It doesn’t look like 2022 is going to go down in history as the best year of Nintendo Switch. The devilishly ingenious console has received in recent months such interesting proposals as ‘Pokémon Legends: Arceus’, ‘Xenoblade Chronicles 3‘ or ‘Mario Strikers Battle League’; however, the feeling that remains is that, so far, something else is missing for the year to be especially brilliant for the machine. Possibly, with the continuation of ‘Zelda: Breath of the Wild‘ We wouldn’t hesitate, but for that we already know that we are going to have to keep waiting.
Although the new Link will not arrive soon, Nintendo has some interesting bullets in the chamber to entertain its players before the entry in 2023; like new games Pokémon (Scarlet and Purple), ‘Bayonetta 3‘or the fresh out’Splatoon 3‘, available for Switch players exclusively since last Friday, September 9 and, without a doubt, one of the most entertaining titles that we have received in the hybrid so far this year.
Splatoon It is not Nintendo’s most traditional franchise. It was born in 2015 and, although it has welcomed really good and original video games, it is far from Zelda o Super Mario. So much so that it’s quite easy for the most casual gamer to even be unaware of its existence. Yet there it is. The first title is among the best that the disappeared console left us Wii Uwhile the second, released in 2017, is among the most interesting proposals that the user can find for Switch.
The key, competitive online
Basically, we are faced with a Competitive online ‘shooter’ in which users control anthropomorphic squids that, instead of conventional weapons, use rollers and guns loaded with ink to face their enemies; all very colorful and more in line with the policies of Nintendo, a company that has always been little friend of explicit violence on the screen.
The proposal has several types of online confrontation. The one we liked the most is the classic ‘Territorial Combat’, in which we team up with three other players to compete with other users and see which team is able to paint the most surface of the battlefield before time runs out. Obviously, the ‘gamers’ will be able to take the opportunity to attack the rivals with their paint weapons and, in this way, make it difficult for them to win the ballot.
The games are passed as if you were eating pipes, something that helps keep the user with his eyes glued to the screen. This is the game mode in which, surely, most users will kill more hours.
The game incorporates other online modalities within the ‘Chaotic Combat’ mode. In ‘Pintazone‘, the teams will have to try to paint, and defend, the areas in which the stage is divided.
In ‘Torre’, users must take control of a tower, color it and take it to the enemy zone. Something similar must be done in ‘Goldfish‘, mode in which the player will have to take a fish to the territory of the rivals. Meanwhile, in ‘Clam Assault’ everything happens to collect clams and put them in a basket.
A quality story mode
The video game also has a single player mode that does not require too many hours. The user will go through various scenarios in which he will hone his skills with the available paint weapons while completing the occasional puzzle and do some platforming. This is not a particularly complicated mode; it is quite good for users who do not know the saga to familiarize themselves with it and prepare for online confrontations.
Regarding the story, nothing to write home about. The player controls Agent 3, who is in charge of investigating a strange plague throughout several islands of reasonable size and in which he will have enough freedom of movement. The screens that make up the experience have a good or very good design. There is no complaint.
Finally, the title incorporates cooperative modes in which the user faces together with his friends a kind of beings called salmonids (‘Salmon Run’) and the ‘Carterritorial Fight’, consisting of a kind of tetrix with cards that has not finished to convince us
Worth?
If you like games with competitive online, without a doubt. The game has a great design and the gameplay is well polished, which is expected for a nintendo exclusive. It’s fun. Very funny. Although many of the available modes can be found in previous installments of the series, the Splatoon formula still works.
In case the online thing is not our thing, and the plan is to dedicate everything to the single player story mode, the proposal will be scarce. Especially for those users who get to the point and decide to complete just enough to move forward.