Splatoon’s getting a major rebalancing update on October 20, which should hopefully make fights fairer in Nintendo’s colorful third-person shooter for Wii U.
Nintendo released detailed patch notes for a major update to Splatoon which arrives next week. It includes a nerf for some of the most powerful weapons in the game, and it should encourage players to sink some more time into Splatoon’s various multiplayer modes.
Nintendo is taking great care to curate its popular new intellectual property, continually releasing new free content to keep things fresh and balancing things up when necessary. Recent Japanese sales figures showed that this approach is paying off, with Splatoon outperforming Super Smash Bros. for Wii U when you compare the initial 14-week sales periods for both titles.
Part of this curation process is going to affect players who just love to roll. The paint rollers in Splatoon are deadly up close, a bit like a shotgun in a regular first-person shooter, but they’re kind of indiscriminate right now, and you see far too many in action. Going forward, players are going to need more accuracy to use them effectively. The patch notes show that Nintendo has adjusted the roller splash damage, and now “players can only splat their opponents in one hit with the center of the roller.”
Some other weapons, like many of the blasters, are being toned down as well, while others are actually getting a boost in their abilities. For example, players will now be able to walk faster while firing the Dual Squelcher and the N-ZAP85.
Nintendo is also adjusting the Splat Zones and Tower Control battle modes, along with some tinkering with the game’s ranking system. All in all, it should make for a fresher experience with a wider variety of weapons in use on the paint-splattered battlefields.