Splatoon

Splatoon is a third-person shooter video game franchise developed and published by Nintendo. It is set far in the future on a post-apocalyptic Earth that has been repopulated with evolved marine life and centers around a pair of humanoid races derived from cephalopods known as Inklings and Octolings—squids and octopuses respectively—which can morph between humanoid and cephalopodic forms at will. They often battle one another in competitive sport, using a multitude of weapons that produce and shoot ink while in their humanoid forms or swim through and hide in solid surfaces covered in their own ink while in their cephalopodic forms. The first game in the series, Splatoon, was released for the Wii U on 28 May 2015. A sequel, Splatoon 2, was released for the Nintendo Switch on 21 July 2017, followed by an expansion pack, Octo Expansion, on 13 June 2018. A third game, Splatoon 3, was released on 9 September 2022, followed by an expansion pack titled Side Order, on 22 February 2024. A spin-off game, Splatoon Raiders, was released on 23 July 2026 as an exclusive for the Nintendo Switch 2. The series has received positive reviews for its style, gameplay mechanics and soundtrack, the first two games in the series having been nominated and awarded several year-end accolades from various gaming publications. The series has sold over 30 million copies. Splatoon has spawned numerous collaborations with third-party companies and established its own esports tournament circuit in 2018. It has spawned a manga series as well as holographic music concerts, primarily in Japan.

Gameplay

The Splatoon series consists of third-person shooters with a focus on competitive online multiplayer across several game modes. Players select from a range of weapons resembling water guns, oversized painting equipment, and other objects that they use to spread their ink across the floors and walls of the gameplay area and to damage enemies. During gameplay players control characters named Inklings and Octolings, both of which can freely alternate between a weapon-wielding humanoid "kid" form and a cepholopodic "swim" form with the press of a button. While in humanoid form they can use their weapons to spread ink across surfaces and damage enemy players. While in swim form, players can submerge and tread through their own team's ink. Additionally, players can only replenish their ammunition by standing or swimming in their respective ink color. During matches, players can activate communication signals directed to their team; these signals consist of "This Way!" and "Booyah!" Players can also instantaneously launch themselves towards a teammate or their team's spawn region, an action known as "super jumping", by selecting the desired target through an in-match menu. In the first Splatoon, players could pick a multitude of weapons belonging to one of seven distinct weapon classes: Shooters, Chargers, Splat Rollers, Splatlings, Inkbrushes, Blasters, and Sloshers. With the release of Splatoon 2, the Dualie and Brella classes were added to the roster. Splatoon 3 introduced the Stringer and Splatana classes, making for a total of eleven weapon types across the franchise. Each base weapon is assigned a loadout of one "sub weapon" and one "special weapon". Sub weapons are usually defensive structures or offensive projectiles, and require a large amount of ink to dispense, while special weapons are powerful armaments whose Special Gauge must be charged by painting the surrounding area. Players can equip numerous perks that passively aid gameplay. These perks, known as abilities, can range from speeding up respawn time, reducing the amount of ink consumed by sub weapons, and upgrading the damage performed by special weapons. Abilities are attached to cosmetic gear items, which are separated into three categories: headgear, clothing, and shoes. Each clothing item has one main ability slot and a maximum of three secondary subslots. The number of subslots available is dependent on the respective gear's "star power", which can be increased with consumables known as "super sea snails" or in-game currency. At the end of a match, in accordance with how many experience points were gained during the battle, a random "sub" ability is assigned if possible. Subslots can be re-rolled or entirely removed ("scrubbed") by trading in-game currency with certain vendors. Players can manually apply any ability to a given slot, primary or secondary, by speaking with said vendors and spending "ability chunks".

Turf War "Turf War" is one of the main gameplay modes in the Splatoon franchise. Two teams of four players on either side of a symmetrical map compete to spread their team's ink across as much of the floor space of the map as possible before the match ends after three minutes. While players are not awarded points for doing so, it is possible to kill enemy players, referred to as "splatting", to temporarily remove them from the game so that they cannot contest the spread of ink until they respawn.

Ranked Battles Another online offering present in all installments is "Ranked Battles", available only to players level 10 and above. These consist of alternative modes focusing on competitive, teamwork-oriented gameplay that last five minutes plus overtime if specific conditions are met. Over the course of the series, four distinct Ranked modes have been introduced, those being Splat Zones, Tower Control, Rainmaker, and Clam Blitz. The accessibility of the modes at a given moment are dependent on rulesets that rotate at fixed intervals throughout the day. Ranked modes utilize skill-based matchmaking; players are grouped together based on a shared letter-based "rank" that reflects their in-game aptitude level.

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