It does to versus multiplayer TPSes what Pikmin did to RTTs. Definitely worth a try. Can't see myself playing it for more than a few days however, for the same reasons I can't play Titanfall or L4D, or Evolve, or any other of those games: lack of a real campaign.
Shame, because with a proper campaign and a bit more inspired art direction (like Pikmin's was) it could have been a classic.
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/201 ... n-hands-onMatt Kamen wrote:Nintendo's ink-shooter Splatoon: the most fun game at E3
Nintendo's new arena shooter may just be the most fun game at this year's E3. Sure, Call of Duty is more technically impressive, and the likes of Ori and the Blind Forest are more artistic, but for pure, uncompromising fun? Well, Splatoon is going to be hard to beat.
Split into two teams of four, up to eight players control strangely adorable squid-human hybrids and battle it out to dominate the playable map space. Forget capture the flag or base assault though, as this is a clear case of marking your territory. Played third-person, each player fires streams of coloured ink, with a constant stream fired with a squeeze of the Wii U GamePad's ZR trigger. Aiming is governed by the GamePad's internal accelerometer, and teams claim ground by soaking the floors and walls in their team colour. In short: you point, you shoot, you conquer -- and if you're not conquering fast enough, Splatoon's approach to grenades is basically a huge glob of ink that covers a huge area.
At any point, you can hold onto the left trigger to shift into your squid form, diving under your team's ink splats. This has a few benefits -- you reveal your ink reservoir for shooting with, you remain invisible to the rival team until you emerge, and you move much faster. The controls are remarkably intuitive, and within minutes you'll be switching back and forth between forms, applying strategic strikes by jumping out of ink at just the right time, and propelling yourself around the arena like a pro.
Splatoon is surprisingly tactical, in fact. Where you spray, your ink can affect the areas you can get to and how you get there. Splash a ramp with your colour before speeding through it in squid form and you can propel yourself into a mighty leap. Or spread ink through a chainlink fence and you'll be able to dive under it, accessing restricted areas.
Look down at the GamePad's screen and you'll get an instant view of the ebb and flow of "battle" in real time, with a top-down view of ink-soaked walls changing as the teams fight back and forth. As you make your way towards the rival base, you'll find yourself slowed by the opposing team's ink, forcing you to constantly shift the terrain to your advantage.
It's all terrific... well, fun. Splatoon is bright and cheery, and even though you can shoot rival team members, or "die" from their ink shots, it's never more than an annoyance -- you'll respawn and be straight into the ink-spraying anarchy. If the wider game expands on the excellent map we played, Nintendo could well have their best new party game since Smash Bros on its hands.