After selling more
Wii U units than the system likely warranted, Splatoon’s
inky goodness returns – and in a launch package that squeezes a bit
more in than the original.
Mind you, at first glance you’d be
forgiven for thinking that Splatoon 2 could just have
easily been called Splatoon Deluxe, having had the minimal
upgrade treatment afforded to Mario Kart.
If you’re
a single player, the air of familiarity is palpable. One missing
humongous Zap Fish, one mission to recover it – although a missing
Callie adds intrigue - while encountering a whole bunch of “HEY,
TUTORIAL!” along the way, as well as the odd peculiar (and
challenging) big boss baddie. Two new weapons – dual-wield pistols
(‘dualies’) and an umbrella (‘brella’) - are also introduced.
Splatoon 2 isn’t really about solo play though, which
makes it all the more really bloody annoying that there’s no local
split-screen play. Until we confirmed it we couldn’t actually
believe it, but you’re actually expected to have two Switch units in
the same room for local multiplayer. BOO! Luckily this is the
crappiest thing to deal with here.
Online is strong – and at
least Nintendo offer some protection from the f-wit factor that
typically pollutes such connected play. Turf wars remains the big
drawcard, requisite garment gathering and all. Progress enough and
ranked and league battles come out to play. Been there, yeah? Well,
there’s also ‘Salmon Run’, a fab-fun horde mode that’s let down a
tad by only being available at specific times.
The
clunk-o-rama Wii U gamepad isn’t missed, with maps call-uppable at
any time and hand cramps a thing of the past. Well, unless you...
Nah, let’s not go there.
Splatoon 2 isn’t spurting
with content, but much more is promised via free updates – and the
history of the Wii U version leaves us confident that Nintendo will
deliver.
