When Splatoon was first announced, many were doubtful that Nintedo's newest, inkiest shooter IP could succeed in a world where the a shooter's success was drawn from realism and how many kills you could gain in a single match. Splatoon, unlike a conventional shooter, while having a kill count, has you play as either a customizable male or female "inkling" (squid person) trying to cover up the all the ground in your team's ink while splatting your enemies and covering enemy ink. The game itself looks like a fabulous crossover between Nicktoons, Disney, and Call of Duty. Despite being on the WiiU, a console that was once almost guaranteed to fail, Splatoon and other recent IPs revived a dead console and gave it a livelihood not seen before this year.
When Splatoon was first in development, it had very little support from Nintendo and the game was released with limited weapons, maps, and unlocks. After seeing the success of Nintendo's hybrid shooter, free dlc that comes as updates regularly show up once or twice a month right before an event known as Splatfest.
Splatfest is a special event in which players much pick between two teams of their choice. Every Splatfest has a theme and the whole Inkopolis plaza lights up with music, dancing, raving, and general fun as players battle it out between their teams. The most recent Splatfest for Europe and North America has been an interesting crossover, Team Autobots or Team Decepticons and will end tonight at 9 pm. There are three types of winners for Splatfest, the most popular team, the team with the most wins, and the team with the most overall points (combining a both popularity and wins). Winners of different ranks (Fangirl/boy, Fiend, Defender, Champion, and Queen/King) get prizes based on their ranks which can be used to increase the abilities of their weapons and upgrade gear/clothing.
While Splatoon's multiplayer is fun, unique, and has a lot of charisma, there is a lot to be said about the single player mode. At first, it doesn't appear to have much of a story other than you know that the Octotarians and the Inklings have a deep rooted rivalry and you must stop the evil Octotarians from invading Inkopolis and taking control of it by kidnapping Inkopolis's precious Zapfish. But for players who do more than head straight to the objective, every level has a hidden scroll, and each scroll provides detailed information on the uprising of the sea creatures and the demise of the ancient beings known as humans.
According to the scrolls, after the demise of humans, a new era began called the Mollusk Era and sea creatures evolved and adapted to the new terrain on a post-apocalyptic Earth.
Another groundbreaking factor comes into play when the games beloved mascot cat, Judd, announcer and judge of the turf wars, has his past revealed. Judd is the only mammal left on Earth, and this fat cat is revered as a god by the squid people and worshiped. According to the scrolls throughout the game, Judd was cryogenically frozen for 10,000 years and has been out of his frozen prison, survived for an additional 2,000 years due to the effects of his icy tomb and continues to live his life fat, lazy, and happy.
What is really concerning about these scrolls is the story it tells to players. All of human kind has been killed by rising sea levels at what appears to be the time we live in now as evident by the WiiU's gamepad preserved with the human corpse. This can mean two things, either our demise is near, or in the Splatoon world, the Splatoon game existed and predicted the events of the apocalypse but no one did anything about it and the game came true. Even after these disturbing facts, the list of weird secrets goes on. Strange noises can be found after fighting the final boss, and the strangest part is that no one knew where they came from, not even the creators. It's rumored that an employee programmed these sounds in the last minute because even the creators have no clue about these strange sounds.
Check them out for yourself in the video above, but for such a friendly and fun loving game such as Splatoon, sounds like these are worrying. Maybe one day someone will fess up or explain these strange sounds. Until then, we have no explanation only confusion from even the creators themselves.
Overall, I had a great first impression of the game despite it being one of Nintendo's riskiest IPs and now one of its most successful. This game has room in the hearts of everyone and a place in every household. I haven't had this much fun playing a shooter in years and had almost given up the genre, so thank you to Splatoon for bringing back the fun in what was otherwise an overused genre. For those who want to pick up the game, Walmart is offering a $200 Splatoon WiiU bundle that is well worth picking up.
Until next time,
"Staaay fresh!"
