Nintendo’s digital E3 press conference had some big announcements; new Smash Bros characters and an openworld Zelda among them. But they also had a surprise in the form of a new IP, a multiplayer third-person (ink) shooter called Splatoon.
Matches in Splatoon play out as four-on-four online battles. Rather than a straight up deathmatch, players use their ink guns to paint the map in their teams’ color, the team with the most territory tagged at the end of the match wins.
Splatoon’s handling of movement stood out to us: players can alternate between firing in humanoid form, or transform into the squid like “inkling”-form, allowing them to swim across floors and up walls - basically anywhere there’s ink of their color. There’s one catch though. Players can’t move freely in the opposing teams ink, their movement will be slowed to a crawl. In theory this might make controlling territory a practical mechanical consideration rather than simply a form of keeping score.
Nintendo also mentioned gyroscopic aim assist controls, and powered-up weapon unlocks for establishing territory control quotas. One of these weapons may be the human-sized paint-roller we saw players using to steamroll their opponents.
It’s refreshing to see Nintendo work on a game that’s outside their comfort zone. We can’t help but wonder if Splatoon’s cartoony take on TPS multiplayer will appeal to the Plants vs Zombies crowd.
Splatoon will be out for the Wii U sometime in the first half of 2015. We expect more details will come out of E3 so check back with us. In the meantime check out these screens and this gameplay trailer.
Shehzaan Abdulla
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