Splatoon is a highly regarded Nintendo game franchise, which is known for being a family-friendly spin on normal shooter games by using paint weapons and for making the goal of the game to paint over the most turf. With the first two games being huge hits and well worth the money, you may be asking yourself if Splatoon 3 is worth buying.

Weapons and Specials: the creators added a new weapon called a tri stinger, which is a sniper class bow-like weapon that has a single shot mode and a tri shot mode where the weapon shoots in three directions. However, the majority of the Splatoon community prefers the classic charger, as stated by Squid School on Youtube, “When I first tried out the tri stinger I was really not impressed with its ability to paint for itself. First impressions: I don’t know why you would use this over a charger.”  Along with the Tri Bow, a ton of new specials were added such as Crab Tank, Tracticooler, and Wave Braker along with the new supers, old specials from the first two games that are making a return such as Ink Vak, Booyah Bomb, and Ink Storm.

Story Mode: My personal favorite improvement in the third game is that they made the story mode much better. The story mode in the first two games gave off the energy of an extended tutorial. However, the third game has much better bosses and levels. They also introduce a plot to the story mode, whereas in the first game, you just had to run around fighting random enemies. Along with the story mode being significantly better, there is a game mode. Known as Salmon Run, this is a mob rush game mode, which in the first two games was a limited mode. In the newest edition, it’s a permanent game mode. 

The Lobby: They introduced new shopkeepers and NPCs, and a new weapon-buying system with tickets. They added customizable lockers and player tags along with an in-game card game. I personally think the card game sounds uninteresting, but if it floats your boat, then so be it. A very irritating lobby issue they finally fixed is whenever you logged into the game you were forced to enter a Splatoon news screen that was, honestly, a waste of time. But now it’s been relocated to the side of your screen where you only have to pay attention to it if you want. The biggest addition to the lobby is the added training grounds so you can work on your aim and try out new weapons.

PvP: Just like the specials, they added new stages and brought back old ones from the first two games. The new stages include Inkblot Art Academy, Sturgeon Shipyard, and Wahoo World. Some of the old stages that will be making an appearance are as follows: Scourch Gorge, Eeltail Alley, and Haggle Fish Market. For the ranked side of Splatoon, there are close to no changes. However, for the Splatfest (which is an event where you would normally choose from two sides, and whichever side had the most overall wins for the season would win a prize) there is a new edition where there will be three teams to pick from. This also introduces three-way battles.

The new Splatoon 3 is a great buy even with the price being $60. With the improvement of the story mode, new weapons, stages, and more that highly improve gameplay from the previous games, it is worth the purchase.