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(The reference)

You're a kid now
You're a squid now
You're a kid you're a squid you're a kid you're a squid you're a kid now

Also required listening: This

So you might have heard of a little game called Splatoon for the Wii U. It's basically the nineties distilled into a video game. Nickelodeon aesthetics, cheesy songs like the aforementioned, colours, hip hop clothes, everything!

It's out soon, too! Release date is May 29th.

This is Nintendo getting into a genre they pretty much haven't touched at all before. It's also a new first-party IP from Nintendo, which hasn't happened for a long time. A team-based third-person shooter, in which you play as squids who can also turn into kids (that song is now, again, in your head).

There's a single player mode that has enemies and bosses, which looks pretty cool, but the meat of the game is meant to be the online multiplayer. Which, sadly, is still not an area where Nintendo will win any prizes for convenience. You jump online and get distributed to a game, and teams are randomly selected from the 8 people in the room (it's always 8 people). In the demo, you couldn't see what weapons people had before the match started, and you're stuck with one weapon for the whole match, making strategy and planning out teamwork hard. Oh, and it of course doesn't have voice chat either. Not even with people on your friend list. An update in August is supposed to bring lobbymaking in, at least.

The aim of the game, at least in the Turf War mode, is not to kill - or, as it's called in this game, splat - your opponents, but to cover as much ground as possible with your team's ink colour. To this end, there's a bunch of weapons to choose from, that mainly come in the varieties ink smg, ink sniper rifle (aka "charger) and paint rollers/brushes, and at least the roller that was in the demo would be the shotgun equivalent when fired before starting to paint the ground. There's also grenades and subweapons, and weapon/grenade/subweapon configuration was locked to four pre-set ones in the demo, no idea what it's like in the full game. The Splat the world commercial, at least, shows a player using the subweapon that was only for the roller in the demo with another weapon.

So yeah.

It's a fun game. Online multiplayer is very smooth, the last Global Testfire was the first time I've seen some kind of lag issues but the servers were kinda screwed over that time.

You should get it. If you don't have a Wii U, you should get a Wii U, and then get Splatoon. Or get the new Splatoon Wii U bundle.

It's also a new first-party IP from Nintendo, which hasn't happened for a long time.

I'd be totally ok with it if the next Smash charcter was an Inkling.

I'd be totally ok with it if the next Smash charcter was an Inkling.

Inkling was my vote in Nintendo's poll for that. It's definitely the character I most want for Smash now.

Yesterday's testfire was the bee's knees once the original hour passed and the game suddenly started working flawlessly. I'll be geeting this game fo sho.

We can use Skype to cover voice chat so that's not a big deal. I'm glad there's no voice chat with randos.

The kid song doesn't really grasp me, I listen to the most recent trailer one on repeat though.

I'll be getting Splatoon as well. 4v4 8man POS tournament of the squids.

Some people can't wait.

They probably just did it for the amiibos.

bought and having fun

My copy didn't arrive today, which is as well since that's one less distraction from the university thing I have to work on this weekend.

Is anyone going to actually play the single player that's in the game?

plz tell me how it is if you do

I'm about seven levels in and it's pretty rad. Obviously the draw of the game is the multiplayer, and the single player doesn't seem like it'll be that long (27 levels + bosses). But the single player mode's very good for what it is.

I'm about seven levels in and it's pretty rad. Obviously the draw of the game is the multiplayer, and the single player doesn't seem like it'll be that long (27 levels + bosses). But the single player mode's very good for what it is.

Sir I've heard stories from eye witnesses that says the soundtrack to the single player of Splatoon "owns bones" is this true? *holds microphone up to your face*

yes it's true