In celebration of Nintendo's new Splatoon game, the company recently offered users a chance to test out the game for themselves ahead of its May 29 release.
The game was offered for a test drive as a free trial, which was downloadable to the Wii U via Nintendo's eShop as part of a "global testfire" for a few hours on May 8-9.
The game is certainly an interesting one for Nintendo, bucking its trend of using well-established characters to create an entirely new experience for users. The game is focused on coloring areas of the other team's turf using different colors of paint. With teams consisting of four players, once the time is up, the team with the highest percentage of paint splattered on the other team's turf wins. While it seems like a super-easy game, the actual methods of play are a little more complex, with players being able to use different painting tools as they progress through the different levels.
Interestingly enough, gamers are also able to turn into squids, at which point they are able to quickly travel and squirt paint across the other team's area. While playing as a squid, players are much harder to spot, but they are unable to attack.
While the game is very easy to learn, like other Nintendo games that the company is famous for, it is very strategy-driven and requires users to work together to win.
Nintendo is also making headlines with the game because of the fact that it is not following the trend set by other shooters, and instead of asking users to purchase a season pass for online play, a lot of the game will be available for free.
"Five Turf War stages will be available at launch, but Nintendo will continue to add free new stages throughout summer 2015. Additionally, Nintendo plans to continually expand the game with new weapons, battle modes and gear," said Nintendo in a statement. "A major game update event in August will add two additional matchmaking options, including the ability for friends to form four-person teams and search for other four-person teams to battle against."
Some even suggest that Splatoon will be the game that will "save the Wii U," with reports suggesting that the new game will be the gaming hit of the summer. While some fans of first-person shooters might not like the cartoonish look that the game has, those able to embrace the look will find a deeply entertaining game with a number of different playing styles and modes.
Splatoon will open in the U.S. on May 29 and will sell for $59.99.
