Splatoon Thoughts

Someone named Sony making a Nintendo game thread, huh.

Splatoon actually looks good, and it's what I want from Nintendo- new IPs that venture outside their comfort zone of platformers and whatnot, being a third person shooter focused on MP. However, the starvation of content and some of it being locked behind amiibos, which are DLC, really offset that balance. The way they handle map rotations to try and make up for the lack content hurts it as well. But it looks damn fun, they just have to resolve it with content down the line.

Still, it's not enough to make me want a Wii U, especially considering the flaws I mentioned and the lack of some basic features we've had forever now. I can understand no voice chat, but that should be available with friends.

Voice chat really wouldn't be as useful as people think it would be. If you jump on any given lobby, there's usually at least one or two Japanese players, and I'm pretty sure some of the names you can read belong to foreigners too. It'd just end up as a mess of everyone speaking different languages in public games. For friend-only games I can understand the desire, but... the game would have to support those first. All you can do right now is follow your friends into their worldwide game. (Which kind of sucks, IMO, but at the same time it's difficult to get eight people together for that, and bots wouldn't be nearly as effective.)

I'm fine with there not being voice chat, honestly. It's a valid design choice when one of your goals is to prevent toxicity in online multiplayer.

What I'm not fine with is not applying design to achieve the same goals that voice chat normally serves by other means. The traditional solutions are chat macros and pinging - that is, pre-made phrases your character can say and the ability to point out a location on the map to other players, respectively.

Splatoon has two inputs that correspond to this: "Booyah", a voice macro which serves no purpose in communication (yet; the community may figure something out for using it otherwise, time will tell), and "C'Mon", which is a combination voice macro/ping, which highlights your current location to the other players, implying you want them to group up with you.

Sufficed to say, that's horrifically insufficient, as it gives absolutely no means by which to assign or accept separate roles or signal to split up, no way to point out something suspicious happening on the map or to signal that you're handling it and everyone else can keep on with what they're doing, no way to coordinate the use of special moves, no way to warn of ambushes at your location so people don't superjump to their deaths...

In TF2, there is a dizzying array of voice macros that you can choose from, sequestered into submenus that you navigate by the 10key bar, which is pretty awkward so everyone uses voice chat instead. The touch-screen gamepad would have made a pared down version of that work well.

Some games, RTS and MOBA in particular, have pings of multiple types that you can place at any point in the map, with specific meaning. Heroes of the Storm in particular allows you to ping a place on the map with no message, or with a message of "Defend", "Danger", "Retreat", or "On my way". It goes without saying that with the gamepad showing the map, using it in Splatoon would have been even smoother than on PC.

Splatoon could have benefited massively from any degree of either of those things, or any other crazy off-the-wall thing Nintendo might have come up with had it tried to address the communication problem. Unfortunately, at the end of the day communication in Splatoon was defined by what the director hated in other online multiplayer games, and not by what it could achieve, and so it achieved nothing.


All of that is a pretty big bummer, too, since it's otherwise a really fun game. I look forward to running external voice chat when pre-made team play is added so I can see how the game can shine when players can work together.

Jellybones said:

Still, it's not enough to make me want a Wii U.

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At this point, I don't think you're going to get a Wii U anytime soon.

My theory at the lack of game communication is to simply make the game a straightforward experience for all ages. It'd be more frustrating if the commands were available but nobody used them and kids just trying to have fun wind up on people's shit-lists for it.

I only played the test fire, but one thing I noticed from playing it over TF2 is that I was never hopelessly frustrated when my team lost the match. This could of course be in part by the lack of super-hardcore-top-tier-mlg-pro players, but with (afaik) random match-making these would be few and far between.

The super-hardcore-top-tier-mlg-pro players may wind up being the only ones frustrated by the game, in an odd twist.

ZarroTsu said:

My theory at the lack of game communication is to simply make the game a straightforward experience for all ages. It'd be more frustrating if the commands were available but nobody used them and kids just trying to have fun wind up on people's shit-lists for it.

I only played the test fire, but one thing I noticed from playing it over TF2 is that I was never hopelessly frustrated when my team lost the match. This could of course be in part by the lack of super-hardcore-top-tier-mlg-pro players, but with (afaik) random match-making these would be few and far between.

The super-hardcore-top-tier-mlg-pro players may wind up being the only ones frustrated by the game, in an odd twist.

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TF2 had a wealth of voice macros AND voice chat. Pinging isn't hard to use, especially not when you have a touchscreen of the map. It's not as if being on somebody's shit list means anything when they can't talk shit at you.

I really wish it was possible to map the gyro controls to, like, a button to hold or something. I can't aim precisely enough to use basically anything but Splattershots and rollers with just the analog stick, but always having gyro on ends up confusing my hands to the point where I'm contorting them in all sorts of weird ways and then suddenly becoming unable to turn in the direction I want while I'm fixing that. If that's too much to ask, at least don't disable up/down on the right stick and allow a separate gyro sensitivity so I can keep it low enough to not disrupt my normal aiming.

That's really my biggest complaint with the game so far. It's incredibly fun, but the supposed "better" control scheme being an awkward mess of, like, three different hand motions to turn irritates me. (That and Arrowana Mall is a terrible map and I hate playing it five times in a row because some idiot designer decided they need to limit the game to two maps being playable at a time, but... that only affects me sometimes.)

RedEnchilada said:

I really wish it was possible to map the gyro controls to, like, a button to hold or something. I can't aim precisely enough to use basically anything but Splattershots and rollers with just the analog stick, but always having gyro on ends up confusing my hands to the point where I'm contorting them in all sorts of weird ways and then suddenly becoming unable to turn in the direction I want while I'm fixing that. If that's too much to ask, at least don't disable up/down on the right stick and allow a separate gyro sensitivity so I can keep it low enough to not disrupt my normal aiming.

That's really my biggest complaint with the game so far. It's incredibly fun, but the supposed "better" control scheme being an awkward mess of, like, three different hand motions to turn irritates me. (That and Arrowana Mall is a terrible map and I hate playing it five times in a row because some idiot designer decided they need to limit the game to two maps being playable at a time, but... that only affects me sometimes.)

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This sentiment is exactly what I'm worried about. Splatoon is selling for $60 right now, and I don't want to risk that kind of money on a single game that I might end up hating simply because of the control scheme.

MrBreada said:

At this point, I don't think you're going to get a Wii U anytime soon.

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Well, Sonic Lost World, Smash 4, and some other things far and between do look cool, but ultimately it's not enough. Nintendo also announcing a new system of sorts doesn't exactly inspire faith. I'm just the type of person who wants an abundance of titles to justify a purchase.

Smash 4 alone is worth it, for the sole reason that you don't have to deal with the circle pad.

Jellybones said:

I'm just the type of person who wants an abundance of titles to justify a purchase.

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If you're an RPG fan, there's two games that MIGHT win you over. The Legend of Zelda for Wii U (it's not coming out for a while so you can save up) and Xenoblade Chronicles X. Sure, they're just two games, but they're RPGs, which means lots of hours for you to put into the game.

Also, EarthBound, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Paper Mario, Golden Sun, and a few other RPGs are on Virtual Console.

Splatoon isn't that good, YET! It was released early, (sound familar?) but unlike Sega, Nintendo is adding patches for extra content. Splatoon is still pretty fun otherwise, but not worth much else.

I usually don't try to convince people to get systems, but meh.

People make too big of a deal about Splatoon "lacking content". Yes, there are only five six maps for the online modes right now, but at least three more will be coming, and there's also a pretty nice single-player mode that people seem to ignore completely.

And to be honest, I'm pretty sure most of the maps they're planning to release are already done (or mostly done), and their release is just being held off in an attempt to extend the life of the game. Having something to look forward to as the game's release window expands is a good way to keep people playing for longer, since people won't exhaust all of the different maps too quickly. (Plus, it lets players who buy on launch get used to maps a few at a time.)

If the game ends with nine maps and the two modes it has right now, that would still be a pretty good amount of content for multiplayer. Matches on pretty much every map are extremely variable, which leads to a fantastic amount of replayability, and nine is a small enough selection of maps that even the people who don't play the game that often will be able to memorize strategies for each one. Not to say more content wouldn't be nice, and I'd like to hope they're making more than has been leaked out, but there's still a good selection.

Also lmao, if you ever compare Splatoon to Sonic Boom you have no idea what you're trying to say

MrBreada said:

(sound familar?)

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Didn't we already establish that Splatoon is nothing like Sonic Boom (in this very thread, too!), and that making a comparison like that just goes to show that whoever makes said comparison has no idea what they're talking about?

Something tells me that comparing a game to Sonic Boom is the new "hip and cool" thing to do.

(Also, pffffft using Virtual Console titles to convince someone into buying a Wii U. There's a ton of games you could've used: Smash 4, Bayonetta 2, Tropical Freeze, Mario Kart 8, Super Mario 3D World, Wonderful 101, Pikmin 3, Hyrule Warriors, Captain Toad, Woolly World, ALL these games that you could possibly use to win him over, and you choose to use re-releases. What even.)

RedEnchilada said:

People make too big of a deal about Splatoon "lacking content". Yes, there are only five six maps for the online modes right now, but at least three more will be coming, and there's also a pretty nice single-player mode that people seem to ignore completely.

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To add on that statement, Team Fortress 2 also shipped with only six maps, and look how much maps and game modes it has now.

My apologies for bumping, but I have Splatoon now, and here's my thoughts: It's a pretty cool game, but after you complete single player, this game is useless without the internet.

I think that's to be expected, considering the online multiplayer is the major selling point for the game. I can see how the lack of local multiplayer options could be disappointing though.

Sony making a Nintendo post?

I know my name is Sony but its kinda different its Sonic and Amy's name together not from Playstation. The darn Japanese people messing up my game in Splatoon but in fine with it because i'm already a Lvl. 20 also I can't believe someone already hacked it!

Weh weh the Japanese players lag so much and they make me do worse and-



That lag is symmetrical. For every time it appears to you that they lag-killed you, there's a time when it appears to them that you lag-killed them. While I do see the point of wishing you only died when it looked like you should, that would only trade the "I'm dying to these people who I was clearly hiding from!" issue for the "I'm not killing these people who don't hide until a second after I kill them!" issue. (Though there does come a point where people are killing others from across the room with rollers. That's fairly ridiculous and needs a fix.)

Yeah, the lag is symmetrical. It's still bad, though - inconsistencies like that are a bottleneck for skilled play, and force people to play more reserved. Razor-thin stunts are impossible when something out of your control AND out of your ability to observe can scuttle it.

Completely aside from how it negatively affects available tactics, whether I'm dying to something ridiculous on my end, or I'm killing someone who might have been on the other end of the same, it just feels bad.

The local matchmaking is perhaps what I like about splatfest the most, because of that. I don't have to play reserved due to worries of lag shenanigans, and don't have to feel bad because I suspect some dude I killed didn't get a fair fight from me. These things still happen occasionally, but the experience is honestly improved across the board.

I never played Splatoon before, but I can tell it must be amazing!