Wooderon Games of the Year 2015: #8

Day three of my game of the year coverage and things start to get a little more meaty.  So far I’ve had one game that I felt was technically strong enough and meant enough to me to make the list and another just looked nice enough that I wanted to recommend it. Now, something completely different again.

Remember, this is my opinion based on the games I played, I’ll be making my apologies for not having the time to play certain games in due time, but for now let’s focus on what I did play. So, I’ll give a recap of the list so far and then move onto the new entry:

#10 Halo 5: Guardians

#9 Ori and the Blind Forest

#8 Splatoon

Played on the Wii U | Released 29th May | Developed by Nintendo internal

Splatoon gets the award for the game that I wish I’d played a hell of a lot more of over the year. It was one that somehow fell off my radar for months before I suddenly fell back into it. Spatoon is Nintendo’s vision of a competitive shooter, and it is incredibly Nintendo at that, not rewarding players for kills but for how much of the map they can paint.

The best brand new property to come out of Nintendo for a while, they manage to show that they can still think outside the box and innovate when nay-sayers are predicting doom and gloom for Nintendo and their Wii U. Splatoon is novel and gives players some nice clean(ish) fun in the form of a shooter where you don’t have to kill anyone.

When it first came out I was worried that the game was very limited in scope, only having a few maps and a single game mode. It had a campaign that I managed to not find for days that seemed a bit wrote except for some really cool boss fights. If the game had remained in that state, there was no way it would have been on this list, But Nintendo have continued to support the game with new weapons, new maps and new game modes months after the game’s release and all free of charge.

I imagine this was Nintendo’s plan from the start, and considering my problem with longevity in shooters, it was a very insightful move from Nintendo, especially how they are only just getting their feet wet with competitive multiplayer. Games last only 3 minutes, it’s a great game to play if you’ve got a little time to kill, although it’s easy for one or two games to balloon out into six or seven.

As well as shooting, players can use their own colour ink to quickly travel around the map as they can change to a squid at any point to dash around and catch up with team mates. They can also use the form to hide in the ink to ambush unsuspecting players who try and re-ink a choice area that could swing the balance.

Splatoon is bright, colourful and unique. It’s a shame because while I really enjoy it, I get the feeling the game has made nowhere near the impact it could have. In part due to the lack of Wii U consoles out in the wild, and also because I get the impression people aren’t interested in playing a shooter that isn’t about robots, aliens or jump jets.

Anyone who has a Wii U but missed Splatoon, which is pretty unlikely considering the lack of games for the thing, needs to pick this up. It’s a lot of fun and well supported.