Splatoon 3 Campaign | Review

Mode: Multiplayer and Single Player

Composer: Toru Minegishi

Genre: Third-Person Shooter

Developer: Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development

Series: Splatoon

Platform: Nintendo Switch

Publishers: Nintendo, Nintendo of America Inc.

Introduction: Splatoon 3 is a third person shooter developed and published by NINTENDO. The latter reads odd because I never associated Nintendo with developing shooters but here we are. This review is solely based off Splatoon 3’s single player campaign titled “Return of the Mammalians”. For reference, I never played any of the previous Splatoon games before Splatoon 3. With that said, let’s get too it!

Presentation: Nintendo ships their first party games fairly polished by today’s standards and Splatoon 3 is no exception. During my playthrough I did not encounter any bugs or glitches. I can’t complain much with Splatoon 3’s presentation. I could say “hurry up Nintendo release the Switch 2 so Splatoon 3 looks and runs better”. That isn’t fair of me though is it? Overall, a solid presentation for Splatoon 3.

Story: Return of The Mammalians revolves around an Octoling finding Cuddlefish who goes missing early in the story. Octoling must then rescue the Great Zapfish all the while defeating the furry octarian army.

The story was okay for a Nintendo shooter. Gamers in the know, know of Splatoon’s deep lore. I didn’t have time to read up or watch videos unfortunately. I am sure the story is deeper than what I perceived it to be.

Gameplay: Splatoon 3 is a shooter centered around firing ink that acts as a offensive, defensive and traversal gameplay mechanic. The campaign features separate hub biomes filled with separate challenges that hone your Octoling skills. Basically, the campaign is a great tutorial to learn Splatoon 3’s various gameplay mechanics.

Return of the Mammalians is indeed a campaign. You have many cutscenes, character introductions, quests, collectibles etc. The quests themselves range from all kinds of platforming activities and weapon trials etc. Gameplay is fairly crisp gunplay-wise. There are many upgradable skills for your Octoling.

Visuals/Graphics: Visuals are mediocre at best. The artstyle is a toss up. Everything in Splatoon’s world looks too busy and colorful. I just don’t like any of the designs of the NPC characters in Splatoon 3’s campaign. It’s fascinating to me because as a kid I grew up on Nintendo NES games during the 1980’s and I loved EVERY design choice they made as a kid.

Music/Sound Design: The Music and sound design was a plus. I really enjoyed the in-game sound effects of shooting ink and diving into it. I kinda sorta wish the dialogue was an actual language but that’s a art choice it seems. Kinda like Zelda.

Final Verdict/Thoughts: If you want to see all of my Splatoon 3 videos visit Splatoon 3 Video Gallery Playlist. Splatoon 3 Return of the Mammalians is a really good story campaign. It taught me how to play the game correctly offering many gameplay mechanics and showed the depth at which Splatoon is as a franchise. Thanks for reading – Jason