Splatoon 1.2.0 Update Promises A More Pleasant Gaming Experience

What exactly did the update do?

It increases the frame rate in the hub and reduces some load times, as well as fixes a glitch that was allowing free items/rerolls from Spyke. It's basically like a 3DS stability update.

@Peach64 Ah ok, thank you.

I found ranked battles to be a bit too frustrating, so I was soon just battling for turf again, which is an absolute blast. Not a trace of frustration there, just a fantastic game with fun balancing, and fun for all approaches and experience levels.
Believe me, I'm glad Nintendo opted for no voice chat. Later, in dedicated teams, within the team alone, it should however be implemented I think. It still won't allow rivals to supposedly insult each other about their supposed sexual orientation or the supposed promiscuous nightly activity of their mothers, but will help dedicated competitive teams to gain an edge on good communication.
That said, I'll try it later today!

I think I'd like to see patched is the matchmaking. I had no trouble finding people to play with but it would be good if matchmaking was better at matching people of similar level. It really shows when level 20 players play with, say, level 5 players. Higher levels have access to better gear so it messes up the balance a little bit.

Why can't Nintendo be like any competent game company today and release patch notes? No one likes having to test for changes ourselves if they're not obvious.

Thanks Nintendo for making a very good game even better...

@Beechbone Apologies but I have to disagree with you, I am a level 7 and haven't changed weapons yet but I still win regularly with the highest score. I don't think matchmaking is the issue. The balancing of the weapons however is a huge issue. The reason I haven't swapped weapons is that the others seem to be at a huge disadvantage. Of course that is just my opinion

@Beechbone
Use SplatJr and activate Bubbler only during ambush/firefight. I don't have problems dealing against inkstrike, kraken or killing wail.

And ...

@Pinkman another thing to consider is that everyone is going to naturally find the weapon that they prefer and feel most comfortable with. Not much incentive to change to a different weapon.
Someone who is highly comfortable with the aspects of one weapon can use it to much more benefit compared to someone who constantly switches to whatever is newest.

That in of itself could be a problem, as there should be more options to encourage people to try out other weapons. Items like headgear will level up with additional features, but weapons do not seem to do so, and once in a lobby you cannot change weapons between matches. I think that may be worth adding in a future update.

All in all, I'm surprised in how much I'm enjoying the game, and I have not found the level differences to detract from my enjoyment or ability to win/lose. It's pretty even, and comes down to practice, skill, strategy, and a bit of luck.

Just some random thoughts.

@LN3000 Completely agree. I am absolutely loving this game though. The most original shooter in a long time, I love that it's not about the kills as I don't seem to be very good at that part.

@outburst Oh, yeah, Bubbler is great, but I still change loadouts just to try different styles and see which suits me the best. I wonder if there is something like custom loadout later in the game where you can pick abilities and weapons independently?

@Beechbone
I don't think so. Aerospray (or dual squelcher) + bubbler would be OP.

@Peach64 Where did you find the patch notes ?

@Pinkman Yeah, I mean, I still win a lot of matches, and those I lose I feel I deserved it but it felt painful to go against Kraken trio with a team of low-level players. Then again, you have to know how to make the best use of secondaries and abilities so it's not just about unlocks. As you go you get better at playing the game, and it's a lot of playtime till level 15-20. By the way, is there a level cap?

Gimme Pro Controller support for single player, Ninty! My hands hurt from long gamepad sessions.

Update took seconds for me this morning. Sneaked in a few matches before I left the house!

I really can't praise this game enough,my time playing it this morning and for a couple of hours this afternoon was absolutely superb.Just think by E3 we should have another mode,a few more maps,tournament mode for Smash and possibly Battle Mode for MK8.That's all you'll ever need right there! With Yoshi on the way in a few weeks,Xenoblade and Starfox round the corner,new account system and rewards,humble bundles and the surprises Nintendo have to show us in 2 weeks,it really is an exciting time to be a Wii U owner.Doom merchants can stick their gloom up their ....

Did the FPS in battle dojo increase?

I am loving Splatoon and I honestly could not care about the lack of voice chat in my opinion it is better without it.

@OorWullie

Yeah, what he said. ☺️ ^

Got Upto level 10 yesterday really loving this game my grandad passed away on Sunday and this has been a really good distraction for me.

@Peach64 But Spykes re-rolls aren't even unlocked at all yet right?!

I played for an hour last night about 7PM ET and then when I turned it back on at 10PM after a couple more hours of Xrnoblade Chronicles - man that game just kerps getting better 70 hours in - I noticed there was an update, but I hit ZRLR before checking what version number it was. Played for another hour but couldnt notice anything different, though Im not the guy to notice a FPS increase in the hub.

I did win my first ranked battle match to finally get to C, then lost the next 4 in a row, then finally won 1 more and went back to the relative sanity of turf war.

Though turf war was annoying me ladt night as I wanted to finally try out the roller in Port Mackerel, but after 4 matches in a row on Saltspray rig I switched back to my splattershot pro, and then promptly played 4 matches in a row in Port Mackerel. So Splatoon officially hates me.

I totally noticed the FPS drop in the plaza, was real annoying!

All these noobs in the comments Just got to rank B and of course, I'm lvl 20. Currently kicking ass with the Custom Blaster with a little Kelp Splatterscope when the bigger maps are in rotation.

(almost) ALWAYS EQUIP INK RESISTANCE ON YOUR FEET!

All these level 20's. I've been hitting the game as often as I can, but I'm still only L11. Those damn responsibilities.

@McoobabWATP My condolences :/

@rjejr Xenoblade Chronicles is such an amazing game! And lol who cares about framerate in the main hub (except IGN)?

Can we skip the squid news thing now? Rather than bashing A? I logged on just before the level change, and got the news twice in a row before I could do anything!

@AceTrainerBean How can a game be better without the inclusion of a feature that can be turned on or off? Voice chat can't make the game worse than what it is now.

@McoobabWATP Sorry to hear about your grandad:( I wish you and your family all the best in this tough time. Stay strong.

I've had drop-outs happen mid-game for the first time yesterday evening, so here's hoping they beef up their servers. Daughter is enjoying it and doing quite well, often ranking second in her team scores.

I jumped on around 9pm and played until 11pm. My only gripe with the update was that I had difficulties jumping into online at first. I did get on eventually, and had no issues after that. This might be totally unrelated to the update.

I have been using the Jet Squelcher with great success lately. I wish you could customize your weapon setup. It would be awesome to pick your primary and still be able to pick the sub and special as well.

The new level is fun but I still think the Saltspray Rig is my favorite map.

Who else is loving all the creative art people are making?!? I think it is great to see the graffiti around Inkopolis switch up with their creative posts. Keep it up!

I'd like the roller to get more abilities as I always do best when flat out swimming away from danger, jumping off to lower pathways etc. I like the rankings being mixed, so long as two at 19 or 20 in a batch of mostly 5-10s for example, those two far higher players should be in separate teams. I'm level 16 and am amazed that so many were so high a lot quicker. Thankfully at the moment those that just want to splat seem to be distracted by ranked battles. Needless to say, as a roller, I found this mode way too hard, but I'm still refining my approach with certain maps and thinking up ideas for next matches. It really is a splendid game and its not yet fully with us.

I've spent only a short time in adventure mode. I like that with, an initial at least, slower pace, there seems to be more detailed environments in places. And even only two missions in, its certainly not short in ideas and invention. I've only been going in here at times when I know the phone is going to cut off my internet, but its very welcome to have two very distinct sides to the coin here. 18 hours of gameplay so far, I've played nothing else since its release, definitely a classic already.

There are only few things that would make the game better 1. Allow disabling news entirely, I really see which stages are available when I enter Lobby (and I don't care this much ), 2. Match similar level, lvl20 gear is obviously better than lvl10 (roller vs dynamo roller anyone?), 3. new modes, moar weapons, moar stages!

@LN3000 The incentive to try out the Amiibo (if you can find them) is that each rewards you with unique gear after completing single player levels and then the Amiibo challenges. I was lucky and got the triple pack from Walmart but they force you to do weapons you might not normally pick to get the rewards. Inkling boy uses roller. Girl uses charge shot. Squid uses kraken ability (easy) and on a few missions limited ink. This includes the stage where you can't see the floor and so your rewarded armor feels so richly deserved.

The update happened while I was doing something else since the servers were down. Pretty cool it all happens in the background.

@McoobabWATP
How does your grandpa dying has anything to do with Splatoon?

Fazermint ,Ichiban thank you both

@KickButt_Gaming I was praising the game for how fun it is and how because it's so engrossing It's allowed me to take my mind off the current situation at night by keeping me occupied

@Shambo ya its very frustrating when you get terrible players on your team , I almost lost every match I played yesterday . but overall ranked battle is a very fun mode to play when the two teams fight over a zone it can get really fast paced.

@KomrathDE Dynamo is horrible though.

One thing that is frustrating about this game, is that people are treating it like a Call of Duty game! They go straight for kills. I mean read the rules of Turf War, if you want kills play COD. There is no K/D ratio. I hope there never will be either because that will destroy the game expierence. Learn how to play because the last couple of times I played that is all what people do. To be honest it losing my interests in the game

I can no longer 'Yeah' Miiverse posts when I check out the profile of Inklings walking around in the hub? That's disappointing, I Yeah'd so many posts the last couple of days.

Edit: Nevermind, I can do it again. Don't know what happened. :/

Great Investigative Journalism...

my gameplay is so pleasant now, I'm not comfortable in my favorite couch, it stopped being pleasant when compared to splatoon

I can't take all this stability.

Would voice chat be of any use if some players had it turned off? Maybe it would be blocked by the parents. You'd want everyone on your team to be able to hear you, so teams could be matched according to who had chat turned on, but that would be a huge advantage if the other team was "mute".

@StarWolf360 Killing provides support for ones team in that they take about 10 seconds to respawn. So, kill or cover turf. Don't like that fact, then toss all little interest you have left and leave the game.

Personally the only update (that may never happen :/ ) I'm looking forward to at the mo is some regional matchmaking.

Some of the lag I've been getting has been friggin bonkers.

@Porky I meant I don't miss it. The game is really fun without it. If they add the feature at a later date I don't mind I just meant that the game functions well with out it and if voice chat never arrived I wouldn't be too put out.

@McoobabWATP sorry about your grandpa bud. Time heals all. Enjoy a fun game and live life to the fullest. I'm sure that is what your grandpa would want.

My stability is so stable right now I could fit a horse in it.

@Peach64 free items/rerolls? do tell.

@OneBagTravel I had the same thing, the update rolled out and I didn't need to do jack ingame or download it, but the next day my Wii U had an update for me which was weird, coz I thought I had it already.

TD;LR Nintendo Life is wrong, Don't need the update to go online, the weapon/stage and ranked mode were UNLOCKED WHILE I WAS STILL PLAYING.

@McoobabWATP It's always nice when you can find something to distract you from the hard things in life. My condolences on your grandfather's death. Maybe we'll run into each other online sometime.

@Shiryu I agree with this. The GamePad integration's great, but having the Pro Controller option would be nice.

@Porky You are an idiot. Yes I get that, but you completely missed my point I was making. Not going to waste my breath anymore then I need to with you because you are useless

@StarWolf360 Did I miss that your point was that Splatoon is not Call of Duty (obviously) and or people go 'straight' for kills? That is the beauty of the freedom in the game. Others get the thrill of strictly sniping the other team for example and don't care about win/lose. Especially considering if said people (like me) are max level amd max level in all current gear for the day. Don't dictate others' play styles. If we played it only by your way then the game would be a boring one.

P.S. Your insults were unnecessary when you're in the wrong; criticizing people's playing in less than in a week of availability, peh.