It's honestly ridiculous how few paintable walls are in the game. They added Squid Surge, which is usable only on walls, and yet they decided to limit the paintable walls.
Literally one of the most unique game mechanics of the franchise and they have not a lot of walls that can be used in modes. It’s why flounder heights to me is such a unique map in the game because of the climbable walls that are also high up.
It's just so weird to me how Nintendo seems allergic to inkable walls... you'd think they'd have more of them considering painting the map for movement is pretty much the main selling point of the series.
@@tsquitz The year is 20XX All maps are completely uninkable. Turf War is now decided by which team is Alpha. Players now use Turf War either for squid party or battle royale.
Isn’t it strange how the only S+ and X tiers are Splatoon 1 maps, most of Splatoon 2 maps are from A to C and so many Splatoon 3 maps are in D to F. Interesting
Splatoon 1 had the best maps because they all knew they were meant to be gimmicky playgrounds of chaos. Splat 3’s themed around chaos and yet every map’s trying to become the new Final Destination now…
It's like eight years later, it's probably mostly a different team by now. Actually we know for sure that Nintendo had posted a job listing for a map designer for this game.
@@kitsovereign4127 True. But doesn't explain why the beta versions of Scorch and Eeltail looked much better than the final versions. _Someone_ had to make those, and then decide to completely change and gut them in the last year of development.
Splatoon 1’s good maps are the best in the entire series, flounder, museum, ancho v, mahi Even it’s terrible maps like Saltspray are fun because they’re extremely unique
I think it’s important to do map tier lists like this, for example I hate flounder TC specifically for the tower path and its too hard to defend while I like it on every other mode.
Undertow spillway also stinks on tower control because of how hard it is to defend yourself from your opponents. It seems like you end up losing to your opponents a lot of the time unless you get teammates who truly understand the layout really well and play strategically like me a lot of the time.
I stopped playing Splatoon 3 because I’m just not having fun anymore. The map design is so garbage that I do not wanna subject myself to anymore single route maps Did Nintendo forget good map design or something? Why are over half the maps in the game so bad?!
@@DrAnimePhD Nintendo wants to force people to fight as much as possible to make "more exciting games" for the E-Sports scene of splatoon. Since player interactions are *clearly* more exciting than tactical play. Further, they probably aren't capable of seeing the world in the same way splatoon 1 players do where almost everything was paintable. They're kinda just *used* to "on the ground" play.
@@xana3961 it's ironic since the absurdly linear maps have made games less about intense fighting and hype plays, and more about just grinding out specials every game with super predictable strategies that can't be countered...unless you just grind up your own special lol
@@DrAnimePhD Ehh it's fun to me but only sometimes. Every time I play is a dice roll on whether I get paired with good people on both teams or the other team is like 10x better than us and somehow got into our lobby. Matchmaking is rly scuffed. And then even worse when the enemy team is like a bunch of coordinated friends on a discord call together vs. you and 3 people you don't know.
I think the map makers should test their maps with inkable walls everywhere THEN start making them uninkable where necessary. But it seems they did it the other way around.
Can’t believe they cut Mahi-Mahi Resort and replaced it with that terrible new map, Mahi-Mahi Resort. (Admittedly Tower Control Mahi is a very guilty pleasure for me just because of the No Turf’s Land in mid where everybody drowns)
I swear the devs actually want the game to devolve into special spam. Maps too restrictive? Just use specials to brute force your way though. Crab too strong? Just buff other specials' damage so you can throw specials at the special. They gave us all these incredibly fun movement options and nowhere to use them because they want us to play Mash RS Simulator.
i'm just convinced the people making decisions on the game design are unintelligent at this point. theres literally no reason for all of this shit... just make the fucking walls inkable...
I’ve warmed on mahi zones since the beginning. I don’t love it but I can see why comp players like it and I’ve started to like it more recently. Also Museum works surprisingly well on clams. Even in solo I feel like the games are pretty even and it feels really good to play.
If mako RM spawn wasnt in such an awkward spot with so few ways out (maybe put it closer to the tower control spawn placement or something), itd be one of the best mapmodes in the game tbh
Seeing Mahi Zones in S+ makes me feel incredibly happy because I've come to like that particular mode and map. With this video I will wear my title of "Mahi-Mahi Resort Splat Zones Enthusiast" with pride. Thank you pro-chara.
its sad how we cant trust them to make new maps so we have to rely on the other good ones that came before 😭its extra sad because they'll probably butcher all of them too and make them entirely unfun, unenjoyable, and uninkable...
My favorite map is by far Mako Mart. It’s very open and well balanced with plenty of nice rounds to go through. Plus it’s one of the few indoor maps, so the lighting and atmosphere is just better in my opinion Also it’s a store and I like food.
I absolutely hate Mahi Mahi. Being a Tetra player it's so hard to traverse cause of the fact that you'd need use the dodge roll which most of the time makes me go just far enough to slip off the edge which just feels unfair
THIS THIS THIS i main tetras as well and if i had a dollar for every time i accidentally dodgerolled into the water i would have enough to buy the rights for this game
Honestly, this tier list makes me wonder if Splatoon’s more competitive game modes would benefit more from mode-specific maps. I know that would take a lot more effort than taking a single map and redesigning it 4 times but it’d definitely make the maps more enjoyable in my opinion.
After loading this game up and grinding to S+ again after last seasons rank decay, this game at it's top level can be best described as two teams taking turns dick punching eachother with special spam to move an objective. The limited maps make it hard to advance an objective against any half decent team; so your only option really is to special spam to cover and approach and hop you pick up some kills. These are core problems beyond anything that can be patched.
I mean it _can_ be patched, though the map changes would be huge but the more huge part would be the praise and happiness that could come from that theoretical patch. Any energy towards fixing this problem will be rewarded with players being happy about being able to move And exist in the game
@@stanley8006 They'd need to remake the maps from the ground up with consideration to the weapons a d kits that are in the game. They know it's a problem and nintendos solution was literally to barf random objects into the map while shrinking the overall map slightly. This tells me they, for whatever reason; can't do anything else. This is all we're getting, but hey look forward to new salmon run rewards that cost 400 gold coins next season.
@@Shadar22 ignoring the fact that capitalism will kill us all (profiting off of bad decisions that only help the ones on top that make them like artificially inflating the play hours by forcing ppl to grind in salmon run) and the honestly hopeless situation of anti bias brellas getting nothing but half bad bug fixes that sometimes don’t help and add more bugs, the maps themselves only need like an inkable wall or two to open it up 1084 times more. Team fortress two, maps like upward or dustbowl would be absolutely gutted if the developers removed the flanks, like that meme tunnel in dustbowl that allows you to go to the last capture point or the traversable and undercover side cliff route on the second cart checkpoint on upward. Depressing thing is, if god damn gamer head bridge or ESPECIALLY mince meat had an ink-able wall in mid that let you immediately go towards the enemy teams heavily fortified choke areas, it would: remove charger dominance by removing “this is the only option you have” choke points and instead allowing ppl to get around them, it would allow less mobile weapons to have options to play around and use to be able to push forward and set up advances like splatlings or rollers where on evil maps like current mincemeat good luck getting through the center without a lightweight splash in your face instant killing you with four accurate shots and two burst bombs for extra pain. All I god damn want s3 to do is to add one block, add one inkable wall, that’s all we really need in some of these bad maps. Sorry for being hateful sounding your completely right honestly. Gutted maps like mahi mahi to s3 are so atrociously modified as to be a crime and it would take an i tire reword (hell a port of s1’s design) to fix it
i remember being in chat when you recorded this one! very informative and lovely to watch the process and continue to learn more about the game as well!
Splatnet 3 says all of my worst map/mode combos are the ones with lots of attacking routes and good design. Does it mean I'm bad at using multiple routes as an attacker, or bad at defending more than a single choke point? I'll have to watch more replays to find out.
If they made the base of Scorch Gorge like how it it in Clam Blitz (since they seem to think that the grated bridge that sticks from the center spire is it’s claim-to-fame) it would be an actually decent stage because it keeps that philosophy in mind while also putting the the fix there is that exists in the other modes (the ramp that goes down from left)
This list shows off quickly and visually that there is an issue with Splat 3 map designs. The fact that not even half the map modes can be ranked B tier and above due to small and easily fixable problems, you know there is an issue
So unfortunate how 50% of the maps are in D, E and F tier. Just goes to show that quantity does not equal quality. I sure wish that they made each map with only 1 mode in mind to bring out the best in that mode, rather than having the majority of the combinations being below average at all modes. I'd rather have less maps overall that are good than more maps that are bad.
If you care, can people answer, I've asked this in one other comment section, but I want more answers, should I change my name to Octa, or keep it as Astr0?
always love to see your point of view on the game ! it's pretty refreshing from mine and help me see stuff that didn't went through my mind, btw love the ffxiv soundtracks !
Actually, what if the Sprinkler's shots could be entered into Squid form and then Squid Surged off of? It would help to make Un-inkables more tolerable and would be a Utility buff for the Utility buff for a utility sub.
At this point I think if the devs did a file rip from S1 for all four stages from that game, rushed a clams layout and altered the spawn regions for the new spawn system, the game would be better because it would have four consistently great maps on all modes. Chuck in some lore about Manta Maria crashing into Hammerhead bridge and forcing it back under construction, and we'd be golden.
Best of Splat Zones: *Mahi-Mahi, Flounder,* MakoMart, Museum Best of Tower Control: *Inkblot, MakoMart,* Hagglefish, Undertow, Museum Best of Rainmaker: *Flounder, Undertow,* MakoMart, Manta, Museum Best of Clam Blitz: *Museum, Manta,* Inkblot, MakoMart, Flounder Can't believe Nintendo left Mincemeat, Wahoo, Hammerhead, Scorch, and Eeltail to the dust like that.
This just goes to show you that with each game, the new maps get worse and worse, while older maps (especially from Splatoon 1) are still as amazing as ever.
"Manta is unique in that every different mode is in a different tier" (Undertow Spillway sobbing in the corner) (Flounder joins Undertow in the corner)
Splatoon version 3.1.0 Map statistics: No. of map-modes in each tier X 1 map S+ 2 maps S 5 maps A 5 maps B 7 maps C 12 maps D 5 maps E 11 maps F 16 maps Average grade: Somewhere between D and C 31% of maps are B or above Previous installments (for refernce) Splat 1: Average was B 50% of maps were B or above Splat 2: Average was also B 47.8% of maps were B or above
Yeah, safe to say, Splatoon 3 utterly did drop the ball on map design. Pretty much every hope we had for splatoon 3 to write the wrongs of splatoon 2's maps were dashed. They clearly doubled down on the worst aspect's of Splatoon 2's map design and made them worse by 3 fold. they brought back the best Splatoon 1 maps but missed the point with each of these maps (Even flounders have some options taken away) And the fact that these maps were better in beta/early trailers just adds insult to injury, we were robbed. "Casualisation" is the best way I can describe what's happening with Splatoon 3's maps and how bare bones they are. To go down a grade and a half from previous installments is an embarrassment plain and simple. Why can't they just stop pretending to be afraid of making these maps more complex? When will they start showing more support for the gimmicks, movement options and gameplay features this game offers yet doesn't utilize as much as we hoped? Only time will tell.
as someone whose second and fifth most played games are ffxiv and splatoon 3 respectively the soundtrack you picked for this video made me happy (if anyone is wondering what the rest are: 1st is team fortress 2, 3rd is terraria, 4th is roblox)
figured i’d check because i was curious average ranking for splatoon 3 maps: E tier average ranking for splatoon 2 maps: high D tier average ranking for splatoon 1 maps: high D tier however, if you shuffle Mahi and Hammerhead-the two maps they completely remade for splatoon 3 so they basically count as new maps at this point-over from splatoon 1 to splatoon 3, the average for Spl1 shoots up all the way to A tier. Splatoon 3 goes down only slightly and stays E tier. the difference between splatoon 3 and splatoon 1/2 doesnt sound that big but keep in mind how bottom-heavy this tier list is. the difference from high D to mid E is notably big
Well, there are some stuff I didn't know in here, like Wahoo's carousel being see-through, scoring from snipe in Sturgeon Clam Blitz and some jumps from Tower or RM checkpoints into otherwise hard to reach routes
I want them to add a new special (➡️CONCEPT ⬅️), made this concept. Indelible ink, this special gives u an extra inktank that can be used to ink uninkable walls, weakness: it lacks of ink efficiency, u get only enough to paint 1/2 walls, don't waste ur ink. The enemy team can take out the indelible ink just shooting at it making it "melt". I hope y'all like this concept
In my opinion, inkblot art academy the definition of so bad it’s good it is designed horribly, but it is so much fun to play especially with the ability to overflow into the enemy teams super jump location
I agree with most of the list but I don’t get why mahi and museum zones are so high. Like mahi after the water drops is good but until then it’s just as cramped and impossible to navigate as all the other modes, with literally 2 pieces of cover. Museum on the other hand does make it relatively easy to get back into mid from spawn, but the middle spinner gives the attackers a big advantage even if someone does flank, and the only realistic way to retreat most of the time is into a corner surrounded by uninkable walls. And I think the way the spinner spokes interact with the camera is really annoying in general
I can say with confidence that playing Undertow on zones is one of the least fun experiences I've had in Splatoon 3. It somehow feels impossible to both hold and take the zones, and single-handedly tainted my perception of any zone stage with more than 1 zone.
I know this is focused on competitive play, but I'd love to see how a video like this would go for turf war viability in a competitive sense. Just out of curiosity.
I remember in an older video of yours, you mentioned that tower control could be a lot better if they had a cannon on top of the tower, like the ones you can use in Salmon Run Cohock Charge. I think that would be a great idea, instead of the annoying passive special charge on that mode. I really wish Nintendo would do something amazing like that, but I’m sure they won’t because that’s just the world we Splatoon fans live in.
Not having paintable walls will always be a confusing thing to me, as the paintable walls are basically why they’re squids and octopuses respectively. During the creation of Splatoon 1 they didn’t know what to do with the walls, and they hadn’t figured out what species they would be yet. Eventually when they landed on squids the paintable wall issue was fixed! But now.. Most of the time there is no paintable walls. Did they just forget one of the selling points???
Funnily enough, I personally like Mahi-Mahi tower control a LOT! It’s one of my favorites to play, lol. The middle is a hectic battle of tug-of-war until checkpoint 3, in which case the winners of the middle battle do have a decent chance at winning for managing to get through that chaotic inkbath. I agree that the spawns are not great, but otherwise it’s extremely fun and the dynamism of the water level lowering and rising over the course of the match keeps it fresh and makes strategy really important.
This is pretty much spot on. That said. . .I weirdly like Mincemeat Clams >.> Yes, its awful, but it feels amazing when storming the castle actually succeeds and you can then sit tight in yours. I know its terrible design. . .but it is funny. I find Brinewater clams to also be really really grinding at points, one of the few maps I've had go to 7 minutes in overtime.
Mincemeat Rainmaker and Tower control deserve more credit honestly, both modes have multiple flank options for both the attacking and defending teams, the defending team can actually retreat easily (including an extra sponge in tower control), and there are actual options for rainmaker pushes instead of just a single route like so many other stages have. It really is just mid that is terrible for being dominated by long ranged weapons, but I would prefer this stages mid over something like moray towers. Its not great, but for these two modes on this stage it is MILES ahead of something like Hammerhead Zones, Manta Maria Rainmaker, or Scorch Gorge Tower Control.
ONE X tier map being a returning Splat 1 stage while a dumpster fire of terrible maps remain at the bottom is honestly so depressing. Almost ALL of 3's new stages were decent before getting gutted, and it's really depressing that every map is a plastic coated tetris block 😢
