Splatoon 3 (スプラトゥーン 3 Supuratūn 3?) is a third-person shooter developed and published by Nintendo and launched on the 9th of September 2022. It is the sequel to 2017's Splatoon 2, and like its predecessor, will be released exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.
The game also has a demo that was released on August 25th, 2022. The demo was playable on August 27th, 2022, from 9:00 AM Pacific Time (12:00 PM Eastern) until 9:00 PM Pacific Time (12:00 AM, August 28th Eastern)
Splatoon 3 is developed and published by Nintendo. In an interview with the weekly Famitsu magazine from around July 2019, Splatoon series producer Hisashi Nogami said that after completing Splatoon 2, the team focused on the Octo Expansion DLC as well as updates and would not think about the future until completing version 5.0.0 of the game. This means that Splatoon 3's development had not started as of July 2019, and presumably started after the release of Version 5.0.0 on July 31st, 2019. This is quite different compared to the timing of the development of Splatoon 2, which started immediately after Splatoon was released.
The game was first announced in a Nintendo Direct on February 17th, 2021, with a planned release in 2022. It is the first game in the series localized into Korean and Chinese.
On the 24th of September 2021, more information was revealed about Splatoon 3 in a Nintendo Direct, including new special weapons, stages, and music, as well as the reveal of the single-player mode, Return of the Mammalians.
On the 1st of January 2022, the @SplatoonJP Twitter account tweeted the arrival of 2022. The post included a video with an Inkling performing a victory pose along with a jingle, while "2022" is written in ink. This revealed the return of the brush main weapon class, marking the final returning weapon class revealed.
On the 27th of January 2022, Volume 16 of the Splatoon manga was released with a teaser of the new Agent 3 arriving in Splatsville.
In a Nintendo Direct on February 9th, 2022, Salmon Run Next Wave, a successor to Salmon Run from Splatoon 2, was revealed to be a mode in Splatoon 3, introducing new Boss Salmonids, Egg Throwing, and the King Salmonids. It was also confirmed that the game will be released in the summer of 2022.
On the 22nd of April 2022, a fourth trailer for Splatoon 3 was released, showing gameplay of a Turf War match and revealing the release date to be the 9th of September 2022. It was also revealed that the game will support cloud saves (for offline play data) and that there will not be separate regional versions, meaning that all language options will be available to every player.
On the 10th of August 2022, an approximately thirty-minute-long Nintendo Direct focused entirely on Splatoon 3, titled the Splatoon 3 Direct, was aired, revealing many new details about various aspects of the game, such as its modes, characters, stages, weapons, etc. A free demo of the game, called the Splatoon 3 Splatfest World Premiere was also revealed.
Splatoon 3 takes place five years after the events of Splatoon 2, in a city named Splatsville (also known as the "city of chaos"), stationed within a region called the Splatlands. It is located far away from Inkopolis (the main setting of the first two games in the Splatoon series). With the development of Splatsville increased rapidly, one and a half years after the events of the Splatocalypse, more Inklings and Octolings started to move to the city.
The outcome of the Final Fest/Splatocalypse is likely the reason the game’s design is seemingly themed around chaos.
The Splatoon 3 single-player story mode is called "Return of the Mammalians", and it is implied that mammals besides Judd and Li'l Judd will appear. This includes some kind of mutated Octotrooper with brown fur. However, other Octarians do make an appearance, such as Octopods and DJ Octavio in the Octobot King L3.Gs. The story takes place in a new location called Alterna, a large, snowy area littered with Fuzzy Ooze. It also contains a rocket ship and portable research lab (where Callie, Marie, Craig Cuttlefish, and the Captain appear), a dark, mirrored city, and a neon-lit area with traditional Japanese items floating around in the background. The player's character is an Inkling recruited by the New Squidbeak Splatoon (specifically the Squid Sisters and the Captain) as the new Agent 3; the former Agent 3 from the previous games is now the captain of the group following Cuttlefish's retirement.
Gameplay
Like its predecessors, Splatoon 3 is a third-person shooter game focused on online multiplayer battles, in which eight players are divided into two teams of four. Players have two main forms and may switch between the two at will: their humanoid form, in which they can use weapons to spread ink and splat opponents, and their swim form, which, if they enter their team's ink while in the form, allows them to swim through ink at great speed, including up walls, recharge their Ink Tank faster, and hide. Players will have access to new movement techniques to dodge and expand the possibilities of attacks. A "squid roll" allows them to leap and twirl out of their ink, and a "squid surge" allows them to quickly swim up ink-covered walls and jump out at the top.
A new type of Spawn Point is used during online battles: an espresso maker-like cube called a Spawner Drone. It floats above the stage, allowing players to aim at their desired deployment location. After choosing where to deploy, the spawn point launches players to that location in their swim form. Regular spawn points can still be seen on Scorch Gorge but concealed in a tarp and not confirmed to be usable.
Reviewed by PC Games
on
August 31, 2023
Rating:
No comments: