Nintendo’s new Splatoon adventure feels like the kind of third-person shooter that used to require a PlayStation
Plus: I've gone to Rhythm Heaven
At a Nintendo preview event in New York City about four weeks ago, after I had the opportunity to play the very silly music game Rhythm Heaven Groove, a rep for Nintendo asked me what I thought of it.
I told her that what I was about to say was meant in the nicest possible way: the game, I said, was so dumb.
Recognizing this compliment sounded like an insult, I emphasized that I adore Rhythm Heaven games. I’ve relished them since I imported the Japanese original for my Game Boy Advance in 2006. This new one seemed as silly, as ridiculous as magnificently weird and nonsensical as the series’ prior entries.
Rhythm Heavens are strange games about tapping a button at the right time to match the shooting of arrows, the punching of rocks, or the hitting of a baseball into outer space.
The new one has a demo out that lets players open an umbrella to the beat or command a dog to catch a flying disc at the right rhythmic moment.
Back at the NYC preview event, right before I was asked what I thought, I’d played a multiplayer mode in Groove in which four couch-bound players each try to press a button at the end of a countdown to see which of their characters gets to eat a piece of cake.
Here’s a video of me playing that mode, some of the most fun I’ve had at a Nintendo game event in some time… (I’m the guy named “mama” who has green hair.)
See what I mean? Ridiculous. Fun. Not at all taking itself seriously. Silly, stupid, dumb, whatever you want to call it.
All these terms, in this case, are the highest of compliments.
That brings me to another upcoming game I recently played at a Nintendo preview in New York City: Splatoon Raiders.
I don’t recall if a Nintendo rep asked me what I thought of that one, but I’ll tell you: It was very Ratchet & Clank. You know, the Sony PlayStation series of third-person shooters featuring a furry Lombax and his robot/backpack?
Again, maybe that doesn’t seem like a compliment? I promise that it is.
First, though, a negative. There’s no big breakthrough with this game, best I can tell from over an hour of hands-on time.
The original Splatoon was a revelation when I first played it back at E3 2014. Nintendo hadn’t made a multiplayer shooter before. None of the many non-Nintendo studios that did had made one where the goal was less about deathmatch kills and more about which team could paint more of the floor.
It was a great idea. Players loved it. Nintendo made two more Splatoons, all prioritizing competitive multiplayer.
The three mainly multiplayer Splatoon games included brief test-chamber-style solo campaigns. Two had single-player focused expansions. Following those, it does not appear that Nintendo was sitting on some great breakthrough idea for its first game-length Splatoon campaign.
There was no paint-the-floor twist in what I played a couple of weeks ago at an actual paint-shooting studio in New York City.
You are a mechanic who puts on a backpack tank, hops on a ship and sails with a trio called Deep Cut to an archipelago of islands, searching for treasure. You do this by picking missions from a map and then being flung into them. In each mission, you splat hordes of enemies with paint, mixed with some climbing and jumping, en route to a treasure.
You can collect, equip and upgrade a wide array of weapons and gadgets, retaining progress even if you die, as you face some of the thickest storms of enemies I’ve seen in a Nintendo game. You are blasting baddies, fetching loot and, ideally, finding secret stashes along the way.
In my hour-plus run through a few campaign missions, I equipped a tactical tank that let me launch multiple paint-filled balloons, each tethered to the other. I also placed turrets while rapidly shooting paint at my many enemies.
Between missions, I kept upgrading my ever-improving and explosively experimental arsenal.
In playing Splatoon Raiders, it felt that I was playing a game with the same rhythms and energy of one of my favorite game series, Ratchet & Clank.
And, why not? Sony’s Insomniac Games, once a mass-producer of annual Ratchet games, has only made two since 2016, most recently five years ago. The people in charge of that last one have been busy for at least the last two years making a bloody game about the X-Man Wolverine.
Usually, I’m most into Nintendo doing things only Nintendo does, like, you know, making rhythm games about opening umbrellas and eating cake. But if they’re the only people in position to deliver the vibe of a great PlayStation series, sure, go for it.
Nintendo itself isn’t saying they’re going for an R&C feel with Splatoon Raiders. They might be mortified by the comparison. It’s just what I got out of my hands-on preview.
As for Raiders’ more Splatoon-specific elements, you are still splatting paint on the ground, can still turn into a squid to swim through it. And everyone is just so stylish and cool…
The heroes!
The supporting cast!
Even the bad guys have great, clever, eye-catching designs!
Rhythm Heaven Groove is set for Switch/Switch 2 release on July 2. Splatoon Raiders is Switch-2-only, for July 23.
One other thing: I do not remember the plot of any of the Ratchet & Clank games very well (usually: Captain Qwark did something…) but I believe it’s a Splatoon Raiders original that the game’s story is propelled by economic anxiety. In some unlockable newspaper scraps that I found during the preview, I learned that Splatsville, the main city in Splatoon, has been plunged into debt, in part due to overspending after they found themselves with a surplus. Thankfully, the fabled Spirhalite Islands seem to have risen from the sea, and, with it, some debt-off-setting treasure.
Item 2: In brief…
🎮 A bill that would have required video game companies operating in California to make their games playable in perpetuity or issue refunds if a server-shutdown would make the game unplayable, failed a key vote in the state senate, ending its chances for passage this term, VGC reports.
🪧Unionized game developers at Microsoft are calling on the company to reconsider the mass layoffs that are expected to hit the gaming division after the conclusion of Microsoft’s fiscal year, which ends today, Kotaku reports.
The cuts are expected to occur next week.
The unionized workers, speaking on a call with press arranged by their parent union, the Communication Workers of America, called the expected cuts unnecessary. Citing Microsoft’s overall profits (beyond gaming), one worker said: “They’re just choosing not to protect us.”
👀 Microsoft has pulled out of a funding deal to publish a fantasy game in development at IO Interactive (Hitman, 007 First Light), Bloomberg reports.
The Xbox-maker told Bloomberg that it is “taking a fresh look at where we invest so we’re focusing on our highest priorities,” adding “ We expect to invest about the same in content as we did last year. What's changing is where we're investing and the kinds of projects we're backing.”
Last week’s edition of Game File about 1666: Amsterdam noted that that game previously had an Xbox publishing deal. (Xbox pulling out of publishing deals with some high-caliber studios and talents has been a trend).
🇺🇸 The United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear Apple’s appeal over a contempt ruling in its long-running Fortnite lawsuit with Epic, Reuters reports.
Apple had been ordered by a lower court to allow apps to direct users to outside payment options, but was found in contempt when it attached a fee to any resulting non-app-store transactions that nullified any significant savings for app-makers.
The hearing, a rare video game case for the Supreme Court, will occur in the next term, which begins in October and runs through June 2027.
🎬 A live-action TV series based on the role-playing game series Persona is in the works at Netflix, Variety reports.
Perennial video-game-to-show/film adaptation company Story Kitchen (Sonic, Streets of Rage, Tomb Raider) is producing.