Since 2015, Nintendo has been unchallenged when it comes to some of its top titles. Everyone wants to be the next Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Pokemon, or Mario but few rarely reach that status. In 2015, Nintendo unleashed a new title that would be the start of a new franchise, Splatoon. Over the last eight years, Splatoon has taken the world by storm with its quirky characters, competitive shooting, and fun yet colorful use of paint. Last year, Nintendo released Splatoon 3 to positive reviews. Now, a new challenger looks to fight Nintendo for the best colorful shooter. At Summer Game Fest, Square Enix unveiled Foamstars a new colorful foam shooter. At the moment, no official release date has been announced at this time.
So what is Foamstars? Foamstars is a 4 v 4 PVP shooter that uses Foam as the primary weapon. As you shoot your sun, you will cover the map with foam; while in your team’s foam, you will move faster. Once you have damaged an enemy enough, they will be trapped in a foam ball. If you or an ally surfs over the foamed enemy they are eliminated; if the enemy team surfs over them they are rescued. Once a team has enough players eliminated, a team’s best player gets marked as MVP. Once the MVP has been eliminated the round is over.
Demo
At PAX West 2023, we had the opportunity to get reacquainted with Foamstars at Square Enix’s booth. To speed up the line, we played a best of three rather than a best of five. Each team before they loaded into the match could choose their Foamstar equipped with a wide variety of weapons and abilities. In each match, the abilities have cooldowns. As the player covers the map with foam, they charge up their regular and special abilities. Once a special ability is charged, players can unleash a devastating amount of foam.
For those who do not know what Foamstars is, it is a 3rd person shooter that feels like a blend between Splatoon and Gears of War. The core gameplay can take a bit to get used to but once you do, it is fairly simple to understand; the hard part comes when you face other people who are good at the game. For the PAX demo, it is fairly limited to which characters you can see. Since it is only best of three, you can only see at least three characters. We will ultimately learn more about it during the open beta.
A Foamstars open beta will be held from Friday, September 29 @ 6 p.m. PDT – to Sunday, October 1 @ 11.59 p.m. PDT. Players who participate in the open beta will receive an exclusive cosmetic item for the character Soa available at launch. The demo will feature
- “SMASH THE STAR”: Compete in a frantic battle where the winning strategy changes as the match progresses. In “SMASH THE STAR”, each team must battle it out to secure seven knockouts on the opposing team. Once this is achieved, the best player is chosen to be the “Star Player” and becomes the key to victory! To win the match, teams must defeat the opposing team’s “Star Player” while also protecting their own!
- “HAPPY BATH SURVIVAL”: A battle between two teams comprised of two “infield” players and two “outfield” players. Victory is earned by defeating both opponent “infield” players, while “outfield” players support and provide defense for their teammates!
