Day 38: Splatoon 2

If I had one reason to actually use Nintendo Online, it would be to go back to playing this game's online mode, this is Splatoon 2, yet another example of an amazing video game sequel.

The main story for this game is rather interesting as it actually was created as a result of the final Splatfest of the first game. In Splatoon, Splatfests are basically events where you pick one of two teams (i.e: Cat vs Dog), and compete in Turf Wars to see who would win. In the final Splatfest of the original game, it boiled down to which of the two Squid Sisters was better, Callie or Marie. In the end, Marie won, and by the time Splatoon 2 came out, Callie has gone missing due to the results. So the story mode of Splatoon 2 involves your player character, Agent 4, going on a hunt for Callie's whereabouts as you take on the returning Octarians.

Gameplay is very similar to the first Splatoon game: Shoot at any and all enemies with your ink, use said ink to turn into a squid for fast travel or climb up walls, and collect power eggs to upgrade your bombs and weapons.

One thing I like about the weapons in Story Mode is how you're not restricted to just your Hero Shot. Depending on what level you enter, Sheldon will give you Chargers, Paint Rollers, Heavy Splatlings, Blasters, Brushes, Sloshers, and the new additions to the game, the Brellas and Dualies. All of the returning weapons do what they did in the last game, but the Brellas act as a shield that moves forward and leaves a trail of ink for you two swim in, while the Dualies allow you to perform this dodge move before you pelt your opponents with ink.

You start each level with one of these weapons, but once you beat it, you can go back and play through the level again with a different weapon, giving the main story loads of replay value on top of collectibles like the Sardinium and the returning Sunken Scrolls.

All of the bosses are really fun to face, and add more layers of challenge and replay value due to the ability to change your weapon once you beat it the first time.

And once your done with the main story, don't forget that this is meant to be an online game, so you'll be spending most of your time getting into Turf Wars, Ranked Battles, and the new additions in the form of League Battles and Salmon Run.

Turf War is self explanatory: Cover the turf in your teams ink color and the team with the most turf covered wins.

Ranked Battles pit you against other players with the same rank as yours in one of four modes. There's Tower Control where you and your team have to take a tower to the other team's goal, Rainmaker where you have to take the Rainmaker weapon into the enemy's base, Splat Zones where you have to cover a certain area in the field with ink, and the team who had the most control wins, and then there's the new Clam Blitz where you have to collect 10 clams to make a Power Clam that you have to throw in your enemy's goal.

League Battles involve you pairing up with other players to score points and win medals.

And then there's Salmon Run where you have to collect as many Salmon Eggs as possible to try and meet a quota before time runs out.

Most of these modes are made all the more fun with new battle arenas to play in, and new sub weapons and special weapons to play with. The new sub weapons this game introduces like the Toxic Mist, Curling Bomb, Autobomb, Torpedo, and Fizzy Bomb are pretty cool to use, it's the special weapons that I freaking adore! As much as I like returning special weapons from the first game like the Inkstrike and Killer Wail, they don't hold a candle to the likes of the Booyah Bomb, Ink Storm, Inkjet, Splashdown, Sting Ray, and Tenta Missiles. All of these weapons are at your disposal to wreck as much havoc on your inkling and octoling bretheren.

Yeah, octolings, did I forget to mention that this game has an Octo Expansion (which is as hard as Nintendo's old NES games) where you play as an Octoling with amnesia and upon beating it you can play as that Octoling, adding more possibilities for character customization which is another feature Splatoon 2 adds. Yeah, between the story mode and its replay value, the fun modes in online, and the Octo Expansion, you'll be playing this game for quite a while.

Overall, Splatoon 2 is just as fun as its predecessor, does so much to build upon what it did right, and is easily one of the best Switch Exclusives you can play. In fact it's my third favorite Switch Exclusive. I don't know if Nintendo plans on making a Splatoon 3, but if they do, you bet I'll be looking forward to it…I just have to get a subscription to Nintendo Online first.