Splatoon 3 World Premiere - Impressions

Thirty minutes ago, as of writing this, the Splatoon 3 Global Testfire has ended for the American regions. Twelve hours of battling it out in a free demo of the upcoming Splatoon 3 later, and I can safely say that I am excited for this game - although, there are some issues I worry about on the horizon.

Before we start

I'm jumping into this game with the context of Splatoon 2. However, I have not played Splatoon 2 in several months, so as such I am coming into the Global Testfire with a rather fresh mind. I spent about eight hours total fighting for Team Scissors, and I did so entirely while docked on the Nintendo Switch OLED, Splatoon 3 Edition, using a Pro Controller. Many features - such as shops, gear customization, private or ranked battles, and many more - were disabled throughout this test drive, so this largely serves as a review of the core gameplay loop and matchmaking systems. WIth that out of the way, here are my thoughts on Splatoon 3 as it stands before launch.

I'll go over everything I can. I apologize if it's strangely verbose or weirdly worded, as I'm trying to get these thoughts out while the game is still fresh in my mind.

Matchmaking

Splatoon 3 opens much in the same way it's predecessor did - open the game, get past the title screen, read the news, into the lobby. Obviously, the demo is much more restricted on what you can do, so there wasn't really any option to do things like visit the shops or talk to Murch, but all in all the flow felt really smooth and overall faster than Off the Hook's announcement segments. Supposedly, in the full game, there's a way to skip the news, however for the Global Testfire I couldn't figure out how to do so.

Entering the lobby, however, greets you with a plethora of new options and tweaks that, although minor, feel like a complete world of difference. The biggest change is that the lobby is no longer just a menu, instead putting you into a whole new area that you can roam around.

In this new lobby, you can see “ghosts” of your friends with their recent activity, configure cosmetics, weapons, and gear, and even run around and play with some shooting dummies. The most radical change is that this lobby is fully playable while matchmaking, and you can even see real-time holograms of your teammates, which is a cute way to build some form of team synergy before the matches even start.

As for navigating the menus, they're fairly straightforward. Pressing the L button opens the Battle Menu, an improved version of the lobby menu from Splatoon 1 and 2. On top of showing the game selection options, there are now entirely different categories for Friend Matches, as well as a menu dedicated to recent match history and training room options. It feels much more cohesive, although the L button feels like a strange mapping for it and I wish it were instead on something like X.

On the Splattlefield

Matches in Splatoon 3 start off fairly differently than their Splatoon 2 counterparts. Instead of spawning in on a respawn platform, you're instead given the chance to launch yourself wherever you please (given that it's in range). It makes getting in and out of battle feel considerably faster than just waiting to respawn, preventing loss of flow from getting killed. Otherwise, the game plays largely the same as Splatoon 2, at least on a fundamental level - however, many of the changes introduced to weapons, mechanics, and even stage design lend themselves to a significantly different-feeling game overall.

The biggest change I noticed was simply in pace. Time to kill feels reduced and movement speed feels improved, leading to an experience that was much more exhilarating to play. It meant that during a match, a death didn't feel like a major setback, because getting back into the action took less than five seconds. Weapons felt faster to kill, swimming and dodging became a game of quick reflexes, and even specials seemed to charge quicker than they did in Splatoon 2.

The new special weapons greatly emphasize the focus on fast, aggressive play that Splatoon 3 introduces to the franchise. On top of returning specials such as Booyah Bomb and Ultra Stamp, new specials aim to reward players who aren't afraid to go in for the kill. Specials such as the Tacticooler grant players a speed boost and reduction of ink usage, as well as a quicker respawn if they die. The Killer Wail 5.1 (get it, it's a surround sound joke) is a Sting Ray on steroids, sending lasers in all directions as they follow the player that summoned them. Perhaps the most aggressive of the new specials is the Reefslider, a special that sends the user straight into a line of destruction, ending in a huge explosion akin to that of the Splashdown.

Overall, the increase in game speed and weapon power plays companion to a more streamlined, three-lane level design akin to more traditional shooters on the market. Gone are the arena-style stages like Humpback Pump Track or Kelp Dome, in their place are stages like Undertow Spillway, which is designed to always funnel players back into the middle section of the map, with lots of walls and corners shifting focus from team-based onslaughts to more focused duels. In a way, the gameplay reminds me much of the early days of Overwatch, in a very pleasant way, but I'm sure this will change as the meta develops.

Tri-Color Turf War

Splatoon 3, in switching from an idol duo to idol trio, has three teams per Splatfest instead of two. To support this decision is an entire new gamemode - Tri-Color Turf War.

Halfway through any Splatfest - in this case, six hours in - Deep Cut will do a preliminary count of votes, to see who is winning at that moment in time. Second and third place will then team up against the current winner, in the new Tri-Color Turf War battles. Tri-Color battles are optional for the losing teams, however players on the winning team do not have the option to opt out of them, instead occasionally being queued into the new format automatically as part of regular matchmaking.

It's a bit confusing on paper, but I'll try my best to explain. In this specific case, it was announced at halftime that Team Scissors was in the lead. So for the second half of the Splatfest, Paper and Rock players could queue up for Tri-Color Turf War, where they'd have to fight 2v2v4 against Team Scissors in a modified Turf War. Scissors players could only select default matchmaking, and had no control over whether the battle was a standard 4v4 battle or a Tri-Color match.

Though the new mode is welcome - especially after Splatoon 2, in which the only mode playable during Splatfests was standard turf war - it stands to reason that it feels rather unbalanced against the team in the lead. Although this makes sense - at least from a gameplay perspective - it's a bit frustrating as a player. I have a hunch that it actually led quite a few Scissors players to simply stop playing the game, as matchmaking times felt quite a bit longer after the mode was enabled.

Tri-Color functions as a strange cross between Turf War and Rainmaker. The game is determined by total ink coverage, as is a standard Turf War, however in the center of the stage spawns something called the Ultra Signal. The two losing teams can activate it, however the leading team cannot - instead, having to defend it from the other two teams. If one team activates it, it summons Deep Cut, who use their Sprinkler of Doom to cover mass amounts of ink for whoever used the signal. The Ultra Signal can only be used twice per match, which gives the defending players time to potentially counter it - however, oftentimes losing the Ultra Signal even once can seal the fate of the big team. All in all, the gamemode is fun, but has some balancing issues that can make it feel frustrating to the defenders, oftentimes making it feel like playing anything less than a perfect game guarantees a loss.

Bugs & glitches

This entire Splatfest, although fun and a notable improvement over Splatoon 2 in many ways, was riddled with bugs and connection errors. Despite supposedly using an improved set of netcode from Nintendo, disconnects and network errors were incredibly common, oftentimes kicking out swaths of players at once. It's almost funny to say it's a core feature of Splatoon at this point, but it was rather frustrating. I am hoping that these problems get fixed before launch. At several points the game didn't even register that there was a Splatfest going on, preventing me from playing.

On top of this, some minor UI bugs occurred. The death markers for players would sometimes be comically oversized for the first few frames of being on screen, canceling matches was iffy at best, and the password system for friend rooms was completely borked and unusable. All minor nitpicks for a twelve-hour demo, but these are issues that absolutely need to be addressed before the full game launches.

Closing thoughts

Ultimately, my time with Splatoon 3 was incredibly fun, if not held back a bit by strange technical problems. Testing out the new weapons and learning counterplay proved to be an enjoyable experience, the fast-paced chaos of turf wars still intact from games past. The increased speed of play really kept my attention for longer and helped enhance my ability to simply get in the zone, but I do wonder how the competitive meta will develop around new weapons like the Stringer.

I found the new Splatfest soundtrack to be good, but not quite on the level of Off the Hook's music from Splatoon 2 - though, I'm sure it will grow on me in time. The new Splatsville plaza is filled with detail, and I even found myself getting lost in it on my first few visits; and the improved lobby system is such a drastic overhaul that going back to Splatoon 2 feels like an exercise in frustration.

Splatoon 3 is a much more refined Splatoon 2, much in the same way Splatoon 2 was a refining of the first game. There isn't much in the vein of total overhaul - after all, it's still Splatoon - but the tiny changes and quality of life improvements and subtle tweaks to combat make it feel like a much, much better game, and make the second game feel just a bit too dated and sluggish in comparison. I am very much looking forward to the full release, I just hope Nintendo can get their bugs ironed out before September 9.

Until next time.

Amber out.