Splatoon 4 should have these features and improvements

A hypothetical Splatoon 4 would certainly be a Switch 2 title – and at the time of writing, the console still hasn’t been officially announced. Seeing as Splatoon 3’s content cycle has just wrapped up, it might be a little bit too early to start thinking about the game. Still, for many, it was a high point in the series, and after the conclusion of the excellent Grand Festival, it’s only natural to think about what could be next for one of Nintendo’s most popular franchises. Today, we’re looking at all sorts of new things we think would be cool to see in Splatoon 4.

A revamped story mode

In terms of main campaigns, Splatoon 1 and Splatoon 2 are fairly standard (and very similar to each other). Then, upon the release of Splatoon 2’s Octo Expansion, things were kicked up a notch. Thanks to its atmosphere, story, and difficulty, Octo Expansion is still often called the greatest story mode in any Splatoon game (despite being DLC). Splatoon 3’s main campaign, Return of the Mammalians, doesn’t quite hit the same highs – but it comes very, very close. And while Side Order’s roguelite gameplay was a neat idea, it didn’t have enough types of challenges and variety to have much longevity. It also had a much less fleshed-out story than Octo Expansion or Return of the Mammalians, which was another common point of criticism the DLC faced.

For Splatoon 4, we’d love to see a story-driven main campaign with fleshed-out environments. Up until now, Splatoon levels have been very “video game-y”, if that makes sense. The levels take place in an undefined space with blocky, linear structures kind of like an obstacle course. We think it’d be neat to explore a fully fleshed-out city, searching for collectibles or defeating enemies (or both) and taking in the details of your surroundings. Think less Breath of the Wild and more Kirby and the Forgotten Land when it comes to level design – still linear to an extent, but with environmental detail and many secrets to uncover. Splatoon has always been on point with its final bosses, so we don’t think those would be an issue. More of the same there would be fine by us!

New ranked modes in Splatoon 4

Other than Tricolor Turf War, which is only accessible during Splatfests, Splatoon 3 didn’t add any new ranked modes to the mix. According to Inkipedia, two ranked modes were completely scrapped in Splatoon 2. One revolved around pushing an eight ball to the opponent’s goal (much like the ones seen in Octo Expansion and Side Order) while another revolves around shooting a rocket with ink. If Splatoon 4 were to add new ranked modes, they don’t have to necessarily be those unused ones from Splatoon 2. They could be entirely new! But there’s no reason to stop there, either. Splatoon 4 could innovate in many ways. A true Tricolor Turf War with three teams of three against each other would be fun, especially if the stages were specifically designed for the mode. This is getting ambitious, but three-versus-three ranked matches would be fun, too. It’d also add an extra layer of strategy, at least in theory – one team could steal the Rainmaker, forcing the other two to work together (or more likely, splat each other instead, leaving the team with the Rainmaker free to win the match). Okay, maybe teams of three aren’t the best idea, but it would still be a cool concept for an updated Turf War ruleset.

Better stage design

We’ve written about Splatoon 3’s stages before, and there’s not much to say about them now that hasn’t been said before. Stage design took a hit in this game, generally favoring long-rangers like Chargers with the way they’re set up. Older Splatoon stages had more alternate routes you could take, which made modes like Turf Wars easier on casual players since they could more easily avoid fighting but still ink turf to contribute to the team. This time around, stages are set up in a way that encourages both teams to rush to the missile, splat each other, and then whichever team wins can advance. Stages with more alternate routes and even more gimmicks (like the propeller platforms on Marlin Airport, for instance) could help break up the gameplay a bit and add more variety to different playstyles and skill levels.

Splatoon 2 also had Shifty Stations, Splatfest-exclusive stages that are still available to replay in custom battles to this very day. Splatoon 3 didn’t have an equivalent to these stages – sure, we had Tricolor Turf War stages, but these were slightly reworked (and often somewhat unbalanced) versions of existing stages, for the most part. The Grand Festival’s Grand Splatfest Bowl was one of the only stages truly designed for Tricolor Turf War, and the mode was arguably at its best during the time it was available. Another stage made for Tricolor Turf War was the one during the Legend of Zelda collaboration Splatfest, though that one wasn’t quite as well-liked as the Grand Splatfest Bowl. Still, if Splatoon 4 does add a new “main” mode to the game in the same vein as Tricolor Turf War, we’d definitely like to see some more unique stage designs for it.

More weapon kits or customizable kits

At the time of writing, Splatoon 3 only has two kits for every weapon. It seems a bit strange to forgo third kits in Splatoon 3 specifically, but given that the content cycle has ended, it seems doubtful that we’ll get them. Some weapons are stuck with poor or unfitting subs and special weapons on both of their kits, so a third kit for each weapon could give some of them newfound viability. Alternatively – and this is very ambitious and we don’t expect this to happen – customizable weapon kits, where you can pick your main, sub, and special. This would obviously need a ton of fine-tuning, as some sub and special combinations would become extremely strong. We’re not sure if they should increase or decrease the power of certain specials with certain main weapons – for example, making Tenta Missiles inherently slower and longer to charge when used on an Aerospray. Either way, the ability to customize your weapon kit sounds like a good idea on paper, but it would need a ton of balancing and probably many patches after launch when strong or overpowered combinations are found by the player base.

Other Splatoon 4 ideas

We’re not sure if Tableturf battles will come back in Splatoon 4, but if they do, it’d be nice to see it a little bit more fleshed-out. An easier way to access it other than walking up to a certain area in the city (rather than a menu) would probably increase the number of players by a lot! A few months back, we also wrote about every stage that didn’t make it to Splatoon 3. There are a lot of them, too, and we’d certainly like to see some of these stages return with a fresh coat of paint.

And of course, it’s impossible for Splatoon 4 to live up to every single idea we’ve had here today. It’ll definitely innovate in its own ways, and we’re sure it’ll be a worthy successor whenever the game does come around. In the meantime, what do you want to see most from Splatoon 4? Let us know in the comments down below.

Splatoon 3 is available now for Switch. Visit the official site here.