Splatoon 3

2022 has seen no shortage of shooters, with probably one of the biggest ones, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, dropping on October 28. But while the genre may be oversaturated with releases, you really shouldn’t sleep on Nintendo’s ink ’em up Splatoon 3. It can be easy to write this three-quel off as a glorified Splatoon 2 expansion, but that surface-level reading belies the new features and quality-of-life improvements that’ve been implemented here.

Weapons have been reworked for better balancing, while new paint-splattering tools have been introduced for greater carnage. New mobility options lend themselves to added maneuverability around stages, giving you more ways to enter into and escape from skirmishes before getting splatted to smithereens. And the extra gear choices let you dress your squidling in some of the most fire outfits the franchise has seen thus far. That’s, of course, not mentioning the fleshed-out single-player campaign mode and the new Tricolor Turf War Splatfests that have been cropping up here and there.

In short, Splatoon 3 is the best version of Splatoon, a shining example of how to iterate on a successful sequel while keeping things fresh and interesting, even if the game’s online infrastructure is pretty atrocious at times.

Playable On: Nintendo Switch

Rough Average Playtime: 11 hours