Blackbelly Skatepark: Analysis and Thoughts

[Lancelot]

This map is the prime example of a map where the tide of a battle can change drastically very in a short amount of time, both in Ranked and Regular battles. I also feel like having one or two Rollers on a team here is very important. This such an advantageous stage for Roller-type weapons, so having one is already a distinct advantage from the get-go.

 

[AidanC97]

I feel just by looking at the map that more than 1 rollers are needed to win at this map. This such an advantageous stage for Roller-type weapons, so having one is already a distinct advantage from the very beginning of the match. More of them might be too much

and just saying, but when i first read the title of the map i thought it was blackberry Skatepark for a second lol

 

[obscurica]

Hilariously, the center tower's nothing but bait in Splat Zone. So many deaths received and dealt trying to contest it. Oh, sure, the height advantage is great--but because of the ludicrously many different angles of approaches both sides have to the tower, it's also a giant magnet for bombs, mines, inkzookas, inkstrikes and clever Charger angles.

I like it. A position of power shouldn't be so easily kept.

 

[IvanQuote]

Not up to splat zone level yet, but in turf war, I found the Kelp Splat Charger to be extremely effective. I basically make a mad dash for the tower while throwing sprinklers here and there for coverage. Once atop the tower, I set a sprinkler where I stand and splat some lines and sprinklers across the opponent's side along with some sniping. If someone ambushes me, I either nail them quickly, or retreat, throw a sprinkler up there, and retake the tower. During the last 15-20 seconds I jump off the tower, run into the opponent's side, and throw sprinklers and charged shots wildly. This has won the battle for my team on more than 1 occasion.

 

[tokyodown]

From the gameplay I've seen, I think the map will play very well for splat zones and for tower control too further down the line. As with every other map we've seen, Blackbelly is symmetrical, it has good width which means encounters aren't forced down a single lane and it looks to have good options for moving around the map so I'd guess the map flow will be good too. Lines of sight in the middle are good, there's good cover and makes for what looks like a good splat zones experience despite the 2 splat zones being very close together, (which i was initially slightly worried about). Overall It looks like some pretty good map design, can't wait to start playing it so I can put my observations to the test.

You hit the nail right on the head. One of the only maps that doesn't force action anywhere. Yes, there is a center point which can be a huge advantage, but you don't necessarily need the mid tower to win the game. It's not a huge map (I don't know how big it is relative to the other maps), but making a comebacks is as of possibility because all the combat areas are forced into the lower bowl and it's easy to push up near their spawn after one good fight.

I do think, like Mackerel Port, that this map is great for splat zone. The two control points make the battle for zone time much more interesting. It does however make mid control of the tower and game changer in SZ. Overall, love this map. It provides lots of different types of vantage points and doesn't put as much of a emphasis on positional control. Kills will win you this map, in TW & SZ.

 

[D_Neon]

Honestly, despite having a pretty bad win rate on this, it's definitely up there with my favourite Splat Zones maps, atm at least. I agree with @Pusha and @tokyodown on this, it's nice to have a map that doesn't force any particular thing on you. My only gripe with it is how the freedom of strategy makes the capture of each point unrelated. Even in Port Mackerel you can keep a good control of the central container pathways to ensure the win, and good defense will lead to good offense, but in Blackbelly Skatepark it seems like you can have complete control of one of the points and it does nothing to help you get the other.

 

[ILikeKirbys]

Hilariously, the center tower's nothing but bait in Splat Zone. So many deaths received and dealt trying to contest it. Oh, sure, the height advantage is great--but because of the ludicrously many different angles of approaches both sides have to the tower, it's also a giant magnet for bombs, mines, inkzookas, inkstrikes and clever Charger angles.

I like it. A position of power shouldn't be so easily kept.

This is true, that central tower is rather difficult to keep at times. Killer Wails and Inkstrikes make holding it the whole match basically impossible.
But if you can hold it in Splat Zones, it's practically a game-winner on its own (at least, that's my experience). When I've got the center, I can rain ink down on most (if not all) the important areas of the map (including the Splat Zones), and I can jump down to any of those parts to back people up if necessary, plus it's a great vantage point (I can see my house from here, and your attempts to flank my guys) AND you can shoot straight down the slopes to stop people from coming up the slopes after you. Voice chat would make the platform so much better, just because you could call out what everyone's doing (does anyone do that? I know there are Skype groups, so...).
Yeah, you'll probably have to vacate it for a bit at times (maybe jump off behind the bad guys to flank them?), but you can probably get it back if your team's around. If not... pray they screw up or just work around it somehow (I'm sure it's doable, but it's an uphill fight in my experience).

 

[Inyo]

I hate this map.

Now, not because of the layout or anything, it's a really fun map to play on even if I lose there a lot because my team or myself let one guy into our base and he ran way with it.

No, I hate it because it's the only map that lags like crazy, every single time I play on it. The only other map where I've seen lag as bad is the Mall, and even then that was only once (three Inkzookas going off at once will do that). I don't think I'm the only one that notices it, either, TV Tropes of all places mentions it.

 

[TheMH]

Now that you mention it - I noticed framerate drops on Skatepark, too, when I played it yesterday. I think the Wii U is having a hard time to calculate the ink spreading around all the slopes in this map. Maybe the developers were aware ot that and that's why the map is rather small, too...

 

[Rex]

Strategy question for this map: I notice that a lot of folks equip Instrikes specials while this map is up. They tend to spam Inkstrike on our base area, often causing our team to get distracted by trying to cover it all, which is challenging because of the slopes. While we are distracted, the opposing team paints the middle and then further distracts us as they move into our base. Camped, rekt, and done.

Is a better strategy to mostly ignore the base Instrikes until it's convenient to clean it up? How do you all handle them?

 

[GameGalaxy64]

I think the is the Ink/Octbrush's best stage because you can rack up a lot of kills by ambushing people by jumping off of the tower.

 

[ILikeKirbys]

I think the is the Ink/Octobrush's best stage

YES
It's a great stage for the Octobrush, and I could see Inkbrushes thriving here as well, and here's why:
1) So many corners! There are quite a few spots just outside the center (or those areas to the left/right of it) where you can lie in wait behind a wall for enemies to come by so you can splat them. It's worked pretty well for me.
1x) Also, an Octobrush-specific thing that's probably useless outside of Splat Zones: Drop a Squid Beakon on the grating above the other team's Zone, then jump there every time you get splatted. I've only seen it get destroyed by the other team once or twice, and I've always gotten at least one free superjump back to their Splat Zone so I could re-cover it easily. Dunno if that works beyond B+-level lobbies that I'm always in, but it works really well for me most of the time.
2) Chargers are surprisingly easy to beat here. You can easily reach them in most of their spots (the center tower can be inked up from the platforms, the halfpipes can be run up to, the walls by the halfpipes can be run up to; really, the only difficult one is the area on the side (past the halfpipe), and that can be reached as well), so you can generally at least reach them, if not actually splat them.
3) Beyond the spawn point area with all the slopes, you can pretty much run anywhere at super speed, only occasionally squidding up a wall or halfpipe. I recommend taking the left path to the enemy spawn, since you might surprise a Charger getting set up there and if not you can ink up their spawn area, which is annoying and generally has to be cleaned up.

Though as for best stage, I think Walleye and Triggerfish (though that could be Octo-only) and maybe Mackerel (not sure on that one) might give it some competition.

 

[☆Vale]

this map is unplayable cause the lag and everytime it disconnect me they should fix it or remove it cause it lag to lot of people and it's just that map I don't understand what's wrong with that