Splatoon 3 puts online play, fashion and hair front and center

Despite feeling remarkably similar to gameplay like past installments, Platoon 3 it’s packed with clever changes and updates that will likely lead to people – or at least, me – keeping the game in rotation for much longer than before. I got to play over an hour of the game’s various modes before its launch on September 9, including just a few levels of the main story, a few rounds of Salmon Run (the game’s surprisingly difficult but rewarding crowd mode), and Turf War (Splatoon take a four-on-four deathmatch).

You will notice a welcome change in quality of life immediately when you start it. Instead of being forced to sit through an intro presentation of the latest in-game activity notifications every time you restart the game like in the past Splatoon games are over, you’ll be able to simply click the left stick to listen to the delivery while doing other activities.

Multiplayer is where most of the game’s biggest changes are easy to spot, though they may not seem that important if you’ve played other modern multiplayer games. For example, the Salmon Run mode, which supports four online players to survive as long as possible against waves of enemies and bosses, can now be initiated at any time. IN Platoon 2, the mode was only available at select times. You’d be forgiven for never having tried it before as it’s inconvenient to plan your life when a feature is available. There seems to be a lot of added variety here in terms of enemy types and new random events to keep it exciting.

Right before you load into a game of Salmon Run or Turf War, you’ll be seated at a shooting range – one of Platoon 3Features I’m most excited about. While the game is running on the link, and while everyone prepares their weapons and equipment, you can test the weapons at the shooting range. It reminds you of how Fortnite throws all the players into a free-for-all lobby before sending them off to the island in the battle bus. On paper, it’s a small change, but it keeps my brain and fingers busy while the game loads.

Loading into my first game of Turf War, I was struck by all the familiar elements of modern multiplayer shooters. Platoon 3 there are “Splashtags,” little cards that let you customize your background, title, and badge with in-game unlocks for bragging rights. There are also unlockable emotes to equip that can add more personality to your character. Fashion has always been a big part of Splatoonand Nintendo says it will release free seasonal catalogs full of new clothes, accessories and more.

Image: Nintendo

The moment-to-moment action in Turf War felt just as frantic as before, and I was able to use the game’s new moves with relative ease. There’s the Squid Flip, where you can flip backwards on a dime when in squid mode (jump while changing the direction of the left analog stick), giving you a brief moment of invincibility. I also liked the Squid Surge, which allows you to supercharge a jump while in squid mode into a wall to surprise an opponent.

The game also handles custom spawn points a little differently than its predecessor. Whenever your character respawns, you can determine the location within the spawn point where you want to start over (either with the motion controls or the analog stick). Or, you can jump to a teammate’s location on the map. Two other notable improvements here are that you can jump into Turf War with friends and stay on the same team without getting split up, and the game can record match replays, allowing you to zoom in on the action to make clips or study strategy.

I also have to check some of the Splatoon 3 story levels, which are cleverly designed to introduce you to new weapons. They’re short and sweet, as always, and this time you’re helped along with a little fish sidekick named Smallfry on your back. You can throw Smallfry to chip away at enemies’ health and then beckon them back with a click of a button. It reminded me God of warit’s reminiscent of axes, but it’s cooler and a little less badass.

Image: Nintendo

My time with the story was limited and it was very easy to avoid plot details, but I was intrigued by the game worlds you see between levels, which were rampant with hairy Octarian enemies, for some reason . Hair is sticky – and deadly. Your character will die in a hilarious way if you touch it.

There is only one hour left to play Platoon 3 it was a bit of a tease, as there was a lot I didn’t get to see. Nintendo skipped me in various single-player areas and I wasn’t able to freely roam around Splatsville, the overarching world that lets you buy cosmetics, interact with characters, and apparently a whole lot more. However, from what I’ve seen of the game, it appears that Platoon 3 may be the most complete version of functions Splatoon still.

Splatoon 3 releases for Nintendo Switch on September 9th.