Skip to main content

Splatoon gets a new game mode in Tower Control, available later today

Splatoon
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Since Splatoon launched in May, Nintendo has promised to keep the game fresh with frequent updates throughout the summer. Now ahead of the game’s first Splatfest event, the game is getting a new multiplayer mode.

Most multiplayer shooters have some sort of ranked mode these days, but the Ranked Battle in Splatoon works differently. In the ranked modes in most games, you play the same game types on the game maps, but you rank up or down based on your performance.

Splatoon‘s Ranked Battle, on the other hand, offers whole new game modes that aren’t available elsewhere, and later today the new Tower Control mode will be added to Ranked Battle. The new mode seems to be a mix of “king of the hill” and one-flag capture the flag modes, but since this is Splatoon we’re talking about, there’s a whole lot of ink involved.

At the start of a Tower Control match, a single floating tower is located in the center of the map. The objective is to ride this tower to your enemy’s base. Once a member of your team climbs on board the tower, it will automatically begin moving toward the base, but there’s a catch: Once you’re on the tower, every member of the opposing team is going to try to take you down, so working together with your team is key.

As Nintendo says in the press release announcing the new game mode, “using each stage’s features to gain an advantage and supporting each other are the keys to victory.”

As we’ve previously reported, today’s update will also see changes to the game balance ahead of Splatoon‘s first Splatfest event this weekend. Both the Kraken special weapon and the Ninja Squid ability have been toned down somewhat, while Inkstrikes will now be more effective.

Tower Control goes live later today at 7 p.m. PDT. Splatfest kicks off this weekend on July 4, and will be an all day event.

Editors' Recommendations

Kris Wouk
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kris Wouk is a tech writer, gadget reviewer, blogger, and whatever it's called when someone makes videos for the web. In his…
Super Mario 3D World made it to Switch, but other Wii U games are still stranded
Wii U Composite

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury comes to Nintendo Switch this weekend giving the console another excellent first-party game. It’s the latest in a line of Wii U titles to receive a Switch port in the past few years, salvaging the best of the ill-fated two-screen system’s surprisingly strong library.

Even with games like Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker and Pikmin 3 making the jump to Switch, there’s a handful of strong Wii U games that haven’t -- and probably never will. That’s creating a generational dead zone that may leave games that dared to take advantage of the console’s bold concept forever trapped on the Wii U.

Read more
Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury trailer reveals wild new game mode
Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury

Nintendo released a new trailer for Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury, which finally reveals information on the re-release's new mode. Bowser's Fury is an entirely new adventure that features a gigantic Bowser.

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury is a Nintendo Switch version of the 2013 Wii U game Super Mario 3D World. Nintendo previously revealed that the new edition would feature something called Bowser's Fury, but this is the first time the mode has been shown in any form.

Read more
Two more Wii U games will reportedly be ported to Nintendo Switch
why ill be buying a wii u at launch

Two more games for the Wii U are reportedly coming to the Nintendo Switch, and while they remain unnamed, it may be relatively easy to narrow down the possible titles.

Reliable Nintendo insider Emily Rogers, who correctly reported that the Nintendo Switch would be unveiled in October 2016, said in a post on the ResetEra forums that, in addition to the pending releases of Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore and Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, there are at least two more unannounced ports of Wii U games that are in the works for the hybrid console.

Read more