Splatoon Will Have Single-Player and Splitscreen Modes

One of the few complete surprises at this year’s E3 was the announcement of a Nintendo developed third-person shooter called Splatoon. In the game you play as an Inkling, a girl who can transform into a squid and swim through ink. Using various weapons and tools you paint the floor of the map in your team’s color while trying to keep the other team from doing the same.

The mode presented during the conference was four versus four in online matches where the winner is determined by whose ink covers more of the the map. In recent comments, Splatoon producer Hisashi Nogami revealed that there will be much more to the game than just this mode. “First of all, our plan is to release this as a full retail packaged software in 2015…the first half of 2015. And because we’re releasing this as a full software title, we of course plan to include a single-player mode but then also a one-on-one multiplayer mode that can be played without connecting to the Internet.”

A lot more stalking and hiding in the ink. It’ll be much more like a quiet mode in a sense

This one-on-one multiplayer mode is still be fully fleshed out, but it seems like it could take a very different path than the online versus mode we have seen so far. “What we can tell you about the one-on-one, at least, is that one player will be using the GamePad, one player will be using the Pro Controller. And we’re actually thinking of having that one-on-one mode be something kinda completely different from the four-on-four one where it’ll be, you know, kind of a lot more stalking and hiding in the ink. It’ll be much more like a quiet mode in a sense.

“And, you know, we’ve progressed [in development] at least to that point, but in terms of what we’re going to do with the screens – whether we’re going to have one person on the TV and one person on the GamePad – we’re not sure yet.”

Splatoon may not require the Gamepad for full functionality, but it does have a few items that are helpful to players. Losing the features of the Gamepad, such as the overall game map, could be the main reason they are taking the one-on-one mode in a different direction. I also wonder if the second player will be able to use a wiimote and nunchuck as so many Wii U games have allowed for multiple controller configurations.

Splatoon will be released in the first half of 2015 exclusively for Wii U.