Splatoon Global Testfire: The Reaction

So now that it's been a few days and I can organize my thoughts of what I really thought of the Splatoon global testfire, I guess now it's time to make my own reaction.

First off, I played two rounds during the first hour on Friday, and then most of my time playing during the last test, equaling to about 15 matches. I could really appreciate how engaged the game kept you -- games were short, and lobby waiting didn't really feel like waiting due to the nice addition of the squid jump minigame. When it came to the starting tutorial, I felt as though some things were not explained -- for example, the tutorial didn't really get into special abilities that each gun had. And when your in the game, the "special ability is ready" notification doesn't really shoot out at you, so it took a few rounds to figure out that the feature even existed.

The squidplay gameplay in itself felt solid, and I had no issues with the controls (though I'm pretty sure the testfire might have slightly injured my right bumper) beyond the gryo movement being the default. Though you could get used to it, I felt as though the average player would certainly be repulsed, and perhaps not go very far into playing, especially with not knowing the background knowledge that I did, in which you could change it in the options. I feel like a much better system would be for one of the players first options upon starting the game for the first time would be to ask them whether they wanted gyro or right stick controls.

As for the weapons, I got a chance to play all of them, though ended up playing the normal splattershot. All the weapons felt strong, having their own set of strengths and weaknesses, though I wasn't exactly sure why they chose both splattershot and splattershot jr (splattershot but with a shorter range) as the default weapon. I felt like perhaps the "rocket launcher" weapon would've fit better (assuming such a gun exists).

Overall, I thought what I played of Splatoon to be a fun little competitive game, which therein lies my biggest gripe with the game itself. Splatoon is a little game, and is not close to being worth its starting $60 price point -- it is because of this that I feel like the game will flop. That, along with the gyro control default (as I've mentioned above), as well as the actual presentation of the game (not being sure who exactly its marketed towards; the game up until this point seemed as a normal family friendly tried and true Nintendo game, while its gameplay seems to be more competitive and intense, and finally it looks as if the TV ads in America for it are marketed towards small children) will all be reasons for its inevitable fall. Unless they fix some things that are very core to the game (which they won't as its this close to release), the game will likely be a massive failure, both commercially and critically. I can personally say that I would probably never spend more than 20 or 30 dollars on such a game, and so until then this continues to be only on my watchlist and nothing else.

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