Several website previews went live for Splatoon earlier today, including ones from IGN and GameSpot. We’ve rounded up information from their reports below.
– As previously mentioned, players customize a squidling and use ink as a weapon
– Can toss it on your rivals or mark your territory in 8-player multiplayer battles
– Swim in it to travel faster and refill ink to spray more color
– Use currency obtained in multiplayer to unlock more weapon sets and special gear
– Splat Roller: roller brush lays down a soothing coat of friendly ink; can flick out a deadly spread, too
– .52 Gal features a grenade launcher-like design that sprays out heavy ink blobs at a lower rate of fire than some of the other weapons, with a much higher damage rate
– Inkzooka and Killer Wail are powerful special weapons
– The weapons you unlock come in three-piece sets
– There’s one primary, a grenade type, and a special weapon
– If you switch over to the Uzi-like Splattershot Jr., you’re also switching over to Splatter Bombs as a sub weapon and a shield as your special
– Single-player design is similar in setup to a stage in Super Mario Galaxy
– Each stage strings together floating islands that focus on building specific skills
– Each stage has a squid launching sequence
– Story: follows Cap’n Cuttlefish, an odd-looking war hero who wants you to collect recover the stolen Zapfish from the dastardly Octarians
– Learn about the fundamentals of shooting, swimming, jumping, speeding through ink tubes, or even using valves of gushing color in combat in the first few levels
– Fight grunt-like Octotroopers, squarish Octostamps, and speedy Octolings
– Each one has a distinct method of fighting and personality on the battlefield
– Splat Zones: one of the objective games you’ll find under Splatoon’s Ranked Battles
– This has players capturing and holding a single zone until a 100-point timer runs down to zero
– Teams need to work together to press and hold the highlighted zone and keep out rivals
– Ranked Battles won’t unlock until a portion of the player base reaches level 10
– Ranked matches separate the player pool by specific letter ranks that range from top tier A+ to C-
– Ex: A rank players won’t play with a C rank squad
– Ranks are independent of the player leveling system, which unlocks new equipment sets
– Rather than strategize via direct communication, Nintendo suggests that players use the bird’s eye view of the map that’s displayed on the GamePad to locate their teammates
– Fighting to kill in single-player, which is different from multiplayer
– Single-player has sponge platforms that grow when hit with ink
