Nintendo Switch Hands-On: 10 Things We Learned 

Like ARMS, Splatoon aims to take a genre that has traditionally been adult-oriented, adds some colourful characters, tweaks some mechanics and comes up with something that everybody can enjoy.

Rather than focusing on kills, matches in Splatoon are decided upon which team can coat more of the map in their team’s colour of ink, and Splatoon 2 adds some new tools to accomplish this. The most fun is had with the new Splat Duelies, which give two barrels of ink dispersal, and power up to provide a temporary jetpack to allow you to rain down ink from above. The flip side, of course, is that a flying opponent immediately becomes a target, but the action is so fast and fun that I was never frustrated at being splatted by the other team.

I was concerned, however, by the implementation of motion controls in the game. By default, aiming up and down is controlled by tilting the controller (or device if you’re in handheld mode), while turning left and right is handled conventionally by the right analog stick. I can sort of see the concept of your movements matching the aiming of the ink nozzles on the screen, but it ends up feeling a bit jarring, especially if you’re used to other shooters.

I would much prefer the right stick to control aiming in both dimensions, a sentiment echoed by several others playing the game alongside me at the show. Hopefully this option will be available in the full game.