Get down and dirty with Splatoon one last time on May 23, before it launches

By Will Fulton Published May 15, 2015

Nintendo announced that it will be holding one more free public test for its upcoming, family-friendly shooter, Splatoon. On Saturday, May 23, from 3-4 p.m. (PT), anyone with a Wii U who downloaded the free demo from the Nintendo eShop will be able to take part in the third Global Testfire.

Download the #Splatoon Global Testfire software in the #WiiU #eShop to play some multiplayer Turf War action on 5/23 from 3-4 p.m. PT!

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) May 15, 2015

Aspiring Inklings (what characters are referred to) will not have access to the complete game, and will be limited to only the online, team-based, competitive Turf War. In this mode, two teams of four inklings start on opposite ends of the map and vie for control by spreading as much of their colored ink on the ground as possible while fighting back their opponents. Unlike conventional competitive shooters, kill count doesn’t matter for the final scoring. The winning team is determined by whichever color covers the majority of the map. Taking out your opponents helps by shunting them back to their base. In practice this means that every shot, whether it connects or not, is helping your team. A player who isn’t as confident with their controllers skills can grab a roller and run around, avoiding enemies entirely, to cover the ground while their headshot-happy teammates hold the front line.

Recommended Videos

We recently got our hands on the game at an event in New York, and can verify that it’s just as much messy fun as it looks. Turf War is fast-paced and easily accessible, but the variety of weapon types available opens up a surprising amount of strategic depth if you want to really dig into it. Nintendo has announced plans to roll out additional gameplay modes, weapons, gear, and maps in the months following release, expanding the game’s options as the competitive community grows and becomes more skilled.

Even if you can’t make it to the Global Testfire, you won’t have to wait long to get ink-stained. Splatoon launches exclusively for Wii U on May 28 in Japan, May 29 in North America and Europe, and May 29 in Australia (which always seems to get the short end of the stick when it comes to games).

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Will Fulton is a New York-based writer and theater-maker. In 2011 he co-founded mythic theater company AntiMatter Collective…

Topics

Gaming

Splatoon 3’s Side Order DLC shows that the series can do it all

An Inkling shoots an enemy spawner in Splatoon 3 Side Order.

When I reviewed Splatoon 3 in 2022, I found myself impressed by what a robust suite of content it offered at launch. It had a solid single-player campaign, great competitive multiplayer, a killer PVE mode in Salmon Run, and even a fun card minigame. All of those disparate modes meshed together perfectly to make Splatoon 3 the kind of game you could pick away at for hundreds of hours. And with its latest DLC, called Side Order, that's more true than ever.

The narrative-focused roguelite brings an entirely new experience to Splatoon. It has players trying to clear randomized runs through a 30-floor tower full of challenges. While that task can initially be cleared in a few hours, a robust postgame turns Side Order into a full-on game within a game. If Splatoon 3 wasn't already the Switch game that offered the most bang for your buck, it is now. And that's all thanks to an ingenious gameplay hook that's proven to be Nintendo's most valuable creation of the past decade.
Order in chaos
In the shooter's latest DLC, players find themselves in a dystopian version of Inkopolis Square that's devoid of color. At the center of it all is the ominous Spire of Order, which is ruled by a rogue machine that's hell-bent on ridding the world of chaos. For those who remember Splatoon 2's final, world-changing Order versus Chaos Splatfest, it's an excellent bit of narrative payoff that shows how players are tangibly shaping Nintendo's inky world.

Gaming

TimeSplitters studio Free Radical shut down before it could finish planned revival

A man jumping and shooting in action in TimeSplitters.

Free Radical Design, a studio reestablished to revive the long-dormant TimeSplitters series, was officially shut down by its parent company, Plaion, due to the ongoing financial struggles faced by Embracer Group, which owns both studios.

TimeSplitters is a cult classic first-person shooter series from the early 2000s that has not received a new game since 2005 because its developer, Free Radical Design, went out of business. In 2018, Koch Media -- now known as Plaion -- acquired the TimeSplitters IP. In 2021, it reformed Free Radical Design along with Steve Ellis and David Doak, who worked on the original TimeSplitters games, and announced its intention to bring TimeSplitters back.

Gaming

The Day Before studio shutting down just four days after disastrous launch

A player walks through an abandoned city in The Day Before.

Fntastic, the developer behind the controversial and much-derided postapocalyptic shooter The Day Before, announced it is shutting down just four days after the game's launch.

"Today, we announce the closure of Fntastic Studio. Unfortunately, The Day Before has failed financially, and we lack the funds to continue. All income received is being used to pay off debts to our partners," a message posted to Fntastic's X account and website states. "We invested all our efforts, resources, and man-hours into the development of The Day Before, which was our first huge game. We really wanted to release new patches to reveal the full potential of the game, but unfortunately, we don't have the funding to continue to work."