Get Inked! Splatoon for Wii U

My oldest is eleven. He’s at the age where he wants to play more advanced games, seeing what his dad plays and wanting to be a part of the action. I’ve had a real struggle with this. I understand the allure of first-person shooter games, but have concerns about the violence. While his friends may be playing these games more (and, to be honest, so is my son) I don’t want my younger daughters (seven and three) watching these games.

So, when I learned about Nintendo’s latest game creation – Splatoon for Wii U – I thought this might be the perfect family friendly game for all ages.

Splatoon is basically a paint ball game with fun, colorful characters and no gruesome play at all. Players use paint-ball guns (or blasters, if you don’t like the “G” word in your household) and bombs to take out other players and advance their game. There is no ‘death’ in the game when you are taken out by a bomb, for example. The character simply respawns back into play.

Starting the game, players can choose their character (Inkling) and weapon. Then, play starts. Your main job is to paint (ink) your level, climb walls using your paint to help you, pop balloons and of course gather more ink (in humanoid form, which doesn’t give you cover) to keep playing.

It takes some time to get used to the controls and what button does what, this from a mom-perspective of course! My kids advanced past this step far faster than I did and were on their way playing while I was still inking in my spot (heh.)

There are a few different modes of play. Single-player mode seems to be the best way to learn, that way your eleven-year-old won’t try to annihilate you while you’re figuring out how to ink and climb walls! Once you have your bearings, try switching to Battle Dojo which is 1×1 so you can challenge a family member to play.

There is an online play mode, Online Turf Wars Challenge which involves two teams of four players each. While yes, this is online and you are playing along side people you don’t know, there is no chat option in Splatoon so rest assured as far as online gaming goes, this is relatively safe.

My son is the oldest gamer in our family, and now that he’s moved on to non-mom-approved games, I’m happy that we have a family-friendly option for my younger kids to play where they can still be in on the blasting and (ink) shooting action. I prefer using the Wii U handheld control rather than the larger GamePad controller, but it’s worth noting that the larger GamePad controller is much easier for little hands to work with, in our household anyway.

You can find more information about Splatoon for Wii U here!