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After loads of advertising, lots of teasing and small bits of gameplay footage here and there, much hype surrounded what was prematurely termed the next successful IP of Nintendo – Splatoon. But does this game impress as much? Let’s find out.

SPLATOON
Developer: Nintendo
Platforms: Wii U
PEGI rating: 7

Firstly, let’s remember that most of the biggest Wii U hits are all games developed by Nintendo.

In fact, all of the top ten bestselling Wii U games are those developed by Nintendo. We can come to two conclusions - either Nintendo is really good at making games, or the Wii U just has a really stale and uninteresting catalogue of games made by third party developers. Splatoon is a game, which makes you want to believe the former.

Splatoon is a family-friendly shooter that has the player roaming about the map and shooting coloured ink at other players and on the ground, in order to cover maximum ground area possible with coloured ink and hence, claim it as his turf. It has multiplayer as well as single player modes and even a campaign.

The game kicks off by asking you to design your own character and then transports you into a fictional world called Inkopolis, and here’s where the brilliance starts.

Firstly, the game has ditched the entire menu concept and replaced it with a more interactive one. In order to enter different modes, one needs to roam about Inkopolis and enter different buildings that take you to the multiplayer lobby, or the campaign or so on. Not only that, the city also houses shops that sell apparel to customise your character’s look and also upgrade your weapons.

For a game that was advertised as a primarily multiplayer-based game, Splatoon has an interesting and really fun campaign mode.

The campaign stretches a little longer than is expected – six to eight hours depending on how you play – and has you traversing different maps, shooting cartoony foes, splattering ink all over and fighting bosses while all the time trying to overcome new obstacles that are introduced at each level. Being a Nintendo game, Splatoon does have amiibo support. However, purchasing Splatoon amiibos does little to help your gameplay experience as the extra levels you obtain are only revamped versions of those already in the campaign.

Being a shooter, the game also offers a requisite variety of guns. Though at first glance the guns may seem original, on using them one can quickly infer that they have been heavily inspired by other contemporary gun types found in standard FPS titles. There are sniper guns that shoot ink along a line, assault rifle-type ink slingers, ink grenades and a huge ink roller that can spread ink over a large area in front of the player, similar to a shotgun.

Ironically, where the game fails is where it’s supposed to be strongest – the multiplayer. While the 4v4 turf war mode is immense fun, it is - as of now - the only online mode available.

Additionally, there are only five maps in the game and it doesn’t take too long for anyone to get bored of them very soon. Adding insult to injury, a game that leans on team cooperation also lacks voice chat.

Nintendo has promised to keep adding new modes and maps to the game via free updates, but as of now this lack of variety proves to be a huge handicap for an otherwise creatively thought out and brilliantly conceived game.

Verdict
While Splatoon does impress with its flashy and colourful art, cartoony design, fun campaign and a very innovative take on the shooter genre, it disappoints in the area where it aims to hit hardest – the multiplayer - due to its lack of offerings in terms of modes as well as maps. But if Nintendo provides continuous updates, this game could indeed grow to be a major IP and could possibly even expand to other Nintendo systems.

Final score: 7.9/10

Pranav Nair is a 17 year old whose passion is writing reviews and articles on technology and gaming. His gaming tag is Fleet Admiral. You can check out his tech vlog at:www.youtube.com/user/pranavnairtech or contact him at pranavnairtech@gmail.com