pirateluigi
Member
Movement in a game is so important and Splatoon does it as well as any game I've ever played. It's completely different, but reminds me a lot of Spider-Man 2, where it was fun just to move around.
Yeah, Splatoon really does feel great, especially with gyro controls, everything is so damn smooth, aiming is precise with gyro controls. Having a button to reset the camera is great too, since it does involve gyro controls. Some might look at this as a button to "fix" the controls, but I see it as necessary with motion.
What's great is I almost never feel the need to reset the camera, that's how well the controls work.
One thing I like to do in some games is rotate the stick to see if my character can spin in place and that's how I know I'm probably going to like the movement of the character. Splatoon passes my tests.
Black inklings representThe most interesting aspect of this for me personally is that when you are traveling through ink yourself, you never really feel the speed/it's not overwhelming, but when you see someone else moving, you actively realize just how fast everything is going.
Honestly, for a thread like this, I feel like I could write a thesis on any one aspect of the game's design in a combat situation and still not convey the number of things that could happen or thought processes present in a satisfactory way. In the main thread, we talked about how there's a silent conditioning or attempt at communicating objectives that takes place when someone follows with you and lays down lines of ink to move through or a person hiding in ink swaps in front of someone pinned by enemy approaches aim at the ready and guns blazing to more accurately take down a threat or secure an area. There's also the way movement and the ink mechanics form dynamics in the game that really appeals to me. Everything is immediate and snappy with no dead zones, no areas that cannot be traversed (without them making sense) and with each method of movement being equally full of potential for offense as it can be for defense. Edit: Then I saw your line about aiming and realize just how goddamn rad this game's aiming scheme is as someone who swore by the Wii Remote + Nunchuk design for aiming/shooting in games. I still remember the story of the guy in the OT that was playing the game in a swivel chair like a flight sim and I'm amazed at how curious I am to try something so silly sounding for the feedback it'd give.
In terms of aesthetic design, everything has a satisfying messy look. There's a real and powerful desire to "make a mess" everywhere and seeing your team's color gradually coat the area is just as much of a satisfying incentive to do well as the actual engagements with other opponents. The sound design is fucking RAD. The hit confirm SFX is just too awesome (that satisfying RATATATAT and the explosion like an overfull balloon that takes place when an inkling is KO'd), weaponry chugs, glugs and splatters all over the place, and Inklings let out adorable cries of satisfaction and anguish as they splatter and get splattered. The music is so atypical for any video game yet contributes a strange aura of upbeat fun despite every other corner looking like someone gave the fighters in the beach scene of Saving Private Ryan Skittles rounds. The ink is lovely looking, very vibrant and lush. All of this and I still haven't touched upon the actual stars of the show in the Inklings, a neat hybrid between game play informed design (squids and the squid iconography acting as both adorable in universe labels and brands as well as doing simple things like showing which direction you're moving in or what sort of engagement you and your team find themselves in) and being player avatars full of their desire to absolutely rule the roost and style on them in the process. The nautical theme is also extended to elements of their already bright and sunny world that just lend to this feeling of being taken into a Sandals commercial and told to fuck shit up on the best summer vacation you'd never have.
Finally as a personal aside, I'd really like to say that the blatantly urban punk/hip hop inspired street style is an aesthetic that I never get enough of in games especially when it's realized in such a fun package and stripped of the ignorant tropes that get attached to it in other incarnations. As a 25 year old guy born and raised in Brooklyn, it really speaks to me. :lol
Also fuck yea black Inklings.
- The kerplunk sound: This can be heard when you dive into your ink from a great height. It sounds like a golfball landing in the water. It's something many people won't consciously notice, but it still creates a sense of weight and impact.
Chucking the biggest rock you could lift off the bridge into the river.I don't why but it's so satisfying to hear. Is it because it reminds us of our childhood or something?
I just love skipping around the plaza. The Inklings jump so high, lol
I heard that sound the first time I dived from a great height, and I fell in love with that as well. The "plop" just feels good to hear, I don't know why...it's satisfying.
Absolutely. Shovel Knight has masterful game feel, right from the very first jump.I am loving Splatoon, took me a while to get used to the gyro but now that I have its all gelling so perfectly.
I'd also like to add Shovel Knight to the list of games with great movement mechanics, game just feels right.
I just love skipping around the plaza. The Inklings jump so high, lol
I hope journalists don't latch on to 'gamefeel' as some sort of real descriptor. It's nonsense at worst and vaguely harmful to real critical discourse at best. It sounds like a long lost category from gamepro magazine's daft reviews.
Well you can call it by a different phrase if you want (I use the phrase tactile feedback, since "game feel" does seems a little loose), but if you've played any video game ever you know it isn't nonsense.
Various uses of screen shake, momentum, weight, start-up, cooldown, framerate, audio and visual feedback, etc. affect the tactile feedback of a game. And some games suck at it.
To claim otherwise would be nonsense.
I didn't claim this at all. I claimed boiling it down to some non existent property like 'gamefeel' is nonsense, because it is. there are far, far more factors than what you describe that contribute to this supposed tangible property. Difficulty curve, input lag, hit boxes, the list goes on and on and on. Might as well just use the more accepted but equally worthless term 'gameplay'. What use is 'gamefeel' when we already have another equally dubious term that's already widely accepted? what can 'gamefeel' describe that 'gameplay' doesn't cover already? 'gamefeel' is just a descriptor for someone who doesn't have the vocabulary or experience to describe what they like/dislike about a game. I'm not telling you guys to stop using it, just hoping it doesn't start appearing in real critical discussion about games, ie actual game reviews.
I didn't claim this at all. I claimed boiling it down to some non existent property like 'gamefeel' is nonsense, because it is. there are far, far more factors than what you describe that contribute to this supposed tangible property. Difficulty curve, input lag, hit boxes, the list goes on and on and on. Might as well just use the more accepted but equally worthless term 'gameplay'. What use is 'gamefeel' when we already have another equally dubious term that's already widely accepted? what can 'gamefeel' describe that 'gameplay' doesn't cover already? 'gamefeel' is just a descriptor for someone who doesn't have the vocabulary or experience to describe what they like/dislike about a game. I'm not telling you guys to stop using it, just hoping it doesn't start appearing in real critical discussion about games, ie actual game reviews.
I didn't claim this at all. I claimed boiling it down to some non existent property like 'gamefeel' is nonsense, because it is. there are far, far more factors than what you describe that contribute to this supposed tangible property. Difficulty curve, input lag, hit boxes, the list goes on and on and on. Might as well just use the more accepted but equally worthless term 'gameplay'. What use is 'gamefeel' when we already have another equally dubious term that's already widely accepted? what can 'gamefeel' describe that 'gameplay' doesn't cover already?
I didn't claim this at all. I claimed boiling it down to some non existent property like 'gamefeel' is nonsense, because it is. there are far, far more factors than what you describe that contribute to this supposed tangible property. Difficulty curve, input lag, hit boxes, the list goes on and on and on. Might as well just use the more accepted but equally worthless term 'gameplay'. What use is 'gamefeel' when we already have another equally dubious term that's already widely accepted? what can 'gamefeel' describe that 'gameplay' doesn't cover already? 'gamefeel' is just a descriptor for someone who doesn't have the vocabulary or experience to describe what they like/dislike about a game. I'm not telling you guys to stop using it, just hoping it doesn't start appearing in real critical discussion about games, ie actual game reviews.