My first instinct was to regard this as a “flawed, but promising” take on the game-night horror boom - but as the experience sat with me, Ive started to realize: I dont think this game has a soul. I dont believe that the game itself' believes in its concept. Much like its subject matter, this feels like a stunt. A toothy-grinning facade hoping to capture nothing but attention, like a decoy predator. A skinwalker, a doppelganger. A veneer. It almost tricked me, almost got in.

Which isnt to say the game is nefarious. What Im saying is, I dont think its… well-meant. Theres an obscured hollowness to it. A fakeness. Plastic, dressed to look warm but when you touch it all you feel is cold - and there is a low-level deceptiveness to that. Your nerves sense it, they fill you with distrust. I withhold my trust from it.

For as much as I love the original Splatoon, I have to admit that I wear rose-tinted glasses when I play this game. Splatoon 2 improved a lot in terms of player experience, and Splatoon 3 was polished to a glowing sheen. But every IP needs to start somewhere, and that start was on the black sheep of a console: The Wii U.

I really wanted to pick up this game again before the servers went down, and I'm glad I did. It reminded me how ambitious this title was for Nintendo, and how it was one of their most unique IPs in a long time. It also reminded me of good memories almost 10 years ago (oH no I'm getting old ACK). To say I look back on this title fondly is an understatement, so I will try my hardest to be unbiased in this review.

Splatoon was Nintendo's family friendly take on the third person shooter genre. It was also their most ambitious online game yet. While previous titles only offered online connectivity as a fun leaderboard thing or as a side mode, Splatoon was one of Nintendo's first games to be primarily played online. The single player content took a backseat to the main draw of the game: 4v4 paintball battles.

It didn't initially start with the inklings we know and love, but it seems obvious in hindsight. Being able to hide in ground you've painted was an innovative concept, and the turf war game mode was a fresh twist on the genre instead of solely focusing on PKs. The strategy was very different to other shooters at the time, as sometimes you wanted to PK and other times you wanted to be frantically inking the ground before time ran out. Ranked mode switched it up when turf got boring, with Rainmaker, Tower Control, Splat Zones, and more!

Now, how well does it hold up today? Splatoon 1 has some signs of aging that are especially noticeable if you've put any time into its two sequels. Of course, its running on the Wii U, so the ink has less shine to it and some of the models are a little jagged, not to mention that online matches can drop frames more often than the switch entries. Lots of QOL features are missing, like being able to change gear between matches and seeing what weapons each team has at the top of the screen. And while Splatoon 3 uses largely the same physics as Splatoon 2, The original Splatoon's physics feel off. Aiming isn't as sensitive and movement can feel clunky at times (try swimming up a curved slope without bonking!) but it has its own charm to it in a way.

In contrast, using the gamepad for the map is a DREAM. Being able to see the map without obscuring your main view is fantastic, and touch controls for super-jumping is surprisingly intuitive. I wish I could use the gamepad for modern Splatoon games, seriously.

Finally, as far as actual content goes, it is much simpler than the switch entries, lacking weapon staples like the dualies and brellas. The specials in Splatoon 1 are crazy OP though, there are TWO specials that make you invincible. Not to mention bomb rush's incredible strength to turn the tide of battle! In many ways, I feel like the simple loadout offerings only add to the charm of the game. It plays a little slower, but more strategically as well, since your opponents can be more predictable.

Is it a good game to play in the current year? Well, no. I'm writing this the day that the Wii U and 3DS servers shut down, so playing it is kinda hard unless you want to use a server replacement like Pretendo. If you've played either of the sequels on switch, it's largely more of the same. Many people got into the franchise with Splatoon 2, and I don't think those people would enjoy the slower, clunkier nature of the original.

However, if you did play Spoon 1 all those years ago, when the switch was still known as project NX, then a few matches might be a fantastic way to spend an evening!

God, I'll miss this game...

A really fun and surprisingly more substantial game than i was expecting. Unlike Tetris 99, every mode in this game is free and there are always active events that you can participate in, in addition to the default 99 mode. There's even an offline practice mode and some customization options for you car, which doesn't really affect game-play at all but is cool nonetheless.

The actual game-play in 99 mode is very hectic and most of the time it doesn't feel like you have too much control over what's going on, but somehow I still found it fun, and if that's not your style there are other game-modes offered in the events section such as classic races. The UI design in my opinion is way better than Tetris 99, and one really cool detail I'd like to mention is that there are a ton of references to and usages of classic F-ZERO art, which I found really cool.

This game definitely goes above whatever expectations I had for a free F-ZERO game and is an awesome and much needed bonus reason to actually pay for Nintendo Switch online.