Sod's law I started playing this about a week before the announcement it was going to be part of Nintendo Online's membership.
I'm a big fan of Splatoon 2 and this does pretty much exactly what I wanted from an expansion.
A fun little story and lots of cool things to do in a single player capacity, plus some extra guns and bits of fashion for multiplayer.
The setting is cool, the new characters are fun and the way the underground railway/station stage system works is an interesting way to tackle things and keep it fresh.
However hands down most impressive thing is the level of inventiveness there is, something that I and I believe many others associate with Nintendo at it's best.
Sure some of the challenges are a bit like the single player portion of the main game, some are rehashes of bosses and some are plays on the multiplayer modes but out of the 80+ stages I was pleasantly surprised and saying to myself "this is cool" more often than not.
I don't want to spoil any of the surprises, but time trials, puzzles and even plays on retro games are amongst the stuff this game offers up and it's great.
My negative takeaways from this package are few and far between.
I worry that whilst I love Splatoon's control and movement systems they aren't always perfect for what some challenges want you to do.
Maybe this is a "git gud" situation and more of a me problem.
My only other issue does come from that though, this game kindly gives you a lot of choice in what stages to do and if you get stuck and fail enough it can give you a free pass to move on.
That's good, that alone isn't where my issue lies and it's more of a question of how difficulty is dealt with.
Sadly due to From releasing a game recently the discourse about difficulty modes is still in the back of my mind and whilst this game does not hold you back for not being good it either let's you through or let's you struggle and I don't find that the perfect answer.
People will argue Souls games have difficulty settings within it by giving you upgrade options, summons etc. and I know that isn't exactly the same but tools is something you have there and really do not have here.
For example in a target practice, can I not get a Silver/B ranking instead of a clear if I get 38/40?
Could I not get a lower rating or some extra time if I fail a time trial instead of just a free pass?
Besides the difficulty thoughts which aren't really a problem and some minor controls gripes this is fantastic.
Obviously worth your time for "free" and definitely worth playing if you need to go trade some stuff to buy Splatoon 2.
Splatters forever.
I'm a big fan of Splatoon 2 and this does pretty much exactly what I wanted from an expansion.
A fun little story and lots of cool things to do in a single player capacity, plus some extra guns and bits of fashion for multiplayer.
The setting is cool, the new characters are fun and the way the underground railway/station stage system works is an interesting way to tackle things and keep it fresh.
However hands down most impressive thing is the level of inventiveness there is, something that I and I believe many others associate with Nintendo at it's best.
Sure some of the challenges are a bit like the single player portion of the main game, some are rehashes of bosses and some are plays on the multiplayer modes but out of the 80+ stages I was pleasantly surprised and saying to myself "this is cool" more often than not.
I don't want to spoil any of the surprises, but time trials, puzzles and even plays on retro games are amongst the stuff this game offers up and it's great.
My negative takeaways from this package are few and far between.
I worry that whilst I love Splatoon's control and movement systems they aren't always perfect for what some challenges want you to do.
Maybe this is a "git gud" situation and more of a me problem.
My only other issue does come from that though, this game kindly gives you a lot of choice in what stages to do and if you get stuck and fail enough it can give you a free pass to move on.
That's good, that alone isn't where my issue lies and it's more of a question of how difficulty is dealt with.
Sadly due to From releasing a game recently the discourse about difficulty modes is still in the back of my mind and whilst this game does not hold you back for not being good it either let's you through or let's you struggle and I don't find that the perfect answer.
People will argue Souls games have difficulty settings within it by giving you upgrade options, summons etc. and I know that isn't exactly the same but tools is something you have there and really do not have here.
For example in a target practice, can I not get a Silver/B ranking instead of a clear if I get 38/40?
Could I not get a lower rating or some extra time if I fail a time trial instead of just a free pass?
Besides the difficulty thoughts which aren't really a problem and some minor controls gripes this is fantastic.
Obviously worth your time for "free" and definitely worth playing if you need to go trade some stuff to buy Splatoon 2.
Splatters forever.