Splatoon review

[Neon Ignition]

Yup, the Kraken-Roller also has a radar dish instead of a grenade that you can place. Searched out one or two commonly overlooked spots and made good use of the extra superjump point it makes. Between the Kraken super and super jumps I now cover much more ground when trying to get across the map and when on a winning team my game score seems to be generally creeping up. Just up to Level 9 now.

[dataDave]

Yes, from anywhere you can jump to team mates, the home point, or the beacon sub if anyone has dropped one.

You really should start looking at the map , you will know where needs ink. Especially if your base is being ransacked. Once teams start using the Echolocator it will show you where the enemies are. Try using a weapon with the nuke special. That will get you into the habit of constantly checking the map in no time.

[dataDave]

New weapon for tomorrow morning:

[gordon]

Played 35 hours of this now, most of it online obv, but love the brief single-player mode too (particularly the final boss), and the amiibo extras. Just reached Level 18 last night, and feel like I'm finally taking advantage of the nuances of movement and positioning. It's a subtle, beautifully designed game, and I think my original 8/10 mark is now pushing a 9.

My weapon-of-choice is the roller - but I always did like Amidar.

[dataDave]

I almost wish the Aerosprayer wasn't so powerful so that I could try out some other weapons. The blaster/magnum is up my street in terms of play style but I'm reluctant to switch for ranked and then risk relegation.

[briareos_kerensky]

Just back from an hour or so completely online...which is kinda strange for me! At first I didn't particularly liked that the game almost forces you directly into multiplayer with only a brief tutorial, but the heat of the match was more than enough to get me into it.
When I was first matched with some level 10+ players I thought I would drag everyone down and/or the opposing team would have it too easy against me, but after a winning 4-match streak I wasn't so sure that levels were so important...until a level 20 player popped in with the paintbrush and made short work of us level 4 players. Oh well.
But it was fun nonetheless!
And full of Japanese players, too; I was matched with only three other dudes with western names. The netcode feels amazingly good as well, not a hitch in any match and almost immediate matchmaking.

[teddymeow]

So, when are fully private lobbies coming for this?

[kryss]

Same day as voice chat

[dataDave]

So, when are fully private lobbies coming for this?

August, along with team matchmaking.

[Asura]

August, along with team matchmaking.

If teams get mixed with randoms, that might kill it. I hope Nintendo don't do that.

I know, from my own experience, how much difference team coordination can make in quite chaotic games. When Battlefield Bad Company 2 came out, I had a setup with 3 friends who played adjacent to me in the same room, as a 4-man squad. We used to devastate public servers, completely destroying the opposition, and individually we were so-so players - not beginners to FPS's or anything, but not "pro-gamer" tier either.

Going to out on a limb and say that playing with a random team against a coordinated, practiced team in Splatoon would be literally no fun whatsoever. The chaotic nature of the game is what keeps it exciting; of course, teams who practice roles or "zone-defence" strategies or what-have-you would seek to remove as much of that chaos as possible.

And I don't know 3 other people with Splatoon who would play it regularly enough to go team-vs-team.

[kryss]

Really not liking charged weapons. Also the last world of the single player was just motivationally devastating this evening - I actually lost all my lives on 2 different levels!

[dataDave]

If teams get mixed with randoms, that might kill it. I hope Nintendo don't do that.

I know, from my own experience, how much difference team coordination can make in quite chaotic games. When Battlefield Bad Company 2 came out, I had a setup with 3 friends who played adjacent to me in the same room, as a 4-man squad. We used to devastate public servers, completely destroying the opposition, and individually we were so-so players - not beginners to FPS's or anything, but not "pro-gamer" tier either.

Going to out on a limb and say that playing with a random team against a coordinated, practiced team in Splatoon would be literally no fun whatsoever. The chaotic nature of the game is what keeps it exciting; of course, teams who practice roles or "zone-defence" strategies or what-have-you would seek to remove as much of that chaos as possible.

And I don't know 3 other people with Splatoon who would play it regularly enough to go team-vs-team.

It'll be interesting to see how they pull it off. If it's a 'teams only' matchmaking pool it could take forever trying to find a game. Even now at ranked it can take a few minutes to get eight people. I get the feeling that a great percentage of players are intimidated by ranked splat-zones.

[Decider-VT]

Don't try ranked until you're at about 17/18 and have at least two additional abilities per piece of armour.

This is what's driving me nuts at the moment. Dropped out for a couple of days and the community surged ahead with additional abilities and weapons while I was away. Catching up is somewhat frustrating when most of the other players are level 20 and have maxed abilities on all of their kit.

[Asura]

A slight problem with the Splat Zones is that some of the maps really favour some play-styles (and therefore weapons) over another.

I went in last week and had a roller, but the zone was in a location that was covered on most sides by high points, meaning the map was dominated by charger-weapon users. Problem of course is that I couldn't have known this beforehand. Even if I'd known the map by memory from previous plays, the next map was the opposite way around.

[dataDave]

The mall stage? I've encountered some real bastards with rollers on there before. Your team should be taking care of the snipers whilst you are in charge of the mosh pit, or building up meter to Kraken things up.