While Nintendo is an innovator on the hardware front with the success of the Wii, GameCube, and 3DS leading the charge, its software releases have been rather more rigid. Nintendo's first party games usually hit a certain standard of quality, and expectations come as a result of this, but they always seem to improve upon the same fundamental formula each time. Super Mario Odyssey is a more expansive take on 1996's Super Mario 64, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild hearkens back to the very first game in the longstanding series. Splatoon was something different, serving as Nintendo's foray into the online shooter space, and Splatoon 3 carries the torch with relative ease.
Nintendo was never going to enter the shooter genre with a copy-and-paste effort that mimics the likes of Call of Duty and Titanfall. The company has always placed high importance on family-friendly products, so an entirely different approach was required, and Splatoon 3 is the latest effort that balances competitive gameplay with creative ideas and colorful visuals. Its charm stretches far beyond its core mechanics as the small, 4v4 squads do well to make small maps are never repetitive. Its small size is one of Splatoon's best features, proving that online shooters don't have to constantly chase high player counts and sprawling settings.
The Rapid Expansion of Online Shooters
There are, of course, franchises like Call of Duty and the upcoming xDefiant that maintain the philosophy that tight maps and small player counts can provoke highly competitive gameplay, but there's an increasing need for larger maps and player counts to justify a full-price release. The trend, even in single player experiences, seems to be heading toward experiences that can take up hundreds of hours rather than a tight, well-paced title that can be seen through in a weekend. Today, it simply doesn't seem like value for money to have a smattering of small maps to be played on a 6v6 or 8v8 basis, but the fun that this can provoke is sometimes far more than that which is presented in more sprawling titles.
Games like Call of Duty: Warzone and modes like Conquest in Battlefield elevate the player count to dozens, and while it does well for the scope of the project and provokes feelings of value for money, it can stretch the gameplay to widths that are simply not as immediately engaging as other franchises. Battlefield 2042 recently removed the 128 player mode to make it more 'tactical,' squeezing the mode back to the series' usual 64 combatants. While it may sound like a strange comparison, this is no different to the 8-player mode in Smash Bros. Ultimate, which was simply too many to balance. Splatoon 3 takes the direct opposite approach, and despite the stark differences in gameplay, it feels much more competitive and thus entertaining.
Splatoon's Size is Special
Providing players with a huge map with topographical challenges and diverse landscapes can feel like a game justifies its price tag, but any online-centric experience has to provoke the desire to keep coming back. Splatoon has done this since the first game released in 2015, and the series has only improved over time. Splatoon has sold well across its three releases, even with the first game being stuck on the dying Wii U, which not only showed that there was a market for an online shooter game in Nintendo's first party line-up, but that smaller can mean better.
Splatoon's core design prioritizes territory acquisition rather than eliminating the other team, so it wouldn't work with a higher number of players in each match. Desperately rushing to cover the map in color only for an opposing player to undo all the hard work is why it's fun, and bigger maps would make it feel like a boring task with limited potential for true excitement. The third game carrying this philosophy is the reason why Splatoon 3 is being received well by critics, and while it's a perfect example of Nintendo's eccentricity paying off, it also shows that the continuing trend of 'bigger is better' is not universally true.
Splatoon 3 is available for Nintendo Switch.