to carry how nothing the rest of the experience is now. In 1 and 2 I always tried so hard to participate in as many splatfests as possible, rarely missing one. But 3? Yawn. Callie and Marie are sisters, Pearl and Marina are all but confirmed dating (I'm not usually a shipping type but I love these 2), but these 3 feel like co-workers that are at most throwing very surface level competitive jabs, not able to really cut very deep at any point. Pearl and Marina would get so fired up but these 3 sometimes can't even decide what side they themselves want to be on. 2's so quotable and full of lines that catch you off guard. 3's dialogue feels so phoned in and devoid of stakes.

Hec they let you skip the news now so that's probably why they put less effort into a good localization. Gamers just wanna grind their CONTENT they don't want EFFORT just let them GRIND. Genuinely any change to make the majority happy is a bad decision when it comes to gaming. I remember people debating the Japanese culture of curated experiences when the original game came out. America likes to preach the customer is always right, but anyone who's worked anywhere can tell you, they most certainly are not. I'll take a nonconventional approach made to give a legitimate experience over something that sheepishly gives into peer pressure and gives us nothing. Make Splatoon 4's news screens twice as long as 2's to filter out half the audience please. They've got restaurants in Japan where you have to literally catch your own fish before it gets cooked. Americans above the age of 40 can't even handle self check out machines that have been around for 20 years man don't listen to us.

The idea that I've just outgrown the series popped into my head so when I went to go visit my family I dug out their now extremely crusty, disheveled wiiU who's gamepad can NOT hold a charge to save its life...And I just had a blast playing the original game. Instead of the unfun uphill 1v4 feeling of modern Splatoon I was inking the walls and strategizing and flanking. With maps and weapons that were expansive enough to foster a healthy level of direct combat instead of it being the ENTIRE focus...And without all the slop slapped on to justify the existence of a sequel it just felt like a coherent experience instead of a complete chaotic mess. I wasn't just hopelessly grinding battle passes like any other generic online game...I was just playing because it was inherently fun, because the first Sploon was made to be the exact opposite of the unfun state online shooters had found themselves in. Watched a compilation of all the Splatfest debates 2 had and it was consistently a joy to revisit, and I'm so glad I was there to play them all live. I have my problems with 2 but it was a really fun game to follow. Here we are at the third installment and not only is it not fresh anymore, the series itself has forgotten why it was made to begin with and became what it used to stand against.

On a somewhat positive note I guess, I'll never understand the universal hatred Nintendo's online gets. Obviously it varies on location I'm sure and I don't wanna completely white knight them. It's a topic that warrants its own focused essay to properly do justice...But in most cases Nintendo's online works just fine. If it was truly anywhere near as bad as reputation would imply the Switch itself would never have popped off, a huge percentage of the library is online-first in its focus and the games are good BECAUSE the online is there. Like yeah they're missing some standard conventions in a lot of cases but if I wanna play mario kart online I can do that, same with mario party, tennis, smash, splatoon. It literally just works. Tends to be pretty no frills attached but Nintendo has ALWAYS competed with a high amount of actual games to play. 20$ a year with the Switch's lineup is giving a lot more value than over three times the cost on the competitor's side. That said sploon 3 succ I genuinely prefer Foamstars by a landslide 'boutta drop 100$ to play that online for a year or something 'cuz my PSPlus expired this month and I sad that I'm stucc with sploon 3 when Foamstars is a much better designed game in almost every way. But uh, +1 to the online working perfectly fine, Nintendo's online is no different than any of the other guys. I say as an American who's pretty sure we have some of the most genuinely trash internet options in the world in a lot of states.

Oh yeah they added some card mode thing. Was kinda into it and was waiting for them to add online matchmaking to it. Don't think that even ended up happening, so yawn.

Also dog did they really announce paid DLC that lets you use the hub world from the first game and then you'd have to wait a whole year for yet another mediocre single player experience? Was that any good? Dunno if I'll ever bother with it 'cuz this series really just gets worse every time they put out more content. Idk if I've just lost all tolerance but updates for this game in general really felt abysmally slow. Less dripfeed over a long time and more...absolutely nothing for months then the updates don't feel big enough to warrant the wait. I'll prolly look into it soon 'cuz Chaos winning the final splatfest in the previous game felt like it was leading up to something really exciting. Pearl went on about how things staying the same predictable thing is LAME. Leading into the most safe, inoffensive game in the series is such a missed opportunity. Splatoon 2's canonical ending we all fought for was an excuse for 3 to be completely insane and change everything. Then maybe it wouldn't have been such a nothing sequel fighting an uphill battle to justify itself.

-You're a kid now, you're a focus tested milked dry franchise with all positive qualities drained out noooowwww, you're a kid now, you're a-