Splatoon 3’s Fresh Season 2023 is right around the corner, and fans are looking forward to the new content update. While plenty of new items and gear will be added to the game in order to shake up the game’s meta, it’s the latest announcement revealed by the Splatoon team that has players talking. It was revealed that Manta Maria, a stage from Splatoon 2, will make a grand return in Splatoon 3.
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Manta Maria is set on a large sailboat that featured three masts and walkways which players often used to their advantage, let that be offensively or defensively. The stage also featured a ton of corners, allowing players to sneak up on enemies or use the cover to their advantage to escape from a battle.
Fans are excited to see Manta Maria return and are even happier to see that the stage has been relatively untouched. One of the previous returning stages, Flounder Heights, was received with lukewarm reception. In the original game, the vertical map was much larger, had different vantage points, and multiple inkable walls. However, when the stage was added to Splatoon 3, the stage was scaled down significantly and didn’t have as many walls to navigate on.
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Manta Maria isn’t the only stage being added to Splatoon 3 in this update — Um’ami Ruins will be a brand-new stage for the series, set in the desert at an ancient site surrounded by construction cranes and temples. Additionally, next month will see a major update coming to the game’s Salmon Run with a new King Salmonid being introduced through March’s Big Run. Along with the Inkopolis wave of DLC, fans have plenty to look forward to when March arrives and the new season begins.
