So, Splatoon Has Almost Been Out For A Year. Thoughts?

[Zero Meddler]

Started playing end of January/beginning of February when I bought a discounted Wii U bundle. It was on "at least a dozen long play games that'll make me actually buy a Wii U" list. Better than expected. Somehow found my way here. Been trapped ever since. Please send help. Or at least bring me takeout.

And with the one year anniversary arriving, I've been peeking at some old videos of the game. Test fires and first months of release. Ouch! o.<

You folks... you folks were interesting to watch in those early months. And I can see why so many people felt so many things, especially rollers, were OP and the Japanese were all powerful or lag monsters. So much sadistic comedy.

Ohhh yeah, I'm surprised to see how much has changed from this time last year to now. I still remember everyone say "The Roller is so OP!" and seeing teams of nothing but Rollers. Though the thoughts on the Japanese, while they've died down, haven't completely dissipated.

Now I feel pressured to make a really long essay about Splatoon.

What I'd really like is a Inklings v Octolings Splatfest to celebrate, but the timing is all wrong and it'll end up being in June. (Releasing Octos would be cool too)

I'm really glad I saw that E3 trailer for Splatoon. I'm permanently a squid kid.

Do it. >w< Type that wall of text if you have a lot to say! Others have done it thus far. Then again you really don't have to. I mean, there are a few who have short posts soooo... do what you feel is necessary. o3o

 

[SupaTim]

Splatoon was one of the games that made me purchase a WiiU. I preordered it and although I bought a bunch of games for the system, I haven't really put Splatoon down since.

Even though it makes me yell profanities at the TV...and my wife looks at me and rolls her eyes...and I can't play it around my kids...

I might have a problem...

 

[SyMag]

I've had a love-hate relationship with Splatoon.

I got it for my birthday in early July, a little over a month after it was released. My first match was a Turf War on Saltspray Rig, and it ended with me winning my first game, even though I didn't splat any of the other team's members. Later that night I would get my first kill, my first taste of ink...and I wanted more.

Shortly after defeating the story mode two days later, I was introduced to Ranked battles; now I consider myself to be a very competitive gamer, so of course I eagerly jumped in with both feet. Aaaaand the salt soon followed. To put it in perspective, Splatoon was/still is the first shooter game I've played since I gave up Call of Duty. I got salty playing online in CoD. A lot. To the point where I'd have to replace my controller--or what was left of it after a salt-filled rage--every few months. I was worried about that happening again with my Gamepad at first, but I didn't let it get to me. But that doesn't mean I'd find myself hurling profanities at the TV like Splat Bombs.

After about three months, in mid-October, I finally achieved what I thought would be an impossible mission: I reached S rank for the first time. I wrestled the honor out of the hands of the game, and out of all the players who opposed me. I learned from the Japanese after being immersed in seas of hiragana and katakana names for weeks. I adapted. I survived. I thrived. I won.

But it wasn't enough for me. I wanted more. I always do. I found myself losing control every time I hovered dangerously close to ranking down to A+. It reached a head in December, about a week before Christmas, when my saltiness finally reached critical mass: I broke my Gamepad screen after punching it in a moment of blind rage following a close loss on Urchin Underpass. Fortunately I managed to fix it, but I knew I couldn't keep going on like this.

I played a few more games after the repairs were made. But I ranked down to A+ again. I had had it. So I did something that, upon looking back, was rather foolish: at level 46, I deleted my save file. I felt that I couldn't learn anything else from the game, that I had reached my pinnacle of performance, that there was no point in playing any longer. And as I was about to sell the disc online and rid myself of Splatoon for good, I thought back to my early days when I still was a newb. And how I had fun. I had lost my way.

Obviously, you can see that I didn't go through with selling it. I rebuilt what I had lost, and even though I'm not there yet, I'm in a better place now than I was then. I joined Squidboards. I have a group of friends on here with whom I can play now. Yes, I still get salty--who doesn't?--but I'm having fun. Deep down, even when I'm losing badly, I know this. What was once a love-hate relationship, is now just me loving this game.

To another great year with Splatoon, the freshest game out there.

 

[Ansible]

Still skimming through the "historical archives" over here. Wow, what did this game do to the online shooter community? Even before it won best multiplayer game and best shooter game of 2015 awards. It's one part sad, one part pathetic, and two parts utter hilarity!

Here's hoping it's continued existence and sequel will continue to be a bane to the shooter community! *raises glass*

 

[Flareth]

I'd heard about it since it was first announced. I thought it was interesting, but I (in my naivete) deemed it something that I probably wouldn't pick up. Not that I disliked the concept or anything, I just didn't see it as a must-buy. I think I wasn't convinced that it had much staying power, writing it off as a fad that would die down a few months after release.

Flash-forward to about late June of 2015. By then I'd taken notice of just how popular it was becoming, and I began to think that perhaps I should get it after all. Smash was starting to get a bit stale, and I'd already beaten the few other games I had for my Wii U. So, in the early days of July, I went out and got a copy at the local GameStop.

And from there... man. Going through Hero Mode and fighting Octavio for the first time, my first match (and first victory!) upon playing online for the first time, suffering the salt crystallizing in my veins literally days after starting (I still can't forgive last-minute Inkstrikes), hitting level 10 and fighting my first Ranked Battles and Splatfest (Rollercoasters vs. Waterslides), growing ever disillusioned with Ranked, coughing up $35 for the amiibo 3-pack, making snarky observations about people's reactions to the Octo-ber Hacker situation, convincing myself that my internet connection couldn't handle the game, joining Squidboards after lurking since August (danke schön, Inkling Biology thread!), getting my first triple sub reroll, experiencing the nightmare that was Team Pizza, watching the Octoling Hype Train accelerate and derail, pushing my way to B+ 99 and immediately swearing off Ranked for good, and finally reaching level 50 after ten months of owning the game...

I do hope you'll pardon the impromptu trip down memory lane. It's been quite a ride. I've had so much fun playing this game, enough to have clocked in about 15 day's worth of non-stop Splattin' action. I've had many low points along the way as well (see above for a few), but never in the time I've been playing have I ever considered quitting for good. I recently did a little math the other day, and I've logged about 15 day's worth of play time. As I said back in the day, Smash couldn't even keep me playing for that long; hell, I struggle to think of a game that ever has. The best part is, I haven't been able to really play any of the other games I've bought since then, or even before then, because they get in the way of my Splatoon fix. I'm not kidding when I say that I might have a literal addiction to this damn game. And I wouldn't have it any other way!