Splatoon, Nintendo’s colorful, creative take on the arena third-person shooter genre, was showcased alongside Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, Majora’s Mask 3DS, and others in today’s Nintendo Direct. While Captain Toad and Majora’s Mask present new takes on old series, Splatoon is a brand new IP, originally announced at this year’s E3. The trailer gave us a glimpse of some single-player gameplay, showing that the game is not a solely multiplayer endeavor. Here it is:
Judging from the brief glimpses seen here, Nintendo is situating Splatoon as more of a puzzle-shooter hybrid than a pure third-person shooter. This trailer focused heavily on the mobility that players will have as part of the game’s paint system, and the ways that this mobility will be useful when playing alone. We see the player character using paint to quickly move behind enemies, climb walls, and build speed to make long jumps. The trailer also showcases Nintendo’s trademark strangeness, with glimpses of legged tentacles astride what appear to be paint-spewing shop-vacs, and a bizarre old man who needs a shave.
Splatoon is presenting itself with Nintendo’s typical charm, with bright, vibrant colors and interesting game mechanics. Here’s hoping that we see a trend towards a wider color palette in video games. Outside of the Wii, the previous console generation is often stereotyped as being filled with dingy grays and browns, but with games like Sunset Overdrive and Splatoon, this generation is off to a good start in breaking that stereotype.