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We're no strangers to Splatoon 2, of course. It was one of the very first Switch titles we played at Nintendo's launch event - and the chances are that if you own the hardware, you would have participated in one of its 'test fire' pre-launch beta tests. We've had the opportunity to play the final version of the game and can now address some of the burning questions fans are posing. Specifically, to what extent is the engine technology an upgrade over the debut Wii U title - and what resolution does the game deliver in its final form?Splatoon 2's pixel-count is an issue that many thought put to rest in the wake of E3, where during Nintendo's Treehouse stream, Hisashi Nogami - the game's producer - seemingly confirmed a 1080p output from the title. However, Nogami was speaking in Japanese and there was a subtle error in the translation - what he actually said was that the game runs at a maximum resolution of 1080p. And that's exactly what the game delivers: dynamic scaling according to GPU load - something we've already seen in Switch titles like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Fast RMX.
During docked gameplay, we noted a wide range of resolutions, peaking at 1080p in less busy scenes and dropping to 864p - the lowest native pixel-count we picked up on. However, the reality is that resolution is adjusting on a near constant basis to maintain the target frame-rate. You can test the dynamic resolution feature yourself right from the very first screen. If you point the camera upwards the resolution jumps straight up to 1080p but when you look back down it drops to 864p instead. A similar set-up is in place when the Switch is unseated from its dock, whereupon GPU clocks drop significantly. For the most part, Splatoon 2 seems to fluctuate between two specific framebuffer sizes - 1152x648 and the native 720p of the mobile display. The difference is subtle and likely to pass unnoticed during handheld gameplay.
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