Summer Memories of Sunning, Swimming and Splatoon

My husband and I have long encouraged our children to have their friends over to our house. It allows us to maintain a close relationship with our children as well as the opportunity to get to know their friends. We truly believe it’s in a parents best interest to know the people who are really influencing your kids. We’ve been very lucky over the years, in that many of our children’s friends are more like extended family now.

Now that summer has arrived, we’re gearing up for a house full of kids over the next two months. Sleepovers are a common occurrence and having two, three, and even four extra mouths to feed is routine. I don’t mind one bit. In fact, I truly love doing it.

Of course this type of commitment can only come with some planning. We want there to be fun things for our girls and their friends to do here, so we make a point of making sure there’s always lots to do.

Camping in the backyard, swimming in the pool, biking on trails near our house, visiting the park and even just making bubbles are some of the great summer activities we encourage the girls to participate in. These things all have one thing in common though, they are all weather dependent. I need a back up plan for rainy days and this summer its come in the form of Splatoon.

Splatoon is perfect fun for my tween girls and their friends. In this game made for Wii U, the biggest messmaker wins. Talk about appropriate for a bunch of girls who still leave their wet pool towels on my floors. Sigh. I digress.

Splatoon is just honest-to-goodness fun and I’ve had the chance to see it in action for a couple of weeks now.

Splatoon is set in the city of Inkopolis which is inhabited by beings called Inklings. Inklings are half human, half squid. Stay with me here moms and dads. Not only can Inklings shape shift, but they’re packing heat but not in the violent manner you might expect. To the contrary, this game is a rainbow explosion as Inklings run amok trying to paint everything in their path and beat their opponent. When transformed into a squid, Inklings can swim up ramps and walls while filling their ink tank for more Splatooning. 

Players get to dress their Inklings in cools clothes and even pick their paint weapon. As levels get higher, choices for clothing and weapon expands. The Wii U Gamepad adds an extra dimension to playing Splatoon by allowing players to get a unique lay of the land, in particular, where there opponent is. You can also pick up Splatoon amiibos to make the game even more challenging and to unlock more choices for gear for Inklings. On the rare day that we don’t have extra kids here, my girls can play online in a 4 vs 4 multiplayer game. I don’t expect to hear cries of “I’m bored”, when Splatoon is on.

Our rainy day activity has been found for this summer and I love it. Nintendo has scored big with this game. Splatoon is classic video game fun that is going to give our previous favourite, Mario Kart a run for its money.

 

Thank you to Nintendo Canada for sponsoring this post. Splatoon has been a game the whole family enjoys.