Thank you for all the memes and good bye. Splatoon
The Wii U and 3DS servers are officially down, so you can no longer play the original Splatoon on Nintendo's divisive system. Well, that's of-fish-ial. Following this, we take a look back at Splatoon 1 and the ways the community is celebrating the amazing game.
Even if it wasn't the greatest system, the Wii U did have its moments. After all, among many other fantastic games, we have Splatoon, Super Mario Maker, Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival. Personally, I really like my Wii U, even if I can't play Mario Kart and Splatoon anymore since the servers are down.
Mario, the primary character, was the focus of a recent rush to finish all Super Mario Maker levels before the servers went down. After years of failure, players managed to finish the final level, Trimming the Herbs, a few days before the closure. Team Zero Percent, congrats! You've accomplished history.
All right, let's return to the subject at hand—or, more accurately, end. Splatoon was and is a great addition to Nintendo's game library. Sure, Splatoon 2 and 3 are available now on the Switch, but the first game offered us a lot more. Splatoon is a very unusual game because of the way it's designed: you're a youngster with a squid motif that dies if it contacts water, you throw colored ink onto the floor to paint things, and you utilize repurposed household objects as weapons.
As soon as the game loads, you are sent to a chamber that is uniquely yours, complete with weapons and appropriately dark artwork. Later games don't even provide this little bit of individuality, however Splatoon 3 does offer us a locker that we can customize.
The original Splatoon game had a few "blink and you'll miss it" moments, like this dubious controller configuration found in a Sunken Scroll. In actuality, a Wii U Pro controller is connected to a Wii controller. Fun fact: since there weren't many controllers at the time that supported motion control, this was a genuine workaround to allow two people playing locally to utilize motion controls.
Furthermore, did you know that the original game had an authentic Spongebob Squarepants Splatfest? I really wish this nautical crap had returned in subsequent games since I didn't. Prior to it, there was a Pokémon Red vs. Pokémon Blue Splatfest. Oh my goodness, where were these crossovers?
Perhaps the most popular thing to come out of Splatoon is Splat Tim and other memes. Not aware of him? He's the somewhat deformed inkling on the victory screen with the infamous phrase "its splat tim" that you have undoubtedly seen. It's splat time, the tweet was supposed to say, but it was too late. Tim was created. The joke became so popular that some even cosplayed it.
Not the Squid Sisters, though they're clearly up there too, but Kaori and John, the orange and blue inklings who appear on the box cover and promotional materials, are the two other well-known characters coming out of Splatoon. They greeted us with pride when we first joined the franchise and now sit as amiibo figurines on our workstations.
We're still holding out hope that Saltspray Rig and Urchin Underpass, two levels from Splatoon 2, may return; if not, they've been lost to time. However, the fussy Seeker may be kept unique in the original Splatoon game. I don't need that to return.
Let's say goodbye to the Wii U and all of the fun we had using its jumbled twin displays. Even the most stoic of squids may get moved by the many heartfelt goodbye postings on Reddit and X these days.
Unquestionably, Splatoon is among the top Switch games available, and my personal favorite multiplayer Switch game. If you're ready to get started, be sure to explore all of the Splatoon characters found in the trilogy of games.