By: M. Ahmadad

‘Splatoon 3’, released last year on September 9th, is the third installment of the Splatoon franchise developed by Nintendo. It’s an online player-versus-player multiplayer game, with a single player story mode.

The fan base has been active for 8 years now, and the newest seasonal update known as “Chill Season” was announced just a few days ago.

The multiplayer gameplay is about humanoid cephalopod characters participating in popular sport competitions surrounded around shooting ink and cartoon violence. The story mode uses the same mechanics but it’s player-versus-enemy and levels that are race courses/challenges. The story mode is mainly about explaining the background history of the players, the current in-game power source of the multiplayer city, and the conflicts that arise from it.

I like the general style of ‘Splatoon”’ the bright characters, art style and music genre are easily recognizable, and they’re fun. The world setting is full of life, but the gameplay does get really boring after a short while; you can only shoot paint/ink for 3 minutes at a time so many times. They don’t add much to play for after you start getting most of the objectives finished, like story mode and unlocking all weapons. That doesn’t take long to finish either, so being a “fan” of the game really just means waiting for more.

The only real reason I can imagine playing it consistently for more than a month is if you’re hyper-competitive or if you just really, really, really like funny sounding squids. While the game is made and enjoyed by people of all ages, I think it’s fair to say that based off the dialogue and 3-minute matches, it’s best fit for people who enjoy short and colorful gameplay that doesn’t require too much attention or focus (I don’t know how people take the competition seriously).

‘Splatoon 3’ is not much different from the previous installments. It’s more enjoyable to use because of improved features and better quality animation, and the only person who could really tell the difference would be a fan of ‘Splatoon’ or ‘Splatoon 2’. I love the art style and music from the game, but there’s really not much to love when I’m actually playing the game.