Splatoon 3’s new weapons get a spotlight in today’s Nintendo Treehouse stream

The Splatana looks pretty sick

The Nintendo Treehouse went live today with a special stream highlighting two upcoming Switch games. First up was Splatoon 3, which got a big showcase of not just its single-player campaign, but some of its new weapons.

The Treehouse team set about tackling some levels in Splatoon 3 that were largely spoiler-free, outside of general locale information. The first few segments are absolutely some familiar Splatoon multiplayer. Blast some ink, jet along the course, take out the bad guys, and reach the goal.

What caught my eye right away was some of the new Splatoon 3 weapons the team spotlighted. The Splatana, an ink-launching katana, looks really great in motion. It’s got different fire modes for different situations, and feels like an interesting evolution of the close-range weapons. The Stamper variant the team demoed today had some heaviness to each swing, and surprising range too.

The Tri-Stinger was next up, and it’s essentially an ink bow. Just blasting away lobs three ink globs forward, while charging it shoots time-detonated globs. Charging it all the way narrows the spread, letting the ink land in a nice, tight grouping. Plus, while it fires horizontally on the ground, jumping swaps it to a vertical grouping.

The Tri-Stinger challenge closed out the single-player portion of the stream, as one of the Treehouse members tackled a challenge level for it. The mission is a rail-grinding mission quite reminiscent of Splatoon 2‘s Octoling Expansion. It’s a tough-looking challenge that I’m down to fail at, over and over.

Mastering the arsenal

Today’s Treehouse was a good watch, to get an idea of some of the new weapons coming to Splatoon 3 ahead of launch. The third entry in Nintendo’s squid-kid shooter is hosting a worldwide Splatfest demo this weekend, and you can hop in right now to get some training. This might be a good chance to acquaint yourself with the new tools of the trade, before the action kicks off on Saturday.

Start playing #Splatoon3 today with the Splatfest World Premiere demo! Here’s 3 things you can do right now before the main event on 8/27.

Download the demo now:https://t.co/ASReKaB3Q6 pic.twitter.com/YJEZV3WkG9

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) August 25, 2022

And if Splatoon 3 isn’t in your wheelhouse, check out that Harvestella footage at the end. Square Enix’s new farming life RPG is looking pretty solid.