Got the game yesterday. Played it. Loved it. Fun.

@TheOldManFromZelda

Were you playing with us? I saw a Lou. Thought it might be you.

@ploot

Thanks! I'm a fan of a lot of the Specials, but I really like how well the Kraken works with the Roller and Squid Beacon. A common trick I did in Saltspray was make a beeline for the northern area (most players go for the south first, then north towards the end, I did the opposite) and plant a Squid Beacon on the moving crane and on the tallest tower. At that point, I had enough saved up to Kraken the first wave of opposition, so assuming my teammates knew how to use the Beacons, we had a pretty nice secure area by that point.

@Mr_Mustache

You were doing alright! Fun to see a fellow Roller, although I will say on the rare occasion that our team was ONLY Rollers, we were at a disadvantage. Rollers are great support but you need a couple other guys in there to make it a balanced team; sometimes the game gives us weird luck of the draw. But keep playing and you'll develop some of your own favorite strategies!

@DrFinkelstein

Yes sir, I hopped on the bandwagon.

I enjoy that even if you're not fragging people, you're contributing to your team. Every flat walkable surface needs to be covered! I'm pretty anal about making sure the stuff closest to the spawn point was covered. Every little bit helps!

I haven't played the game yet but after reading the Iwata Asks for this game, is it true only paint on the ground counts and not paint on the walls? I can see why since your map is a gods eye view. Wouldn't it spice things up if there was a mode that only accounted for paint on the walls?

@Mr_Mustache

But swamping people is an absolute blast!

Sorry I got d/c'd last night guys. (I think I was playing with ploot, VofE, and a couple of other NWers.) Storms hit my area and knocked out the power for several hours.

Today has been like:
My manager: blah blah blah, risk assessment, blah blah, very important charts...
My brain: I'M A KID NAAAAW, I'M A SQUID NAAAAW SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT WHOO!

Did y'all see a pic for the upcoming stage Camp Triggerfish? I can't post it coz work but it looks so freaking good. Forrest background, on a lake, mystical squid totem poles. COME ON!

EDIT: HOLY CRAP - Sounds like Nintendo are releasing new stage Port Mackerel tomorrow (plus an additional weapon - looks like the NES Zapper). EXCITE!
ALSO - ranked battle starts tomorrow. Cooooooool. I'm scared.

I guess I need to work my level 6 up to level 10 soon...

Mr_Mustache said:

@ploot

Oh, I'm still playing. I just don't have enough gas (for this) for more than too long. I played 3 single player stages tonight, no Amiibo challenges, and just enough multi-player for 1 level. I probably sound like a baby (sorry), but getting SWAMPED is never fun.

Usually when your team gets swamped it's because there's been a disconnect of one of your players. Or someone is goofing off and not actually playing. 3 on 4 is often incredibly lopsided in Splatoon, since that's one less paintbrush. Also, you could be in a situation where you've got two or three people on your team with sniper rifles. Boo to that.

But the cool thing is that matches are only 3 minutes long, there's no voicechat so you can't hear the agony of your 13 year old teammates, and no one else really cares if you had a lousy round or not. I don't think anyone's laughing at you if you die a bunch. In fact, I'm not sure anyone has much of a chance to evaluate how anyone else is doing because it's always "on to the next one".

I seem to be below-average at this and I'm just letting it slide. Basically, I wouldn't sweat any losses in this game because who cares?

Part of the problem, too, is that we keep playing with our NW friends and they're a bunch of ruthless guys with 30 years of experience playing video games. It's not a bug, it's a feature. I'd rather play with our buddies and consistently lose than dominate a bunch of random little kids and feel like a god while actually being a bit of a prick.

Point is: Let it go. Play with me. I'm not very good and you can run me over with your roller.

kriswright said:

But the cool thing is that matches are only 3 minutes long, there's no voicechat so you can't hear the agony of your 13 year old teammates, and no one else really cares if you had a lousy round or not. I don't think anyone's laughing at you if you die a bunch. In fact, I'm not sure anyone has much of a chance to evaluate how anyone else is doing because it's always "on to the next one".

I seem to be below-average at this and I'm just letting it slide. Basically, I wouldn't sweat any losses in this game because who cares?

Part of the problem, too, is that we keep playing with our NW friends and they're a bunch of ruthless guys with 30 years of experience playing video games. It's not a bug, it's a feature. I'd rather play with our buddies and consistently lose than dominate a bunch of random little kids and feel like a god while actually being a bit of a prick.

Point is: Let it go. Play with me. I'm not very good and you can run me over with your roller.

Pretty much this entirely. It's a very fun competitive multiplayer...it's like a game of paintball. You win, you lose...whatever. It's still a blast to play. I only play with NW people for that reason.

I also like that the teams shuffle after each match. That keeps it somewhat fair.

@kriswright

Good post. I'd also like to add that there're a few different roles for people to play that don't necessarily have to be about combat. Basically any time you're painting something, you're helping your team. Stache plays the Roller like me, so we do better on support rather than in the middle of the fray. If everyone's piling together in a huge gunfight, sometimes it works better to go where no one is and just paint the town red (or yellow-green, whatever). Your team expects you to cover turf in that role, so you'll be doing them a favor.

In short, I like how you don't necessarily have to do super-well in combat to do well in Splatoon. Very refreshing!

I actively avoid combat, focusing on inking the "margins" of the map before moving to the middle area, and I pretty consistently get the top score on my team, except perhaps when playing with some of the monsters here on this board. My deaths/kill ratio is never spectacular, but the thing is, that doesn't matter AT ALL.

I love it.

The Splattershot Jr is my weapon of choice, able to ink big areas quickly as well as being okay in a fight. Coupled with the localisation special, it's a pretty good combo.

Jargon said:

@deathly_hallows

In this generation alone:

Pushmo series
Dillon's Rolling Western series
Steel Diver series
Code Name: S.T.E.A.M.

Oh they do a lot of stuff on eShop and handheld, don't forget Rusty's! I meant more like a big marquee releases.

Other developers who release major new IP? Well not very many! It's a big problem in the industry. So far this gen off the top of my head I can only think of Titanfall, Destiny, Sunset Overdrive, The Order 1886, and Bloodborne (Bloodborne arguably being a part of the Souls series), I'm sure there are more I'm just missing, and probably a million PC-only games I didn't pay attention too, but in the console AAA space what we mainly get are sequels and remakes, it's definitely not ideal. That's why I love a new IP!!!!

@kriswright
Yeah I've been getting slaughtered out there, it probably doesn't help I'm only level 5 and don't have great gear, but there are obviously a lot o people who have already put dozens of hours into this game and have amazing skills, just like any other online game.

But guess what? Still super fun! I love it!

I hope the ranked battles opening up means that all the high level players will be there and I can play without getting stuck against high level teams again.

@deathly_hallows
I think when people say new IP from Nintendo, what they really mean is new AAA IP, which is pretty rare.

@DeputyVanHalen
Yeah, in the industry in general, if you start to factor in smaller stuff like indies and mobile games there are hundreds of new IPs, new IPs galore!

It's still sad to see that the big major AAA publishers play it safe with sequels and remasters. Although I buy and enjoy a lot of those sequels and remasters so I guess I'm being kinda hypocritical. My most anticipated games for the whole generation are Zelda Wii U and Uncharted 4, so I'm part of the problem!

@deathly_hallows
I have nothing against sequels, especially when they change up the formula enough to feel new, but I think the AAA part of the industry needs a bit more balance. It's been disappointing lately though because usually the start of a console generation is a bit of an IP reset and it really hasn't happened this time.

@kriswright

I'm so glad you understand the detriments of voice chat. Good Lord, that would be awful..

And yeah, I understand the "too much of the same weapon" thing, kinda harkens back to the days of Ice Hockey and filling your team with only Fat guys, or those speedy, defenseless Skinny guys.

And V would be laughing-- he loooves swamping people!


Also, you're very good. I like to refer to you as "The Benchmark."

@Jargs and D_H (too lazy to go back and reference posts. Takes up precious Splatoon time.)

Let's not forget Nintendo Land, the role Ninty had in bringing Wonderful 101 to life, or the revival of Kid Icarus, which had been dormant for so long and was so radically different that it should qualify for being something basically new.

Nintendo's kind of in damned-if-you-do/damned-if-you-don't territory. They only have so many resources for games, but they have by far the largest collection of successful IPs in gaming. Mixing in IP innovation with the stewardship of their existing IP - along with the expected Nintendo quality control - is a balancing act. For every Splatoon we're going to get complaints that there's not a new F-Zero. For every Kid Icarus Uprising we're going to get complaints that something isn't brand new (even if 95% of Uprising was brand new). For every New Super Mario Bros U we're going to get complaints that something isn't brand new (all right, probably from me.)

Not to mention that it's sometimes hard to get even Negative World excited about new IP like Dillon's Rolling Western or Pushmo. I sometimes wonder if there's less of desire to see new Nintendo IP than what people say they want.

Frankly, I think some of the complaints I hear out in the wild are console war motivated. There's a perception amongst people who don't play a lot of Nintendo games that Nintendo always goes back lazily to the IP well and sells their games mostly on nostalgia. Something I think just about everyone here will agree isn't generally true.

@Mr_Mustache

I've definitely been called worse.

My biggest problem in all of these types of shooters, apart from just a general lack of experience playing them with dual analog, is that I'm reckless. I'm definitely of the Leroy Jenkins school of running in unprepared, guns-blazing, and getting mowed down when that was easily preventable. I know I'm like that and yet I can't help myself. I couldn't play a successful sniper. I wanna move!