Splatoon 3 shows that the familiar can still feel fresh – Review

gamepur.com:

There’s a pervasive stigma when discussing video game sequels, an idea that each subsequent entry has to radically shake up formulas in order to remain relevant. But more so than other art forms, video games are tech products, too, so the idea of iteration, I think, should be just as important as innovation. Even so, most major game sequels have nuanced additions and changes that will be monumental to any long-time player, while providing something novel for new players — and Nintendo’s third-person shooter Splatoon 3 certainly falls into both camps.

Objectively, Splatoon 3 is the most fully featured Nintendo game since Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It vastly improves on what the first two titles have established and adds quite a bit that veterans will fixate on. Even so, it’s high-quality enough that players will be stuck in it for quite some time. Dare I say; this is the hippest that Nintendo has ever been.

Out of all Nintendo franchises, Splatoon is the most focused on aesthetics and style, but it has the substance to back it up. The series’ lore borders between silly and compelling, but this is a fully realized world. Every weapon and piece of clothing has an in-universe fictional brand behind it, and all of the songs featured in multiplayer battles are diegetic, each composed by a fictional band within the game’s lore.

Taking place five years after Splatoon 2 — the same length of time that game was released — Splatoon 3 uses the Splatlands as its primary setting. The opening of Splatoon 3 features vast desert landscapes and post-post-apocalyptic visuals, but you’ll end up in the Splatsville hub, a much larger city than the Shibuya-inspired hubs in the first two games.

The real passage of