Splatoon 3 is finally here. Besides Xenoblade Chronicles 3, I would consider this one of my most anticipated games this year, and it did not disappoint.
While I do love the game, I can't deny the lack of original content is noticeable, and while I personally don't mind re-used weapons, stages, and assets if implemented correctly or at least is inoffensive, many people do. I don't find it lazy or necessarily a bad thing for Splatoon, since I actually enjoy playing on familiar maps and having my favorite weapons and gear from Splatoon 2 being present. However, that still does not excuse the sheer lack of new stuff, 4 new maps, 2 new weapon types, and a lot of quality of life improvements. Unlike my review of Mario Strikers Battle League, I'm much more optimistic and excited for future updates as I feel they'll do a good job at introducing new weapons, variations, and maps to spice things up.
Campaign was actually a huge surprise. This is the first Splatoon campaign besides Octo Expansion I actually 100% and invested a lot of time into. I loved exploring the overworld and the levels were always fun with little to no frustration along the way. Campaign has a lot more unique mechanics and gear as well, such as Splashdown and Little Buddy, while Splashdown isn't "new" it's not in any other mode, and felt it was implemented well. Little Buddy is essentially just a type of splat bomb, and I feel like they didn't really make full use of Little Buddy until near the end, but when he is utilized, it's very well done and fun. Overall, Campaign was a delightful experience I recommend, it's also a great learning tool for new players, but didn't feel like that compared to Splatoon 2's campaign, and not Octo Expansion.
Multiplayer is the same as always. Since there is no longer any Main Power Up, battles actually feel like they take skill to win at, at least more than Splatoon 2 for sure. Specials balancing feels a lot better in this game as well, though I've raised an eyebrow specifically at Trizooka for feeling especially powerful and can single-handedly turn a fight around from my personal experience. Besides that, every weapon actually feels useful in a team comp now as well, since the amount of specials is more condensed, and no more bomb rush, lots of old weapons are shining much more brightly in Splatoon 3's meta, and that's fantastic. I do want to touch on ranked as far as how it works. So for me, I would consider myself a decent player, I average A to A+ usually. The way ranking works in this particular game feels like, no matter how many games you lose, you really will never lose your rank or really that many points. I'm not sure if higher ranks are much tougher to climb or not, but I suffered at least 8 losses in a row, and my rank points barely budged at all. Essentially I just kept grinding away and got to A-, though rank-up battles pile on the pressure and I was happy for that since I actually buckled down and focused a lot more to win those games to rank up. Since your rank to my knowledge does not drop once you achieve it, the stakes don't feel as high, and rather just grinding with the limit being your patience more than anything really. I don't mind this structure, and rank-up battles do pick up the slack, but I can definitely see someone not feeling satisfied or really engaged to play ranked if you can just grind to the highest ranks even if you lose a lot.
Salmon Run has seen a lot of changes as well. The new boss salmon flow very well with the old ones, and each one introduces a new mechanic, or strategy that can really turn the tide of battle, or make things much easier. Flipper-Flopper being a small splatzone is unique and might be my favorite, also has a nice design. Slamming Lid can crush boss salmon underneath it, which makes quick work of more troublesome salmons like Steelhead, which is an awesome detail. Fishstick provides a fantastic spot for snipers with high vantage, and Bigshots make collecting Golden Eggs that are very far away from the basket way less of a chore. The new events are also interesting, though to be honest, I've gotten used to them already and their novelty wore off very fast, but they add more variety and I don't find them too over-tuned or really that difficult. As for the final bonus wave with the King Salmonid, it's very intense and provides a lot of extra rewards for defeating him, so it's a nice bonus if nothing else. You do need coordination, and I'd even say a few leftover specials if you want to take him out, the egg cannon's deal a lot of damage, but I do think you need to plan out your game carefully and save your specials specifically for the King salmon if you plan on defeating him.
Tableturf is the last gamemode, and the one I've played the least. I enjoy collecting the cards more than playing Tableturf, and as an avid card game player back in the day, this was a nice addition. It's not something I want to say many people will invest time into, they'll probably just want to collect all the cards for completions sake while neglecting the actual game, which is what I'm doing. The actual game is fun, and kind of reminds me of a twist on Othello. It's got strategy as well, and probably has more depth than I can recognize, but it's a fun pass time if you're bored of the other modes.
A few more final comments before I wrap this up. The music is absolutely perfection, it sounds like a return to form from Splatoon 1 with it's much more garage/punk rock sound and vibe which elevates the original skater culture Splatoon used to have a bit higher, something I wanted more of in Splatoon 2. Graphics are good, I honestly can't tell if it looks better than Splatoon 2 or not, but Splatoon was never an ugly game to begin with, very vibrant colors, great designs all around, especially the town of Splatsville, there's a lot to explore and tons of small details that make it feel like a real city. Game plays great, no frame drops or lag anywhere. Online for me has been relatively stable, I've dropped games before entering them, never disconnected mid-match yet or have any odd interactions with lag or players in general either. Whether it's an improvement from Splatoon 2's or not has yet to be seen for me, but so far so good. I do think this game is easily justifiable to exist, and doesn't feel like Splatoon 2.5 to me, yes there's a lot of familiarity here, and not much new content, but I truly feel a lot of work did go into this game. I can feel the love poured into it, and so I respect it for what it is and know for sure it'll only improve. One last thing, a lot of people were worried or concerned by the fact Splatoon 3 was starting to adopt a live-service sort of model, or at least bringing in modern shooter design philosophies and cashgrabs like battle passes. Let me be blunt here, I love the catalogue, it's free, it's not hard to rank up, it is a bit of a grind, so you can definitely argue it's potentially adding artificial playtime for people who want something specific out of it (like the dab emote) but I actually like having more incentive to play. People have also tossed around the whole FOMO (Fear of missing out)concept and how it's baked into this game, that I cannot deny, and I definitely understand that not being a great model for any game. However, they aren't charging you more money for any of this, and at your discretion to complete it, with ways to speed up the process a bit. Is it ideal? No. I can overlook it because I do try to focus on positives and have the time to actually grind it out. I'm sure this is a much more pressing concern for others, and I'm not giving Splatoon a full pass on it.
Splatoon 3 is a good game, and lots of fun. I'm looking forward to these next two years of support and content, participating in splatfests, getting to X rank in multiplayer, and playing a lot of Salmon Run (Now 24/7 access, thank goodness). If you're on the fence about getting it or not, I say go for it, there's enough here to entertain you for a long time, and much more to come in the future.
While I do love the game, I can't deny the lack of original content is noticeable, and while I personally don't mind re-used weapons, stages, and assets if implemented correctly or at least is inoffensive, many people do. I don't find it lazy or necessarily a bad thing for Splatoon, since I actually enjoy playing on familiar maps and having my favorite weapons and gear from Splatoon 2 being present. However, that still does not excuse the sheer lack of new stuff, 4 new maps, 2 new weapon types, and a lot of quality of life improvements. Unlike my review of Mario Strikers Battle League, I'm much more optimistic and excited for future updates as I feel they'll do a good job at introducing new weapons, variations, and maps to spice things up.
Campaign was actually a huge surprise. This is the first Splatoon campaign besides Octo Expansion I actually 100% and invested a lot of time into. I loved exploring the overworld and the levels were always fun with little to no frustration along the way. Campaign has a lot more unique mechanics and gear as well, such as Splashdown and Little Buddy, while Splashdown isn't "new" it's not in any other mode, and felt it was implemented well. Little Buddy is essentially just a type of splat bomb, and I feel like they didn't really make full use of Little Buddy until near the end, but when he is utilized, it's very well done and fun. Overall, Campaign was a delightful experience I recommend, it's also a great learning tool for new players, but didn't feel like that compared to Splatoon 2's campaign, and not Octo Expansion.
Multiplayer is the same as always. Since there is no longer any Main Power Up, battles actually feel like they take skill to win at, at least more than Splatoon 2 for sure. Specials balancing feels a lot better in this game as well, though I've raised an eyebrow specifically at Trizooka for feeling especially powerful and can single-handedly turn a fight around from my personal experience. Besides that, every weapon actually feels useful in a team comp now as well, since the amount of specials is more condensed, and no more bomb rush, lots of old weapons are shining much more brightly in Splatoon 3's meta, and that's fantastic. I do want to touch on ranked as far as how it works. So for me, I would consider myself a decent player, I average A to A+ usually. The way ranking works in this particular game feels like, no matter how many games you lose, you really will never lose your rank or really that many points. I'm not sure if higher ranks are much tougher to climb or not, but I suffered at least 8 losses in a row, and my rank points barely budged at all. Essentially I just kept grinding away and got to A-, though rank-up battles pile on the pressure and I was happy for that since I actually buckled down and focused a lot more to win those games to rank up. Since your rank to my knowledge does not drop once you achieve it, the stakes don't feel as high, and rather just grinding with the limit being your patience more than anything really. I don't mind this structure, and rank-up battles do pick up the slack, but I can definitely see someone not feeling satisfied or really engaged to play ranked if you can just grind to the highest ranks even if you lose a lot.
Salmon Run has seen a lot of changes as well. The new boss salmon flow very well with the old ones, and each one introduces a new mechanic, or strategy that can really turn the tide of battle, or make things much easier. Flipper-Flopper being a small splatzone is unique and might be my favorite, also has a nice design. Slamming Lid can crush boss salmon underneath it, which makes quick work of more troublesome salmons like Steelhead, which is an awesome detail. Fishstick provides a fantastic spot for snipers with high vantage, and Bigshots make collecting Golden Eggs that are very far away from the basket way less of a chore. The new events are also interesting, though to be honest, I've gotten used to them already and their novelty wore off very fast, but they add more variety and I don't find them too over-tuned or really that difficult. As for the final bonus wave with the King Salmonid, it's very intense and provides a lot of extra rewards for defeating him, so it's a nice bonus if nothing else. You do need coordination, and I'd even say a few leftover specials if you want to take him out, the egg cannon's deal a lot of damage, but I do think you need to plan out your game carefully and save your specials specifically for the King salmon if you plan on defeating him.
Tableturf is the last gamemode, and the one I've played the least. I enjoy collecting the cards more than playing Tableturf, and as an avid card game player back in the day, this was a nice addition. It's not something I want to say many people will invest time into, they'll probably just want to collect all the cards for completions sake while neglecting the actual game, which is what I'm doing. The actual game is fun, and kind of reminds me of a twist on Othello. It's got strategy as well, and probably has more depth than I can recognize, but it's a fun pass time if you're bored of the other modes.
A few more final comments before I wrap this up. The music is absolutely perfection, it sounds like a return to form from Splatoon 1 with it's much more garage/punk rock sound and vibe which elevates the original skater culture Splatoon used to have a bit higher, something I wanted more of in Splatoon 2. Graphics are good, I honestly can't tell if it looks better than Splatoon 2 or not, but Splatoon was never an ugly game to begin with, very vibrant colors, great designs all around, especially the town of Splatsville, there's a lot to explore and tons of small details that make it feel like a real city. Game plays great, no frame drops or lag anywhere. Online for me has been relatively stable, I've dropped games before entering them, never disconnected mid-match yet or have any odd interactions with lag or players in general either. Whether it's an improvement from Splatoon 2's or not has yet to be seen for me, but so far so good. I do think this game is easily justifiable to exist, and doesn't feel like Splatoon 2.5 to me, yes there's a lot of familiarity here, and not much new content, but I truly feel a lot of work did go into this game. I can feel the love poured into it, and so I respect it for what it is and know for sure it'll only improve. One last thing, a lot of people were worried or concerned by the fact Splatoon 3 was starting to adopt a live-service sort of model, or at least bringing in modern shooter design philosophies and cashgrabs like battle passes. Let me be blunt here, I love the catalogue, it's free, it's not hard to rank up, it is a bit of a grind, so you can definitely argue it's potentially adding artificial playtime for people who want something specific out of it (like the dab emote) but I actually like having more incentive to play. People have also tossed around the whole FOMO (Fear of missing out)concept and how it's baked into this game, that I cannot deny, and I definitely understand that not being a great model for any game. However, they aren't charging you more money for any of this, and at your discretion to complete it, with ways to speed up the process a bit. Is it ideal? No. I can overlook it because I do try to focus on positives and have the time to actually grind it out. I'm sure this is a much more pressing concern for others, and I'm not giving Splatoon a full pass on it.
Splatoon 3 is a good game, and lots of fun. I'm looking forward to these next two years of support and content, participating in splatfests, getting to X rank in multiplayer, and playing a lot of Salmon Run (Now 24/7 access, thank goodness). If you're on the fence about getting it or not, I say go for it, there's enough here to entertain you for a long time, and much more to come in the future.