Splatoon (or LOOK IT'S A NEW NINTENDO IP WILL YOU SHUT UP NOW)

andyman949 wrote:

The game itself looked brilliant, reminded me a lot of Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare, but the way they're rolling it out left me feeling a bit meh. 4 (I think) maps on launch really isn't enough. I'll still be picking it up though, just not amazed.

There's 5 maps on day one which isn't a lot as you said but more are being added every few weeks at least, I think they are rolling it out this way so folk don't grow bored of it quickly, like they will be hooking you in with the initial maps and modes leaving you wanting more.

If so it's quite a risky strategy that could fall the other way.

Just watched looks good, and like Jas says I think it's to get people on the game & U's in till the next big game.

So, who's playing the global testfire (beta) today?

ME if I'm back in time

Hopeful of a half-hour of hijinks, hilarity and hardcore hitting of henemies ( ) before my driving lesson.

I'm gonna try - but it'll be the noon one (SOON)

Just took it for a spin and I didn't love it. I could see it being fun if you have a group of 8 playing it, but it's just not a game for playing with/against randoms. I wasn't too thrilled about being tied into one class for the whole game and then having to drop back out to pick another after it either. Overall I'll be waiting for reviews to see if it's worth it for SP alone, or I'll wait til the party system crops up.

I just had three plays at it, so here is my cursory, not in the slightest bit in-depth review of what I played:

Looks terrific, so much colour and all very sharp. Characters are decent, as is the music. It plays really well and swimming up walls and through fences is a real treat. I was terrible at it, like every thing I play, with the worst score of two losing teams, but then on the third try, we inked them and I used the roller to much better effect. I can see this being a lot of fun, except for the fact that I really don't like playing online games.

If the reviews for the single campaign look decent, then I will certainly add this to my collection at some point.

Played 10 or so games in the 12-1pm slot, I came away very impressed. It just *feels* right to play, the physics of swimming in the ink, the gyro aiming, the fluidity of it all. Very satisfying. Had to up the right stick's camera sensitivity, though, I thought turning speed was a bit too slow by default.

At first I found the roller to be a bit overpowered, but after a few more games it's evident that you're much more vulnerable with it, and I think the roller will be less valuable on stages with more verticality -- it's a lot harder to paint vertical walls, even when you "fling" it to make the paint come off.

I agree that this might not have the staying power of other shooters, it probably will depend on how fast Nintendo can roll out the extra content, and whether there will be more competitive elements besides helping your team to win. It's a big shame that half the online modes aren't arriving until August. Who said Nintendo doesn't keep up with industry trends...

I had a couple of games during The Window. 'My' team won both, and here I agree with andyman: I'd far rather be playing with GNamer Forumites than Kevin J. Random. The mechanics are solid (for me - I'm not much of a shooter guy) and it was real fun, though I craved a run button for your human form.

DIGRESSION ALERT: I pointed that out in the StreetPass Manchester group on FB; someone replied that that's the advantage of the Inkling form. I'll have to look into that!

I absolutely loved this but I can see the point Andy has made about how this will be much better with a team you know, however I was quite happy to find an area on the map and stay there defending it as best as I could & I never found myself getting frustrated compared to other FP/TP shooters I've played.

I cannot wait to play it again at 8pm.

I would've loved to have played it. I got to do the training demo; the rest of the time was spent with connection errors.

However, if everyone else says it's good (and it does look good) I'll probably still get it, and assume that this was just bad server luck.

Got on the 8 O'clock session last night, It's just as good I remember from EGX last year. I'm really likely the roller , this time along with the JR.

Played for 2 full hours and absolutely loved it, it's just no nonsense fun and every round feels different, can not wait.

In case you missed the original Testfire, there's another one at 11pm on Saturday 23rd May.

DIGRESSION ALERT: I remembered a discussion on the old NGamer forum about what would be the next game in the Wii series after Sports, Play and Chess. Did we not conclude Wii Paintball?

Looking forward to playing this again, not a big deal of they don't but it'd be nice if they tweak a few options from the last test.

I saw an interesting letter pop up this week (here: http://metro.co.uk/2015/05/14/games-inbox-splatoon-review-conundrum-assassins-creed-siblings-and-alien-isolation-2-5198186/#ixzz3aJqKI7di)

I know you said you don’t preview Early Access games on the principle that it has a ‘negative influence on gaming’. All very noble, but some these games are selling in their millions. You recently awarded Kerbal Space Program an 8/10 which came through Early Access, so there is obviously some good coming out it. I don’t deny that there is a whole lot of shady stuff going on but that freedom of choice lies with the customer, as I believe it should.

I really don’t see how this is any different to Nintendo’s Splatoon. The game is releasing this month unfinished, with only 5 multiplayer maps and a set of limited game modes, with the promise of more content added in the future. This has some obvious parallels with Steam’s Early Access, so when will you be reviewing Splatoon? This month or six months down the line when they actually finish the game?
Charles

GC: We don’t approve of what Nintendo is doing either. We wouldn’t say it had much in common with Early Access though, its lack of content is far stranger and more unnecessary than that – especially given there’s no release date it desperately needs to make. Frankly we don’t know what we’re going to do about the game going forward, but at launch we’ll simply review what’s there.

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I'm not sure what to think about Nintendo releasing the game like this either, though given the trade-off between waiting another few months for everything and getting a good amount of content now (the single player is going to be meaty, I think, and online will be a diversion at worst), I'd rather have the game now -- to me it's this year's Mario Kart 8, and I want something I can dip in and out of that's *new*.

I think some of the problems lie with how they first introduced the game to everyone (just as an online shooter) there's no denying that on paper it does seem like the online MP portion is unfinished but I wonder if it's more than that for example since it's a relatively young team making it maybe they were told to simplify or steer it away from things that a normal shooter does? Then Nintendo have had to bow under demand from the fans wanting things like custom games and a party a system. (which shouldn't need to be asked for in a shooter tbh)

As you said though if the single player is meaty enough then how the online is at launch shouldn't be much of an issue.

I would have to say I'm a little concerned. This might be the only game where I think I want to play the multiplayer over the single player mode; I'm not quite sure why there are initial limitations on content, and the maps thing is also a bit odd. I know there's something to be said for not giving people Everything They Want All The Time (see Animal Crossing as an example of how that works), but they seem to be deliberately limiting how much people are going to want to play the game in one sitting, which is asking for trouble.

Having said that, it might just be the way it's been communicated. Smash Bros. didn't have all of the features available at launch, but there was still enough there that no-one was particularly disappointed - the meat of the game was 100% ready. There's a possibility that it's this kind of situation - but it currently feels like there's not enough of a base there on day one.

Still getting it, mind

It's a day one for me, regardless of the amount of on-line content at launch. I won't get to play on-line all that much, I reckon, so it doesn't matter to me a great deal. The point about it appearing to be a rushed release is a good one, though - it's not as if May has been lacking in Nintendo releases... another month or so, meaning more stuff could be ready at launch, would please many more people.

Jimbob wrote:

Having said that, it might just be the way it's been communicated. Smash Bros. didn't have all of the features available at launch, but there was still enough there that no-one was particularly disappointed - the meat of the game was 100% ready. There's a possibility that it's this kind of situation - but it currently feels like there's not enough of a base there on day one.

Still getting it, mind

Totally agree!

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Now about the odd choice of map rotation, in the 2 hours I had with the testfire demo I can't say I got bored much as the matches were so varied and different each time (maybe I'll feel differently if those 2 hours aren't separated?) and if there was a standard voting system then you may end up becoming bored quicker as you'd see all those initial maps in short time or you might not because people will want to vote for their favourite all the time.

Nintendo seem to be open in terms of feedback these days though so maybe as more maps are added (I hope these are released in bulks of 5) they could up the amount of maps to be rotated from 2 to 4 for example.

Double post!

Some very interesting pieces of info about the development in this Iwata asks.

http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/wiiu/splatoon/0/0

Kinda gutted I wasn't free for any of the demo sessions but glad my first time with the game will actually be my first time playing it. Sort of tempted to skip my dad's birthday on Sunday so I can stay home and play Splatoon...