I took the opportunity to stream a little of the Splatoon 3 world premier. It was free, and playable for 12 hours. And I must say, I'm looking forward to getting this one. As a secret fan of both 1 & 2, I was excited to play this, and much to my surprise, the improvements on an already great series shows that Nintendo put their ink all over this one.
Again, only the Splatfest was available to play. No other modes were accessible. We were asked to choose Rock, Paper, or Scissors, as the Splatfest has three choices going forward. It did come with a handful of weapons, clothing, and accessories to try, including all the new weapons, and special attacks. The lobby is different as well. While you are matchmaking, you are in a room where you can try out different weapons, bombs, and special attacks. There's even a training dummy that shoots back. Now once you finished, if your current randomized team members want to stay with your team, they appear in the practice lobby with you. It's pretty cool, if I do say so myself. I missed the tri color Splatfest mode that became available later in the day, but I cannot wait to play it.
Before the battle starts, you are launched out of the starting block, instead of just walking out. You can launch yourself into the level, so you can automatically spread out and start covering your turf. If you get splatted, your respawn gives you the choice between being launched back into the start of the playing field, or hitting a button to reveal a map, and tapping one your teammates to super jump directly to them. All the controls felt the same, so if you're a Spaltoon veteran, you can pick this right up where you left off.
Finally, the new weapons are pretty cool. They bow and arrow type weapon, and the "splatana" were both available. These weapons come with caveats, as they are charge weapons. The more you charge, the more powerful the shot, though you can swing the Splatana wildly if you so choose. Probably not the best for a splatfest where the object is to cover as much turf as possible, but it works if you wanna go smack some squids around.
Splatoon 3 releases September 9th, and you can download the demo until August 31st. You won't be able to access the Splatfest, obviously, but it does come with a 7 day Nintendo Switch Online trial, in case you haven't pulled the trigger on that yet, as well as that sweet sweet tutorial. New Modes, New weapons, new characters, new campaign, a bigger Salmon Run, and much much more. You can pre-order it from the e-shop, or any retailers now. And yes, the servers are still up for Splatoon 2.
