By Ho Qingxiang
Making a Splash and Riding the Wave
Splatoon has undeniably emerged as one of Nintendo’s biggest intellectual properties (IP) in recent years, capturing the hearts of gamers worldwide and cementing its status as a gaming phenomenon. This multiplayer shooter franchise, initially released for the Wii U in 2015, has continued to gain momentum with its most recent Splatoon 3 release.
Since its conception, Splatoon’s unique and refreshing gameplay distinguishes it from other shooters in the market. Instead of conventional weaponry and combat, players wield ink-based weapons, engaging in colourful and chaotic urban warfare to cover the game’s maps in their team’s ink. This innovative approach has not only attracted players of all ages but also provided a family-friendly alternative to more violent or realistic shooters. It is this accessibility that has made Splatoon a standout title in Nintendo’s lineup.
In addition, Splatoon has been instrumental in establishing Nintendo’s presence in the competitive gaming scene worldwide. The game’s success in the esports arena, with official Nintendo-sponsored tournaments, has showcased its potential as a competitive title. This has not only drawn in competitive players but also garnered attention from sponsors and organisations, bolstering its long-term viability.
That said, a lingering problem awaits the Splatoon franchise. As is the case for many shooter games like Call of Duty and Battlefield, the novelty of Splatoon’s innovation will slowly begin to wear off. With each new iteration in the series, there is the danger of being too similar to its predecessors. Eventually, the Splatoon franchise may be filled tired troupes, leading to its stagnation. A good example is Overwatch 2 which could barely differentiate itself from Overwatch.
An obvious solution to this dilemma is to keep increasing the amount of content like weapons, maps, equipment and characters, but that alone does not improve the quality of game play. To avoid a similar fate, what could be added to the next Splatoon game to keep the franchise still feeling fresh?
The stagnation of other shooter game franchises is a stark reminder for Splatoon on the risks if developers fail to rekindle the spirit of creativity.
Suggestion 1: Let the Fans be Wacky
Splatoon’s enthusiastic community has developed several fan-made multiplayer modes to add variety and excitement to their gaming experience. While these modes are not officially supported by Nintendo, they are often enjoyed in custom lobbies and private matches. Having been validated by the player base, it would be in the developer’s best interest to design some of these fan-made modes into the game. We have seen some progress in this area with the addition of Challenges in Splatoon, which are limited-time competitions of standard modes with unique in-match conditions, but the implementation has been awkward.
Instead of limiting these unconventional Challenge modes to two-hour play windows which occur only at specific times during a three month season, it would make more sense to make this into a Carnival mode where players can play rotating sets of unique modes all the time akin to regular battles. Since these unique modes are more experimental and playful, its core audience should be the more casual players rather than the hardcore competitors. Like a game arcade, players can earn Reward Points by competing in this mode and can use these Points to redeem seasonal prizes of their choice. It would also be beneficial to have these modes available immediately for custom lobbies and private matches.
For this Carnival mode, the goal is not to create balanced battles, but to instead create nonsensical, possibly broken, feats that defy conventional gameplay. This easiest way to do this is by exploiting existing variables such as decreasing gravity for floaty jumps, decreasing visibility by adding fog, restricting all players to one specific weapon, allowing infinite specials or making all players invisible. The current Challenges do this to some extent, but they remain too constricted and uninspired. Since the Missions in Story mode already provide many good examples of modifications to gameplay, it should not be too difficult to have this implemented for multiplayer.
For example, a match condition could be to shoot down as many randomly appearing balloons as possible; an interesting throwback to the first Splatoon local battle mode. Another match condition could be players have to go around the map to grab random Canned Specials, similar to the mission Girl Power Station in Splatoon 2 Octo Expansion. As one of the favourite fan-made rules, another match condition could be hide-and-seek where 1 hunter has to capture 3 runners and put them into a prison while the 3 runners help each other to escape prison and distract the hunter.
While the core of Splatoon is its multiplayer battles, having a light-hearted mode with weird in-match conditions fits its colourful nature.
Suggestion 2: Ease the Early Grind
As a multiplayer game, Splatoon has many things that need time and effort to obtain. This includes weapons, abilities, equipment, accessories and emotes. Normally, if you are already invested in the game, this would not pose too big a problem. However, this grind exists even at the beginning of the game. In order to access certain multiplayer modes, the game expects players to reach a specific level by playing only one battle mode. The intent was to ensure that players were sufficiently prepared to tackle other modes, but this forms an obstacle to newcomers from getting an early taste of the variety that the game provides. On top of that, many of the shops that players need to see in order to experience the diverse gameplay are locked behind levels too, making the early part of the game feel like an unappealing slog.
The simplest solution is to offer multiple ways for players to gain access to these features. Instead of forcing players to play Turf War at the beginning to gain experience points, allow players to earn experience coupons from playing other modes like Story mode and Salmon Run. Players can spend these coupons to immediate gain experience points and increase their levels. Since mastery in Story mode and Salmon Run should indicate skill proficiency, there is no reason to force players to do Turf War to unlock features. The number of experience coupons given can be limited to only benefit early players rather than late-game players. This gives more options to players on how they want to start their early game progression, and prevents players from feeling unnecessarily boxed in.
Besides the early grind, I believe Splatoon can be more enjoyable without the Catalog levels. The added progress bar feels excessive in a game that already has so many places to grind for. Instead of locking Catalog items to specific levels and forcing players to grind through unwanted items, it is better to give a price to each item and let players figure out how they would want to earn them. When combined with the earlier suggestion of Reward Points in Carnival mode, players can accumulate the required Reward Points that they need to redeem for the items that they want. The Reward Points can be reset every season to mimic modern day loyalty point systems and allow for some FOMO effect.
On top of these grinding aspects, there is also too much randomisation within the game. The items in shops are random, the gear secondary abilities are random, and some of the rewards are random. While players do like surprises, putting randomness along with grinding can result in a terrible experience. This is especially the case for the probability-influencing drinks that are suppose to increase the chance to obtain a specific gear secondary ability. Imagine grinding for hours only to get a result that you do not want due to randomness. To keep randomness satisfactory, a guarantee can be given after a specified number of misses. For example, in relation to the drinks, after not getting the specific gear ability twice, the third one will be always be the desired gear ability.
Currently, Splatoon is very rigid in the ways that players can grind for specific items and features, even in early parts of the game.
Suggestion 3: Make Turf Wars Fun Again
When Splatoon was first conceived, Turf War was its flagship mode and the marketing pitch was that players who were not good at killing opponents can still contribute by inking territory. The purpose was to present a game where players would not get overly salty or frustrated from not getting kills. As the franchise slowly became an e-sports contender, the game focused more on competitive modes and their respective map design. As a result, Turf War as a mode, plus the design of maps that suit it, has largely been neglected. It neither offers the tense excitement of Ranked Battles nor the non-aggressive chill experience. Not much has been done to address how wins are largely dependent on the final 30 seconds of each match, and how spawn point kills usually result in the map being filled with one colour before ending in humiliating one-sided defeats.
While Splatoon has made some improvements to reduce spawn kills by expanding the spawn point from one small circular area to a larger shapeless terrain, it is still possible to get trapped within a choke point and to get killed repeatedly. For Turf Wars to be enjoyable, a greater emphasis needs to be done to make the end battle results closer to 50-50. Unlike most of the Ranked Battles where it is about moving from point A to point B, Turf War is about coverage of the entire map, so more exclusive flexibility and unique rules can be granted to this mode that is absent in the Ranked Battles.
For example, while Ranked Battles only have one spawn area per team, Turf War can have 2 or more spawn areas. Whenever players get defeated, they choose from which spawn area that they want to approach the map. Without having to greatly redesign the existing maps, this greatly minimises the possibility that players can get trapped by opponents. In addition, as a Turf War exclusive ‘blessing from the Ink Gods’, players could gain a temporary shield, that negates any damage, immediately after being killed a specific number of times consecutively. This puts spawn point killers at a disadvantage and pushes more of the combat towards the centre of the map. To make the early actions in Turf Wars more impactful, an addition bonus can be added to the final match tally that rewards teams who painted the most territory at the first minute mark and the second minute mark. This puts more importance on inking the map at the beginning, rather than having players rush to the centre to collect kills.
To further improve the appeal of Turf War, the number of maps per rotation for this mode can increase to 3 or 4, and dance emotes can be used within Turf War for players who want to fool around. This makes Turf War less monotonous than other modes and better allows it to be the mode of choice for more casual players.
Turf War, despite being the main mode of the game, has been seen as the inferior mode in Splatoon due to its lack of motivational mechanics.
Suggestion 4: Add more Festive Cheer to Splatfests
Splatfests are limited-time events that are roughly held once every month where players pick a faction to do battle for. Players from one faction would be pitted against players from other factions in order to gain dominance by accumulating Clout through the inking of the map. Splatfests are portrayed as overnight festivals in the game where concerts are held and special decorations are arranged to give the event a celebratory feel. The faction with the most points based on categories such as popularity and Clout would win the Splatfest. While there is a competitive quality to Splatfests, the intent is to have all players to partake as a whole collaboratively to make the festival a success.
However, this intent often falls short due to the way that battles are organised. Firstly, Turf War is the only mode used to compete in Splatfests, making the events relatively dull after some time. Secondly, there is an over-emphasis on tribalism where one faction seeks to crush the other factions for bragging rights. Thirdly, there is an acute frustration when players are not able to do battle against other factions due to insufficient matchmaking or when players lose matches due to technical errors and disconnects.
To revitalise the festiveness in Splatfests, the event should ensure that is always something new to experience every time. In Splatoon 2, this was accomplished through Splatfest exclusive maps called Shifty Stations which were different for every Splatfest. These unique maps made use of mechanics found in the Story mode, and gave players something surprising to look forward to every month. Other than having unique maps, unique in-match conditions can also be added to give Splatfests more of a wacky atmosphere rather than a serious competitive mood. This would help to ease the repetitiveness of Turf Wars and give players something memorable to talk about at the end of each Splatfest.
To minimise the hostility between factions during Splatfest, a Festive Gauge can be used to track and display the accumulated amount of Clout from all factions in order to determine the tier of bonus rewards that will be received by all. The best of these rewards can be Splatfest exclusive items to create greater hype for the event. In this way, while players are still competitors based on their factions, they are also collaborators in the event to help raise the festive cheer as high as possible. If the combined effort of players was not enough to max out the Festive Gauge, the missed rewards can be added into the game at a later date. This is similar to crowdfunding campaigns where people contribute funds to a single pool so that all contributors can partake in the shared product.
Finally, to make same faction match-ups less annoying, a new battle mode can be introduced in Splatfest that requires all 8 players of the same faction to work as a team in order to win the match. This battle mode can be more playful by not requiring players to shoot each other. Instead, the mode can require players to go around the map and find ‘Sea Sparkles’ to collect. These small glowing creatures are positioned throughout the map, some in hard-to-reach areas, that require players to use their platforming skills to capture. These Sea Sparkles randomly appear and then disappear after some time, so all 8 players must work together and rush to capture each creature within the time limit. Similar to Salmon Run, the goal is to collect a sufficient number of Sea Sparkles in order to win the match. This can reduce the frustration from pitting players of the same faction against each other by presenting an opportunity for collaborative fun.
Splatfests, while still being colourful and inviting, becomes tedious to play when there is not enough unique mechanics to make them feel special.
The Potential
Splatoon as a franchise is in a more advantageous position when compared to other shooters. Having a cartoonish art style allows Splatoon to experiment with all kinds of weird mechanics that is less acceptable in more realistic shooters. This gives Splatoon more freedom to innovate with every addition to the series. For example, if Splatoon implements a zero-gravity mechanic in its next game, it would not be out of place and could potentially be something that keeps the series interesting.
However, Splatoon 3 is showing signs of neglecting its original vision of being a family-friendly shooter with its greater emphasis on competitive modes and with its higher time investments. To avoid creating player fatigue, the franchise needs to put more attention towards adding more wacky mechanics that do not need to be balanced for esport tournaments. In terms of grinding, reducing the early grind would encourage new players to stick to the game longer, and having less randomisation with grinding would give players a stronger motivation to play. By making Turf War interesting again, it would give casual players a space to shine and a playground to fool around with experiments. Lastly, Splatfests can become better highlights of the game by encouraging collaboration and introducing something new with every event.
There are many other areas that Splatoon can improve in, especially its matchmaking algorithm, communication capabilities and online server stability. While those technical problems are important to address, solving them will not repair the core design issues specific to the franchise. What sets Splatoon apart from its counterparts is its promise of a chill time with interesting shooting mechanics. There are already plenty of rage-inducing sweaty deathmatch shooters in the market to cater for more assertive players. As long as the franchise keeps to its core vision of allowing players to contribute to wins without aggressively seeking kills, I believe the franchise will continue to satisfy its fans.
Red Hare Studios Games 