Topic: Splatoon 2

I was really impressed by how buttery smooth the global testfire was.

The only thing I didn't care for was the fact that we were forced into a multiplayer mode, giving novices no opportunity to get accustomed to the controls and mechanics. Score-wise, I would either do quite well (a fluke, really) or really badly. There was no middle ground. I think I'll enjoy single-player and local multiplayer a lot more than online (is there even a local split-screen multiplayer mode?).

I've never played the first Splatoon (I'm still not sure whether or not I should get it as I doubt that I will ever play it), but I'm certainly keen on Splatoon 2. And the ink looked beautiful.

@sillygostly Keep in mind that the majority of people probably just wanted to get into the action as quickly as possible, so keeping the tutorial short was probably for the best, especially since we could only play for an hour at a time. Immediately getting thrust into an online match was definitely pretty jarring though, especially for a Splatoon newbie like me who went in having no idea at all how to play the game.

@sillygostly Yeah, I'm with you - it'd have been nice if, before each session, there was an offline tutorial or something for novices like myself to get to grips with the controls ...I kinda felt like I just got thrown in at the deep end for the first couple of rounds - worst player both times(!) - so I dropped out, changed a few settings in the options (motion controls off - my brain can't cope without an inverted y-axis for some reason!), dropped back in - and actually did OK ..never the best player in the winning team, but never the worst in the losing side again - progress!

I didn't experience any connection issues or lag, the lobbies seemed to fill pretty quickly - and the gameplay was really, really fun!

I turned off the motion controls as soon as I could, but then I realised that I was horribly inefficient at aiming with the sticks. I think playing with loose Joy-Cons is the way to go (I played the Global Testfire exclusively in handheld mode).

Having that tutorial space in offline mode would have been a great addition. Still, it seems to have done its job of whetting people's appetites. I can't believe it's still a way off, but I'm kind of glad people are still working away at it. I didn't think 'light' launch of Splatoon 1 was too much of an issue, given that nobody had played the game before, and the single-player campaign was more than enough to chew on for the first few days. However, now that the series has established itself, I'd like to see the sequel launch with a slightly more robust package.

I'm also looking forward to seeing how the plaza and other bits of outside of the online matches function.

And the motion controls are definitely worth getting used to IMO, even if that means you're contorting yourself into all sorts of weird shapes to begin with. Finding the right balance of the sticks and the gyro to change the camera doesn't seem to be instinctive (I watched my brother repeating all the exaggerated movements I made with the first game during the testfire), but it's really nice being able to have such instant and fluid control when you get used to it.

I was much better at the second testfire. It was like i had to sleep so my brain could analyse and process the information on how to control the game. It just felt so much more natural.

@Maxz Ok, sincere apologies for not adding you yet, ( real life obligations are the worst ) I have your friend code crudely scrawled on the back of an empty cigarette box somewhere and will add you as soon as I get a chance XD (wifi issues etc...)
Please tell me Splatoon 2 has as slick a hub area as the first game! I absolutely loved that place
(obligatory stay fresh puns, jokes and double entendre)
squid... kid.... bla ....bla...

I only played 2 matches, my family stole the rest of the time.
I felt it was nearly impossible to jump after playing Zelda for two weeks. And I did miss the gamepad functionality. It provided a fast way to see how well your team is doing and also being able to see which way you are supposed to go. I can live with the fast travel though.

Ha! Completely forgot about it as was playing Zelda, ah well looks like I will never play Splatoon

One of the first things I did in Zelda was change jump to the B button, felt weird using X to jump, what was that about? O_o And luckily, Splatoon 2 will use B to jump, only problem is I'm getting used to Splatoon 1, so again, that weird X to jump thing...I hated motion controls, but figured because it's usually close quarters combat and alot of the arenas have tight enclosed spaces, using the anolog stick just wasn't good enough for finer aim, stick with motion controls, you do get used to it and start getting better.

The sessions were a lot of fun.

Guess I'm not the only one that kept opening the map when trying to jump lol. I personally like the jump to be x, as it's easier to reach than b behind that analogue stick. It rolls easier towards y too.

Haha! Yeah, me too! I didn't even realise you could reconfigure the controls in Zelda, so I'm kinda getting used to 'X' being jump - re-mapping it to 'B' would make more sense though, it is the traditional jump button in most games after all! ..so, yeah, I also accidentally opened the map up a few times in Splatoon - totally my fault of course! - but it doesn't disappear until you press 'X' again which cost me a couple of times in the heat of battle! ..I'd have perhaps preferred it if it was more like; press 'X' to glance at the map, hold 'X' down for an extended look - so it'd basically automatically disappear as soon as you let go of the 'X' button...but then again, I probably wouldn't have ran in to the issue at all if I'd have re-mapped the controls in Zelda to something a little more traditional in the first place!

I felt that there was some kind of match-making going on in the background. I creamed the competition my first 3 games with no contest, but then afterward I felt like the game started setting me up with harder foes.

Yeah, I thought that too - once I started to get a few 4th/3rd/2nd place finishes, I felt I started to get matched with players of a slightly higher skill level ...we did seem to be earning ranking points at the end of each round - and the game was being linked to our Nintendo accounts too - so our hunch may be correct on that one ...makes me wonder whether we might be able to transfer our progress in the Testfire over to the actual game when it releases later this year? ...also, it hasn't instructed me to delete the Global Testfire from my Switch - so I wonder if there may be a second test in a month or so? The game doesn't release for a few months yet after all..?

wait a minute... i keep reading that there was 2 stages on this demo ? everytime i played it, it was the same level.. am i missing something here ? ? ?

@burger_king It was a 2 stages rotation like it was in Splatoon: so random game choice every game you played. Seems you got really unlucky on that

Are there now regional severs? Cause when talking to other people some said there might be and I played with a lot of Japanese players and I thought it was just normal because splatoon is really popular in Japan. I live in Australia so maybe the server is combined for Australia and Japan?

There may be regional lobbies in the full game (as is the case with Mario Kart), but the demo was a global testfire.

@Eric258 Didn't get to play myself, but from most screenshots I saw, Japanese people appeared to be playing with generally other Japanese players and most screenshots from non-Japanese players usually had few or no Japanese players.

@yokokazuo For my experience for the testfires, I rarely had any players besides Japanese players to pop up. If I was lucky, I had 1 or 2 players not from Japan. And this usually only happened once or twice per testfire.