So after Nintendo's Splatoon Direct yesterday they announced that there would be a few beta tests that allowed fans to preview the game before its release at the end of this month. I've been super excited for this one ever since it was revealed at E3 last year, so I was all over this demo as soon as it was announced!:

You do get a *little* bit of customization (skin and eye color) but since the demo only lasts an hour they must've figured you would just want to get to the game so that's all the customizing you get so far.

They start you off with a short 'how to play' tutorial to get you acclimated to the controls and swimming through ink. I have to say it only took seconds for me to fall in love with the whole thing, once you get the hang of the controls everything just clicks and you can concentrate on the rest of the game.

After that you decide which weapon you want to start off with, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. I noticed quite a few people online went with the Roller, as it's definitetly the 'Tank' of the available weapons. It also mows down adversaries with little effort, though sometimes you'll wind up with a double ko situation, so you still have to be careful!

Then you're dropped into a game with several other people, and you have two minutes to cover the most turf in your color!

The game looks great visually of course, it also sounds great too! (One neat touch I noticed, is like in Mario when you're underwater the music changes accordingly so it sounds like you're hearing it underwater, in Splatoon it does the same thing when you're submerged in ink!)

But all in all I loved it once I got the hang of the game, will definitely be adding this one to my collection after it's out!!

Anyone else get their hands on the trial?!

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OLRmy since 6/23/2002!
OLR Wikia | OLRChive (now with Vanilla skie episodes!) | OLR: Best Hits Volume 1 (highlights from our first 30 episodes) out now! | OLR: Best Hits Vol. 2

I played it twice. The first time, I wasn't super into it. I played the tutorial and as soon as I could I switched off aiming with the gamepad. I wasn't good at aiming or shooting anybody and eventually settled on just playing the Roller because it required less skill to just mess around and have fun.

When I played the second time, I decided to stop being so grumpy old man gamer and leave the motion aiming on and it was a world of difference. My favorite weapon became the Charge gun and I loved following a Roller and taking out people before they could kill our Roller. Still wasn't great with the two machine guns, but after getting the aiming with the gamepad down, it was a lot more fun. It just seemed way more precise than aiming with the sticks.

Overall I loved it. Wish they let us test more maps, but the ones they did have were very well made and I think the game is extremely balanced despite the internet thinking Rollers are all that matter. Also, no lag to speak of and I played in the early morning with a lot of Japanese players and in the middle of the day when more people were playing I'm assuming. A successful test, I'd say.

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Yeah my very first game was with the Splat Charger, but for how I wanted to play it didn't really suit me so I tried some of the others... the two machinegun-style guns were fun, although I did enjoy using the roller for more than half my games (It did get me one kill versus the Nintendo employee at the end of the test, so that's something!) but I'm sure once I pick up the game I can spend some more time trying out the Splat Charger as a sniper.

Also I kinda liked having both aiming options, I used the sticks for general aiming and the motion controls kinda helped with the fine-tuning to get just the right shot.

Most FPSes bore me usually (stuff like COD doesn't really appeal to me) but the fast paced ones like Unreal Tournament are fun, so to see nintendo take something like that and make it family friendly fun and give it a neat twist, I'm really digging the concept! Hopefully they'll also offer some more maps and things as DLC later on down the line after the game's out, and maybe some more of the weekly competitions like they mentioned in the direct?!

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OLRmy since 6/23/2002!
OLR Wikia | OLRChive (now with Vanilla skie episodes!) | OLR: Best Hits Volume 1 (highlights from our first 30 episodes) out now! | OLR: Best Hits Vol. 2

Yeah and I loved how quick the matches were. I also don't play a lot of shooters, but used to love Unreal Tournament back in the day and the length here is perfect I'd say.

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We're getting one more round! Saturday May 23rd at 3PM-4PM! (Pacific time):

Source: http://operationrainfall.com/2015/05/15 ... fire-demo/

I'll definitely be hopping on again, maybe i'll see some of you there!!

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OLRmy since 6/23/2002!
OLR Wikia | OLRChive (now with Vanilla skie episodes!) | OLR: Best Hits Volume 1 (highlights from our first 30 episodes) out now! | OLR: Best Hits Vol. 2