The Splatoon 3 Splatfest World Premiere came and went pretty quick but it left me with a lot of good impressions and itching for more that the full game will soon provide.
As expected, the gameplay felt great. Pretty much the same as Splatoon 2, with tight and responsive controls and no real slowdowns during the event. Nintendo has once again mixed up things by switching up the specials of the weapons. This includes introducing a few new ones which were pretty fun to try out. There’s a few new moves too like being able to jump up while climbing a wall. It was confusing at first but the move works quite well and exactly as you would expect it. It’s something I always used to do in previous Splatoon entries but now it’s actually programmed in the game which helps in being able to pulling it off and now you have a guaranteed result instead of depending of the game’s physics to give you a hand.
The online features have been hugely improved. I can safely say that Splatoon 3 feels like the first Nintendo game which has modern online features. You can easily group up and play with other people on your friend list, you can party up and practice target while waiting for a match, or you can simply see what everyone else is doing as everyone has an online status in-game now. The voice chat remains exclusive to the Nintendo Switch Online app on mobile phones, though.
The Splatfest World Premiere gave us the option to play regular Turf Wars and the new Tricolor Turf War. Turf Wars is pretty much the same thing that everyone knows already: two teams of four battle it out to see who inks the most. The main differences here that give it more variety than before are the new weapons, new specials, and new maps. There’s also the fact that now everyone starts by selecting a spot where to drop in instead of a single spawn point like before. All these changes make the game feel fresh and new.
Tricolor Turf War changes things even more. They are battles (which are unfortunately limited to Splatfests) in which there’s three teams competing to see who inks the most. The way it works is by having one team be a defender (the one who is currently winning the Splatfest), and while two other players from the two other teams are attacking from the sides. So, technically, the two attacking teams are one and will get a win if any of those inks more than the defending team. As Team Rock, I had the chance to play as one of the attacking teams and the experience feels very different and overall fun compared to regular Turf War.
Splatoon 3 improves the graphics of the franchise once more. While not a big jump compared to the last game, you can still notice differences in the way the inkling and octolings are modelled. The new lobby is very detailed and quite a sight when the Splatfest is going on. The best part is that the game still runs at a smooth 60 frames per second while in the middle of Turf Wars.
The music we were able to hear during the event was amazing, as it’s expected from the franchise. Nintendo, once again, did not disappoint at all. I honestly think this may be my favorite Splatfest lobby music so far although the Squid Sisters aren’t that behind. But pretty much everything on the audio, specially the music like I said, is well done and I can’t wait to hear more of it.
The only thing that I didn’t really like so far was that the results screen, while a lot more detailed now, feels like takes longer to get through. So it’s slower to get back into the action.
Splatoon 3 will be releasing pretty soon on Nintendo Switch and it’s definitely a game you should be looking forward to, specially if you are a fan of the franchise.
Link-NM is the administrator of N Masters, Makendo Central, and aspiring indie game developer at NovaFan Games. His favorite game franchises include Mega Man X, The Legend of Zelda, and Mario Kart.