#also no returning splatoon 2 stage :( sad

[hooked-on-hightide]

what can this mean chat

[zaptap]

prior to e3 2021 i made a bingo sheet for splatoon 3 stuff. at this point the only things we knew were what they showed in the reveal trailer in february 2021. now that the game's done i think it's time i go back and see how well it did

wowww that's a lot. 2 bingos. i get why people were disappointed with this game and i agree with those points to an extent but generally im pretty satisfied (this is far from acnh where i think like nothing on the bingo i made was there) (maybe that's because half of it was "bat villagers" repeated and they didnt give us that. well they shouldve given us bat villagers. and splatoon items. why the fuck didnt they give us splatoon items when they did in new leaf and pocket camp)

explanations under the cut (im factoring in my intent for this, so some are marked if they get the spirit of it even if they don't match exactly. yes that includes the apartment one)

✔️ ride or fry sounds ENOUGH like a daft punk song that im going to just assume that the surving member got absorbed into octoplush

✔️ returning stages! wasn't sure they'd do it since it doesnt take place in inkopolis but i guess they just have an actual public transportation system in splatoon world. and the first one revealed was museum d'alfonsino, the image i used for this (because it was my favorite s1 stage). unfortunately they ruined all the s1 ones they brought back though… sad that urchin underpass and saltspray rig are gone from official online play now that nintendo network is dead, but at least they were spared that fate (i did also say at one point that i wanted saltspray to get reworked into a salmon run stage, but they didnt do that either. wouldve been cool)

❌ no hide and seek mode :( i did that with my friends in splat1 in 2015 and nintendo still hasnt caught up. they did at least do group recon i think? and that's something i came up with (when flounder heights dropped i suggested we all get into a private lobby and just explore it together instead of fighting, that was SUPER fun ^_^) (unfortunately now that private lobbies have recon i dont play with a group of people anymore lmao)

✔️ yeah there's chaos. they did a lot for salmon run which is a pretty chaotic mode (though they really should do more). and anarchy battle is uh. anarchist? and having 3 teams in splatfest is chaotic. do you think if order had won we wouldve had totalitarian battle and 1-team splatfests? monocolor turf war peace?

❌ NO MC CRAIG RAP…. :'( i wanted him to rap in octo expansion and we didnt get it and then we didnt get it again. could they just not get mahito yokota to do it? he did rap a bit in maritime memory, why cant he do it again. oh well, pearl's probably a much better rapper anyway

✔️ splatnet 3! and it's even better than 2. especially after they added all the boss/king salmonid numbers. not knowing and having to guess or keep track of it myself was agonizing

✔️ NEW NOGAMI POSE!!! do you think for splatoon 4 he's gonna do the type of 4 that makes a triangle (like on this text) or the type thats more squarish (where the lines at the top don't meet)

✔️ NEW ABXY MUSIC!!!!!!!! abxy fans keep winning, it's the only multiplayer music band to come back for every game and now paruko herself is there too. shiho fujii came back to do these again (only other thing she did--for both 2 and 3 incidentally--was the squid sisters credits theme)

✔️ there IS a co-op mode, and it's called… salmon run! when they showed us hanging out with a salmonid i was like ok so i guess salmon run isn't coming back because that wouldnt make sense, like how can we be friends with a smallfry and then go kill all of its friends and family? well i guess we can! ok. 2 years later and i still think thats a little fucked up. good thing splatoon isnt real so i can play salmon run with a clear conscience

✔️ we got amiibo!! we got a LOT of amiibo! 10 of them! that's 2 more than what splat1 and splat2 each got! i expected to get something for side order, i did NOT expect to get new squid sisters AND off the hook amiibo

✔️ yeah i'm counting this one. squid sisters are back, off the hook's back, agent 3 is back, agent 8 is back… sure agent 4 isn't fully there, but between the palette and parallel canon i'm going to say that it's close enough to count (though maybe i wouldn't if they weren't the only one missing)

✔️ NO REGION LOCKED GEAR!!!!!!!! in this case it was because they didn't do any promotional gear whatsoever though. which is a bit of a disappointment in its own way. unlike splat1 and splat2, splat3 actually only has one version (instead of different ones for each region) so if they had given out gear intended for japan, if it worked the same way as the splat2 stuff then anyone who got a code would be able to use it (getting a code may have been difficult, but in splat2 even if you got one you could only use it if you had the jp version of the game). they also probably couldve added the splat2 japan-exclusive gear to splat3, but they didnt do that. well, at least there aren't any more locked to japan than there were before

❌ no destroying france mode. squid sisters must have done that all on their own after the concert

✔️ i use squid beatz as a music player so i'm counting this (even though the fact you have to pay to make the songs play means i dont actually use the music player we got… why did they do that…) sorry for anyone who wanted to do the rhythm game on hard mode for frothy waters or whatever though

❌ squid girl did not come back unfortunately. maybe someday (that reminds me, i should finish watching the anime… i started it in 2015 when they added her outfit to splat1)

❌ no triplies. how can you call it splatoon 3 if there's no triplies. is it because they thought you wouldnt be able to booyah if youve got the third one in your mouth like zoro from one piece? maybe in splatoon 4 theyll do quadries and the other 2 will be on our feet (like bayonetta? idk i havent played it)

❌ 2 things for splatfest tees i have wanted since like the start of splatoon 2: 1. when splatfest ends and the tee gets turned in, prompt us with the option to pay to have it scrubbed so we don't miss out on any cheap chunks if we forgot to do it before it ends (not particularly upset about this in s3 since salmon run has given me 1 billiam chunks). 2. dont put it on a brand that favors a certain ability!! why the fuck do they have a whole mechanic for getting chunks faster and cheaper and then just have it weighted towards ink resistance up. splatfest should be its own brand!!!! (again though… salmon run has made getting them so trivial it doesnt matter)

❌ lmao

✔️ technically speaking we did not get "splatoon 3 global testfire" like we did for the other games but my desire here was to get a prerelease demo and the splatfest world premiere fulfilled that. clearly only splatoon 2 was cool enough to get 2 of those (wait shouldnt splatoon 3 have gotten 3 then? maybe 4 will get 4)

✔️ SAVE DATA CLOUD!!! im so glad they figured out a way to tie your multiplayer save data to the server so they wouldnt end up excluding the whole game in the name of preventing cheating (that, as i recall, wasn't even prevented anyway). the whole cloud save system seemed useless to me for a long time since the games i play the most are splatoon and pokemon and those are the ones that you can't back up

✔️ GRIZZ IS DEAD!!!!!!!! like i said before, i knew something had to happen when i saw we were friends with a salmon. i was wrong about salmon run going away, but i was right about grizz. i even called him being the villain of rotm in the middle of the reveal trailer. unfortunately even killing grizz didnt do anything to stop the evil corporate system he put in place. i guess the theories that it was an ai talking to us on the radio were right (i thought that was a weird conclusion for people to come to but i was wrong about that)

✔️ we CAN change lobby music again!! one of the biggest flaws of splat2 was you could only listen to dubble bath (in splat1, provided you got the squid amiibo and did the challenge to unlock it, you could go into squid beatz in the lobby to play whatever song you wanted). i'm annoyed you have to pay to change it manually, but the lobby does at least rotate between a lot of music--i actually would've counted this before the jukebox was added, because my real concern behind this was "stop making us listen to just one lobby theme all the time" and even in the base game there were like 9 of them and there are a ton of really good ones in there

✔️ ok. yes i'm counting this. there is no actual apartment room, yeah. but considering we had nothing even close to it in the first 2 games, i feel like having a locker we can decorate is enough of a step towards that for it to count. could it be better? yes. but it fills the role of being a decoratable space, which is really what my desire was. if i put this exact thing on a splatoon 4 bingo and they gave us lockers again, i wouldn't count it, but going from nothing to having lockers i feel is enough to count (since there was nothing to indicate they would do something like that)

✔️ they probably couldve done more for octavio, but we did team up with him to fight the final boss (though after being completely absent for most of the story) and then he was there at grand fest with everyone, so he did get some redemption. they shouldve credited him on 3mix and had him perform it with the idols at the concert though. maybe in splatoon 4 he can be the one who recruits the player character

[totaldramafan-lauri]

First week of Splatoon 3

I-I haven’t really had a lot of energy lately, so I’m gonna keep this a bit briefer than usual:

This game is still just as fun as ever...Maybe even a bit MORE fun than 2 just cuz of the extra customization options like the lockers (SUCH a cool feature) and the cool new specials being more skill based. Splatterscope’s still my baby, and I’ve been pulling off a few cool things with Ink Vac, especially in Rainmaker! Splatana Wiper is still AWESOME and I will continue using it. During this next week, I’m planning on trying out the new Carbon Roller (cuz I’m curious about Zipcaster), but it’ll be hard to pull me away from the two weapons I’ve been glued to....TTvTT

Salmon Run is still a blast and a half, but with the combination of weapons I’ve played with so far, it seems a bit harder than it used to be. That’s not even going into Cohozuna, who I have yet to beat even once (and have only gotten down below half health once). I’m really hoping I get the hang of fighting that thing soon, cuz it’s kinda annoying to fight now....

Story mode is really cool. Never got to play Octo Expansion, so it’s great to see mechanics from it return. I also love my Smallfry. I just beat the first area today, and it’s been pretty easy so far, with the exception of ONE stage - the one where I had to survive for a minute dodging shockwaves on the ground. That was kinda a big difficulty spike for me....but I beat it on my fifth try.

Before I go into story stuff, I’ll mention that I’ve just posted a bunch of replays of highlights over the week on my Twitter, @NastyMajestyyy, which is basically just there for replays now and that’s it, pfffffff....but it’s there if you wanna see me in action, I guess? XD

NOW! Spoilers below:

Notes about the story:

-The Squid Sisters continue to be amazing, especially Marie of course, who’s still the same snarker I loved from before. “I’m here if you want to talk about anything with someone who’s barely paying attention” is my fav line of hers so far.

-I’m normally not a fan of stories that go into the apocalypse/human extinction, cuz...I dunno, thinking of that usually scares me. I know Splatoon has mentioned it multiple times, but this story is the first time going into DETAIL about it....I-I hope it doesn’t get too dark...Do not want....

-Deep Cut not only being a part of the story, but being bandits makes them even COOLER to me! Although I hope I don’t have to fight them, cuz that’d make me sad.....Let me join yoooooouuuu! *shot*

[thecheapsteaks]

VIDEO GAMES... 2018

2018 was a thing.  It felt like it lasted 2 or 3 years.  It is honestly a bit difficult to track which media I consumed during the year. I'll start pondering a game that I feel like I played last year only for it to dawn on me that, oh, it happened this year.  It makes keeping track of this stuff a bit tricky, honestly.  Anyway, I am still going to try to do that, to get my thoughts in order and let everyone see what I had in mind. I will go over all of the important things needed to survive:  video games, music, anime, and other things.

VIDEO GAMES

Again, it's a bit tricky to remember what even came the hell out this year game wise. I am not going to rank things, because I suck at ranking things and also comparing a lot of the things I played this year is like comparing apples and termites.  I'm just going to make a good effort to go over some nice highlights of the year.

Bayonetta 1 and 2

Bayonetta is a game series I have been interesting in playing forever, but just haven't gotten around to due to circumstances despite it being released on multiple systems I owned.  I passed it on the PS3, couldn't afford to buy it when it was out on the WiiU, so when it came out on the Switch I had to give it a shot, and it was worth it. Admittedly, I sort of sucked at it (I take a ton of damage playing games, which isn't the best for getting high ranks) but I still enjoyed it and am glad that I played both of them (except for that one part in the first game in the angel territory where you fight those thunder and fire claw dudes who are immune to witch time, they can eat my ass).  The characters are fun, the over the top action and enemies are neat, and Bayonetta is just too damn cool.  I'm definitely interested in the third one and looking forward to seeing where the sequel goes. 

(I had forgotten this game had came out this year, it was in February, goddamn how long was this year)

Kirby Star Allies

I will admit, I am heavily biased towards Kirby to a fault.  If a Kirby game makes a reference to a past Kirby game I will gleefully clap as I notice it like a trained seal, and Kirby Star Allies, serving as a Kirby anniversary title, plays into that nostalgia hard.  Compared to the other modern 3D Kirby games (Return to Dreamland and past) I feel that the single player experience is on the weaker end, admittedly. The main campaign, while satisfying, blazes by quick, and the game does re-use boss styles a lot, which is a shame since the past few Kirby games had some very satisfying bosses.  Fortunately the extra content, including the post game modes and extra DLC support, was a marvelous way to keep the game running way after its release.  The nods and references to past games worked wonderfully for me, and it was admittedly great to see long dormant characters such as the animal buddies, Gooey, and Adeline/Ribbon return as playable characters.  The game's single player campaigns, both the initial story mode and the DLC conclusion “Heroes in Another Dimension” have very satisfying conclusions, and the challenge offered by the obligatory Arena mode is wild.  Really, I just love Kirby, and this game is a nice love letter to Kirby.  I have no idea where the game will even go after the plot line from this, but I am ready for the ride.

Octo-Expansion

Being able to play as an Octoling was definitely a long anticipated update for this game, and the way they were integrated into the game was amazing.  The initial Octo-Expansion trailer oozed almost rude amounts of style, and getting a whole new bonus single player campaign made purchasing an expansion worth it.  The additional stages were absolutely geared for challenge, and I don't think I will go back to finish the ones I didn't finish any time soon, but they had so many cool new implementations and spins on the Splatoon formula.  Splatoon on its own would make a decent game if it were just the single player campaign or multiplayer, so having both just makes for a nice, complete experience.  The whole climactic sequence, from finally completing the challenge of the subway to escaping to freedom, has that absurd escalation I just love in video games too. Also I love my stylish Octoling.

Kemono Friends Picross

Somehow I made it so long without ever playing Picross, but this finally brought me into it.  I have no idea how this combination came to be, but it finally got me into a fun puzzle system and I enjoy it. Somehow I have put in nearly as many hours on this game as I have Star Allies.  A lot of it does come from having the game paused as I idly go through puzzles while working on other projects, but having a game that does not demand a ton is pretty nice and fits with my gaming and lifestyle.  I'm looking for friends.

WarioWare Gold

WarioWare is one of my favorite video game franchises and a bit of an underdog, I feel.  The original Mega Microgames was my favorite experience on the GBA, with its unique game play mixed with a silly style.  The games that followed in the series for the DS and Wii were fun, but Made in Wario on the WiiU changed from the Microgame based high score hunting style to a collection of modes and games based on the WiiU game pad.  There were some bright ideas in there that might have done better as their own eShop titles, and the shift towards multiplayer games didn't quite fit as well with my style of gaming.  After that there was silence from the Wario Ware camp until the announcement and release of WarioWare Gold, which like Star Allies is a celebration of the series's past.  It was fun to have another Microgame experience that blended all of the weirdness and frantic gameplay that made me love the series, with a solid selection of classics built in.  It even has fully voiced cutscenes (an expansion on Smooth Moves's narration for each different style) that are oddly charming in a Saturday morning way.  It was good to have this series back, and I hope to see more unique takes on Microgames in the future.

Katamari Damacy Reroll

The original Katamari was a quirky game I bought on a whim back in the PS2 days that was sold to me on its weird look, style, and nice price point.  I enjoyed the first so much, and We <3 Katamari is one of my favorite games of all time.  Having a nicely touched up port on the Switch was welcome.  Somehow, despite having not played the original or its sequel in decades, I took to it like I had just played it yesterday, rolling up incredible Katamaris like a pro.  The original does have some warts in its gameplay that the sequels ironed out marvelously, and the dual stick controls do bother my thumbs at times, but it's still so satisfying to play and it's great that this game has a new chance.  Please go by this one, it's so enjoyable, but also because I want them to port We <3 Katamari so badly so you can all play that and see Katamari perfection.

Super Smash Brothers Ultimate

Smash Bros games seem to live on hype.  I will admit I never expected to see a Smash Bros game so early in the Switch.  It doesn't even feel that long since Smash 4 came out!  So having a trailer in the beginning of the year and a release in the same year was a bit astounding.  There was lots of drama and intrigue with leaks, character additions, and whatnot, and even if I am sad for some that didn't make it (pour one out for Ashley and Shadow, please) having every character available, along with some fun new additions, is definitely nice.  The spirits mode is a nice twist on the event mode, and the rebuffs to classic are nice.  Really, the best part is just being able to play Smash again with my pals, try out all of the characters, and just enjoy it with everyone.  I look forward to the DLC, and that we get Banjo and Crash to create some sort of bizarre realization of every ones mid-2000s dream game.  It was a fun ride leading up to it, and I look forward to playing it more with pals in the new year.

STUFF I STILL NEED TO FINISH

There are some games I got really recently that I still need to finish as gifts from the Steam Sale and whatnot.  I have right near the end of December received Celeste, Donut Country, and I finally got Cuphead thanks to the kindness of friends.  These will be some nice games to get me started on the new year even if one of them is from last year. At some point I may go back to Hollow Knight and Dark Souls, although admittedly the requirements for the true ending of the former are a bit of a turn off and I am having a bit of difficulty getting into the game play, controls, and progression style of the latter, but who knows!  I am also intrigued and interested in Yokai Watch 3, Yoshi's Crafted World, in the near future, and hope to see some nice news on Animal Crossing. Lastly, may Platinum Games heed my calls and give the world a Wario World sequel where Wario wrestles God or something in the pursuit of money.  Amen.

Also I still need to finish Persona 5.  Really at this point I’m just doing it for Futaba. She’s the best.

Next up, I will write about my favorite music from the year, as well as cartoons and film, which admittedly I have not gotten as much into this year!

[shyguycity]

GOTY 2017

Hey y’all, it’s time for my third annual game of the year list. I hope it’s not too boring or longwinded. I also hope you don’t go into this expecting reviews of each game; with very few exceptions this list isn’t going to go into deep dives about individual game mechanics or plot beats, and I also don’t bother explaining highly specific video game terms and genres that the lay person isn’t going to be aware of, which is more down to this seeming too long already rather than apathy on my part. Discussion or questions are very welcome! Anyway, before we get into the actual top 11, here’s a couple games that didn’t quite make the cut that deserve to be talked about, as well as some housekeeping as to why some pretty big games aren’t included elsewhere on the list.

Some friends and I are also looking into doing a podcast later on to talk more in-depth about our lists, as well as maybe some other year end awards-y type things for other categories in games. Anyway, here we go.

Games I haven’t gotten to yet: Ruiner, Pyre, Prey, Yakuza 0, Hollow Knight, Hellblade

Don’t @ me I’m sleeping: Resident Evil 7, Persona 5, Mario + Rabbids, PUBG

Special shout outs that didn’t make it to the actual list but are still good, quite good!:

Snipperclips: Cut It Out Together (Switch) - Absolutely everyone that owns a Switch and has someone to play co-op games with should buy Snipperclips, be it significant other, child, sibling or roommate. It’s a game where you each play as two pieces of paper that have to cut each other into different shapes to solve various puzzles, and it’s even way more fun and goofy than that description makes it sound. If I had been able to put more time into this game it probably would’ve made the actual numbered list.

Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus (PS4/Xbox One/PC) - Wolfenstein’s story about an alternate 1960s where Germany won World War 2 and occupy America was so absolutely fucking bonkers and fun while at the same time bleakly sad and interesting. It’s a shame the actual game isn’t very fun to play, but this absolutely deserves mentioning somewhere. Get fucked Nazis.

Horizon: Zero Dawn (PS4) - Horizon has maybe the most interesting and well told story in any big budget, non-indie game I’ve ever played. It’s also maybe the best looking game I’ve ever seen, especially running in 4k. It’s a shame it released so close to Zelda and Nier, since I feel it’s going to be overlooked in a lot of other GOTY lists, but it’s absolutely worth playing. Also the main character, Alloy, is really fun and tells weird kings to fuck off when they try and hit on her.

Aaaaaaaand here’s the actual list this year:

11. Night in the Woods (PS4/PC) - More games should address mental health. I think the medium is especially suited for not only discussion of the matter, but potentially as a teaching tool as well. It’s especially neat in Night in the Woods because of its slice of life, shitty rustbelt town in fall atmosphere. The main character, Mae, is an unexplained college dropout that returns to her hometown to hang out with friends, and discovers that they’ve all started making progress towards various goals in life while she has largely languished. It’s a very personal and sweet story about reconnecting with your roots and rebuilding connections with loved ones, all while surreal shit is going on in the background and it’s always kind of unclear what Mae is actually suffering from.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that, much like Life is Strange (PS4/Xbox One/PC) before it, what starts off as a very simple and charming slice of life game eventually strays into much bigger, cosmic scale ideas, and it kind of feels out of place. Still, I was never bored or driven to the point of rolling my eyes, and I’ve never played a game with more realistic dialogue between goofy and awkward punk rocker friends. The fact that everyone is an anthropomorphic animal for no reason other than to make it look cuter is a huge boon as well.

10. Shovel Knight: Spectre of Torment (Switch/PS4/Xbox One/Vita/PC/Wii U/3DS/PS3/Xbox 360) - The original Shovel Knight was a very cute, very charming, very ok game. It never blew me away the way it did for other people, despite the fact that it seemed tailor made for me, but it was still pretty dang good. The two expansions, however, have been far more interesting games, and Spectre of Torment in particular is a love letter to the original Mega Man X (SNES), a game which has weirdly never had its formula and feel replicated or expanded upon. Having full freedom to select which order to complete stages, as well as finding hidden doodads within that let you purchase new weapons, really maximizes the replay value. Add to that a completely remixed soundtrack that’s way more fun and melody driven than the original, and you have maybe the best action platformer since Mega Man 9 (Wii/PS3/360).

9. Destiny 2 (PS4/Xbox One/PC) - I think Destiny 2 represents pretty much everything I hate about modern game design - approximately 8,000 unique currencies all with their own uses; different classes and subclasses that in broad strokes don’t feel any different from each other; no real sense of progression aside from seeing a set of numbers arbitrarily rise; needlessly large worlds that aren’t fun to explore; a heavy emphasis on story when the story is complete fucking trash; etc. And yet I still put dozens of hours into the game.

It’s a dumb game and I am a very dumb person. That said, despite the constantly online, shooter focused nature of the video game industry, there really aren’t any other shooters so devoted to cooperative play on a scale larger than team versus modes. I can’t think of a game that’s had more fun co-op in recent memory, and that’s enough to make up for the mediocre pomp and frills surrounding the actual game. Who cares that Destiny is borderline predatory when my friends and I are throwing lightning grenades at shadow emperor space worms?

8. Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS) - At one point in time I’d have considered metroid my favorite game series period, so watching its decline over the past decade has been particularly painful. I wouldn’t say this half remake, half new game is an unmitigated success. But for an outsourced, low budget, sidescrolling entry in 2017, a time in which the indie scene has completely taken over the space metroid used to occupy, Samus Returns is an admirable experiment.

Unlike most, I think making the game more combat focused than any previous metroid is actually a wise move, especially considering the developer pedigree; Mercurysteam, despite any other faults, has proven that they can handle designing engaging combat mechanics. And weirdly, even though the main heroine is a 6 foot tall amazonian space goddess with bird alien power armor and a cannon arm, the series has never had engaging combat encounters before this. The game definitely lacks some of the atmosphere that the series is renowned for, but it’s hard for me to fault the game too much for what it isn’t when what we have is an interesting interpretation of a classic game and a new entry in an amazing series that has been dormant for too long.

7. Sonic Mania (Switch/PS4/Xbox One/PC) - Sonic was never really that good, even the Genesis era games that people hold in such high esteem. I’m actually of the opinion that, prior to Mania, Sonic Colors (Wii) was the best game in the series - the gameplay possibilities added by the wisps felt right at home in a Sonic game, while not feeling like a cheap gimmick. Generally speaking, the original Sonic games feel far too simplistic in terms of the verbs available to you to compete with anything like Mario. And while Mania doesn’t give Sonic any new verbs besides a variation on spin dashing, the level design is so creatively above and beyond anything previously seen in the series that it feels like an entirely different beast. Honestly, chemical plant zone alone has more creativity in its two acts than the entirety of any previous 2D Sonic game, and that’s before it culminates in a freaking Mean Bean Machine battle against Robotnik. I liken Mania the most to Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii) in its ability to capture everything that the previous entries in the series were known for while still being able to modernize its design.

Despite all of that, the best part of Mania is its unflinching devotion to its aesthetic. It truly looks like a long lost Sega Saturn game. And while the soundtrack isn’t quite as slavish to what came before, I don’t think I’ve had a more dumb grin on my face this year than when I heard the calypso style Green Hill zone remix for the first time. Mania is a celebration of all things Sonic the Hedgehog, which means different things to different people. To me, what the game most loudly celebrates is the untapped potential of a tragically mishandled series. Consider this game  the fulfilment of a promise the series originally made nearly 30 years ago.

6. Splatoon 2 (Switch) - If I’m being completely honest, Splatoon 2 is making it this high on the list almost solely for how fun the new four player cooperative mode, Salmon Run, is. You get stranded in various locations to take on hundreds of slimy zombie-esque salmon while terrifying horror movie music plays and you send out unheard pleas to the universe that you were paired up with players that actually know how to use the charger weapon (Splatoon’s equivalent to a sniper rifle that apparently takes more skill to wield than an actual real world sniper rifle based on my dozens of hours playing).

Salmon Run is fucking incredible. The rest of Splatoon 2 is also really quite fun to play. However: Nintendo is still so stubborn or incompetent or both when it comes to online play that any amount of fun you have with friends outside of Salmon Run is usually punctuated with spikes of rage the likes of which I’ve never experienced.

You can join your friends and play turf war (the standard Splatoon battle mode) pretty effortlessly at any point.

That’s good!

Every single match you play assigns you both to random teams, meaning you’re not always actually playing on the same team as the friend you’re attempting to play with. In fact, I swear there’s some kind of algorithm going in that actually assigns you and your friend to opposing teams more often than not.

That’s bad!

There is a mode where you can play with a dedicated team of two or four people, paired up against other groups of two or four.

That’s good!

It’s actually a ranked mode which is where all the professional Splatoon teams that stream on Twitch for hours everyday hang out, so you’re more than likely going to be facing off against a team of people who are so good at the game they make money off of splatting.

That’s bad!

Every few weeks there are big game-wide events called Splat Fests where each person chooses between two options, and then represents their selection and are paired up against players from the opposing team. These can range from pretty basic, such as cats vs dogs or ketchup vs mayonnaise, to the extremely goofy like Spongebob vs Patrick. Also, the music and backdrops of levels completely change during Splat Fests; all the levels are changed to take place at night, and you’re treated to ‘live performances’ of squid pop music. You even get exclusive in-game t-shirts based on the team you picked.

That’s good!

But your ability to play with friends during Splat Fests is even further restricted, limiting you solely to the aforementioned ranked mode. It’s to the point where it almost feels like Nintendo would just prefer you to play by yourself against strangers in some weird joyless, lonely world, which feels entirely counter to the kinds of games the company makes.

………..can I go play Salmon Run now?

I hope that this entry doesn’t come across as too negative, because despite all my personal frustrations with how Nintendo completely mangles their own online modes, the game is an absolute blast to play. And Salmon Run really is good enough to make up for a lot of these shortcomings! I just hope a Splatoon 3 really changes pretty much everything about the interface surrounding the game; we could really have something absolutely amazing if that were to happen, instead of a really fun game that has to be talked about with asterisks.

5. Steamworld Dig 2 (Switch/PS4/Vita/PC) - In a year that brought us the first new Metroid game in the better part of a decade, I never would have expected the best metroidvania style of game in 2017 to be a sequel to a pretty lowkey indie game that seemingly flew under the radar of the vast majority of both the industry and fans. I played the original and enjoyed it for what it was, but I never would have imagined that a sequel would be hanging so high up a game of the year list. And yet, it’s the best one of these in quite a few years, handily beating out recent darlings of the genre Axiom Verge (which was pretty ok) and Ori and the Blind Forest (which was really great). This mostly comes down to the new abilities you get in Steamworld; they’re not trying to subvert your expectations and knowledge of metroidvanias like a lot of recent games. Nope, you’re getting a damn grappling hook and jetpack. But these are the most satisfying and friendly grappling hook and jetpack mechanics in video games in a very long time. The game just has a very friendly vibe in general, from it’s warm, beautiful visuals to its amazing soundtrack. Even its upgrade system is extremely pleasant and forgiving, allowing you to swap out upgrade cogs with no fuss or punishment.

I’m also fully aware that Steamworld doesn’t quite fit into the metroidvania bubble; you’re constantly digging downward as opposed to exploring and re-exploring labyrinthine spaces looking for missile expansions, to the point where it’s almost a sidescrolling dungeon crawler. However, I think calling it a dungeon crawler is doing it a disservice due to certain connotations with that term. All you need to know is that if you’ve already finished Mario and Zelda on your Switch and are wondering what’s next, you can’t do any better than this.

4. Super Mario Odyssey (Switch) - It actually hurts my soul that a brand new 3D Mario game isn’t even in my top three games of the year. Especially since it’s a really good Mario game! Most of that is down to just how stacked 2017 has been, but it’s also down to some disappointments I have with Odyssey. Let’s just get it out of the way - there really isn’t a whole lot of high quality platforming in the game. I went in expecting this from the moment the game was announced as a return to the exploratory style of Super Mario 64 (N64), but even adjusted expectations couldn’t assuage my disappointment in those regards after playing the game for a few hours; Mario is so fun to control in Odyssey, and has such a wide array of moves at the player’s disposal, that my soul aches thinking about a hypothetical version of this game with devious platforming on the levels of Super Mario Sunshine (GameCube). Despite all of that, you can dress Mario up as Don Draper and ride a moped as a t-rex chases you down an alley.

So the level design never even begins approaching manic perfection of Super Mario 3D World (Wii U). It’s hard to be too upset about it when you start to realize just how dense with content every single area in Odyssey really is. When you first touch down in each kingdom, you can barely take 10 steps from your ship without stumbling onto a handful of moons. And what the game lacks in regards to its dedicated platforming challenges, it makes up for with the fever dream of creativity that is allowing the player to throw Mario’s cap at dozens of different creatures and possessing them, each with their own unique controls, movement and abilities.

And look. Even though I’m sorta full up on nostalgia for 8 and 16-bit games at this point, I absolutely am ready for nostalgia for Playstation 1 and Nintendo 64 games, which Odyssey is hopefully kicking off here. I was six-years-old when I played Mario 64 for the first time, and as hyperbolic (and maybe sad) as it sounds, I consider clumsily using an analog stick for the first time to try and make Mario climb trees outside of Peach’s castle to be one of the defining moments of my life. Without spoiling anything, there are a couple moments in Odyssey that brought me hurtling back to that time in my life that nothing has been able to previously. It’s absolutely worth buying a Switch for just to experience Odyssey, despite my opening volley of complaints. Just feel free to stop well before you find all 880(!) moons if you want to leave with the best possible impression.

3. Nier: Automata (PS4/PC) - Generally I don’t consider myself a particularly intelligent person, at least in the grand scheme of things. But by and large, talking about games, especially the kind I like, is a pretty straightforward affair (“Kirby pilots a mech in this one!” “This is a dual ghost fairy type that dresses itself up like Pikachu to trick humans into loving it. Oh wow.”). With Nier though, I find myself mostly feeling intellectually incapable of talking about its story and themes in any meaningful way beyond that a game has never made me feel the way this one did. And maybe not being tempted to make a fool out of myself by talking about things above my education level is for the best, because I would consider being spoiled on such an amazing game in some idiot’s end of year list to be a true shame.

Nier might look like typical anime goofiness on the surface, what with blindfolded french maid sexy butt android fighting wind up toys with a katana. But the game is fully self aware of every single trope it uses, including all of the questions it asks about existence and humanity. It goes some places and has some things to say, man. The one message I feel comfortable in talking about that the game espouses: being human essentially means being in a community and taking care of one another. This is exemplified in what was, for me, maybe the most stunning moment I’ve ever experienced in a game, and during the end credits no less.

This has been a very hard year to be a human living on planet earth. And though Nier is unflinchingly bleak, the overall message of hope and positivity beneath the surface was something that I personally needed. There has never been anything else like this game, and though there are certainly better playing games in 2017, I don’t know if anything will emotionally stick with me the way Nier has.

2. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch/Wii U) - Not since I was a teenager with nigh unlimited free time have I been so enraptured with a video game like I was with Breath of the Wild. I put 60+ hours into the game in the first week it was released; it was like Zelda became my second job, only I was being paid in korok seeds and bloodshot eyes. And I say all of that as a person that considers the Zelda series pretty low on my personal Nintendo franchise totem pole!

What Nintendo was able to do with the open world genre, a type of game they’ve never touched before, is nothing short of remarkable. Most ‘open world’ games are open world only in the sense that there’s a lot of empty space to drive around in to get to an arbitrary objective marker, with no mechanics to give players a way to actually have fun in all of that space. Zelda lives and dies by how the world reacts to everything the player (and enemies) are doing. Sure, there’s simple examples like rolling a boulder down a hill to kill an unsuspecting group of enemies. But getting into a battle with enemies shooting fire arrows at you on a grassy plain, having the hill catch fire, and then escaping after realizing that the wildfire has created warm air that can push you on your paraglider up and out of harm’s way is one of the most amazing moments I’ve ever experienced in a game.

There are definitely issues with the game. For a game with so much time spent in menus, you’d think Nintendo could have come up with a far less cumbersome menu navigation method. And I do very much miss having full length Zelda-styled dungeons (though I do think breaking them up into 120 individual puzzles is a very interesting design decision that totally fulfils its intended goals). It’s easy for me to ignore a few rough edges in a game that made me totally forget what it meant to live life away from a TV screen for an entire week, though.

1. Cuphead: Don’t Deal with the Devil (Xbox One/PC) - I hesitate to call many things, in any medium, “perfect”. And when I do, it’s things like Shaun of the Dead. No, Shaun is not high art in the slightest, but I can’t think of any other movie that so deftly delivers on its intent while making it seem effortless. With the way modern video games are developed, my ideal of perfect (besides being as subjective as it can possibly be) seems nigh unattainable; how is a consumer product that’s touched the hands of hundreds, if not thousands, over the course of years of development supposed to sustain a singular, unified vision across the entire experience? Even the two best games of the past few years, Bloodborne (PS4) and Super Mario Maker (Wii U), really fall flat on their faces in certain regards, albeit in completely different ways. Make no mistake: Cuphead is the perfect video game, as well as the best game in maybe the best year for video games ever.

It’s not just the game’s tireless devotion to the “rubber hose” era of animation. Nor is it just how the game’s biggest video game inspirations, Gunstar Heroes (Sega Genesis) and Punch-Out!! (NES) are in and of themselves two perfect action games. The combining of a long dormant style of art with a (mostly) dormant style of games is genius in a way that makes everyone else seem dumb for not thinking of it first. Cuphead feels like something that came from an alternate timeline where polygonal games never became the norm, but art in games continued to grow and evolve, unlike other contemporary retro-styled affairs. Which isn’t meant to disparage games of that ilk, but rather emphasize how Cuphead somehow manages to succeed as a game that owes a lot to works that came before it, while also not relying on direct references to, and nostalgia for, those inspirations. The references and nostalgia are there of course, but aren’t needed for the game’s accomplishments to be appreciated by just about anyone.

Put all of that aside though, and what you have is a really fucking fun game where you get to shoot anthropomorphic waffles with magic finger guns. And it has cooperative play! In fact, the only bad thing that can be said about Cuphead is that the second playable character, Mugman, is relegated to player 2. Maybe ‘perfect’ was a tad hyperbolic.

[polteageistplush]

ok literally no one asked for this but im going to be putting my opinion about each of the splatoon 2 bosses under the readmore (to protect ppl from spoilers)

remember its jus my opinion so it wont match yours, i jus wanna post my thoughts on em!!

(also  tell me what your favorite and least favorite splat 2 boss is in the replies!! once again ppl who dont want spoilies, dont look at the notes on this and dont look under the readmore!!)

BOSS 1: the bread dude

pretty creative!! i thought its kinda silly but also its a kids game so its allowed to be silly. still its interesting!! its not very difficult, of course, its the first boss. pretty intimidating though, at first!! i think maybe it should kinda rush you to get to the top of it in its final phase though, 1st and 2nd i will excuse bc once again, its the first boss, and its in a kids game. so ppl need to get the hang of things this early on.

overall, i give it  ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ 4 out of 5 stars!!

--------------------------

BOSS 2: samurai dude

a very interesting concept, very unique attacks, but very weak. he’s the 2nd boss still, so its not going to be super strong, but its by far the easiest boss in splatoon overall. i think they couldve made him so he didnt flinch (probably not the right term to use here but its 1 am and im tired) when you hit him a lot, and since he’s a samurai, give him actual armor? i think they could do something similar to boss 3, give him armor that you have to hit a certain spot to remove the armor and then attack him. a very interesting concept, but he doesnt really live up to the samurai part of his title, and is far too easy. 

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ 3 out of 5 stars!!

------------------------

BOSS 3: angry gamecube 2: electric boogaloo

its him!! it was nice to see a boss return and then have the difficulty added!! overall a really good and enjoyable boss. my only complaints would be that he doesnt use the gun much except for one time in the 2nd phase. a nice, healthy challenge, you can ink a little bit (depending on your weapon) of the buckle, but not all of it at once unless you have the timing and distance right. the other complaint would be that its easier to climb up his side, instead of the parts falling off like they did in 1. but i’ll let that slide bc maybe they got better technology to build him or smth. 

  ★ ★ ★ ★ * 4 and a half stars!! (i dont have a half star ok. im sorry. accept that instead.)

----------------------------

BOSS 4: no

-27 out of 5 stars. awful. horrible. i hate

--------------------------

BOSS 4 realsies this time: shower dude

well. ive had THE worst time with this guy. he’s difficult to reach with most weapons. after playing thru this stage with every weapon, i’ll admit i got the hang of it at the end a bit there. but still, difficult to reach. his attacks arent very strong, so its not that i have a problem surviving, its decent attacks!! i’ll give him that. the sting ray is also a nice touch. a proper 4th boss, attack-wise. but jus. trying to reach the octocopters. its really difficult, especially on the last part of his battle!! its very stressful, i really dont enjoy fighting him because the fight is too  tedious imo.

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ i’ll give it 2, because attack wise and creativity n stuff, its very good and interesting, i just think its needlessly complicated because of how hard it is to reach the octocopters. 

-------------------------------

BOSS 5: return of octodad (oh and callie is there, too)

Well. 

Well... unpopular opinion... the music really wasnt that good? but im not going to let that effect my scoring on him. jus personally a bit disappointed with it. it wasnt as good as splat1, i really enjoyed octavios theme from that, and im sad that they didnt even reference it at all. he doesnt collab well with callie... dj, in splatoon 3, lets go solo again, buddy... i miss u

OVERALL, the fight is good, the punching machine and how theres spinning punches. if you dont have your hero shot upgraded, its very difficult. i died. but after i upgraded it, it was significantly easier!! easier than the 4th boss, honestly. i feel like it couldve been a LITTLE more challenging, maybe more bombs or something for the bomb rush? the takoyaki orbs were pretty cool, they dont do much tho. his ink shower attack thing is pretty good, predictable and easy to dodge, but good.

callie tho... she doesnt really like. serve a purpose other than singing? its kinda disappointing. i thought maybe we were going to fight her or smth, that wouldve been cool for the first or maybe 2nd phase. all they gotta do is add octoling AI to her, they have octolings with multiple weapons, so she couldve used mostly anything and it wouldve been neat. i think its a bit of a wasted opportunity tbh?

the rainmaker part is pretty good tho, it was REALLY difficult to get the hang of, but after you know what youre doing its really cool!! 

so, overall,  ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ 3 out of 5 stars. couldve been better, couldve been worse, its interesting and has a bit of a challenge, i just wouldve liked for callie to have a bigger role other than singing.

--------------------------------

so there u have it folks. my opinion that literally no one asked for. this isnt going to reflect what other people think, of course, and i wouldnt judge people for thinking differently about the bosses!! for best results u just gotta play thru them yourself and form your own thoughts on em!!

[rhapsody-crossing]

S2: RSI Tournament - A Memoir (Part 1)

Table of Contents

Part 1 HERE Part 2 HERE Part 3 HERE Part 4 HERE Part 5 HERE Part 6 HERE Part 7 HERE Part 8 HERE Part 9 HERE

Splatoon 2: Ready, Set, Ink! Tournament - A Memoir

Following the events of Ink Your Heart Out!, the organisers of Splatoon Community Malaysia hosted another tournament with the ambitions of raising awareness for Splatoon 2, promoting the growth of e-sport, and attracting Nintendo’s attention on the existence of SEA community.

Ready, Set, Ink! was the first tournament that includes the four currently-existing ranked modes: Splat Zones, Tower Control, Rainmaker, and Clam Blitz, with Turf War as a tie-breaker. The categories included were ones that require a higher level of strategy, team synergy and personal skills for higher chance of victory.

The four modes are as follows (extracted from Inkpedia):

Splat Zone (SZ) - Plays similarly to the King of the Hill mode from other video games. It revolves around a central "zone" or "zones", which players must attempt to cover in ink. Whoever retains the zone for a certain amount of time wins.

Tower Control (TC) - A player must take control of a tower located in the center of a map and ride it towards the enemy base. The first team to get the tower to their enemy's base wins.

Rainmaker (RM) - A player must grab and take the Rainmaker weapon to a pedestal near the enemy team's spawn point. The team who carries the Rainmaker furthest towards their respective pedestal wins.

Clam Blitz (CB) - Players pick up clams scattered around the stage and bring them to the goal. (It’s more complex than it sounds)

As Fate would have it, my old team decided to get together to give this tournament a try. This resulted in another long memorable journey that would now be eternalise here.

0) Team Members

louhai - The captain of the team. His passion for Ink Brush is unwavering. Like a shounen hero, he is always eager to fight strong opponents as it motivates him to improve his combat skills (and forces him to reflect if he’d done wrong). A social butterfly who has a hand in empowering the community to participate the tournament.

Furidomu - Resident slayer of our team, the no-longer-lonesome wolf continues to bless us kills with her existence. Her action speaks louder than words, and she is highly determined. She remains a strong pillar of our group. Uses Dapple Dualies, Tri-Slosher and Clash Blaster.

slap - No longer a captain, but he becomes surprisingly crucial with his mid-range/long-range skills. Still has the tendency to emo in the corner, but develops a form of hardcore streak during the journey (thanks to Leaf’s absence). Dabbles in Dynamo Roller before returning to his beloved Splattershot Pro.

Leaf - Formerly known as Low, he remains a skilled Dualies user. A companion we trust to fight by our side. In this tournament, however, he is half-retired and prefers to remain as a substitute. Shares his knowledge when needed.

Kuniki - New addition to the team, but definitely not a stranger. His performance is determined by his “battle mode”, and he fights like a whirlwind incarnated. A veteran Splatoon 1 player who is also our resident artist. Master in Dapple Dualies, but uses Tri-Slosher when needed.

And then, there’s lil ol’ me. While I main Tri-slosher, I took up Rapid Blaster Pro and Heavy Splatling to cover my team’s weakness for long range. Like before, I played the mediator, grandmother, as well as the manager/trainer of the group.

1) Tofu Team’s Revival

It started when I found out that I still crave to ink and win, that I want to start a legacy of West Mountain Tofu team being the first victor in Malaysia tournaments.

It also started with Leaf’s procon broken, and we found out that the tournament’s prize are new procons.

Meanwhile, louhai and Furi were undecided on whether to form their own teams individually as to maintain that power balance.

So, when I suggested a revival, all immediately agree to it with much enthusiasm.

slap was the last one to get roped in. We knew he has a fickle heart for gaming, and this tournament would require much more dedication and hard work than before, so he was given time to consider and prepare himself.

(louhai sent in the registration form before he said yes, though.)

As such, West Mountain Tofu team was back into business!

2) Planning the Path to Victory

It was agreed that everyone really wanted to win first prize, therefore everyone's here to win and our goals are aligned yet again!

However, herein lies the difficulty: in terms of personal skill, Tofu is potentially stronger than most of the existing, registered teams (as far as we know, anyways)... however, Tofu is not perfect and there were (and are) still many, MANY things to work on.

In my opinion, we needed a) a person who could give us solid advice, and b) a team that could challenge our skills.

a) a person who could give us solid advice

Tofu may be somewhat self-sustainable, with Leaf and I being the resident Splatoon 2 geeks and slap being well-read. However, it’s sometimes better to find someone with a more neutral and experienced view, especially considering that we don’t have much long range specialists and I was learning Rapid Blaster Pro. But where can we find that someone when everyone is potentially our foe?

The answer is simple: someone from overseas.

Or to be more precise, Rezizard.

During the last Malaysia Splatoon 2 Gathering, Rezi and I had a brief chat on his play history: he was a competitive battler who decided to retire and found more joy in organising and coaching.

An experienced eye was what we need! With that in mind, I invited him to watch our battles with the expectation that he would give us a summary of what to fix and such.

What he gave in return far exceeded my expectations: multiple videos of our matches with full blown analysis of what went right, what went wrong and gear checks:

(The following videos covered mainly Clam Blitz and long range positioning tips:)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN1fYDCQpw0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD_8Xxuv9AE His videos painted a clear picture, and opinions and analysis were well-received. His drawings were received with some playful snarks from Leaf, and some of his words were even memefied (“No more chargers”). It was overall an educational and enjoyable watch.

b) a team that could challenge our skills

A scrim is what Splatoon competitive players called a serious practice match between players to hone and better their skills.

In my Oceanink experience, SOTONG team’s level were somewhat on par with Knife & Banana team. Their win rates increased enough to bump them to fourth place in Oceanink Division 4 after the inclusion of RayRay-- an Ink Brush user who was the inspiration for louhai to have picked his soul weapon. Therefore, I had invited them for a scrim in hopes that the “Inspiration” and the "Inspired” could meet together, and to make louhai’s flame burn brighter.

Unfortunately, RayRay could not make it, and the scrim became a bit of a joke when players started using themed weapons. This results Rezi being pissed because it defies how a scrim should be, louhai being sad for not being able to see RayRay, and my team being disappointed with the fact that opponents aren’t serious enough to match their passion.

In order to maintain Rezi’s attention and to get him further invested in our progress; in order to restore my team’s faith in international teams; I turned to another Singapore team: [ ] Nameless.

[ ] Nameless is a Division 3 team personally coached by Rezi. I remember this as Rezi had once invited MwS to battle Nameless, and it was quite a challenging and fulfilling experience. One of their members, NeoSotong, inspired me to pick up Rapid Blaster again; we remained in brief contact. 

Funny how one small connection was able to led to another; due to that, I was able to arrange a SZ and TC scrim with their team schedule-manageress Charmy.

Rezi planned the maps to be used on scrims, our scrims were once again made to videos:

(Following vids are mostly about Splat Zones, positioning and Dynamo usage:)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_umEMC4rLxA (Splat Zones) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAzLGugPby0 (Tower Control) As expected of Rezi’s team, [ ] did not disappoint in providing tough battles to challenge us. Satisfied with the trashing we received, we happily agreed on a Rainmaker-focused scrim so that Rezi could make vod (yes, vod, which stands for video on demand) out of it.

3) Enter Kuniki

The combination of Leaf’s procon getting fixed and RSI finals clashing with his Malaysia-Singapore trip puts a damper in Leaf’s motivation to play. As such, Tofu decided to get a 6th member in case Leaf could not play during his vacation.

The first candidate that popped into my mind was Kuniki.

Kuniki and I, our first meeting was an odd one. We first met in Animal Crossing: New Leaf, where I fulfilled his request for Splatoon amiibo-exclusive furnitures. We would then meet again in Splatoon 2 under louhai’s North and South Bros Whatsapp group. 

NCY often spoke highly of Kuniki’s skill, and I remembered feeling the same after witnessing him fighting like a whirlwind-- charging into enemy’s base to wreak havoc, and escaping unscathed.

Kuniki is a bit of a lone wolf... or at least, that was the feel I get when I got to know more about him from NCY in the past, the same feel I got when I was in MwS chat. He doesn’t... “belong” anywhere.

With everyone’s blessing, I invited Kuniki in hopes that he could fill Leaf’s shoes, but at the same time I was worried; the loss of Leaf would put a dent on Tofu’s confidence, for Leaf is a strong battler and his strength gave others to fight..  I invited Kuniki in hopes that his presence would give Tofu the same confidence that Leaf could instil, and soften the blow of Leaf’s loss. But to me, no players are ever fully replaceable.

Could Kuniki really fill his shoes? Stay tune to find out.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Read Part 2 HERE

[thatha100-blog1]

Splatoon 2: The Quest for More Freshness

Splatoon 2 has been out for around a month now, and this sequel is definitely bigger than the original. But is it as fresh?

Of course, there are some people who still may not be familiar with the Splatoon franchise, and may need a quick crash course. In the simplest terms, you play as an Inkling, which is a mix between a squid and a kid. You’ll play multiplayer battles in which you will try to cover the ground with ink with a large arsenal of weapons that shoot, paint or slosh ink, and have the win decided by two cats. Enough? Alright, now for those new or not yet returned, let’s go over why you should consider Splatoon 2.

The first and most important part of a shooter game is how well it plays. Splatoon’s gameplay feels familiar to the first, but with the added improvement of being able any controller besides the Wii U gamepad, you definitely have more options. Docking the switch and using the joy-cons in the grips definitely feels great. Fret not though, if you miss the old gamepad using the switch in handheld mode feels close enough. The graphics on the switch are a massive upgrade to HD and looks smooth on both handheld mode and docked mode. As a standard, you can mess with your sensitivity, but you can have different settings for both on the go and at home. One of the best parts about controlling Splatoon is the use of motion controls in tandem with your usual stick aiming. Motion controls are mainly used for fine precision aiming and a majority of players utilize this. It feels natural and works well as you’ll feel a bit more involved when playing compared to your normal shooter.

The number of weapons in Splatoon is nothing to scoff at either, especially when the amount of free add ons to the game keep adding more weapons. Most weapons in Splatoon 2 fit the classic types, such as assault rifles, submachine guns, and shotguns, but since Splatoon is a game about shooting ink, there’s so much more. Have you ever wanted to run someone over with a giant paint roller? What about throwing buckets of paint all over the place? Fancy hitting people with a giant paintbrush? There’s even an umbrella that acts much like a shotgun but doubles as a shield. Welcome to choosing your favorite weapon. All the variety ensures players will find that one weapon that scratches the sweet spot. Rollers are awesome to use in my opinion, and personally using the Aerospray, a submachine like weapon is my go to choice.

But wait! There’s more. Each weapon is part of a set, which boils down to your weapon, grenade and special. Your specials are your ultimate abilities. From shooting missiles to giving your team armor, each special can be earned from inking the ground. One special, the stingray, a giant ink jet, does feel underwhelming as it is difficult to aim without a crosshair. Though overall, each special has the power to completely decimate a team but also has weaknesses that can be countered if the player is skilled enough.

The pinnacle of Splatoon 2 though is not deciding whether you’re a squid or a kid, but what you wear. How fresh you look is a staple of Splatoon. Each piece of gear gives its own passive buff, along with a few random buffs earned from playing the game with those clothes. With the new Splatnet 2 app, you can even custom order gear that may have different abilities. I personally recommend this system as you can mix and max fashion and stats. Though with a game with as many possibilities as Splatoon, I gathered up some examples.

And if your favorite look doesn’t have the stats to back it up, you have the option to upgrade your gear with super sea snails. Super Sea Snails are earned during the most magical time for Inklings, Splatfest!

Splatfest is only the most important event in all of Splatoon. It is an event that goes worldwide in the community for around a day in which you join a team of your choice and face off for the rewards of Super Sea Snails. But mainly to prove whether Ketchup or Mayo is better. Though you are locked out of ranked battle modes during this time. I would say this is the only downside of Splatfests, unless you hate fun, music and having a good time.

There is also the newly added game mode of Salmon Run. If you are familiar with Call of Duty’s Zombies than this game mode should seem familiar in concept. You’ll fight against waves of enemies called Salmonoids who you are trying to steal golden eggs from. Salmon Run features the normal cannon fodder along with boss salmonid that can completely destroy a team. With proper teamwork and decent skills, a good player can make quick work of the opposition. A problem that often bugs me is how you are randomly assigned a weapon from the list so you may be stuck with a weapon type you are uncomfortable with. Though it is rather fun to try out different weapons and learn some new playstyles. The randomly selected guns do add variety to the mode and prevent it from getting stale. The most unfortunate part of such a great game mode is that Salmon run is usually only playable at certain times. Usually, it lasts for two days with a one day break in between. This does mean that new weapons are rotated in. Though the frustration of having to wait for such an awesome mode is upsetting, I feel it adds to the anticipation when Salmon Run is available. Luckily, you want to play with your pals, you can assemble all your switches and have a local Salmon Run party which can be played at any time.

Your boss is kinda harsh though. I don’t blame him though, it’s tough being a bear, or a bear statue? It’s hard to explain.

Mr. Grizz

If you’ve played the first Splatoon, you most definitely remember the single player. Splatoon 2 does host a single player as well, but it feels a bit lackluster in areas. The story itself is definitely reliant upon the knowing what happened in the first game. Knowing who the original Squid Sisters, Callie and Marie, helps bring meaning to the story. Without spoiling too much, there’s a lot of buildup to a pretty lackluster conclusion. The level designs are great and there’s enough to explore without confusing the player. I’m a personal fan of the music, despite it being less rock focused this time around. There is another part of the campaign that hinders it in a bittersweet way. Sheldon joins you this time around to deliver useful weapons to aid you on your journey, but when you join a level, he may ask you to use certain weapon types for said level.

This sadly forces the player to use a weapon they may not be happy to use. I’m still recovering from the charger stages. On a brighter note though, it does help teach players the ins and outs of many weapons, so when they hit the multiplayer, they got some experience under their belt. Overall, I would recommend beating the single player before touching the multiplayer, as you get some sweet gear as a reward.

Now one of the main selling points of Splatoon is the soundtrack. The original Splatoon focused mainly on rock, but now welcomes a more modern sound. I personally recommend, Endolphin Surge, Rip Entry, Inkoming and Don’t Slip. There’s a whole lot more, but each one gives off that Splatoon vibe, which I could only describe as listening to possibly the greatest music of all time submerged entirely in water. It’s off the hook. 

Speaking of Off the Hook, Callie and Marie from the first game have passed on the torch to two new faces rocking Inkopolis. Pearl and Marina from “Off the Hook” now conduct the intro to the game. You’ll still see a few friendly faces from the first game, Like Crusty Sean and Spyke, but they play a smaller role now. A lot has changed for the better, it’s nice to see the new faces along with the old. It has created quite the cast to interact with as you shop and upgrade your gear. A lot of the styles has changed as well, and you’ll find a different look sweeping across the community. For you old schoolers who liked your look from the first game, the game still seems to host a few variations of old favorites, like the Pilot’s goggles or Studio headphones.

Fun fact, you can take pictures with Splatoon amiibo to create fun scenes like the pictures I captured from earlier. Better fun fact, you can save your gear to your amiibos so you can change it instantly if a friend comes over or if you have multiple different classes on your inkling. I found the amiibo to work wonders when I have company over. I let them use an amiibo so we can switch off. Sad Fact, no local couch multiplayer, so you’ll need two switches and two copies of the games to play together. As of right now, I’m playing the waiting game for my friends to catch up and get switches. Sadder fact, you’ll have difficulty trying to play “together” with your friends. Most of the time you’ll be placed against your friends in the turf war which only leaves ranked battles. If you want to play together in ranked, prepare for the long haul, as you’ll need to hit ranked mode and then reach a B- Rank before you can even play League mode which is the only way to always be guaranteed a spot with your pal. I hope for Nintendo to hopefully fix this problem, but there has been no sign so far of improvement.

I do not have any friends on the switch, but I did play with friends in the original game. The original Splatoon had the same system of pitting you against your friends occasionally which was a mixed bag. It was fun to fight your friends occasionally, but having only one friend win was bittersweet. Overall, playing with friends will require much more work than a game like Call of Duty where you only need to invite a friend to the party.

Now should you get it? Definitely! This manages to live up to the freshness of the first and adds upon more top quality content. While there are a few parts that feel unpolished, the core elements of the game are smooth and refined. Splatoon 2 is the only game that has managed to scratch the multiplayer itch in a while.

Images Used:

https://www.pidgi.net/wiki/File:Logo_-_Splatoon_2.png

https://splatoonwiki.org/wiki/File:Mr._Grizz.jpg

All other pictures were taken in-game.