Splatoon 2: all the new details from the Nintendo Direct, Splatfest demo, more
Today, Nintendo streamed a brand new Nintendo Direct presentation, entirely dedicated to Splatoon 2. It reviewed most of the previously revealed details, but also had quite a lot of new info.
Missed it? No problem: you can now watch the full recording on YouTube:
The presentation begins with a reminder: Splatoon 2 offers even more options for your Inkling, and more specifically their skin tone and eye colour. But this time around, you can also change the hairstyle, and legwear too.
On the plaza, there’s a place called Galleria, where several Gear and weapon shops can be found. Here’s a quick rundown of the shops you can find there:
- Headspace (tended by Flow, a new character) = Headgear
- Ye Old Cloth Shoppe (tended by Jelfonzo) = Clothing
- Shella Fresh (tended by Bisk) = Shoes
- Ammo Knights (tended by Sheldon) = Weapons. Great news: you can now fast forward weapon explanations!!
Next, several new (and previously revealed) weapons were showcased:
- Clash Blaster: short range, high firing rate, and high explosive power
- Flingza Roller: horizontal fling is quite fast, and the vertical fling is slow but ink goes further
- Goo Tuber: allows you hold a charge for extremely long time
- Daple Dualies: pretty lightweight, giving you even more mobility
About Special Weapons, the presentation reminded forgetful Inklings that all of them are brand new. Yup, that’s right: no returning Special Weapon… so far, at least. There’s also a change with the UI, which now displays clearly when a player has their special gauge filled (the icon for that particular player glows).
Here’s some of the new Special Weapons to be fond in the game:
- Bomb Launcher: launch a barrage of bombs
- Ink Armour: increases the defense of all allies for a certain period of time
- Baller: you get inside a giant explosive ball, that allows you to go anywhere you want
About Ranked Battles, Splatoon 2 will change things up: there’s now a separate rank for each mode (Tower Control, Splat Zones, and Rainmaker). Also, it’s now possible to go up 2 or more ranks at a time, depending on your performance: grinding to the top will not be as tedious at the beginning!
Next, we have League Battles: a special mode that allows you to play with your friends. You can team up, and battle your way to the top of the charts. You can chose to either partner up with a friend to form a pair, and then get paired with another pair, or make a team with 3 other players.
Battles play out over 2 hour periods (or until the stages change). Your score is based on your win and losses during that period. You can earn medals in that mode.
Next, here’s some of the new Gear Powers introduced during the presentation:
- Thermal Ink: allows you to track people you’ve hit with your ink
- Object Shredder: deals more damage to non-players
- Respawn Punisher: increases spawn time for player you splat
- Drop Roller: perform sideway roll when you land
Also, you can check out the Gear other players are using in the map screen, at any time during battle.
About Salmon Run: it was revealed you could only play this mode online during specific periods of time. We also got a look at some new Boss Salmonoids:
- Steel Ell: block your path with their long body, and splat ink everywhere;
- Flyfish: they use jetpacks and fire Inkling-seeking missiles;
- Steelhead: he fills the bomb on its head with toxic ink, and throws it at your;
- and more…
There’s also special “events” during Salmon Run: the tide can change, fog can come and block your vision, and at night, Salmonoids rush at you with incredible speed.
The next segment from the presentation detailed SplatNet 2: a service that’s part of the Nintendo Switch Online app (for smart devices). Thanks to this app, you can check the following:
- stage schedule
- various stats
- detailed results for last 50 battles
- look at gear and weapons used by other players during those battles
- your lifetime inkage
- separate shop to buy Gear at any time (the items bought are then ready to pick up at Murch’s)
But that’s not all: you can also invite other players to battle, including via Social Networks, and use voice chat with your friends during battles. The Nintendo Switch Online app will be released on July 21st, alongside the game.
Finally, here’s a rundown of various tidbits revealed during the presentation:
- there’s seperate settings for each Switch mode (Handheld, Tabletop, TV Mode)
- you can now sort weapons in your inventory
- as replacement of the Miiverse drawings, you can now submit drawings at the letter box found in the plaza. The drawings will appear in-game, but also on social media;
- Crusty Sean now managed a food shop: if you buy something to eat ,you can get more points and money from battle
- The Shoal: that’s where you go to play locally. You can choose pretty much any mode or stage you want! Of course, there’s also LAN Play, useful for competitions.
- There’s some new retro games, including a rhythm game!
The presentation ended with some really exciting announcements, though both were expected. The first one: the game will get regular updates, with new weapons (such as the Splat Brella, that allows you to block enemy attacks, slide on ink… but cannot be used for a few moments after use), or the Bubble Blower (a special weapon), new gear, and even new stages.
Finally, we have Splatfests: they work just like in Splatoon, as in you first choose a team, and then battle to make that team win. There’s always a team, and you choose your team based on that theme (for example: Cats vs Dogs). And for the first time, you will be able to fight alongside your friends, on the same team (even if you didn’t pick the same team, presumably).
As a bonus, the Splatoon 2 Direct introduced Off the Hook, the new “Squid Sisters”, made of Marina and Pearl. They have their little concert during Splatfest, and they also make various announcements like the Squid Sisters used to do.
Speaking of Splatfest, the first one will take place… before Splatoon 2 comes out! It will take place on July 15th, from:
- Europe: 6PM to 10PM
- UK: 5PM to 9PM
- North America (EDT): 6PM to 10PM
- North America (PDT): 3PM to 7PM
- Japan: 5PM to 9PM
The theme will be Cake vs Ice Cream in Europe and North America, and Rock vs Pop in Japan. In case you haven’t noticed simply by looking at the time, each Splatfest runs separately in each region, which is most definitely going to be the case of most Splatfest (with worldwide one being the exception). Nintendo is planning to have new Splatfests for 2 years.
To take part in this Splatfest, you need to download the special demo from the Nintendo eShop. Unfortunately, said demo isn’t available as of writing!
Here’s a video introducing Off the Hook, and their first song “Full Throttle Tentacle” (called “Ebb & Flow” in English):
Finally, here’s various screenshots and artworks for Splatoon 2:
Splatoon 2 (Switch) comes out on July 21st worldwide.