Splatoon 3: The Ink-Review

Eterniti Wiley, writer

Are you ready to be a Squid and swim your way into the colorful ink? Are you ready to be a kid and splat your way to victory? If the answer is yes, then pick up a copy of the new game Splatoon 3, where you can splat and ink all you like! The 3rd edition of the celapod war zone has arrived and has a lot of changes compared to its older editions. 

The first basic game mode is Turf War, where you are in a team of four and try to cover the stage with your ink color. The more of your team’s ink covers up the map after 3 minutes, you win, so be sure to strategize and know what weapon and gear outfit suits you. 

Now if you’re really tough for Splatoon, then Anarchy mode is where to go. There are two versions of this particular rank mode, Anarchy Series and Anarchy Open.

Anarchy Series is where you truly show how much you can hold victories and raise your rank meter. All you need to do is to win up to five battles with three other people. You only have 3 chances to lose, if you lose all 3 matches, you will lose points off the rank meter. What makes Anarchy Series a little more challenging is trying to win all 5 matches without any losses, if you manage to do that, you get a boost to your rank meter. Wins and losses both give points so don’t be discouraged if you lose, however try to win as much as you can to get that rank up.

Anarchy Open is your typical normal rank battle mode, just like in Splatoon 2, but under a different name. You only have one battle to focus on, however, unlike series, you can bring in your friends and form a team. This is the perfect mode if you have a group of friends who you know will help you out. So to sum up the competitive modes of Splatoon 3, if you go solo, you have a huge challenge to get a win streak. If you have buddies then jump into the Open version and win together!

Salmon run is a whole mode of its own, where instead of going against Squids and Octopuses, you ink Salmons at the home base. This is a co-op mode where you and your friends have to collect golden eggs and make through three waves of fishy trouble. Word of advice: be sure to keep on check when wave three ends. There will be a chance to face a king salmon, so be sure to work together to defeat the beast when it appears.

Lastly we have Story Mode, which serves as the game’s huge warm up for the multiplayer modes with some hidden story of the world sprinkled on top. In this mode you play the new Agent 3 and have a little fishy friend by your side. This Story Mode is a lot bigger than the previous game, and has many types of challenges as you progress, so it is best to check this mode out first before heading to the turf.

So what are the big changes compared to Splatoon 2? Well the main difference is the customization of your player character and gameplay changes! This game has a huge amount of custom options for your inkling or octoling, from wearing all hairstyles and clothing without any gender lock to making your locker deck out in the new locker room. This version of the game truly fits your style however you like! As for the new game tech, you can perform two actions: squid surge and squid roll. If you master these techniques, you will overcome the turf wars for sure!

While the game feels a tiny bit lacking in some aspects, such as few new weapons and stages, that doesn’t drop the fact this game is a huge step up from Splatoon 2. It will continue to grow larger when the free updates begin to roll out as well as the splatfest mode that is to come soon!

Splatoon 3 is a great edition to your Nintendo Switch if you want a colorful shooter game and want to have fun with the many modes it has to offer. This game is even more of a blast if you have friends or love to play online multiplayer games, Splatoon 3 definitely hit the mark for both. With the game’s large amount of content, you never stop wanting to play, until you feel a bit of rage from Anarchy Series mode that is. So dip in next time for more video game reviews, and I’ll splat ya later!