4) Splatoon 2 (July 21, 2017)
I’m going to come clean with you now, dear reader: I never actually got around to playing the original Splatoon on Wii U. That’s mainly because I never got round to picking up a Wii U (I know, I’m rubbish). Nevertheless, I was always compelled by the colourful, third-person shooting complemented by its bright, cute art-style. It’s also hard to not be impressed by Nintendo’s brave roll-of-the-dice with a brand new franchise. Well, it sure must have hit a nerve, as Splatoon went on to sell a staggering 4.67 million units, on a platform that only managed to shift a meagre 13 million consoles globally. Wowsers.
Splatoon 2 is a continuation of the team-based third-person shooting found in the original, and focuses on four-versus-four mayhem. It’s refreshing to see a family-friendly shooter for a change, one that swaps out the blood and the gore for buckets of paint and roaming inkling squid.
A new addition to this sequel is a horde-esque co-op mode which pits you and a friend against waves of AI salmon monsters intent on stealing your power eggs. Though that latter mode may mechanically sound a little been-there-done-that, we’re still absolutely stoked to check out the sequel to one of the Wii U’s most critically and commercially successful games.
And hey, everybody likes a good ol’ survival mode, right?
Published: Jul 3, 2017 07:23 pm