Nintendo unveiled Splatoon for the Wii U, a completely new property, at this year’s E3 convention. While they only showed a slice of the game, it showed a lot of potential and promise.
Splatoon’s one playable mode puts two teams of four players against each other. Each player inhabits a squid-kid hybrid armed with a gun that shoots neon-colored ink in thick globs. The object was to cover the battlefield — a field with different levels of terrain and a team base at each end — with more ink than the opposing team.
Of course you can’t just spray and hope for the best. Splatoon’s strategy elements stem from the character’s ability to hop into “squid mode,” where they can surf through their own color ink undetected, as well as refill their ink ammo when it runs out. Diving into the ink is an easy way to sneak up on the opposing team, and quickly dodge their shots at you. You also swim faster than you run through your own ink — not your enemy’s — meaning it was a faster way to get to the action. Getting hit with your enemy’s ink sends you back to the spawn point at the back of your base.
Splatoon utilizes the Wii U GamePad controller for most of its novel tricks. The controller’s gyroscopic sensor is how you aim, a promise that seemed gimmicky but quickly became intuitive after a couple rounds of play. It also displays a map of the battlefield, covered in swaths of ink, so you can quickly see which team is in the lead.
The best feature by far is the map that shows your teammates’ location, and clicking them launches your character to join wherever they are. This could be dangerous though, if you drop yourself right into a heated battle on contested ground.
The game isn’t going to come out until next year, and there are still plenty of questions Nintendo wouldn’t address about its features this early. Since the Wii U GamePad is the main controller, and only one of those can currently be paired with a Wii U, most of the play would take place online.
