Splatoon 3 Review Roundup

6/9/2022

In the early 2000s, I was the lone Nintendo gamer among my peers, and boy, oh boy, was it difficult. I had to deal with constant teasing about how my little purple lunch box was for kids as they also spew at nauseam about how manly their Xbox and PS2 were due to being home to Halo and Resistance. I was losing face, so I prayed to the Nintendo gods for a major first-party shooter so I could also boast about how 'manly' my console was. Well, it took those gods over 13 years, and it was about kids becoming squids (MANLY!!). Luckily, the original Splatoon was a lot of fun, and this coming 9th of September, Nintendo will be releasing its third instalment, but will it be a brand new coat of paint? Or just more Squid? Here's the review roundup:

DESRTRUCTOID (SCORE 9/10)
'Given that Splatoon 3 shores up nearly everything already present in the series and adds a few extras like Tableturf Battle, it’s safe to say that the magic of the series is still alive. There’s definitely things I want to see improved upon after launch, and the next theoretical sequel can take things even further, but I’ll be playing this one for a long while.'

For the full review please visit here.

NINTENDO LIFE (SCORE 9/10)
'Splatoon 3 is more of the same, but refined to borderline mechanical perfection. It's the most fun we’ve had with an online shooter in years, and for series veterans it makes Splatoon 2 feel entirely redundant for all but its unique single-player content. It feels like the development team has solved every problem the Splatoon community was bleating on about, and then fixed some more that we didn’t even realise were problems until they were fixed. There's nothing revolutionary about it compared to its predecessors, and it's perhaps missing a Big New Idea™ that you might expect after five years, but Splatoon 3 is the pinnacle of the series, and the pinnacle of shooters on Switch.'

For the full review please visit here.

GAMEINFORMER (SCORE 8.5/10)
'Splatoon 3 doesn’t reinvent the wheel, nor does it need to. Instead, it improves nearly every franchise element in sometimes small but meaningful ways. With an already-robust set of content available at launch and at least two years of free and premium content on the horizon, Splatoon 3 is simultaneously the series’ best entry to date and its most promising.'

For the full review please visit here.

GAMES RADAR+ (SCORE 4/5)
'Splatoon 3's campaign feels like it's stuck between being a brilliant puzzle shooter and standard action fluff, rather than blending the two together for a seamless and enjoyable experience. Multiplayer and the supporting Salmon Run are as great as they've always been though, now with added bonuses that make them easier to access and enjoy than ever before. Movement additions are a big win for Splatoon 3, and really succeed in adding extra depth to Splatoon's already fabulous traversal systems. There's excellence in Splatoon 3 – it just doesn't quite hold for the campaign.'

For the full review please visit here.

GOD IS GEEK (SCORE 9/10)
'Splatoon 3 may not be the most exciting release in the calendar, but it is the best the game has been. A plethora of tweaks to the formula mean it’s accessible, and there’s no nonsense to slow you down and stop you playing. A successful single player campaign is met with multiplayer fun that is unmatched by any other game for how unique and fun it is, and a massive amount of weapons means you won’t be getting bored any time soon. Splatoon 3 is a rip-roaring success, then, and is perhaps the game that fans wanted all along.'

For the full review please visit here.

GAMEXPLAIN (VIDEO REVIEW)

Overall, Splatoon 3 currently sits at a Metascore of 84 from 49 reviews. In contrast, its predecessor, Splatoon 2, garnered a score of 83 from 100 reviews in 2017, signaling that this new entry is a slightly improved experience. Not a bad score at all, but here's hoping this new entry finally cures my Splatoon syndrome of playing non-stop for the first month, before throwing it away due to boredom.