Game:

Splatoon 2 (2017)

Duration: 15:51

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2

So, hey, the first REAL Splatfest has come and gone already! ... ... ...this isn't that, don't be confused. If memory serves, I stopped uploading my already considerable FIRST game called Splatoon's multiplayer before its first Splatfest rolled around, too! ... ... ...ohgod, what even is my life?!

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RIGHT THEN! I'm choosing to ignore my own question and continue marching to the beat of my own drum.

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So the next thing I sought to try out on the proper-region Splatfest World Premiere is the Team setting... er... yeah... it's... not quite like what we all dreamed, but you might've figured on that anyway. You see, you can join friends... but you can only play with a whole group of four friends... and then you play with groups of others doing likewise.

It has more in common with League play, honestly, not that we'd know what that is at the time... but with the benefit of hindsight, it's basically a lot like what Quad Squads mode turned into in the first game rather quickly... and roped off somewhere else where it won't be able to hurt anyone ever again, but if the caveats I presented sounded familiar, you might've guessed that.

Actual gameplay starts at 1:39, in case you wanted to save yourself some waiting... but for some reason decided to read the description, so... let's just say we're both a little crazy, huh?

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Match #1 -- Starfish Mainstage

Honestly, I'm a little surprised I got to try this at all, because I was just thinking "hey, I wonder if anybody's playing?" ...and lo there was one. And this mixed bag is what came of that little experiment.

The one thing they did right is something that a few Nintendo games have managed to do properly in the past, but it's mostly been a string of one-off cases that must've been random miscalculations rather than intentional efforts, because being able to join friends and friends of friends and friends of friends and so on is the only sane way that this would actually work out unless you arranged outside the game itself to play as a group... and those people would naturally have other external advantages.

Actually, JUST playing with friends as the in-game menus would imply... is still more or less like playing with randoms, though you CAN at least know from previous attempts what those players' ability levels might be more than some fresh-faced blank slates... so there's that, right?

My only actual friend (and I doubt these are all direct friends of his) in this group is the player "Spectral"... also known as ArtRocks93, among other things:
youtube.com/artrocks93
twitter.com/spectrldynamite

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I left in another segment that shows how things go after a friend-based match... and... yeah... my fears are confirmed and I'm only made all the more impressed that I got to play a match under the circumstances at all...

Actual gameplay resumes at 8:25.

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Match #2 -- Starfish Mainstage

It was around this point that all the awkward suffering and uncertainty came to an end, and I became far more aware of just what an Inkjet is capable of. And also what it's not capable of.

This is mostly unrelated to the fact that this match also demonstrates that while many who were loath to glance at a separate screen during gameplay might be somehow "relieved" that the map is now a toggled function of the main screen... ... ...Splatoon 2 is unarguably way more susceptible to lowered awareness of how the rest of your team and the turf closer to home happen to be doing while you're making a mid-to-late-game push and are met with suspiciously limited resistance...

Personally, the thing that messes with me more is the fact that the relative tilt to indicate which team is leading is way too subtle, and it doesn't really let me know at a glance if there's been a rapid shift in momentum.

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Match #3 -- Starfish Mainstage

As hinted, the (deliberately) under-documented and constant discovery of the emergent applications and potential of the new Special Weapons is a must... and being acutely aware of what they can NOT do is probably more important than seeing a particularly successful usage. You need hope, but you also need to have somewhat grounded examples to temper your expectations. Specials in this game are far less automatically overwhelming as a whole and knowing when and where to use them is much more difficult. The success and failure of each attempt will depend strongly on the user's initiative, making them initially feel weaker, but revealing that there's a lot more skill involved in judicious utilization. Honestly, given some of them in the previous game, this is a welcome change once you get used to the new choices.

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I have a license to use Nintendo’s content in this video through the Nintendo Creators Program. This video is not sponsored or endorsed by Nintendo, but any advertising revenue from this video will be shared with Nintendo.