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[SL the Pyro]

Pre-orders have just opened up, so I figured now was a good time to start a thread. Official release date is May 29th along with the Amiibos.

 

$59.99 USD

$69.99 CAD

 

good god that's expensive I'm used to Canadian price tags for Wii U games being $60, not $70. Doesn't mean I'm not getting it though.

 

Who else is picking this up?

Edited by SL the Pyro, 24 April 2015 - 02:21 PM.

[SteveT]

Oh my yes.  Maybe not at launch, but it will happen.

[JRPomazon]

I want to like this game but something's in the way. My overall opinion is pretty murky, it looks like fun but I'm not sure if it's my kind of game. Not saying that my final opinion is locked and written down or anything but we'll see how it goes.

[SL the Pyro]

Alright, so Nintendo did a Direct devoted to Splatoon:

 

 

The Direct starts are 31:50. (jesus christ Nintendo why do you pick the weirdest live times)

 

A summary list:

 

Gameplay-related:

-Main weapons are divided into three classes: Shooter (rapid-fire/scattershot), Charger (power/sniping) and Roller (melee-ish)

-Sub weapons consume a lot of Ink out of your gauge when used, but have various effects like grenades, enemy radars, proximity mines, etc.

-Special weapons only work when you fill up your Special Gauge (done by covering turf and fragging enemies), consisting of a bazooka, an airstrike, an invincible ramming squid, etc.

-Gear items have one base Ability, and gain extra abilities at random when they're worn into battle

-the spiky-haired NPC (creatively named "Spyke") can upgrade your gear to have one more ability (maximum of three extras for a total of four) in exchange for a rare "Super Sea Snail"; if the gear is already maxed out, he can reroll the extra abilities

-if you see Gear you like on another Inkling in the hub, you can Special Order it, abilities and all; Spyke also handles this

-not all Gear or Weapons are available from the start, you have to be a high enough Level to unlock more

-there are various silly retro-ish minigames you can play while waiting for online matchmaking to happen

-the three Inkling amiibos have 20 special missions each you can play from if you tap them into the game; clearing some challenges unlocks unique gear, clearing them all unlocks a new minigame

-Inkling Girl amiibo has charger weapon challenges, Inkling Boy has roller challenges, and Inkling Squid has Kraken (the aforementioned invincible ramming squid Special) and limited ink challenges

 

Update-related:

-Ranked Battles aren't open immediately, they will only become available once enough players worldwide reach Level 10 (Nintendo will announce when this goal is met)

-free updates for the game will be released periodically after launch to add new content, such as weapons, maps and game modes

-August will have a big multiplayer update that allows friends to choose maps and game modes at will

-"Splatfests" are essentially mass tournament events where you pick one of two teams and battle it out; how well you do determines how many Super Sea Snails you get for Spyke to enhance your gear with

-The first Splatfest will happen on June 20th 6:00 am Pacific Time and go on for 24 hours, the theme is "Cats or Dogs"

-for a limited time (5/8/2015 to 6/13/2015), if you pre-order or purchase Splatoon from GameStop, you'll get codes for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U DLC Inkling outfits for your Mii Fighters

 

IMPORTANT DEMO-RELATED STUFF:

-A free demo "Global Testfire" is available for download on the eShop right now! Once downloaded, you'll be able to go online and sample the game for yourself at specific dates and times (so it's basically a glorified server stress test)

-the times in question are: May 8th from 8-9 PM Pacific Time, and May 9th from 4-5 AM and 12-1 PM Pacific Time

-if you pre-order Splatoon from the eShop (also available right now), you get a unique outfit for use exclusively in the Global Testfire... though it doesn't carry over to the main game

-various Nintendo Treehouse players and Squid Research Lab staff (read: developers) will be playing during Global Testfire as well; SRL players will be wearing labcoats! Nintendo Treehouse will also be streaming during the event

Edited by SL the Pyro, 07 May 2015 - 01:30 PM.

[Sir Turtlelot]

Did anyone else take part in the Global Testfire tonight? My parting thoughts were quite simple really.

 

...

 

SPLAT ROLLER FO' LYFE!

 

 

Seriously though, I tried out all the weapons, save for the sniper, and the paint roller weapon was by far the most fun.

[SteveT]

I was on and I enjoyed it greatly.

 

Impressions:

 

1. Fun went up when I turned off motion controls

2. I agree that the splat roller is very well suited for Turf War.  I feel like the metagame will balance it as people get good with the charge blaster.  My effectiveness was always highest when I used it.

3. I could not figure out what the Killer Wail was supposed to do.

4. I kept getting paired with blundering buffoons.  There was one guy who had a score of zero!  How do you even?  He had to play the entire match without shooting his gun once.

[SL the Pyro]

1. Agreed, though with them off I couldn't aim the Splat Charger for crap. I'd almost want KI:U controls as an alternate control scheme for the Gamepad (aim with the stylus).

2. I found I was best with the Splattershot Jr., oddly. The big Splattershot didn't do it for me, the Splat Roller was good but mutual destruction was a pain, and the Splat Charger just sucked because I wanted a sniping weapon rather than a shotgun. I'll probably use a better charger as my main weapon when the higher-range ones are available in the main game.

3. You look in the direction you want to fire it, then deploy it, projecting a sound wave that annihilates all enemies caught by it. i.e. it doesn't paint things if you don't hit anyone

4. Probably because they were disconnected/AFK. :X

 

 

Anyway, you can observe my experiences here: http://www.twitch.tv...epyro/v/4839980 (I apologize for the choppiness at certain points, I'm not sure why that happened since the rest of the stream was fine.)

Edited by SL the Pyro, 08 May 2015 - 11:53 PM.

[SteveT]

One other thing I noticed: there were a couple network hiccups where fresh paint stopped showing up on my screen.  Hopefully Nintendo noticed and will be able to fix it.

[Sir Turtlelot]

I was unaware that motion controls could be turned off. I'll have to be sure to do that for the next test, as I really didn't care too much for them.

[Hana-Nezumi]

I played! And it was a lot of fun! I actually really want this game now, when I was unsure before if I wanted it or not. I'm surprised, too, because I normally don't like ANY type of two-stick shooter, but Splatoon really does feel completely different.
 

One other thing I noticed: there were a couple network hiccups where fresh paint stopped showing up on my screen.  Hopefully Nintendo noticed and will be able to fix it.

That sounds weird, it didn't happen to me.
 

I was unaware that motion controls could be turned off. I'll have to be sure to do that for the next test, as I really didn't care too much for them.

Press + on the weapon select screen, I think.

[SL the Pyro]

Huh, I didn't know Nintendo owned the Seattle Mariners.

 

Spoiler

[Hana-Nezumi]

There will be one more hour of Global Testfire on May 23 at 3 PM PT! I can't wait.

[Hana-Nezumi]

The last Global Testfire will be online in a few hours!

[SL the Pyro]

http://www.wired.co....shipment-stolen

 

oh my god I hope none of you were victims to this

[SL the Pyro]

Just finished story mode. Kinda short, but pretty sweet.

 

It's a pretty good mix of tricky platforming and careful shooting, with some stages being throwbacks of the multiplayer arenas. I only had one Game Over (thanks to a Kelp Octoling that decided it would be funny to imitate a spawn camper), but that's not saying that it's easy; the game does not hold your hand, and you will die as easily as the enemies you're shooting if you don't know what you're doing. You will learn to value the many checkpoints and occasional armor power-ups in the lategame. All in all, it's pretty challenging, but also pretty fair.

 

Also, the final boss is amazing, in both a hilarity sense and a "most satisfying final boss I've had in a long time" sense.

Edited by SL the Pyro, 30 May 2015 - 08:53 PM.

[Fin]

I'm currently watching a livestream. This game looks like so much fun, really makes me wish I had a WiiU.

[Hana-Nezumi]

I love Splatoon! I've been playing it nonstop since yesterday!

[Masamune]

Spent the morning playing it. The game is pretty madly addictive. I love the fact it outright mocks FPS conventions ("those who seek the high ground... are amateurs") .

[Hana-Nezumi]

Spent the morning playing it. The game is pretty madly addictive. I love the fact it outright mocks FPS conventions ("those who seek the high ground... are amateurs") .

Nice! I'm addicted too, haha. Add me if you want? My NNID is HN.flowermouse

[SL the Pyro]

Well, as expected, the Ranked Mode milestone was hit in a hurry. There's also a new map called Port Mackerel and a new Shooter-type weapon based off of the NES Zapper; low damage, but passable range and an absurd fire rate.

 

Ranked Mode currently uses the new game mode "Splat Zones" which is inking up a control point to keep ownership of it. It's actually better in this mode to hunt down other players rather than let them reach the point (or let them kill you in the point, which sprays their ink all over it!), and contribution is based on how many kills you get, so if you're better at killing than inking then you shouldn't have a problem with this mode.

 

As for how Ranked Mode works, everyone starts at the lowest rank of C- and works their way up from there, gaining gradually few points per win and always losing 10 per loss. On the upside, scoring a KNOCKOUT win in Splat Zones (controlling the point for long enough) gets you a lot of EXP which increases the higher your rank is, but if you lose, you get nothing. Who's feeling lucky?

 

 

 

As an aside, I got my Splatoon 3-Pack earlier today and got to sink my teeth into the challenges.

 

• Charger challenges are somewhat game-breaking, since in the regular single player campaign most of the danger came from having to get close to the enemies, so removing most threats is easy-peasy. But on the downside, chargers aren't great at inking up walls...
• Roller challenges are also a bit game-breaking, removing the need to aim at the enemies so you can just roll over them. Out-of-reach enemies become an eternal nuisance, though.
• Kraken challenges are time trials. Not really hard time trials though, since you can bash through most of the enemies and obstacles and climb any inkable surface with no problem. The only catch is that the timer doesn't give mulligans if you die.
• Limited Ink challenges are by far the hardest. You're given extra tanks of ink displayed on the side of the screen, and when they run out, you'll only have the regular ink tank. You don't get refills when you die, and you fail immediately if the regular ink tank runs dry. You have to pick your targets very carefully, and also refrain from using Splat Bombs if you value your sanity.

Edited by SL the Pyro, 02 June 2015 - 01:42 AM.

[SL the Pyro]

http://www.escapistm...Splatoon-Review

 

It's Zero Punctuation, so obvious language warning.

Spoiler

This is important because Yahtzee having genuine praise for a Nintendo game, something he never does, is a testament to its quality.

[Masamune]

Of course he casually plays into the criticism that Nintendo actually trying the first new IP in twelve years - something that's entirely false. It's just the biggest new IP that's received major promotion since Pikmin.

[SteveT]

"Nintendo never makes new IP" is right up there with "Nintendo is doomed."

[SteveT]

Ok, so I've had this game for a week and this is the most fun I've had with a shooter in a long, long time.  UT2k4 was the last one I really cared about.  Commendations to Nintendo.

[SL the Pyro]

Quick reminder that the first Splatfest event is this weekend. Remember to participate if you want free Super Sea Snails! And also because night battles are fun as hell.

[SL the Pyro]

 

(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻ WELL NEVERMIND THEN.

[SL the Pyro]

Splatfest finally got a new date for July 4th... maybe not the best day???

[SteveT]

It's here now, and it's glorious.

[Spikey]

My. I haven't been addicted to a game like this since...well...Fire Emblem 7? Can't stop playing it. Everytime I lose or win a Turf War I want to have another go immediately, no matter what stage. I stay up playing it until deep into the night even if I have to get up early in the morning. 

[Sir Turtlelot]

Been meaning to post this for awhile now, just now finally getting around to it.

 

So I don't seem to find myself quite as addicted to this game as everyone else is. Don't get me wrong, it's an incredibly fun game with a LOT of new ideas going on, I'm just really not one for games where the bulk of it rests in online multiplayer. The single player campaign was really nothing more than a glorified tutorial on how to play, while useful, I just couldn't help but want a bit more from it. The DJ Octavio fight was fucking awesome though, I will say that much.

 

Splatoon happens to follow an annoying industry trend I've noticed in the past years, specifically with shooters, where offline multiplayer options are very sparse, sometimes non-existent. My idea of a multiplayer game is having a group of friends come over and sit down to play rounds of Smash Bros, Mario Kart, Mario Party, and/or Goldeneye/Perfect Dark/Halo. I can recall going over to friends' houses after the release of games like Titanfall and Destiny, excited to play some splitscreen with them, only to find the disappointing truth that the option is no longer available. I mean, is it really so hard to add in an offline mode with four player split screen?

 

The same goes with Splatoon even, I think they could have very easily added in an offline mode where 4 players could play using the gamepad and pro controllers, and have an option to have 4 players vs bots, 2 players/2bots vs 2 players/2bots, and hell have everyone vs the gamepad player, where the player with the gamepad is maybe in a tank or mech or something just very powerful. You know, making use of the gamepad's ability for asymmetric gameplay.

 

 

But I digress. Overall I was very pleased with the game we received. It was a fresh new idea loaded with fun, even if I would have preferred some different game modes. My preferences aside, I still do boot up this game and play a few rounds from time to time, and I still do have a lot of fun. I still stand by the notion that this is a must own Wii U title, so if you haven't bought the game yet, I highly recommend that you do.