Splatoon 3 Reviews

While more iterative than it is innovative, Splatoon 3 is without a doubt the best entry in the series yet. Despite lacking new multiplayer modes at launch, there's a clear commitment to content and quality, with each aspect of the package being pushed to its logical extreme through smart and meaningful additions. This is the most feature-complete and tightly designed Splatoon to date, and you'd be missing out if you choose to pass it up.

Splatoon 3: Side Order is an excellent addition to Splatoon 3, and helps to give it a stronger identity over its predecessors. Whilst we’d like to have seen more variety in the stages and objectives, the overwhelming number of options on your weaponry and how you upgrade them makes sure that things don’t get too repetitive. We found ourselves repeatedly coming back to try just one more run which turned into five, so that should speak for itself. Splatoon fans rejoice, it’s another goodie.

Refinement is the name of the game as Splatoon 3 brings the series forward while keeping its one-of-a-kind gameplay exhilarating and approachable.

Splatoon 3 is a very fun title that people are going to enjoy for a long time due to the multiple modes, great quality of life improvements, and the new additions to things like the Splatfests! Jump in and see what so many are having fun playing.

Splatoon 3 adds little new to an increasingly familiar formula, but the game features a plethora of enjoyable modes that cater to just about every playstyle.

Back with a Splat and better than ever.

All in all, putting the online infrastructure disaster aside, Splatoon 3 is a lot of fun, but I can’t help but feel like it could have been an update to Splatoon 2 rather than a new game. I enjoyed the new story mode, the new weapons are great, and the lobby changes are fantastic, but everything else just feels like too little to warrant $60. I generally don’t like to evaluate games on price point, but it needs to be said this is more like Splatoon 2.25 than a full jump in number or even just half. Once you take into account the awful connection it definitely doesn’t feel worth it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a good game and a great entry for new fans, but I’d get basically the same experience and probably slightly more stable in Splatoon 2 and that’s still right there on my home screen. Nintendo really needs to step their game up in terms of updates, and for God’s sake invest in some servers or better netcode.

If you’re a returning player to the franchise, Splatoon 3 is an unmissable title this year on the Nintendo handheld hybrid, and you’re in for a massive hit of nostalgia when hopping back into this world. And if you’ve never played a Splatoon game before, this one is a perfect starting point that requires no prior knowledge and can be picked up with ease.

Splatoon 3 may not benefit from the novelty that propelled the series to instant stardom, but it is chock full of content, and the self-assured step the series has made at launch yet. The core remains compelling and fun, but several issues from older games still persist. Those who were on board the first two times, or at the very least intrigued, are going to love what is on offer here.

Splatoon 3 finally feels like the full package that expertly pulls together single-player, multiplayer and a streamlined video game experience. Though some players have reported connection issues early on, the game is overall a stable and super-fun experience for anyone looking to get into Splatoon.

Splatoon 3 is a well-crafted game that provides a highly enjoyable experience for both fans and newcomers to the franchise. While the campaign isn’t long at about 8-10 hours, it still sports a good amount of varied content with a multiplayer mode that’ll keep you engaged for hours on end.

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.

When the Splatoon series was first announced, it was a baffling reveal. A third person shooter by Nintendo seemed utterly unbelievable at the time, and one with such a strong paint-soaked aesthetic was surprising. I’m sure a lot of folks expected it to be a one-off, a game that didn’t perform as well as Nintendo’s long running titles like Mario or Zelda, but Splatoon was a huge success and proved it was here to stay.

Nintendo’s Splatoon franchise has been in need of a bit of a touchup for a while now. The first Splatoon made about as big a splash as was possible on the beleaguered Wii U and two years later Splatoon 2 brought the series to new heights on the Switch. The momentum didn’t necessarily continue, though, as Nintendo seemed to temporarily forget the franchise existed after its second entry. Ah, but you can’t keep a good mollusk down, and after a five-year-plus absence the series returns with Splatoon 3 this week.

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 delivers a breed of content-rich multiplayer fun that's refreshing to see in the age of shaky free-to-play promises.”

Splatoon 3 is a small(fry) step forward in the series. It doesn't take the leaps and bounds from the previous titles that would have taken it to the next level, but honestly, Splatoon 2 was a pretty hard game to follow up. Splatoon 3 is the same reliable fun the franchise has always been, and it has the much-needed improvements that fans clamored for, but players should just be aware of how much new content there actually is before committing to purchasing.

Splatoon 3 feels quite samey, but a high level of polish and the series’ best single-player offering to date elevate this sequel.

Technically this is the best Splatoon ever, but the complete lack of anything approaching a new idea is profoundly disappointing.

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. There’s definitely things I want to see improved upon after launch, and the next theoretical sequel can take things even further, but I’ll be playing this one for a long while.

That's certainly how I would describe Splatoon 3. It's pretty fantastic, thanks to the various additions to the game's multiplayer, the overhaul to the story mode structure, and the implementation of new ideas like the three-way Splatfest Turf War. 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.

Nintendo's flagship competitive online extravaganza is back for more sloppy fun so let's see if Splatoon 3 is worth its weight in ink.

Splatoon 3 oozes charm and style at every level, and the level of polish here makes it better than ever. If Nintendo provides good post-launch support, it’s easy to see a time in the near-future when Splatoon 3 is the single best multiplayer experience on the Switch. Considering Splatoon 2 received support for nearly two years, and Nintendo has already revealed a roadmap for Splatoon 3, it seems likely that we’ll all be covered in paint for quite a few years to come.

Since its debut in 2015, the Splatoon series has delivered unique, colorful gameplay cribbed by scarce launch content and disappointing time restrictions for specific modes. While post-launch content greatly bolstered both games to this point, I’ve always been disappointed by how little was initially on offer. Now on its third entry, the series may feel a bit less fresh, but Splatoon 3 remedies the series’ long-standing launch content woes while retaining all the fun that made the series such a success.

Splatoon 3 builds on everything that its predecessor got right, opting to further refine the formula rather than drastically update it. The thin array of new modes, weapons and abilities is just enough for now but longevity is going to be the make-or-break consideration for the game going forward.