I love Splatoon. I've been playing it since the Wii U days. So when they announced the third game was coming to Switch I was beyond excited. As great as Splatoon 2 was, I had a lot of issues with it. Things like matchmaking taking too long, there only being 4 ranked modes that were on rotation, and the map rotation system was still something I found annoying.
Now that the game's been out for almost a year. While I can say I enjoy the game, and it is an improvement upon it's sequel in many ways, I still have my issues..
Firstly is the games ranked mode, now referred to as "Anarchy Battles". These are still just as fun as in the previous games, even moreso now that you can finally team up with your friends. I think it's lame that it barely counts towards your actual rank progression, but that's fine because I never cared about that anyway. And this is a game I will very rarely play by myself to even bother with the games solo queue ranked mode.
Originally you couldn't switch your gear in between matches on ranked mode but that was only just RECENTLY fixed. I don't know why Nintendo continues to do dumb shit like that but at least it's in the game now.
Speaking of patches, the games rollout of new content feels a little less than desirable. The game has switched to a "season format" which I think actually works well for Splatoon. It's annoying that they lock the cosmetics behind the catalog and if you miss the season, then your only chance to get them is and RNG lotto machine.
The map selection in this game is.. okay. The returning maps are all pretty good. The Splatoon 2 maps are basically unchanged and the Splatoon 1 maps have the same layout but you can feel that a lot of time has progressed in them which I really like. However the new original maps are a bit too blocky. I get that every Splatoon map has to be symmetrical for fairness sakes but I just wish there was a little more variety. I know it's a common joke, but it really does feel like they built the new maps out of tetris blocks..
The music in the game is good as always. While I prefer 2s soundtrack, the music in 3 has a much more chaotic energy that reminds me of the first game a lot. And some of the tracks they've added post launch are really really good! I love the squid sisters and any song they're on.
Splatfests also don't feel as special now. I think doing them less often makes them feel less like an event? And we haven't gotten any Splat-o-ween or Holiday celebrations which sucks.
Other than that, my last complaint would have to be that we're still on the map/mode rotation system. This was okay during the Wii U days when there were less players so they had to force people into certain gamemodes. However now that the game is bigger than ever, I don't see why we can't pick from multiple ranked modes. And perhaps have the maps either be totally random, or picked from a pool a la Mario Kart. I get that people in ranked will play certain kits based on the map, but I think having a map voting system in at least turf war should be done. Or at the very least, have 3 maps in rotation at a time, that would make the problem less apparent.
I do like this game and will go back to it to play with friends or mess around in the singleplayer mode (which is very good btw) but it just doesn't have the same feeling as the previous entries. Hoping that changes over time though..
Now that the game's been out for almost a year. While I can say I enjoy the game, and it is an improvement upon it's sequel in many ways, I still have my issues..
Firstly is the games ranked mode, now referred to as "Anarchy Battles". These are still just as fun as in the previous games, even moreso now that you can finally team up with your friends. I think it's lame that it barely counts towards your actual rank progression, but that's fine because I never cared about that anyway. And this is a game I will very rarely play by myself to even bother with the games solo queue ranked mode.
Originally you couldn't switch your gear in between matches on ranked mode but that was only just RECENTLY fixed. I don't know why Nintendo continues to do dumb shit like that but at least it's in the game now.
Speaking of patches, the games rollout of new content feels a little less than desirable. The game has switched to a "season format" which I think actually works well for Splatoon. It's annoying that they lock the cosmetics behind the catalog and if you miss the season, then your only chance to get them is and RNG lotto machine.
The map selection in this game is.. okay. The returning maps are all pretty good. The Splatoon 2 maps are basically unchanged and the Splatoon 1 maps have the same layout but you can feel that a lot of time has progressed in them which I really like. However the new original maps are a bit too blocky. I get that every Splatoon map has to be symmetrical for fairness sakes but I just wish there was a little more variety. I know it's a common joke, but it really does feel like they built the new maps out of tetris blocks..
The music in the game is good as always. While I prefer 2s soundtrack, the music in 3 has a much more chaotic energy that reminds me of the first game a lot. And some of the tracks they've added post launch are really really good! I love the squid sisters and any song they're on.
Splatfests also don't feel as special now. I think doing them less often makes them feel less like an event? And we haven't gotten any Splat-o-ween or Holiday celebrations which sucks.
Other than that, my last complaint would have to be that we're still on the map/mode rotation system. This was okay during the Wii U days when there were less players so they had to force people into certain gamemodes. However now that the game is bigger than ever, I don't see why we can't pick from multiple ranked modes. And perhaps have the maps either be totally random, or picked from a pool a la Mario Kart. I get that people in ranked will play certain kits based on the map, but I think having a map voting system in at least turf war should be done. Or at the very least, have 3 maps in rotation at a time, that would make the problem less apparent.
I do like this game and will go back to it to play with friends or mess around in the singleplayer mode (which is very good btw) but it just doesn't have the same feeling as the previous entries. Hoping that changes over time though..