Splatoon 3is every cartoon-loving gamer’s dream. The third-person shooter game has enjoyed high ratings from fans since its release, and despite theSplatoonfranchise being relatively new to gaming screens, it is starting to compete with household Nintendo titles likeThe Legend of Zeldain terms of popularity. It’s not hard to see why, as there’s much to love about the dangerously adorable characters and the abundance of squid featured in the game.Splatoon 3brought more custom progressive-thinking features to the franchise, such as gender options being removed from the game to allow more expressionist freedom among its fans. While there’s already been so much progress in the effort to bring more customization options to gamers, more can always be done, especially in the area of nameplates.
Customization in other areas has not been as forthcoming. Theweapons inSplatoon 3are a feature where the lack of customization is most noticeable, much to the annoyance of the fan base. Although the game doesn’t allow players a close-up view of their weapons due to its nature as a third-person shooter, it would be nice to have a distinct-looking weapon for a change. Almost every other game these days gives their players freedom to change their weapon appearance at the very least, butSplatoonhas not seemed willing in this aspect, ignoring other options like adding decorative attachments to weapons as well.
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Splatoon 3 Could Give Users More Autonomy with Design
The PvP multiplayer mode has been the bread and butter of theSplatoonseries since its inception, andSplatoon 3follows this trend. WhileSplatoon 3already gives players a lot of room with a variety ofbrand-new character customization options, as seen in the wider range of selection of hairstyles, the amount of freedom could be taken to a higher degree, as some fans are clamoring for on media platforms. One of the major themes for individual expression in the multiplayer mode is the nameplate. Players can spend quite a bit of time figuring out what pattern of Banners they want to serve as the background of their Splashtags, as well as the Badges and Titles to best reflect their personality.
For instance, instead of a set selection of banners for players to pick their most suited option, a nice mix of colors and patterns would feel more personal to gamers. The present banners might have several options for players to choose from, but they do not provide the feeling of personality gamers want these days.Splatoon 3could give players a color palette to design the banner background and the squid patterns that serve as the highlight. Also, a variety of said squid patterns should be made available for all background colors, not just a few for each. Another possible area of improvement in nameplates is the customtext feature inSplatoon 3’s Titles.
Already,Splatoon 3introduced a feature to let players select two words that best describe their characters, but in doing so managed to create another customization problem. This problem exists because there is a limited word pool for players to make their selection, and some of these words have to be unlocked with achievements and frequent play. Players may look at the word pool and feel a slight disconnect if they don’t find anything that piques their interest. This is very likely considering the limitations, even with the randomcombination option the Title feature gives.
Granted, the word pool prevents dealing with censorship issues, as players can sometimes introduce profanities and generally PG-unfriendly words to their Title tags. However, as seen in the case ofsimilar titles likeAnimal Crossing,more customization is almost always better. Nintendo might need to introduce some necessary family-friendly filters toSplatoon 3, but the potential rewards outweigh the risks.
Splatoon 3is available now on Nintendo Switch.
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