Splatoon has been lauded as one of the best games released this year, but it was to the surprise and elation of many fans that Splatoon won the award for Best Multiplayer Game and Best Shooter during the Video Game Awards 2015.
Splatoon is Nintendo's first first-person shooter title, and quite a deviation from the norms of its genre. The setting is bright, colorful and cartoony, with anthropomorphic squid children serving as the player avatars, and each "match" is done in a paintball-esque gameplay where teams complete certain challenges and duke it out using weaponized paintball guns, paintball rollers and ink shooters. The three challenges are Splat Zones, a king of the hill type challenge where teams try to cover the most territory in the team color and keep it that way, Tower Control, where teams fight for control of a floating tower item and bring it to the opponent's end of the map, and Rainmaker, which is more of a straightforward capture the flag sequence where teams try to capture the titular item and bring it to the opponent's end of the map. There's even a story mode that lets you unlock weapons and upgrades, has interesting tidbits about the setting, as well as introduce the territory struggle between the player race (Inklings) and the Octarians, a race of sentient octopi with similar ink-based capabilities. And in a genre full of gritty realism and grim plotlines, many fans of the genre were pleasantly surprised and refreshed by the change of scenery. Needless to say, while it may seem like the underdog of the selection, it managed to come out on top of games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, Halo 5 and Rocket League.
Recently, there's been a content update released featuring new maps, costumes and weapons on top of the adjustments in gameplay, and there will also be new content that will be continuously added until January, according to Hardcore Gamer. A few days ago, Nintendo USA hosted and streamed a Splatoon tournament, nicknamed the Splatournament, in their own offices in celebration of their win.
Splatoon is currently available to play on the WiiU, and costs $59.99.
Join the Conversation