Splatoon

Retired.

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Splatoon​

Splatoon

North American box art

Developer(s)	Nintendo EAD Group No. 2
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Producer(s)	Hisashi Nogami (producer) Katsuya Eguchi (general producer) Shigeru Miyamoto (general producer) Satoru Iwata (executive producer)
Director(s)	Yusuke Amano Tsubasa Sakaguchi
Platform(s)	Wii U
Release	JP: 28 May 2015 NA & EU: 29 May 2015 AU: 30 May 2015
Genre(s)	Third-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer
Media	Wii U optical disc Digital download (eShop)
Game size(s)	2.9 GB
Age rating(s)	JP: All Ages by CERO EU: 7+ by PEGI NA: Everyone 10+ by ESRB AU: Parental Guidance by ACB

StrategyWiki has an article about: Splatoon

For other things the name "Splatoon" is used for, see Splatoon (disambiguation).

“	Dive in to color, chaos, and inkin' awesome battles in this squidtastic take on the action shooter.	”
— Splatoon's official website

Splatoon is a third-person shooter developed and published by Nintendo. The game features battles between Inklings, using weaponized ink to cover territory and "splat" opponents. The game was first revealed at the Nintendo E3 2014 Digital Event and was released for the Wii U on 29 May 2015.

The game was very popular for the Wii U, selling 4.95 million copies and being the sixth-best selling title on the system. Splatoon won the "Best Shooter" and "Best Multiplayer" awards at The Game Awards 2015. It was also nominated for "Best Family Game", but lost to Super Mario Maker.

Splatoon's sequel, named Splatoon 2, was released for the Nintendo Switch on 21 July 2017. It includes brand-new weapons, gear, stages, modes, and also a new story, set two years after the original Splatoon.

Development

An early design of Splatoon featuring blocks of tofu.

Splatoon was first created by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development in late 2013, directed by Yusuke Amano and Tsubasa Sakaguchi, and produced by Hisashi Nogami, longtime director for the Animal Crossing series. The team had thought of over seventy game ideas but eventually decided to focus on a game involving inking turf after playing a concept game by Shintaro Sato. At first, this concept featured black and white blocks of tofu with noses that sprayed ink. The game featured a top-down view, allowing the tofu blocks to blend in with their splattered turf.

A later design of Splatoon featuring rabbits on an early Urchin Underpass. Note the almost-complete Splattershot.

However, these characters presented a variety of problems, so development began on a different character that was vaguely humanoid in shape. A rabbit was chosen as the design because its floppy ears would indicate what direction it was traveling when viewed from above. Many EAD developers criticized this idea, so ideas such as Mario, robots, and macho men were considered. The rabbits were later scrapped in favor of a squid because the team wanted a character that made sense in regards to the environment and gameplay mechanics. The squids at this stage appeared to be squid-human hybrids, but it was decided that instead of this design, the game would feature humanoid Inklings with the ability to transform into squids.

The E3 2014 Splatoon demo was shown in-person in Los Angeles in June 2014, with local Turf War matches available to play as part of an early version of the game.

A few weeks before release, the Splatoon Global Testfire application, a limited Splatoon demo, was released for the Wii U. Players could download it and play on 8 and 9 May 2015, at 3:00, 11:00 and 19:00 UTC, for one hour at a time. A second Testfire event happened on the 23 May 2015, at 22:00 UTC. Due to complications, the event was extended to run for two hours instead of one.

There are three versions of the game: Japanese, North American, and European/Oceanian. The purpose of the three versions is to separate region-based content such as Splatfests, especially ones containing advertisements. Each version has its own translations of the games, even with several differences between the North American and European/Oceanian versions' English, French, and Spanish translations. For the European/Oceanian version, the game was also localized to German and Italian.

Online shutdown

An unusually long online downtime took place in 2023, with implications for the future of Splatoon's online play. Nintendo took the online servers for Splatoon offline for emergency maintenance on 3 March 2023 at 04:30 UTC as they discovered the ENLBufferPwn vulnerablity within the game, leaving players with single-player and local co-op functionality only. The game was back online on 3 August 2023 at 01:00 UTC, requiring players to download version 2.12.1 - the first Splatoon update in almost seven years and the first since the release of its sequels. Nintendo soon stated: "If further issues occur which make it difficult to continue supporting online play, we may have to discontinue the online play service for the Wii U games Splatoon and Mario Kart 8 at short notice."

Nintendo went on to end all online play services for Nintendo Network on 8 April 2024 at 23:00 UTC, which rendered all online functions in Splatoon permanently inaccessible. Players that had remained within games and the matchmaking lobby over the cutoff time were able to keep playing, at least until they were disconnected from the server. Anyone who attempts to receive stage data in Splatoon now will receive error 104-2210.

Story

The single-player Octo Valley mode tells the main story of the game. Many years after the great Turf War, with the hope of invading the Inklings' world, the Octarians built an underground facility known as Octo Valley. After the disappearance of the Zapfish from the Inklings' world, the protagonist, wearing the Hero Suit, must infiltrate the base and rescue all the Zapfish.

Gameplay

Splatoon is a third-person shooter game focused on online multiplayer battles, in which eight players are divided into two teams of four. In the game mode Turf War, teams fight to cover the arena in as much ink of their team's color as possible. In Splat Zones, they try to control certain zones for a set amount of time by covering the Splat Zone(s) in ink. Players have two main forms and may switch between the two at will: their humanoid form, in which they can use weapons to spread ink and splatter opponents, and their squid form, which they can use to swim through ink at great speed and up walls, recharge the player's ink tank faster (while in their ink) and hide in their team's ink. Players can also utilize sub weapons, such as Splat Bombs, and special weapons, such as Inkzookas.

In the primary game mode, Turf War, players are awarded points based on the amount of land they cover in their team's ink—the team that covers the most territory within three minutes wins the match.

Splatoon also features a single-player Octo Valley mode, which sees the player travel to Octo Valley and traverse levels based on 3D platforming and puzzle-solving.

Since its initial launch, Splatoon received many updates to introduce new stages, weapons, and wholly new gameplay modes to the game's multiplayer mode. Also, Nintendo announced and hosted semi-regular community events called Splatfests, where players could pick a team to side with and play Turf Wars against each other for prizes and glory. Both upcoming updates, as well as upcoming Splatfest information, can be read about on the game's official Tumblr page, named Squid Research Lab.

Technical

Splatoon has a native resolution of 720p; selecting an output resolution other than 720p in the Wii U system settings will cause the game's 720p image to be scaled to the selected display resolution. Splatoon runs at 60 frames per second, with the exception of the main hub area, Inkopolis Plaza, which runs at 30 frames per second. Performance of Splatoon is generally very stable, with frames only being noticeably dropped in particularly hectic moments. The game features Dynamic Resolution Scaling to momentarily decrease render resolution during high GPU load to avoid frame drops. Imagery viewed through transparent surfaces such as glass or water appear blurry as they are rendered at half-resolution.

Characters

Main article: Character

Protagonists

• Inklings
• Agent 3

Secondary

• Callie & Marie
• Judd
• Cap'n Cuttlefish
• Spyke
• Sheldon
• Annie and Moe
• Jelonzo
• Crusty Sean

Antagonists

• Octarians
• DJ Octavio

Modes

Main article: Mode

• Regular Battle
  • Turf War
• Ranked Battle
  • Splat Zones
  • Tower Control
  • Rainmaker
• Splatfest Battle
  • Splatfest Turf War
• Squad Battle
• Private Battle

Multiplayer stages

Main article: Stage

Multiplayer stages in Splatoon
Urchin Underpass	Walleye Warehouse	Saltspray Rig	Arowana Mall
Blackbelly Skatepark	Port Mackerel	Kelp Dome	Bluefin Depot
Moray Towers	Camp Triggerfish	Flounder Heights	Hammerhead Bridge
Museum d'Alfonsino	Mahi-Mahi Resort	Piranha Pit	Ancho-V Games

Weapons

Main article: Weapon

• List of main weapons in Splatoon
• List of sub weapon sets in Splatoon
• List of special weapon sets in Splatoon

Manga series

Main article: Splatoon (manga)

In June 2015, a Splatoon manga was released by Sankichi to celebrate its release in Japan. However, this was a fan-made one-shot, and the official version was released in December 2015 as a one-shot type until April 2016.

Gallery

➤ View the gallery

Unused content

Main article: Unused content in Splatoon

Trivia

Splatoon shown as the most requested game on Nintendo eShop.

• The Inklings' squid form shares strong similarities with Bloopers from the Super Mario series.
• In the single-player trailer from the November 2014 Nintendo Direct, a frame of artwork consists of Bloopers from the Super Mario series and Octoroks from The Legend of Zelda series.
• According to an email sent by Nintendo, Splatoon was listed as the top wish-listed game in Nintendo's eShop over the summer it was released.
• Despite the Nintendo Network servers shutting down on 9 April 2024, Twitter user @Lcd101 was still connected and posting the ongoing rotations in a Twitter thread for 68 continuous days, albeit connected through a Wii U emulator running on a Steam Deck, rather than on legitimate Wii U hardware. Their connection officially went offline on 16 June 2024.

Etymology

Splatoon is a portmanteau of "splat" and "platoon."

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	スプラトゥーン supuratūn	Splatoon

See also

• Splatoon manual for America
• Splatoon manual for Europe and Australia

External links

• Official Japanese Splatoon website
• Official American English Splatoon website
• Official European English Splatoon website
• Announcement trailer. This trailer, shown at E3 2014, was the first glimpse of Splatoon seen by the public.
• Splatoon - The Cutting Room Floor