Splatoon 3 came to the Switch in September 2022 and sold faster than anything else in Nintendo’s ink-slinging series, moving 11.96 million copies worldwide as of 31 March 2024. It is also listed for the Nintendo Switch 2. The question is whether a game built around chaotic multiplayer holds up. Mostly, it does.
Trailer, via Nintendo of America.
A Desert Called the Splatlands
Splatoon 3 moves the series into the Splatlands, a sun-scorched desert inhabited by battle-hardened Inklings and Octolings. The hub is Splatsville, a city of chaos that grew fast after Team Chaos won the final Splatfest of Splatoon 2. Nintendo built the game’s overall chaotic design around that result.
The shift matters more than it sounds. The new setting gives the series a place to stand that does not feel like a retread. Turf War still rules, and battles still rage across stages in the surrounding wilds.
The core is unchanged. Players pick an Inkling or an Octoling and fight with weapons that fire colored ink. Rollers cover ground fast but work best up close. Chargers snipe from range but paint poorly. Splatoon 3 adds new main, sub and special weapons on top of that.
The headline addition is a bow-shaped weapon that slings ink. There are also new moves for dodging attacks and covering more ground. Both changes push matches toward faster movement, which suits the chaotic design.
Sub weapons handle tactical jobs and burn more ink. The Splat Bomb works like a grenade. The Splash Wall blocks enemy ink and damages anyone who touches it. Special weapons charge up as you cover ground, then unleash a powerful effect.
Every fighter can morph into a squid or octopus. This is the swim form. It climbs ink-covered walls and moves through ink faster than the humanoid form can walk. It also refills ink quicker than standing around. Some weapons, like the Dynamo roller, drink more ink than others.
All main and sub weapon types and most weapon kits from Splatoon 2 returned, plus 15 new ones. That is a deep armory, and it is the main reason the game keeps pulling players back.
Return of the Mammalians
The single-player campaign is called Return of the Mammalians, and in this paper’s view it is the best thing here. The player follows Craig Cuttlefish, the elderly former captain of the New Squidbeak Splatoon, into a crater next to Splatsville. The crater is covered in Fuzzy Ooze, an ink-like substance matted with brown fur.
Cuttlefish recruits the player as Agent 3, alongside a Salmonid companion named Smallfry. Smallfry eats through most of the ooze, opening the path deeper in. The pair fight Octarian enemies mutated by the stuff.
Cuttlefish assumes DJ Octavio stole the Great Zapfish that powers Splatsville. Octavio shows up in his mech and accuses the Squidbeak Splatoon of kidnapping his warriors. After he loses, he denies taking the Zapfish. Then the ground breaks. Cuttlefish is dragged away by the ooze.
Agent 3 and Smallfry fall into Alterna, the remains of an underground human settlement. There they meet Callie and Marie, formerly Agents 1 and 2, and the Captain, the protagonist of the first game. The Splatsville idol trio Deep Cut shows up too, ransacking Alterna for treasure and picking fights over it.
An artificial intelligence named O.R.C.A. helps the group explore. The villain, it turns out, is Mr. Grizz, a giant grizzly bear and one of the last mammals on Earth. He kidnapped Cuttlefish and is responsible for the theft of the Great Zapfish.
That is a lot of plot, and it mostly works. Alterna is a stranger, sadder place than anything the series has built before. Reviewers praised the expanded campaign, and this paper agrees it gives the game a spine that multiplayer alone cannot.
The paid Expansion Pass added a second half called Side Order, released 22 February 2024. It puts Agent 8, the lead of Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion, in a virtual reality called the Memverse. Marina of Off the Hook built it. A rogue artificial intelligence has hijacked it and wants to strip free will from people in the real world.
That is the setup the source gives, and it is enough. It is not the main event, but it is not filler either.
The Matchmaking Problem
The criticism that stuck in 2022 still sticks. Reviewers knocked the game for its matchmaking and disconnection issues and for a lack of new content. Those are real problems, and nothing in the record shows they have been fixed.
What the game does well, it does better than almost anything else on the platform. The ink mechanic is still the most original idea in competitive shooters. Covering ground is the objective, not a side effect, and that changes how every match plays. The new bow and the new dodge moves add options without breaking what worked.
Splatoon 3 Review Score
Here is where Splatoon 3 lands. The single-player campaign is, in this paper’s view, the strongest in the series. The weapon roster is enormous. The Splatlands give the game an identity that earlier entries never quite had. The multiplayer core remains excellent when it works.
The matchmaking and disconnection issues are the tax you pay for all of it. They are not minor. They are the difference between a great game and a frustrating one, and they have been there since launch.
Splatoon 3 is still the definitive version of a game that has always been one patch away from excellent. The ink is worth it. The lobbies are not.
IGDB, which aggregates scores across six outlets, puts Splatoon 3 at 8.2 out of 10.
Hard Numbers
- Title: Splatoon 3
- Developer: Nintendo EPD Production Group No. 5
- Publisher: Nintendo
- Release date: 9 September 2022
- Reveal date: 17 February 2021
- Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2
- Genre: Third-person shooter
- Modes: Single player, multiplayer, co-operative
- DLC: Side Order, released 22 February 2024
- Copies sold: 11.96 million as of 31 March 2024
- Aggregate score: 8.2/10 (IGDB, across 6 outlets)
Release Timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 17 February 2021 | Teaser trailer reveal |
| 9 September 2022 | Base game launch on Nintendo Switch |
| 22 February 2024 | Side Order DLC released |
| 31 March 2024 | Sales figure recorded at 11.96 million |
Splatoon 3 is the fastest-selling game in the franchise and one of the best-selling Switch titles. That is not an accident. The Splatlands are the best version of that world so far, and Return of the Mammalians is the best story the series has told. The matchmaking is the one thing standing between this and a higher score, and it has stood there long enough that patience is running out. Play it for the campaign and the ink. Bring a tolerance for the lobby.
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