A Decade of Splatoon, Nintendo’s Innovative Shooter

May 28th 2015. The world was blessed with a brand-new, totally fresh experience from Nintendo and everything changed for the software juggernaut. Their first truly new IP in years, Splatoon made quite a splash on the WiiU, selling nearly 5 million units on a system that barely hit 13 million is a remarkable feat. An online multiplayer-focused shooting game was not something Nintendo had really tackled before, and to completely knock it out of the park with their first attempt is impressive. I fell in love with the series from the first outing on the WiiU and it has remained a staple series in my portfolio of all-time gaming greats. As it’s now hit that ripe, 10-years-old (time is fleeting…) milestone, let’s take a look back on what made the series one of the core pillars of Nintendo.

Are you a kid or a squid?

Splatoon‘s main game mode follows a basic but intuitive concept that makes it accessible for players of any skill level, simply coat the ground in as much ink as you can. To suitably frame this concept they needed characters for which painting and coating the ground would make sense, and thus the Inklings were born. Inklings are squid-like humanoids that can transform into squid at will to traverse through ink of their same colour. Due to the squid-based characters being the main playable characters, the developers went with an aquatic theme and dialled it up to 11. The lore and implied timeline of the Splatoon franchise are both deep and disturbing, with human demise leading to squid evolution. Freaky. All of this packaged in a brightly coloured paint-slinging online experience certainly makes Splatoon stand out.

Gotta Splat ’em All

With a premise so fresh, how does it tackle the important part, the gameplay? Well, the game is split into three distinct modes: single-player story mode, standard ‘Turf Wars’ and more focused ranked modes. As previously stated, the objective of a Turf War is to ink the most floor to lead your team to victory. Obviously, it’s a bit deeper than that with main weapons, subweapons and specials to help mix it up paired with the ability to splat the opponent. The battles end up being a cavalcade of ink slinging on turf and at the other team to slow them down and slowly consume as much of the map in your coloured ink as you can muster. With a quirky concept, comes quirky weapons. From a paint roller, an umbrella and even a paintbrush, there’s a main weapon for everyone here.

The story mode does so much more than teach you the fundamentals of the gameplay. It has engaging characters and (as alluded to earlier) lore exploration. As you complete stages you can find and read ‘sunken scrolls’, this game’s historical archives. From revelations such as how the Inklings evolved, to a vision of our impending doom via climate change, there’s a lot to take in.

Finally, the ranked mode offers three distinct match types, Tower Control, Rainmaker and Splat Zones. Splat Zones is the easiest to explain, simply cover a specified area in your ink and defend, defend, defend until the time runs out. Tower Control is similar, capture the tower and ride it into enemy turf to hit the target point and win! Rainmaker mixes this up and is my personal favourite, one player grabs the rainmaker (a huge gun that shoots a vortex of ink in your selected direction) and carries it to the target point. The caveat is that the weapon is slow, causes your movement to be sluggish and takes a while to charge. Your team supports your push forward and helps keep the other team held back whilst you ascend to victory!

Music and Style

The original title takes a fusion of synthesised pop and rock that is very reminiscent of the early 2000s pop music scene. Using vocal synthesisers similar to Vocaloid for the vocal tracks, mixed with this rock vibe gives a unique but upbeat energy to battles. There are idol songs too that follow the same beat, the songs almost sound like words but the rhythm and flow of the tracks make the nonsense catchy. Splatoon is also very in tune with style; dressing up your Inkling in “fresh” and distinct ways are encouraged as the street fashion adds to its urban presentation. Clothing does more than make you stand out though—each piece has its own perks and benefits that can be manipulated with slots. As you gain experience, so does your wardrobe and as they level up the slots are filled with stat-boosting effects that will help you in battle. The way Splatoon combines its striking visual presentation with its distinct sound design is key to making it a stand-out success.

Splatfests

To keep the community engaged, special events called “Splatfests” would be held once a month. These pitted two options of a question against each other, and the idols of the game, Marie and Callie, would side with an option and you would fight for your choice and idol! These would range from Pineapple on Pizza, which direction toilet roll should face, to even licensed fests like Spongebob VS Patrick and Pokémon Red VS Pokémon Blue. These usually gave unique ink colours not normally seen in gameplay and allowed you to play nighttime variants of the usual stages, a nice touch. You could write posts on Miiverse too that would show up on the stages as graffiti, but in these fests it felt more intimate as you were defending your team’s honour. These fests evolved more over time with more reasons to play but they had a very solid start here in the original Wii U days

Forging The Way To Victory

Splatoon worked out to be so much of a success that Nintendo quickly commissioned a sequel to release just two years after the original premiered. This was largely due to the release of the Nintendo Switch in 2017, with the aim to appease the Wii U installation base. The fact they released it so early into the new console’s lifespan just demonstrates their confidence in their new franchise. This was yet another astounding success with as many copies of Splatoon 2 being sold as the Wii U in its entirety, 13.6 million!

This wouldn’t end here though, Nintendo released yet another sequel in 2022 which also sold incredibly well. With Splatoon sales hitting 30 million, it’s become a pillar in Nintendo’s IPs and is showcased proudly in the newly opened San Francisco Nintendo Store. They are also one of the major IPs showcased on their website and feature continuous support in competitive events and within other Nintendo media, such as manga and toys.

Future?

Nintendo are clearly very content with Splatoon’s performance. It became one of the best-selling Nintendo IPs in record time. With such a marketable and flexible mascot to utilise it’s no surprise that the Inklings can fit anywhere, even featuring in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It would not surprise me to see Splatoon 4 hit the Nintendo Switch 2 early in its lifespan, it feels inevitable. But, with the end of Splatoon 3‘s content in 2024, the shape this will take remains a mystery.

The future is bright for Splatoon. It’s proven that you can and should take risks with wacky new IP and that Nintendo still has what it takes to innovate and bring fresh new experiences to players. It’s personally been a highlight of my last decade with Nintendo and I hope to see more in the future. Have you ever played Splatoon? What are some of your favourite elements and/or memories of it? Let us know!