Splatoon 3 Reviews
Splatoon 3’s campaign features a fresh take on an open hub world design, mixing in short but satisfying missions to let you experiment with different weapons and abilities.
Splatoon 3 has done a great job anticipating the needs of returning players.
There are few surprises to be found in Splatoon 3's multiplayer or campaign, but it is the best Nintendo's spectacular series has been to date.
Splatoon 3 won't change anyone's mind on the series, but several smart changes to the formula make it unarguably the best game in the trilogy.
There's excellence in Splatoon 3 – it just doesn't quite hold for the campaign.
Technically this is the best Splatoon ever, but the complete lack of anything approaching a new idea is profoundly disappointing.
Splatoon 3 doesn’t reinvent the wheel, nor does it need to. Instead, it improves nearly every franchise element in sometimes small but meaningful ways. With an already-robust set of content available at launch and at least two years of free and premium content on the horizon, Splatoon 3 is simultaneously the series’ best entry to date and its most promising.
Splatoon 3 isn't quite as novel the third time around, but a great campaign, tons of multiplayer options, and a few new surprises make it much more of a good thing.
Splatoon 3 exudes polish, but lacks ambition
Given that Splatoon 3 shores up nearly everything already present in the series and adds a few extras like Tableturf Battle, it’s safe to say that the magic of the series is still alive.
Splatoon 3 is a bit like your mum making your favourite meal when you head home for the holidays. It's been a few years since the last game - while there have been some great improvements and additions, it's the same old Splatoon we know and love, and that's still pretty great.
Splatoon 3 is better than Splatoon 2: the new lobbies and catalogs make for a more rewarding experiencie... but essentially, is exactly the same, as there are no new modes within the competitive or co-op play. It's very fun but also very conservative, although it is elevated by a great single player mode, longer and similar to the Octo Expansion.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
While I wouldn't call Splatoon 2 old and busted by any means, there's no denying that Splatoon 3 does feel like the new hotness.
A fun shooter that shines thanks to a few tweaks to the original formula, as well as some new weapons, maps, and customization options that make Splatoon 3 the best chapter in the saga.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Splatoon 3 feels quite samey, but a high level of polish and the series’ best single-player offering to date elevate this sequel.
Similarly, boss battles feel woefully undertested and suffer from agonizing spikes of challenge and confusion. There's also an overworld aspect of spending in-game money to unlock new paths, though many of the unlocks don't actually lead to new levels; instead, they only dole out cosmetics used to decorate a "locker" interface that is tucked into the very back corner of a single multiplayer lobby. (Decorating your tiny Splatoon 3 locker is perhaps the utter opposite of trimming a bonsai tree; the act of putting objects into your virtual locker is a nightmare of physics collisions and red Xs indicating that, no, you can't decorate your locker the way you want.)
Splatoon 3 is basically exactly what it set out to be: a third entry in the Splatoon series.
Splatoon 3 makes many fantastic improvements and changes to the games before it. These minor additions will surely go a long way in retaining a large number of players, even if most of the brand-new content feels somewhat lacking. Splatoon 3 is the best game to start with for newcomers to the franchise. It might be tougher to convince die-hard fans of its merit, but future updates and changes will likely sway their opinions as well.
Splatoon 3 isn't the most exciting release on the calendar, but it is the best the game has been. As a standalone game it's a rip-roaring success, and perhaps the game that fans wanted all along.