Nintendo just had a Direct where they showed off Splatoon.

UK version:

US version:

The video goes over most aspects of the game in (excruciatingly pun-heavy) detail.

There will also be 3 Splatoon amiibos and each will offer different challenge missions.

A demo is now available (but can only be played during specific periods) and trying it will grant you a 10% discount if you buy the game from the Nintendo E-shop before June 4th 2015.

Nintendo seems to have their support plan figured out and I personally feel they really nailed the design aspect of this game. It could be the start of a great franchise.

This is one of the games I'm most excited for this year. I've already been following it super closely. I knew there was a ton of customisation, but this seems super packed with content and upgrades.

There is some absolutely baffling decisions regarding matchmaking, voice chat, ranked games and map rotation though.

...Nintendo I guess.

@gunstarred: At first when they talked about how teams would be scrambled I thought "Oh dear." but I was pleased to hear they are actually planning to support dedicated teams fighting each other.

@hassun:Yeah, I'm glad they're eventually going to add that to the game. But the more worrying thing was the two maps on a four hour rotation. Seeing as they plan to support it for months after the game releases with free maps they'll change that, it is a very odd decision though. That moving platform mode seems cool.

Is this the very first instance of Nintendo doing a beta test? Welcome to modern video games Nintendo.

Who Team Purple here?

Is there a campaign of some sort? I can't watch the Direct right now.

@supermonkey122: There's a single player mode, they do talk about it briefly in the Direct, but there's a lot of footage of it on Youtube.

Suppose I might as well download that demo, even if I probably won't actually get to play it because of their weirdly specific times for it.

I still don't know if I'm going to get this. I've been swapping between yes and no for months now. It looks fun but I've strayed away from shooters the past couple years.

Guess the demo is going to have to be the final straw on my decision

I really wish I had a Wii U, this looks like tons of fun.

FYI if you have the demo downloaded, you can view the manual. It doesn't seem to be complete, but has some useful info otherwise.

This seems like an insane way to release a full priced game, from a NeoGAF thread:

From the Direct today, we know that at launch:

- There will only be 5 maps

- 1 mode will be available (Turf War), with Splat Zones unlocking very shortly after launch once there's enough Level 10+ players

- The game will be updated throughout the Summer with several more maps, 2 more MP modes, more clothes and weapons, various events etc.

- You can join matches with friends at launch, but teams are randomized. Matchmaking with friends where you can have a specific Team A v.s. Team B, and pick a specific mode/map won't be out until the August update.

I get that they want to avoid the fall rush, but this makes the game seem really unfinished at launch.

It's too bad this game isn't coming out until after Combo Breaker. If any FGC major was going to pick up this game, I think it would be that one.

@starvinggamer: Seems kind of odd for an FGC event to pick up a third person shooter though. Nintendo having a few demo booths at an event doesn't make it any less odd.

@hassun: I feel like the emphasis on space-control and strategy would make it more appealing to a fighting game crowd than a traditional shooter. It's like giant 3D footsies.

If those summer updates are free I'm in. I like the idea of updating and maintaining a game like that, especially a multiplayer one. With even games like COD unable to keep up huge player populations I hope this works to keep people around for at least a few months.

Since I didn't see anyone post anything about the beta/stress test going on today/tomorrow...

Download is up on the eShop now, about 560 MB. The beta will be online for 3 different 1 hour segments:

May 8th - 11pm-12am ET (8-9pm PT)

May 9th - 7-8am ET (4-5am PT)

May 9th - 3-4pm ET (12-1pm PT)

Nintendo putting their spin on a shooter is really interesting, planning to check it out later!

If anyone has the opportunity to try it out, feel free to share your experiences with the game here.

Early impressions (waiting for my first match):

Tutorial forces you to use the motion controls to aim Up/Down, but thankfully you can change after the tutorial.

Traversal seems cool when you are in squid form.

Playable 8-bit-esque mini-game when searching for a game. Someone at Nintendo was well aware of Namcos' lapsed trademark on that concept.

Edit: Connection errors when trying to join. Had the same thing with Smash Bros., so it's probably an issue on my end.)

Played it for about 30 minutes. Seems pretty cool! Just gotta make sure to turn off those tilt controls...

Playable games in the loading screen! :O

Splatoon seems like its cool, Although im not sure how much i like the map being on the gamepad. Id rather not look down to see where i have to go/where my teammates are

I don't like how the motion controls completely disable up and down on the stick, instead of working in tandem like the 3DS Zelda motion controls.

Also I do not like that it uses my Mii's name instead of my NNID. But maybe that's not specific to this game, I don't think I've played any other online games on the Wii U.

It was pretty fun, but I can see the novelty wear off after a while. It's still early so there isn't much strategy, especially paired up with random people. A lot of people seemed to go for the paint roller (it's so good!) and it got pretty ridiculous with 4v4 paint roller battles. High ground seems especially good in this game since you can just control that area and hide out in squid mode.

I do hope the full release has some stuff to change things up, it's a really cool and interesting game. I remember having a lot of fun with the Titanfall beta, but there wasn't enough to keep me interested.

So, I played several matches over the past hour and they were pretty great. Early on, I disabled the motion controls because they felt super awkward. Other than that, I found the gameplay to be quite exquisite. I really enjoyed traversing the environment as a squid. The game has a really good flow to it. You get a rhythm going and it's lots of fun.

It ran super smooth once you got into a game. There were a few connection issues but the message it popped up made it seem like everyone was hitting it at the exact time.

Seems very, very cool. There seems to be a huge amount of strategy to doing well, knowing when to go underground, fight or throw grenades. Getting rollered from behind was initially frustrating, but after a few games you're more mindful of the environment. I do however think that the roller is just going to result in a lot of Gears-like killing each other with the shotgun at the same time type thing.

The splattershot seemed like the best all-rounder.

The roller is great for huge areas but you're terrible at a distance.

I'm sure the charge gun is good to have if your're trying to kill dudes, but seemed poor for covering the map, seems like a weapon only one player on your team should have.

It looks beautiful, the music is fantastic, and plays well as long as you switch that motion shit off, can't wait to give it another shot later.

Played the hour mostly with the Roller. I think it's super great. Here's my thoughts on how to use it.

The weird thing about rollers is the rhythm of it. With all weapons you need to submerge to re-up your ink however with most other weapons there's a natural rhythm to it. Ink a path, sploosh down it. Ink a path, sploosh down it. Splat a fool, sploosh through his inky viscera. With the roller however you lay down your path as you travel along it. As a result it's easy to find yourself with no ink and no options but to fall back. Key is to do more splooshing! Ink a trail and sploosh back it, find some other trail to sploosh, find some position that you can splush someone from, whatever. You can also just hang out, try to lure someone into a very glushable location, hit them with your surprise goo. Also juke! It's important.

I also think the specials they have equipped for the roller are weird but I found uses for them occasionally. The bomb is weird because it requires a lot of your ink so you can't just pop it out at any time, you gotta use just after the re-up. The main use I found for it was as an area control tool. If you can use it to deny an enemy an escape path you can clean them up without them having any recourse with your roller. The Super is just a powerful attack. Use it when you have line of sight on dudes but not a clear path to em.

This just seems crazy.

I downloaded the demo, not realizing there were specific times to play it (because of course there is, Nintendo). From everything I heard about the demo it sounds like it's poorly balanced (roller op, kills not meaning much). I wasn't expecting much from a Nintendo shooter, but I was hoping this demo would change that. If I get up at 4 am I could play it and hope it's the second coming, but I doubt both of those things.

@johnnyhalo666: I don't think the roller is overpowered at all. I just think there's a lot of people understandably not using the squid form to its fullest potential. It works as both a reload and a form of cover. You can go under rollers and kill them from behind pretty easily.

It's one of those things that will become easier to counter when the full game is out and everyone has gotten a hang of it. I played for pretty much the entire hour and by the end of it I was only getting rollered if there was two of them ganging up on me or I was playing stupid. The kills mean more points, so they do have a purpose. It's not a game about killing, and taking that focus away from the game will make it far more approachable to a wider audience.

Hmmm. I've played both hours of the trial thing now and while I do think it's really fun I am questioning the longevity of a game like this. I don't think Turf War or what I've seen of Splat Zones is going to be enough for a lot of people beyond a couple of hours. The five maps thing isn't that bad as the way every match plays out is completely different. Maybe the upgrades will add a whole new dimension to it, or maybe they'll just enhance the roller so everyone is using the roller simultaneously splatting each other? Who knows? Maybe the single player is packed and there's no reason to worry.

As I said, it's still super fun, but I was really, really wanting for something more after two hours of play. I think I'll skip the third session.

It's very fun but I'm gonna wait and see how much single player stuff there is before I spend 70 dollars on it.

Boy did I hate the aiming and camera after an hour of playing, it seemed swimmy as fuck to me, I did not manage to kill anyone with guns nor did anyone with a gun manage to kill me, seems like a lot of people have trouble with that as the only kills seemed to come from rollers as far as I saw. The idea is ok but boy do the controls kill this for me...I did play it on a tv with 1/3rd of a second input lag which i havent done in a loooong time so that may have contributed to it, but that doesnt explain why no one seemed to be able to aim properly. I didnt have the idea the roller was overpowerd as much as the aiming is fucking terrible and the roller doesnt require any aim.

And I get that the game doesnt really revolve around getting kills or anything as its more about painting the level but it just felt terrible to play to me which is kinda important when it comes to a videogame imo.

I tried fidling with the options but it never felt right. Motion on or off, its both as bad imo. I think I'm gonna pass on this game. Was on the fence about it anyways as MP focussed games never hold my attention for more than a few hours but this pretty much seals the deal (or unseals the deal in this case depending on how you look at it I guess :P)

EDIT: Surprised no-one here seemed to have a hard time with it

Played both hours of the demo and had a whole lot of fun. I can't wait for the end of May. I could actually see myself playing this game a whole bunch, myself. The only reason I won't be playing the third session is because it's at 5am locally.

I was worried rollers were OP after playing the first hour, but really began to feel that the game seems pretty well balanced during the second hour. Most of the time I was taking out rollers with ease, and having one or two rollers didn't seem to be a necessity for victory.

I'm not sure on the charge rifle, I did pretty terribly with it, though I did enjoy traversing the map with it - firing a line of paint, swimming, firing another line, swimming some more and so on.

@lestephan: The only problem i had with the aiming/shooting was that the sensitivity for aiming with the stick is super high, so I turned it down a couple of notches. I only used the roller for one match and I got more kills with the rifles than I did with the roller. I feel like I did best with the Splatter gun Jr as it had the better grenade. I got a streak of about 8 kills in one match.

I saw a ton of people getting kills with the charge gun also.

DAMN Jelonzo, wearing a different T-shirt everyday! He got a rep to protect for sure!

I had a ton of fun with it, but I found that the bubble shield move that you get with the splattershot jr. seemed to be a little overpowered, but that's just from 1 hour of play. Can't wait to get my hands on the full release.

@ackbarguo: From what I've heard the roller is the most powerful.

I really love the look of this game.

Rollers aren't OP at all - they have no recourse against a gun if the player is alert. I played a game against a team of 3 rollers and one splattershot, and my splattershot helped me go 8-0 in that match. If you back up while shooting a roller player they can't do anything about it and just pop. Especially with being able to go squid, you can outrun them quickly and resume firing. Also if you get height advantage against a roller it's a guaranteed kill as well. The most important aspects of the game seem to be ensuring that you have a trail of ink to refill your ammo in and get away quickly, and proper management of the terrain. Overall I think it plays really well, and enjoyed it a lot. That said, I'm probably going to buy in August after they add the extra modes. I see no reason to play full price for the game when I may be able to pick up a used copy later down the line when they actually have a decent amount of maps in. 5 is pretty small.

I got in on one of the hours and really enjoyed it. I thought the roller was OP at first as well, but I think part of that power is the lack of an onscreen map. If I had more awareness, I'd be able to turn around and stop a sneaky roller. I'm sure it will come with time. Overall, that was a blast. I found myself grinning quite a bit.