Splatoon 3 - SpringFest: Team Bear Cubs (feat. .96 Gal Deco)
7Here is a special Splatfest, the kind with the different versions of the Deep Cut songs, decorations, match opening and closing themes, match opening animations, and, of course, a different name:the SpringFest, themed roughly around Easter, with pastel colors, eggs, flowers, and for some reason, bubbles. I put up the artwork showcase the previous day to show what players have drawn to decorate the hubs, as well as changes to the hubs themselves; this time, this will be about the matches. The teams were Baby Chicks, Li’l Bunnies, and Bear Cubs. I chose Bear Cubs because bear cubs had been on my mind since that incident a few days prior in North Carolina where a group of people yanked some bear cubs off a tree to pose for selfies on TikTok, and it made me mad because of their cruel treatment of the cubs. One of them is now recuperating from injuries sustained in that incident. Their TikTok video is also effectively the evidence needed to charge them with various wildlife violations.
With that aside, as I covered the .96 Gal earlier in the month, I figured I might as well cover its branded counterpart, the .96 Gal Deco. This version puts bling beads onto various parts to make it look more gaudy. It also changes the sub and special weapons, but not the main one, so its core purpose remains the same: taking out opponents from a fair distance with two shots. Like the unbranded .96 Gal, the .96 Gal Deco excels on high ground, in narrow hallways, and from fortified locations, but also when you have one teammate, with a shorter-ranged, faster weapon, ahead of you so you can assist them with any shortcomings they have. Its high power per shot means it doens’t take long to splat opponents, and its fairly high range among Shooters means you can do so from outside their reach, more often than not, but its low fire rate demands high accuracy from you, and its high ink consumption forces you to always keep an eye on its ink tank.
The .96 Gal, in its basic form, has the Sprinkler and the Ink Vac. Together, they offer multiple ways to keep your opponents on your toes as you shoot at them. Not so with the .96 Gal Deco, as this one has the Splash Wall and the Kraken Royale, putting the Deco branded version more on defense and trickery. The Splash Wall is an incredibly obvious contraption, both in what it does and that it’s large and stands out wherever it’s placed, so opponents are unlikely to shoot at it. In some Anarchy modes, it’s incredibly useful for blocking the objective, such as the Rainmaker or the Tower, but in Turf War, it’s easy to just travel around it—and that is how I prefer to use it. I throw it somewhere, forcing the opponents to go left or right of it, and that’s where I catch them. The Splash Wall is also great for blocking the Ultra Beacon in a Tricolor match.
This is the first weapon I’ve covered with the Kraken Royale, so it deserves an explanation: this is a downgraded version of the Kraken from Splatoon 1, in which you turn into a larger version of your character’s squid or octopus form. The Kraken Royale is completely impervious to damage, though they can still be slowed down or stopped by opposing fire. They can also still fall off the stage, either by getting pushed off, steering yourself off by accident, or falling through a grate, as the Kraken Royale cannot run across gates; only the kid form can. Unlike the original Kraken, which dealt KO damage upon contact with an opponent, the Kraken Royale can only deal damage either when jumping or dashing. As your presence is incredibly easy to spot, and the dash requires a charge time, it’s exceedingly hard to catch anyone deep within their ink, and the last thing you want is to be isolated in their ink when the Kraken Royale runs out, which leaves you a sitting duck. It also needs some time to start up, making it a bad choice for a surprise attack if opponents get too close.
What I found the Kraken Royale IS good for, however, are eliminating opponents who wander too far into your own team’s ink, as it’s far easier to locate them (if they’re in lots of their own ink, they can just swim away to evade you); and assisting a teammate in eliminating an opponent, as the presence of a Kraken Royale puts great pressure on them. Every now and then, I also cause someone to fall off while chasing them around. I don’t get the splat credit, but I’ll take it just the same.
The more narrow scope of the .96 Gal Deco, compared to its vanilla version, probably makes it more meant for Anarchy Battle modes than Turf War and Tricolor, considering the Splash Wall can constrain the opponents’ movements more when they’re focused more closely together, and the Kraken Royale can scatter opponents and focus their attention shooting you while a teammate can gain objective control. Neither of those are quite as effective in a mode like Turf War, where opponents are expected to be much more spread out.
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