“Please, somebody, buy me squid game.”
That has been my motto for the past week.
Nintendo dropped Splatoon May 29, and I was the only one of my friends who didn’t cop it on release day.
The game is Nintendo’s newest title and focuses on turf wars between these … squid kids. They’re squids – but they’re also kids. They run around in teams of four and spray the map with paint. Whoever covers more turf wins the fight. It’s simple enough.
As a broke college student, I can’t afford $60 Wii U games. I still don’t own the new Super Smash Bros. (Please hold your tomatoes and booing – thanks.) The last time I begged for a video game was probably in elementary school. After a week of “Mom, PLEASE buy me this squid game,” I finally got it.
I originally didn’t think I’d want to get in on it. It seemed pretty childish, and I thought the vibrant colors would give me a headache. I’m also not really a fan of console games.
However, when the game released, my opinion changed. My Twitter timeline was filled with friends making jokes and sharing tips. What really tipped my opinion was all the Miiverse posts.
Miiverse is a Nintendo social network, essentially. It’s a message board for different games where you can share hand-written messages or drawings. Splatoon was covered in jokes from different TV series. The most popular? Spongebob. Spongebob jokes plague the Splatoon Miiverse.
The most disturbing thing is that they’re all drawn really well. I’m not sure how these players are so good at drawing Spongebob characters, but dang, I’m impressed.
The most popular Miiverse post was just a message that said, “Mom left us at Best Buy,” with a sad face. Whether or not this was a real kid is unknown, but the Internet ate it up.
However, the boom of older kids on Miiverse has created a problem. Within the Spongebob memes and other silly references, there tend to be somewhat inappropriate jokes that sexualize the young squid characters. The game is rated for kids 10 and up, which means things like this should probably stay off of Miiverse. Don’t be that guy who ruins a children’s game – or their innocence.
While the Miiverse is super fun, the gameplay has only three game modes. The most popular one puts you online with random people and lets everyone face off. The single-player lets you hone your skills and solve puzzles to fight the octopus people. The last one lets you go against your friends one-on-one in a dojo.
At first I thought the gameplay was going to get repetitive, but Nintendo keeps it fresh. The maps change out every day and there’s also multiple weapons that have significantly different styles. There’s a casual water gun, a giant paint roller that plows down your enemies, painting everything in front of you, and a sniper rifle. The paint roller is dumb and overpowered – and it’s also my favorite for those exact reasons.
While I wish there was a split-screen-multiplayer mode so I could play with my siblings, I’m satisfied.
If you have the money to spend, I’d definitely suggest grabbing Splatoon.
