Today it was announced that Splatoon, Nintendo’s first attempt at a ‘shooter’, has sold over 1 million units. Generally, it’s of little interest to me whether or not certain games are successful but, with Splatoon, I have to make an exception.
Why? For a number of reasons I think. Chief among them: Splatoon is one of the few moments where Nintendo has placed a decent-sized investment in a brand-new, big-budget video game unrelated to any of its major mascots. It represents a risk — the kind of risk Nintendo isn’t usually willing to take. In an alternate dimension Splatoon is called Mario Paintball and the gang is taking a well-earned break from karting/golfing/tennising to blast at each other for a while. That’s a sucky alternate universe. I’m glad I exist in the one where Splatoon is Splatoon and is populated by surprisingly fashionable squid with hip and happening ‘tudes.
I’m also happy because Splatoon is a game that deserves success. It would truly suck if Splatoon was a big fat commercial failure because it represents Nintendo’s one true attempt to peak out from its shell and create something cutting-edge and modern. That isn’t to say that Nintendo isn’t cutting-edge — perhaps that’s the wrong term. Games like Mario Galaxy feel like they literally come from another planet. It’s more that Splatoon is cool. It’s cool in a truly unique way. It feels like a Nintendo game, but a game made by a different, more open-minded Nintendo. A Nintendo that actually paid attention to what was going on outside over the last decade and took notes. If Splatoon was an abject failure, I get the sense Nintendo would have pulled its collective head back into that shell, that they’d draw the curtains shut and be Nintendo for another decade.
Splatoon is an important game. It represents somewhat of a compromise. The compromise that I would like Nintendo to make. Splatoon is original, it’s weird, it’s uniquely Nintendo — but it’s also culturally relevant in a good way. In a way Nintendo hasn’t been in decades and, arguably, has never been. Splatoon is — gasp — almost fashionable.
It’s also really, really good.
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18 responses to “I’m Really Happy Splatoon Has Sold A Million Copies On The Wii U”
It is really is really good, I find I am playing the Wii-U more and more these days, my other consoles sit idle in comparison.
First Nintendo console I have owned, the kids had a DS Lite, but after a slow start we are all loving the Wii-U, and it is simply the best platform for Netflix as well.
I’m mainly a PC gamer, but any time I have mates over, there’s no contest the Wii U is by far the best.
You clearly haven’t got trials hd on console then? 🙂
Best game. Must be my most-played game on Wii U by now.
Agreed. Splatoon came from some new blood developers too so with some luck we’ll see more support for fresh ideas coming from their younger devs.
We’re all squids now.
It’s nice to know Ninty can still nurture new IP from time to time.
*Sigh* Does that include bundled games? Stats are meaningless unless quantified.
Probably does – but I’m not sure it matters – people are clearly getting the WiiU now for Splatoon.
I know i’m contemplating it.
But it’s also cheaper than it’s ever been, for the Wii U premium + Splatoon bundle. So the context here is super important. Otherwise we’re just throwing numbers around and having people go “huh, cool.”
The price drop only applies to Australia, everywhere else already had that drop a couple of years ago.
But the Wii u is looking a LOT better here now. That’s a pretty compelling bundle, and the backlog of original games is pretty hefty.
Yeah, I agree. I have one myself. Apart from the lack of full-RGB range, I’m happy.
I bought it a few days ago. I was on the fence with it. But I am now addicted. I play it at least every night now. Before getting the game my wii u was sitting collecting dust for at least a month and a half.
I don’t know… I mean it seems cool, but am I correct in my understanding that there’s no voice chat? I just don’t know if I can really get into an online shooter if I can’t play against a 12 year old who is blissfully unaware of the irony inherent in calling me a homophobic slur at the same time as he’s teabagging me.
No one teabags in Splatoon.. They Squidbag!
And *I’m* happy Mark came around to the game! I remember him describing his first minutes with the game as a bit ‘meh’ and my heart broke :'(
It’s an excellent game and hopefully the start of a new franchise for Nintendo for the coming consoles.
Now if only I could get a good team in ranked battles. I’m tired of the leaderboard showing me as the best of the worst team, it’s a bad consolation prize.
I know what you mean, I played a game last night where I had the highest score out of all 8 players and I was on the losing team. I was definitely happy with how well I played that game but also so pissed that we lost
Ranked mode is casual until team play is added in August. To play it any other way is just going to be frustrating.
Splatoon felt like it came out of nowhere I kept hearing about it and wasn’t very excited for it but gave it a go and absolutely love it probably one of my favourite wiiu games and the motion controls are brilliant prefer it over a normal twin stick setup.
Willing to bet the sales were helped along by the enormous amount of fan-art in miiverse as well as the net. I couldn’t go too far on Tumblr or Deviantart without seeing the characters or some reference to them. They really hit a heartstring when it comes to character design, and for squids no less!