Splatoon 3fans are all likely familiar with their Splatsville environs at this point. Seeing as howSplatsville is the player’s hub world inSplatoon 3with access to all their amenities and activities, it is only natural that players would explore its single crowded street and spacious back alleys. If players crane their necks they can see a train moving along an elevated railway, and opposite the lobby’s skyscraper tower is a wall of high-rise apartments.
Navigating this area is relatively simple even if the player can not move at a quicker pace, but the slow travel is not the biggest issue that Splatsville presents to players. Having the option tofast-travel inSplatoon 3seems fantastic on paper, even if the hub world in its entirety is not that overwhelming or confusing to traverse. Unfortunately,Splatoon 3has a fluidity problem when it comes to its menus that make hub world map navigation a chore.
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Hub World Menu in Splatoon 3 is Unintuitive
Splatoon 3’s hub world menu has several issues. First, there are two separate menus players access by either pressing the “+” input or the “X” buttons on the Switch. The former allows players to customize their character, which can only be done within the hub world’s free-roam areas while not in a queue.
The latter, however, opens a menu with several tabs. The first tab seen on this menu is titled “Map,” which lays out a duct-taped, top-down map of Splatsville. It is here that players can fast-travel to certain destinations as an attempt to make the player’s exploration more fluid, with associable icons for fast-travel that players can select on the left of the map tab. A waypoint marker bounces on the map in the location that players will be transported to, but this design is relatively dysfunctional and incomplete. For example, hovering over the lobby fast-travel icon points toward the doors to the lobby withSplatoon 3’s Murch NPCoutside.
Some players could interpret this as taking them outside the lobby doors in front of Murch, but instead they are taken inside the lobby. Furthermore, there is a location marked on the map that is for some reason impossible to fast-travel to: the Tableturf Battle Dojo. Players must then annoyingly walk the entire way there, or fast-travel close to it and walk the rest. It is frustrating and unclear why there is not a fast-travel option to reach the Tableturf Battle Dojo, and rendersSplatoon 3’s map incomplete as a result.
Simple Menu Fixes Could Improve in Splatoon 3
Interestingly, the map’s issues in Splatsville seem to chiefly concern Tableturf Battle. It may be that Tableturf Battle was not prioritized, potentially with the expectation that not many fans would be wholly enticed by it. But if that is the case, it is unfair to players who do have an inclination to play it, and for it to be seemingly sidelined is bewildering since it is stillone of many featured game modes inSplatoon 3.
In the same menu that players open to access the map, a tab titled “Status” gives playersthe option to view their Tableturf deck. From here, there are several options players can indulge in: editing their deck, changing their deck names, changing deck sleeves, and copying or deleting decks.
Navigating this menu is not terribly convoluted, but it is clear that it has less fluidity than other menu options inSplatoon 3. Once inside Sheldon’s Ammo Knights, for example, players can easily swap between Naut Couture, Man-o’-Wardrobe, Crush Station, and Hotlantis by pressing “L” and “R.” That said, allSplatoon 3needs to make its menu more intuitive is to include a genuine fast-travel point to Tableturf Battle, much less anywhere players may wish to travel to.
Splatoon 3is available now on Nintendo Switch.
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