Splatoon: pics of the days (April 6th) – Splat Zones

Today, the Squid Research Lab posted three pictures on the official Splatoon Twitter account, in order to showcase one of the Ranked Battle modes of the game: the Splat Zones. Unlike the regular multiplayer mode, the goal with this one isn’t to cover the full stage in ink, but rather only a small area at the center of it. It’s basically the Splatoon version of the “King of the Hill” modes in other FPS (such as Team Fortress 2).

Each team has a timer, with 100 “seconds”. When one of them capture the area, the timer starts to count down, and it keeps doing so as long as they keep it under their control. The team that wins the match is the one that:

– control the area long enough so that their timer reaches 0;
– has the lowest timer at the end of the time limit (5 minutes), aka the team that managed to control the area for the longest time.

In other words, the goal of this mode is to be really offensive, in order to capture the area as fast as possible. If the other team controls it, players have to fight hard in order to capture it back. As opposed to the regular multiplayer mode, where you don’t have to actively take out enemies (unless it’s part of your strategy), confrontation is pretty much inevitable with Splat Zones, as everyone is fighting for the same, small area.

Here’s the pictures the Squid Research Lab posted today:

But that’s not all: they also posted about the various rank in multiplayer. They go from A+ to C-, and they change depending on the outcome of each battle. Of course, the higher the rank, the more skilled a player is. They also remind us that the game will have matchmaking, as you’ll only get to play people with the same rank as you.

Splatoon (Wii U) comes out on May 28th in Japan, and May 29th in Europe and North America.

Source: Splatoon