Splatoon 2
is now less than a week away from release (get hyped!), and Nintendo gave us
the final demo before launch this past Saturday. This final demo took the form
of a 4 hour long, 1 day only Splatfest, in which players were pit against one
another in a battle against team ice cream and team cake. At the end of the
Splatfest World premiere, team ice cream reigned supreme (in the US) as they
took the victory 2-1. Nearly everyone online seems to be in agreement that the
Splatfest was a great way for Nintendo to build final hype for Splatoon 2
before its release. However, there are still some lingering questions that need
to be answered upon the game’s release.
There is no
doubt that the original Splatoon was a smash hit for Nintendo on the Wii U,
and Splatoon 2 will most certainly continue that trend. After 2 demos, it is
clear that Splatoon 2 has the same charm and addictive gameplay that its
predecessor had. Throw in new weapons, maps, modes, an improved story mode, and
put it on a better system, then you have a full-fledged sequel that will no
doubt capture the Switch’s growing audience. There really isn’t much bad that
you can say about Splatoon 2 from what we have seen from it thus far. The
Splatfest World Premiere just further proved that point. I spent my time
playing on Saturday taking turns between matches with my girlfriend. I was
constantly left smiling and laughing as I remembered the joy and satisfaction
of painting every inch of turf and splatting enemies to gain control of the
battlefield. On the other hand, my girlfriend (a first timer), was left equally
amused as she couldn’t believe how much fun she was having with the game. When
time rolled around for the demo to end, she was highly disappointed that it was
over, asking “Is that it? Wow, I didn’t expect to have that much fun with that.
These aren’t normally my type of games.”
My
girlfriend’s reaction to her first time playing Splatoon during the Splatfest
World Premiere perfectly summarizes the effect that the original Splatoon had
on so many of us. It’s a game that oozes Nintendo charm that we all enjoyed so
much more than we could have ever expected. Hopefully a lot of other first
timers got to experience the Splatfest just as my girlfriend did, because if
she was sold on it, then I’m sure many others are as well. While the Splatfest
was no doubt a success among fans, and likely many newcomers, it didn’t go
without any hitches unfortunately. Playing the Splatfest revealed a few issues
that will hopefully be fixed when the full game releases.
The issues
that the Splatfest revealed were primarily related to internet/connection
problems. The Splatfest World Premiere lasted for 4 hours, from 6-10 pm in my
time zone. However, I was only able to utilize approximately 2 of those 4
hours, as I kept receiving a variety of error messages that would occur during
the match making process. These error messages always pertained to connection
issues, such as the one pictured here:
I was not
the only one having these connection issues either. Shortly after the Splatfest
ended, I submitted a poll to an online Switch community asking if anyone had
noticed any connection issues during their playtime. Out of the 92 people that
responded, 64.1% of them reported having Wi-Fi/connection problems, with 13% of
those reports saying the problems left them unable to play at all. It has to be
noted, however, that I have noticed these same issues while trying to play ARMS
online as well. This leads me to believe that it may be more of an issue with
the Switch’s weak Wi-Fi antenna than it is with specific software. Regardless
of the cause of the issue, this is definitely a problem that Nintendo needs to
resolve in order to ensure that everyone who purchases their game can get the
full enjoyment out of owning it.
During my
two or so hours playing the Splatoon 2 Splatfest, there were a couple of other
very small issues that I wanted to mention as well. First of all, the motion
controls seemed…strange, when compared to that of Splatoon on the Wii U. I’m
not even sure what I mean by this exactly, but something just felt off while I
was trying to use them. The motion aiming felt somewhat clunkier than it did on
the WII U’s gamepad. I do have to put in a disclaimer here, however. I
primarily use standard controls over motion and I was using attacked joy-cons
rather than a pro controller, so this could have made a difference in my
experience. Still though, something definitely felt off, not necessarily bad,
but off. The final issue I had is more of a nitpicking complaint. There NEEDS
to be a way to change weapon loadouts in between matches without having to
leave a lobby. I would prefer to have a way to switch between loadouts during
matches, but I would settle to just have this option for between matches. It is
a pretty big inconvenience to have to leave a lobby in order to change weapons.
This was one of my biggest complaints from the first game, and I was sad to see
that Nintendo didn’t make that change. If this is an option that they added and
I just somehow managed to miss it, then please let me know in the comments!
Despite some
pesky connection issues and a few nitpicking complaints, I have to say that it
seems that the Splatfest World Premiere was a huge success for Nintendo that
has both fans and newcomers buzzing about the upcoming release of Splatoon 2. I,
for one, cannot wait to pick up this game when it launches and dive into the
story mode and all the different modes that are available. It had been a while
since I had played any Splatoon, so the Splatfest was a great reminder to me
just how fun Splatoon can be. Look forward to Splatoon 2 when it launches
exclusively for the Switch on July 21st and remember, “Don’t get
cooked… Stay off the hook!”
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