Game:

Splatoon (2015)

Category:

Tutorial

Duration: 7:48

2,721 views

7

So, for the more important and pressing details about the whole experience... how well does it work? How does it play? How does it FEEL?!

Well, in order to figure that out, we've first got to connect! Got your Internet-synchronized clock handy? Hammer on that ZL+ZR to get in right when the invisible Interweb gates open! (I'm sure you're the only person who will be trying this, meaning you're practically GUARANTEED a spot at the front of the line!)

...and that's where the first little bump comes in. Where once you'd be chided for trying too early with a reminder that the event had yet to actually start, now you can be treated to a bevy of brief and unhelpful error state messages. Most commonly, you'll get "There was an error"... sometimes the more helpful and surprisingly thought of (or rather more surprising that they actually frankly tell you this... servers are built to be requested and will always theoretically be in danger of overloaded, hence why load balancing is such an important factor in large-scale deployments) "The server is overloaded with requests"... or the more fun and difficult-to-decipher range of error code claims that there was a problem connecting to a "partner device," which is actually a bit of a catch-all for personal disagreements between the network configurations of end users.

Now, I won't claim to have the BEST network setup... in fact, I will routinely throw my ISP and my router and any number of other factors under the bus when I just want to do something "simple" like press the A button (protip: there's absolutely NOTHING simple about getting computers to talk to one another meaningfully, let alone specialized computers with their own peculiarities attempting to use unknowable third-party networking hardware and their own further unknowable firmware peculiarities trying to start an intense barrage-style conversation of real-time data flow in order to conduct even basic gameplay), but in this case you'd have to be nuts to think that something as unprecedented for Nintendo as this would be hitch-free.

That said, once connectivity is established from the title screen, things become unbelievably smoother and almost up to actual final product deployment-grade expectations. Almost. I mean, I've played plenty of finished games that felt more error-prone in the crucial networking phases... and only some of that is actually stuff I would comfortably blame on my own end of the equation.

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From that point, you're allowed to create your character and begin with the game's tutorial... or rather, you choose a gender, a skin tone, and an eye color and then you're immediately thrust into a tutorial.

However, would it have killed them to let us play the tutorial while waiting for the live event to happen? Is it going to heavily detract and damage their sales prospects to let us learn how the game is played and get a feel for the controls before the thing goes live? Because there's a looming countdown to be dealt with if we know the game will be locking down promptly between advances of the hour hand. I'd have even appreciated a little sandbox to tool around in and get used to the intricacies of general player character operation... maybe build a little basic muscle memory for moving, aiming, and shooting...

Anyway, this demo does a lot of what I very sorely needed to have happen... basically tell my neurotic doubting self that the game controls well and is fun to move around in. Y'know, since that's kinda the most important thing to any action game and exponentially more so one where your movement, view, and actions all need to be placed on a hair trigger and must be as natural as possible. To that end, I cannot possibly recommend enough that even the staunchest anti-"waggle" holdout not only try the motion controls, but WANT to use them proficiently. Yes, console shooters have existed since before we were graced with a second stick, but fighting motion-aim is like refusing to use a mouse for PC gaming (which I've personally done before and don't recommend either).

Personally, I'm more concerned about the fact that the drive to make the GamePad the centarlly-relevant control style seems ready to render all the progress made (in SPITE of a decidedly hostile vocal minority in the userbase) last generation demonstrating just how incredible pointer-based aiming can be when they finally get it right... and Nintendo would be the one major player to trump even the best attempts in that arena for sure.

I may not be bonkers for shooting games, but integrating newer and more natural technology into the process always gets me excited, especially when an earnest effort is made to refine the process to its most natural. I'm a huge fan of Metroid Prime Hunters, Red Steel (more the second than the first, but progress requires effort!), Onslaught, The Conduit, and Kid Icarus Uprising just for their noble efforts, even if some of them had some major issues and growing pains to overcome.

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