Nintendo’s biggest and weirdest experiment has a lot of lessons to teach theSwitch 2. The Switch 2’s launch library is a bit of a mixed bag: with the exception ofMario Kart, Nintendo is largely leaving big, new, first-party releases on the table in favor of flashythird-party games likeCyberpunkandYakuza. Its other big properties - your mainlineMario,Zelda,evenPikmin, will have to wait. As a result, it’s hard to know what the Switch 2 has in store for Nintendo’s “big four” properties. Its improved specs will doubtless open up new opportunities.
Which opportunities Nintendo will explore remains a mystery, but I hope it takes big risks. Today, July 11, 2025, is the tenth anniversary of one of Nintendo’s biggest creative risks, something entirely different from anything it had put out before and anything it’s put out since. But it paid off:this one weird game started a massive franchise that’s still active today, one I hope Nintendo takes cues from when developing games for the Switch 2. And I don’t just mean another game in the same series.
Splatoon Was A Huge Hit For The Wii U
Nintendo’s Dark Horse
Only the Wii U could’ve spawnedSplatoon. It’s easy enough to imagine: Nintendo was in a tight spot. Console sales were at an all-time low, surpassed only by a misguided attempt at a VR console (the Virtual Boy) 20 years prior. They were probably willing to try anything, even Shintaro Sato’s weird pitch fora third-person shooter where squid-human hybrids fling ink at one another.
Splatoonis a black sheepin Nintendo’s output. Live-service games, especially shooters, aren’t really in its wheelhouse. When it was first announced, I was doubtful; it almost sounded like Nintendo was just hopping on the ongoing games-as-a-service trend. Even Shigeru Miyamoto, himself a creative risk-taker, didn’t see the appeal when the game was first presented to him - producer Hisashi Nogami quotes him as saying, “I don’t understand. What do you want to do? There’s no appeal to this game” (viaGames Radar).
But that black sheep proved to be a dark horse.Splatoonbecame a major success,perhaps precisely because it is so different. It was a bold risk for Nintendo that paid off in spades. Key to its success, I think, is just how fun and approachable it is. It’s a live-service shooter, sure, but limited options for player interaction and the use of ink instead of bullets make it appropriate for all ages. And its gameplay is only as deep as you want it to be; you’re able to just hop on and start splatting people, or go for ranked mode to work on serious skills and strategies.
Like Nintendo’s best releases, it focuses on accessibility, presentation, and fun over all.
Really, though,Splatoonis a Nintendo game through and through- it’s just the live-service aspect that’s different. Like Nintendo’s best releases, it focuses on accessibility, presentation, and fun over all. It’s got some of the best and most distinct music in any Nintendo series, undeniably cool character design, and satisfying gameplay that’s easy to pick up and play - there’s nothing better than sliding through a giant pool of ink, then popping out and firing away.
Splatoonwent on to sell just under 5 million copies, making it the sixth-best-selling title on the Wii U (according toNintendo’s financial data). Notably, it’s one of only three non-MarioorZeldagames to make the top ten (the other two areNintendo LandandSmash). It proved the naysayers wrong, and has since become a massive franchise, with two sequels in this console generation alone. Leaks suggest Nintendo’s already working on aSplatoon 4for the Switch 2. That’s all well and good, but I hope Nintendo learns another lesson fromSplatoon’s success.
Mario & Zelda Are The Big Breadwinners
Custom Image by Milica Djordjevic
Today, I’d argue Nintendo plays it too safe. It largely leans on its big properties -Mario,Zelda,Smash, andPokémondominate its list of bestsellers. That said,Nintendo has tried to replicateSplatoon’s success, but hasn’t quite managed it yet. Its most prominent effort wasARMS. Here was another game that tried to blend Nintendo’s penchant for big, colorful creativity with the online multiplayer format.ARMSdidn’t have nearly as much reach asSplatoon, though, and I believe there are a few reasons why.
First,ARMSfeels like a little bit of a B-tier gameon Nintendo’s part, a budget title at non-budget pricing. There’s just not that much to it: there are relatively few game modes, and once you beat the Grand Prix and unlock all the different arms, there’s nothing else to do. Sure, there’s a learning curve if you want to play at a competitive level, but it’s too steep for newcomers to really stand a chance.
Besides that,ARMSjust wasn’t marketed as well asSplatoonwas. I still regularly get “you’re a kid now, you’re a squid now” fromSplatoon’s decade-old TV commercial stuck in my head. It was an incredibly memorable campaign, in no small part because of how weird the concept was and how unique its aesthetic was. Other than the vague image of characters with springy appendages, I couldn’t tell you a thing about howARMSwas advertised.
And, in perhaps its biggest misstep,Nintendo releasedARMSat the worst possible time, right up alongside some of its biggest titles for the Switch.ARMScame out just a couple of months into the Switch’s shelf life, when many players were just buying the console for the first time. When choosing a game or two to go along with a new console, most players aren’t going to choose something they’ve never heard of; they’re going to pick things they’re almost certain to like.Zelda,MarioKart 8, and yes, evenSplatoon 2were right there - few would risk the unfamiliarity ofARMS.
By contrast,Splatooncame out several years after the Wii U, when it was already as established a console as it would be. If you already owned one, you had a lot less to lose by trying outSplatoon.ARMSmay not have been a successful experiment, but that doesn’t mean Nintendo should stop trying.
How Nintendo Switch 2 Could Learn From Splatoon
Take Big Risks
Splatoonhas gone from a weird Nintendo experiment to one of its safest, most reliably selling properties. With three games under its belt, appearances inMario KartandSmash Bros., and a fourth entry supposedly underway,Splatoonis an undeniable success. It just goes to showhow much Nintendo can benefit from taking big, creative risks, busting into totally different sectors of the gaming market without sacrificing the quality and originality it’s known for.
So yes,Splatoon 4on the Switch 2 will likely be great, but I hope to see some new Nintendo properties in its next console generation. They shouldn’t try to emulateSplatoondirectly, either; instead, let them go for their own creative visions, with their own inspirations, and see what comes out of it. This way, the most randomSwitch 2title could easily become a multigenerational hit.
