The beginning of the saga of Splatoon dates back to 2015, the year in which su Nintendo Wii U a new saga arrived, exuberant, mysterious, suitable for all ages. The work has evolved over time thanks to post-launch support, and then resulted in Splatoon 2, which was very successful on Nintendo switch. There are not many games that manage to create a combination between the casual formula and the competition, making the experience perfect for every range of users, with punitive gameplay where needed and tons of content. The announcement of Splatoon 3 during the Nintendo Direct of February 17th certainly shocked the audience, given that 2 years had passed between the first and second chapter, but 4 years after the latter we still had no news on a possible sequel.
The origins of Splatoon 3
Nintendo denied in 2019 that it was working on a sequel, as it focused on adding new content for Splatoon 2, but ended up blocking the game's post-launch support early (we can say in retrospect, perhaps for good reason). Probably therefore, Splatoon 3 has been in development for only a couple of years, but it has from its many peculiarities of the second chapter that Nintendo has not - obviously - had to redesign without the bases, since the new episode will also make its debut on Nintendo Switch, this time in the 2022. This period of time can be more than enough to raise the overall quality level, maximizing the potential of the previous chapter and adding all the necessary innovations in the meantime.
Although Splatoon 2 was certainly appreciable, especially in the long run the work showed some rather important gaps, especially with regard to its being a short-lived game as a service. This almost turned out a hit and run opportunity, which was able to truly renew itself only in the early stages of life, only to exhaust its contents. In reality, even after the Nintendo updates stopped, new opportunities to change the formula appeared, but they were not enough to fill the servers and the hearts of players with colored ink as in the vicinity of day one. In any case, there are many strengths to start from, but we want to analyze today the weaknesses of Splatoon 2, that they will be reviewed for the third iteration of the brand, which this time will be able to offer a perfected formula from every point of view thanks to the experience accumulated by the team.
It appears that Splatoon 3 will allow players to juggle larger maps, possibly with new modes, easily traceable to a battle royale experience, at least according to the "first glance" and with very little information that can be inferred from the trailers. We know that some new weapons will make their debut, thus increasing the user possibilities and the variety of maps, and that the new customization system seems to have completely omitted the presence of a male and female gender for the Inklings. We obviously look forward to discover much more information, from the contents that the new city (probably the classic gaming hub) will be able to offer, up to the progression system that has managed to bewitch us especially in the second chapter.
Support, content and communication
What really matters - and what we believe will mark the success of the Splatoon 3 project - is there presence of a tighter post-launch support, that you do not let the product expire and continually innovate the formula, remedying the flaws that have made the battles repetitive with the sound of inks. We start first from the single player mode, perhaps the least important, which in the second chapter was quite successful but which was expanded only after a long time and with a paid content, which therefore made the ticket price quite high (if we consider that it is very rare to see devaluations of the cost of Nintendo productions). The adventures of this wacky universe are often hilarious, and the present lore is absolutely not to be underestimated; in short, Nintendo could give birth with the next chapter a wonderful pearl also for single player.
Speaking of multiplayer, we are unfortunately aware of the fact that the numerous events on a frequent basis and the modes being updated every week have unfortunately not brought the breath of fresh air that we would have expected. One of the main goals of Splatoon 3 will have to be to make the content truly engaging, perhaps by innovating the formula that is already fun - and if necessary competitive - already refined during the first two productions. A factor that affects the experience quite seriously is unfortunately the ecosystem of Nintendo Switch, which on the one hand allows you to play on the move and with comfort (also guaranteeing some features such as the ability to move the console to aim), but completely blocks communication between players. Creating and maintaining a community on Nintendo Switch is particularly difficult, even with the help of the appropriate official app, players have to organize themselves with additional tools to communicate freely with voice chat, to form teams ready to compete in the ranked, or for the most challenging co-op battles.
For a game that focuses on competitive and online modes, making the player feel "alone" while surrounded by other users is really serious, and perhaps this is also what has gradually extinguished the flame lit after the launch of Splatoon 2. Hopefully so that the new episode can continue this saga with excellent results, increasingly important for the Nintendo landscape and for the hybrid console. Despite an almost identical graphic sector, the first scenes of Splatoon 3 that we admired have a completely different scent than the last chapter, which we repeat for safety, has nevertheless hit the target, but without a perfect shot.
