Splatoon 3 is without a doubt the most anticipated release for the Nintendo crowd. I was invited to a special Nintendo preview event to spend some time with the game and I must admit, I’m very impressed so far. Let’s jump in!
Return of the Mammalians
During the preview event, I was able to check out three different modes, starting with Return of the Mammalians, the new story mode. I was able to play three levels of it and loved everything about it. At its core, it feels very similar to Splatoon 2 – Octo Expansion with the biggest difference being its level of difficulty. Back in the Splatoon 2 days, the Octo Expansion was created for the veteran players who were looking for an extra challenge. The levels of the expansion added a lot of thrills and difficulty to the base game and kept even the best players on the tips of their toes. The story mode of Splatoon 3 is a lot more accessible and should be enjoyed by players of all skills. That being said, it takes a lot of inspiration from the Octo Expansion by introducing different levels where you’ll need to clear specific tasks in order to advance. What I liked most about the story mode is the variation of the levels, which will often push you to think outside of the box. In the levels, you’ll often focus on one special skill or weapon in order to reach the finish. One level taught me how to use the new and impressive Tri-Stinger (bow and arrow) while another level focused on puzzle solving. You never know what to expect but by clearing the levels, you’ll also increase your overall skills and knowledge of weapons. If you want to become really good in multiplayer, these levels will certainly help you out a lot. It’s not just a collection of levels where you’ll go from one level to another, in between you can discover the gorgeously created overworld filled with secrets and unlockables.
The overworld is gorgeously created and houses tons of secrets such as hidden gear and secret paths. Running around and discovering those small extras is definitely worth your time. During the preview event, my time in the overworld was limited so I didn’t discover a lot of secrets but I certainly had fun running around in the overworld. Everywhere you’ll look, you’ll see potential secrets. Take those big hairy obstacles for example. If you send over your new side-kick Smallfry to clear those hairy obstacles, you’ll often get rewarded with some gear or new paths to advance. I’m convinced the story mode will pull in a lot more solo players as it certainly rewards you a lot and it’s just amazingly fun to run around and discover the overworld at your own pacing. I’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg but this is for sure the number one mode I can’t wait to dive back into.
Turf War
After my adventures in the story mode, it was time to check out the most popular multiplayer mode, Turf War. I teamed up with the other journalists to take on the other team of four. Before we dived into the levels, we could select our weapons and gear in the lobby. The lobby is one of Splatoon 3’s most important quality of life updates since it gives you something to do while waiting for the other players to be ready for the match. Instead of just looking at a menu screen, you can run around freely and practice your weapons on some dummy targets in the lobby. Once’s everyone ready to play, the match will automatically start. Since this was a preview session, a lot of the players were trying to figure out which weapon and gear combination would give them the best set of skills during the match. Although it took some time before everyone was ready, I never got bored while waiting. If I wasn’t checking my gear and weapons, I was blasting the dummy targets to get in some practice before the actual match started. I’m a Roller player in most of my Splatoon sessions but for the sake of the preview, I jumped in using the Tri-Stinger.
The Tri-Stinger is an interesting and rather powerful new weapon that fires three ink arrows at once. If you’re just standing still and charging it, you can with a horizontal blast of ink, inflicting some severe damage, even from a distance. If you fire the same shot while jumping, you’ll deliver a vertical attack. Switching between horizontal and vertical attacks takes some time to get used to but I can see this new weapon easily becoming one of the most popular choices in only matches. The vertical shots make it easier to hit targets who have the higher ground while horizontal shots cover a decent amount of the arena with ink, good for Turf War and taking down your enemies! In the other matches, I returned to my trustworthy roller and got a lot better at taking down the opponents while painting the arena. I tried exploring the new techniques and extra weapons too but since our time was very limited, I didn’t quite master them yet. I do feel the new techniques are going to be game changers since they make the player a lot more agile and stealthy at the same time. It’s something worth exploring in our review later on. Turf War was great from the start but I’m pretty sure Splatoon 3 will improve this fan-favorite mode even more.
Salmon Run
The last mode I played was Salmon Run in local co-op in a team of four. The goal of Salmon Run is to capture golden eggs while surviving different waves of enemies, three in total. If you die or don’t collect enough golden eggs before the time runs out, it’s game over. A challenging mode and we only played it at 10 to 15% of the level of difficulty. If you’re playing the new Salmon Run in co-op mode, it’s important to communicate with your team. Who’s taking down the bosses? Who’s collecting the eggs? Who’s going to heal or fallen teammates? Salmon Run is a lot more tactical than you would anticipate at the start and since there’s always an element of surprise before the start of the waves, you’ll always need to adapt in order to overcome. Before the start of the wave, you’ll be assigned to a random weapon and the map will randomize its appearance. One moment, you’re playing on a big map with your favorite weapon while the next wave you’re using a weapon you haven’t used before on a way smaller map. Salmon Run is the place to become good with all weapons at a fast pace. If you don’t learn quickly, you won’t survive the waves.
New in Splatoon 3 is the ability to throw your golden eggs in the basket, eliminating the fact that you constantly need to run close to the basket. Throwing the golden eggs into the basket gives you more momentum to go back into the combat zone and support your teammates. Believe me, you’ll need that support. Salmon Run is a hard mode and the new bosses really elevate the level of difficulty a lot. From dolphins jumping around to giant towers inflicting massive damage on the field, there’s a lot to take down and there’s a lot happing all at once. We tested this mode in handheld mode and it looked amazing in the OLED mode. The bright colors really popped and although there’s a lot going on, you’ll never lose track of the action. An impressive mode, even in handheld mode!
Early conclusion:
Splatoon 3 is well on its way to becoming the best entry in the franchise so far. All of those quality of life improvements really have a positive impact on the multiplayer while the Story Mode and Salmon Mode offer more than enough challenges for both the solo and co-op gamer. If you want to try out the game before its official release, don’t forget to enter the free Splatfest World Premiere this Saturday!