Article content continued

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or

Squids, the character you play as in Splatoon, can sink into the ink and swim, as long as it’s your own team’s colour, and move more quickly than they can when just walking around. Swimming in the ink also refills the player’s ammo counter.

The game doesn’t even focus on the traditional shooter mechanic of whatever team has the most kills wins. Instead, the team who manages to plaster the level with more of their colour is crowned victor.

In the E3 demo, the only weapons available were the ink gun, ink grenade, and ink cannon, usually attained at the end of a match after filling a meter at the bottom of the screen.

If you spray enough ink at an enemy player, they’ll be forced to respawn at any point in the map where their own team is located (performed by touching a mini-map on the touchpad).

The main drawback I experienced during my time with Splatoon at E3 was its control scheme. The thumbsticks are used to move your squid around the map but aiming is controlled via the GamePad’s motion controls.

For my first five minutes with the game, I had no idea this is how to control the game. Although I did eventually get the hang of it, I never felt completely comfortable with this system. Apparently, you could turn this feature off, but there was no obvious way to do so on the show floor.

Splatoon is exactly what critics of Nintendo have been wanting for years, a new original intellectual property (IP) featuring the inventiveness the company was once known for. The game’s colourful aesthetic and unique mechanics introduce something new into an aging genre.

The title is still a ways off and is set for a release at some point in 2015 for the Wii U, but from what I experienced of Splatoon at E3 this year, Nintendo has something special on their hands.

Who knew spraying ink could be so much fun?