The latest installment in the Splatoon series, Splatoon 3, provides a fresh yet familiar experience for fans of the popular third-person shooter Nintendo franchise.

Splatoon 3 was released on September 9, 2022 and is available on the Nintendo Switch. The game has the player control either an inkling or octoling as they play various multiplayer modes and a single player story mode. Inkling/octolings are kids that turn into a squid or octopus to swim through ink; the two function the same, with just a visual difference. 

The main multiplayer mode of the game,“Turf War,” is a four vs. four format in every Splatoon game where the goal is to cover as much of the map in the player’s team color as possible; players do this with their preferred choice of ink shooting weapons, be it traditional artillery like guns, rollers, snipers, brushes, or obscure weapons like washing machines, and even umbrellas. Each weapon has various pros and cons allowing users to find the one that suits their playstyle best. 

In addition to these weapons, Splatoon 3 adds some new weapons like a bow and katana, but most are returning weapons from prior entries. All of the weapons also have sub and special weapons. These abilities add a lot to the gameplay and chaos. 

Splatoon 3 adds several new special and sub weapons to add a twist on the gameplay.  After three minutes the match ends, and the team with the higher percentage of turf inked wins.

Besides “Turf War,” there are several ranked multiplayer modes like “Tower Control,” “Rainmaker,” and “Splat Zones.” Splatoon 3 also adds some quality of life features to the mix; for example, players can practice while a match is queuing, also players can skip the news broadcasts.

Despite these upgrades, Splatoon 3 does have one major issue: despite the quality of life improvements, it is still very similar to Splatoon 2 which was very similar to Splatoon 1. The series hasn’t made major improvements to the formula. While it’s not necessarily a bad thing, it makes the decision to make another Splatoon game on the same console as Splatoon 2 an odd decision except for money and corporate benefit.

In short, the game is a solid and enjoyable sequel which does improve minor issues from previous games, but it could do more to evolve the series instead of being a more irritative sequel.

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