Splatoon 3

Splatoon 3 is a 2022 third-person shooter video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is the third game in the Splatoon series following Splatoon 2. Like its predecessors in the Splatoon series, the game consists of online multiplayer (player versus player and player versus environment) alongside a single-player campaign, both featuring combat based around ink-firing weapons. Like its predecessors in the Splatoon series, Splatoon 3 is a third-person shooter. Players choose to be either an Inkling or Octoling as their player character. Both wield weaponry that uses colored ink as ammunition.

Weapons are diverse in ability and imagery, with most resembling household objects. For example, Rollers are large paint rollers that can cover large amounts of area in ink but are generally limited to close-range combat, while Chargers are weapons which resemble a sniper rifle, and have long range for sniping opponents but are less effective at painting the ground. Splatoon 3 expands upon this by adding new main, sub, and special weapons to the game. Main weapons are chosen by the player, and include a sub weapon and a special weapon. sub weapons act as secondary weapons that use up more ink.

Special weapons require the player to cover the ground with a varying amount of ink in order to charge up their gauge to deploy a powerful effect. Inklings and Octolings have the ability to morph into a squid or octopus form, respectively. This form is referred to as the “swim form”, and can be used to climb ink-covered walls or swim through ink faster than the humanoid forms can walk. Weapons have a finite amount of ink ammunition, and submerging in ink via the swim form replenishes it quicker than in humanoid form. All main weapons from Splatoon 2 returned in Splatoon 3, with the edition of 15 new ones.

Returning from its predecessors as a playable online multiplayer game mode is Regular Battle, known as Turf War. In Turf War, two teams of four players compete to cover the most amount of the map’s area in their respective ink color for three minutes. Each team can cover over an area covered by the opponents ink with their own color. When walked on, the opposing team’s ink slows movement, gradually deals damage and prevents the use of the player’s swim form. Each player is equipped with a weapon set, chosen before each match, and each set comes with secondary and special weapons in addition to its main weapon.

Secondary weapons provide alternative methods of attacking the other team and inking the ground; for example, Splat Bombs that explode a second after contact with the surface and Burst Bombs that explode upon impact. When enough ground is covered in a player’s ink, they may use a special weapon, which are primarily used to attack the opposing team. Weapons and other forms of attack can deal damage to opposing players; when enough damage is given, they will “splat” their opponent, forcing them to restart from their starting location.

Whichever team covers the largest portion of the field at the end of the match is declared the winner. Upon following the elderly squid Craig Cuttlefish into a crater covered with lethal Fuzzy Ooze, the player is recruited by Cuttlefish into the New Squidbeak Splatoon as Agent 3 along with their pet Salmonid Smallfry. Smallfry is able to eat and destroy some of the ooze, allowing passage further into the crater. They fight Octarian enemies mutated with fur, which Cuttlefish believes are responsible for once again stealing the Great Zapfish that powers Splatsville. At the crater’s base, Octarian leader DJ Octavio accuses Cuttlefish of taking his Octarian warriors.

After defeating Octavio, he denies taking the Zapfish despite having previously done so in the first two games. The ground breaks open, and Cuttlefish and Agent 3 fall into the remains of the underground city Alterna, which the fuzzy Octarians have turned into a base. In Alterna, Agent 3 meets Callie and Marie of the New Squidbeak Splatoon, as well as the Captain, the player protagonist of the first game, and realizes that Cuttlefish has gone missing. They are approached by the idol group Deep Cut, who are searching Alterna for treasure and believe the Squidbeak Splatoon is there for the same reason.

Aided by an artificial intelligence named O.R.C.A., they explore the city in search of Cuttlefish, but are repeatedly led to signals from the members of Deep Cut and forced to fight them over the “treasure”, which appears to be junk. It is revealed that Mr. Grizz, CEO of Grizzco and organizer of Salmon Run, has kidnapped Cuttlefish and is responsible for taking the Great Zapfish and Octarian army, proving Octavio’s innocence. Mr. Grizz explains that he aims to restore mammal life to Earth by converting other life into mammals by using the Fuzzy Ooze.