The Wii U may be on its way out soon thanks to the Nintendo Switch, but one of its exclusive titles is still going strong. Splatoon took the world by storm with its unique look, fun gameplay and fresh ideas. With so much packed into it a single game, one would think it couldn't get any better, but of course, there's always room for improvement. After receiving a little sneak peek at the future of Splatoon 2 during the recent Switch events, it got us thinking about what we would want to see in a sequel. There is already a lot of new content, but what else could there be?

Squid Research Lab

The current target range and practicing area is alright but could be greatly improved upon. Allowing players to test new weapons on the fly using a single button to cycle through is a great idea and including a button for gear as well could help even more. Bring a pop-up inventory list to the area allowing us to create pre-made sets of gear we might not currently have and letting us check out other specials and abilities. It could be a slot of customized power-ups to see if stacking certain gear will benefit them. It will reduce the need to back out and go through menu screens and wasting time. Include the ability to create test gear sets and shoot at AI targets to really practice some skills. That would be similar to facing enemies in the single player storyline from the first game but capable of selecting different modes of attack. This is all going toward new research, for science!

Pick Your Own

The amount of customization you can give Inklings from head to toe is pretty good. There are a number of fresh clothing options, eye color, and even ink to make your characters look good. However, there are a lot of other options out there that could really give our kids and squids some style. Allowing us to pick our own colors before battles will give it some much needed change. Perhaps Splatoon 2 will let us pick green to go up against blue which is something that has never happened. No more staring at the same old ink stains! In addition to colors, letting us pick battle music to enjoy in matches and the option of night or day would turn matches into experiences. The only time you play at night was during Splatfest and those are gone! Give us some more customization so each Inkling can become even fresher!

Save Matches

As Nintendo and Splatoon move into the world of eSports and competitive gaming, including a save match feature is will help contestants in more ways than one. Perhaps this feature was left off during the original planning but it is something we desperately need. Some games including Mario Kart 8 and even Pokémon allow you to save recent rounds. Splatoon implementing a save feature lets professional players come up with strategies by watching and learning from mistakes. Not only all that, but it would be great for all fans to easily upload those videos so the entire world can watch. The Switch was revealed to have a screenshot button that should later be able to save videos and allow you to share over social media. Hopefully it will record the entire match and not just little snippets to easily upload them to YouTube and more. The technology is there, it's something fans want, so let's make it happen.

Spectating

Many online shooters allow you the opportunity to sit back and watch the action from a safe location. Spectating helps a lot with watching how other players react to situation and could allow you to plan your attack when getting the chance to face-off against them. Splatoon is a colorful, entertaining game and it'd be a lot more fun to watch some matches while waiting for your own to start. It's also a lot of fun to catch whatever antics are going on should you just choose to watch matches instead of competing. Big fans of the game will want to catch all the action even if they're not looking to get splatted. Spectating during your own match would be tough but switching between players to see their point of view has been done in other games and could be useful here. Aerial views have even been shown off in commercials and trailers but never used except giving us a look at the stage when starting a match. It'd be a pretty cool way to check out all of your surroundings at once and watch the turf become completely covered with ink. Spectating is a staple of online shooters and Splatoon getting more serious in recent months means it would be a great benefit.

Octolings

Inklings are the main characters of the game, they're cute and very fresh. They also happen to be fierce rivals of the Octolings. Octolings can be seen in the single player mode of the game and are featured as bad guys to splat throughout various stages. But once you beat the game, the rivalry could end right there. That's why in the next Splatoon game, we should be allowed the option of playing as an Octoling. We know it will feature new hairstyles, one of which could be the Octolings' up-do. Plus, it's already possible to play as them albeit through hacking the game. But they appear in single player mode as fully capable models with unique voice clips that can easily just swap spots with an Inkling. If it's able to happen then Nintendo could just let us have fun as Octolings. It could be seen as a sign of peace between the two species. Splatoon 2 takes place two years after the events in the first game, so maybe things have gotten a lot better since then. With Octoling gear already in the game it makes more sense letting them wear their own stuff. If not Octolings then perhaps Jelonzo is an excellent second choice. Why should Inklings get to have all the fun?

Sorting Gear

So, you know when you're switching up weapons or outfits and cycle through the entire list just to find one thing? Maybe you've went around twice and still missed it. It gets annoying, but would be a lot less frustrating if there was a way to sort all the items. The menus kind of go by what's been recently used, but it's not always the case. Give us the option, at the press of a button, to list every piece of headgear by name, brand, power-ups and more. Then, do the same for shirts and shoes. Weapons could easily be grouped by style, specials, sub weapons and more. Adding this feature to the menus will make it look and feel professional and not just shoved into a closet like some messy squid kid would do. Organization is key.

There are plenty of other changes that can be made to the game and with Splatoon 2 announcements bound to come, who knows, maybe some of these will actually come true. Until then, comment below with features and additions you'd like to see included or even removed in the sequel.