Nintendo’s ink-stained shooter Splatoon coming to Wii U in the first half of 2015

By Will Fulton November 6, 2014

Splatoon, the ink-spraying third-person shooter for Wii U that Nintendo revealed at E3, has been given a release window of Q2 2015 and a new trailer showing off the single player gameplay.

The game is built around the interesting mechanic of shooting ink onto surfaces which you can then swim through as a squid. The original reveal showed the mechanic in a team-based, competitive shooter as a means of area control. This new trailer highlights how this will play out in the single player campaign. It looks like a fast-paced shooter/puzzle-platformer–Super Mario Galaxy meets Portal 2 (though sans Cave Johnson, unfortunately). The video also offers up a first look at the game’s villains — a group of autonomous tentacles that are extremely reminiscent of the classic LucasArts adventure, The Day of the Tentacle.

Nintendo has spent the better part of the last fifteen years cashing in on its established brands like Mario, Metroid, and Zelda. The results have frequently been excellent, but it is nevertheless refreshing to see a brand new IP for Splatoon. A new game based around innovative mechanics hearkens back to the company’s trailblazing creative roots, and shows that the legendary game makers aren’t ready to just rest on their well-earned laurels.

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Will Fulton is a New York-based writer and theater-maker. In 2011 he co-founded mythic theater company AntiMatter Collective…

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