Nintendo of America Aims to Cause a Splash for Splatoon With a 'Mess Fest' Event

"It's slime time!" Or something.

Good to see them going hard at this. But I still don't see it selling many Wii U at $300 in June. Maybe a holiday bundle, or Mario skins.

But it's still a good start. Gotta crawl before you walk.

I cancelled my pre-order about a week ago. I want to more look at reviews and actually try the game first. Just too much stuff that should be there has been left out and I don't understand why.

Do Nintendo ever do anything like this in Europe because this is one territory where their presence isn't exactly big compared to Sony or Microsoft.

@FragRed Microsoft has a presence in Europe?

@FragRed Doing an event in one location across the entire continent isn't really that big of a thing to brag about NoA doing. This is like saying that NoA got one of those Bundles that was Europe only because it showed up in the Nintendo World Store in NY.

@CaviarMeths Yeah it shocked me too but I seem to hear a lot of chavs buying Xbox One for Call of Duty and FIFA.

I don't care what they do, as long as they make ENOUGH AMIIBO.

@FragRed - that pretty much sums it up, plus kidz tend to buy X1 and adults more the PS4, at least here in the UK.

This sort of promotion would never happen across Europe due to all the different localisations. What may work in the UK won't necessarily work in Germany. So each region does their own thang...

It could make for a good party game, for when the few lucky Wii U owners have friends over.

For kids? I'm 40 and am foaming at the mouth for this. Figuratively speaking of course.

@ikki5 I am still upset they haven't included friends only voice chat... Do they want this game to fail?
"Hmm people want new IP but it doesnt sell! I blame the consumer" - granny Nintendo

@Captain_Gonru "The one thing going for them with that date is summer. Kids are out of school, and it's something for them to do." Nice!

Add team voice chat or party chat to this game!!! Add local multiplayer!!! Add party chat to the wii u!!! Supply enough amiibos and surely this will make a big splash!!

@ikki5 You shouldnt underestimate the the capability of celeberty promotion and have you forgotten about the birthday truck promotion they were also doing? You seem awfully pessimistic

@AyeHaley I think the market in general has proven it doesn't give two dangs bout friend chat. Just use Skype for freaking sake sure it may not seem as convienent but the audio codec is way better

This will be a good game that won't catch on except in the Nintendo community. For this to have had an impact on the Wii U, it should have been launched last year. Zelda will be the only thing that moves units- and at that, it will probably be at the rate that we saw with Smash/MK8. Respectable, but not enough to catch up to the other systems.

@Ic3pick039 I agree with adding friend chat at least. Btw there IS local multiplayer.

@CaviarMeths I believe Microsoft has a respectable presence in the U.K. Elsewhere on Europe, I don't think so.

Xbox Ones are everywhere over here. Same with PlayStation. Nintendo's presence here is tiny. They're not even trying to advertise, tbh.

@RainbowGazelle local multiplayer is only 1 v 1

@Captain_Gonru - Ahh, there's the message. When I got the blank emails I thought you were teaching your pet tortoise to type.

I think it is a good game for June. Paint ball and water pistols and Nerf guns are all about summer fun. Graduations and confirmations and even Father's Day require gifts. But I think the console itself is still a bit on the expensive side for people who haven't purchased a Wii U yet. If they could wait 2 1/2 years to get 1 not sure this 1 game will do it. Plaster "Now only $249!" signs all over the stores and then we'll talk. May 29th is 2 weeks before E3, seems like the perfect time for a price cut announcement to me. And w/ no Zelda at E3 they need something to get people's attention.

I can't wait for this game. Another one that gamers will troll but secretly want. Gotta love marketing from the other two console makers, it's convinced people they need voice chat to have fun.

@IronMan28 It certainly helps. I cant defend Nintendo leaving out such a basic console feature that's been around forever.

This game looks stupid.

If they did this at launch it would have been a huge success. I don't think they can repaint over their bad image with core gamers now.

@Superryanworld Not saying it doesn't help, Wii U doesn't even come with a headset. Research indicates that most gamers without headsets don't go out of their way to buy them. And while the GamePad includes a microphone, it's functional but not as personal as a good headset. So, not even including VC isn't that big of a deal for a system that doesn't even give you something essential to chatting with your friends online. Not saying it shouldn't be included, but everyone is making a stink over something that's basically going to be unused anyway.

@Captain_Gonru - I'd rather see a "summer fun pack" w/ the 3 amiibo. I still can't beleive Ntineod hasn't had a single Wii U bundle w/ an amibo in the box. Not even a SSB bundle w/ fireball Mario. How did that not happen? Or a MP10 bundle w/ the game and gold Mario.

I know a lot of people ask for a bundle w/ the Pro controller but we have so many controllers of every type in my house - Wii remotes, Wii remote Plus, Wii Classic Pro, Wii U Pro -that and I imagine other Wii owners do as well, so I'd rather see something unique like amiibo than a 2nd controller.

And I really don't want to see a Pro in a Splaltoon bundle, just shows how gimped player 2 is and that Wii U should have had dual Gamepad support by now for games like Spaltoon and probably Starfox. 2 player couch co-op vs 2 players online also doing couch co-op would have been sweet. So I think a Pro controller bundle is just a reminder of the lameness.

What was that show back in the day where contestants got dunked in slime for incorrect answers?

@rjejr They should have bundled one Pro controller with every system to begin with. With the Gamepad, of course...

@StarDust4Ever - Problem w/ adding a Pro to every box is - well besides Nintendo probably adding $50 to every Wii U - is making the Gamepad look more unnecessary and even worse than it already does.

I mean, just look at the Kinext 2.0 as the Gamepad. X1 comes out at $500 saying how great Kinect is, then a few months later you have a $400 X1 and nobody cares about the Kinect. I don't see how it could have helped Wiii U sales in the slightest.

I actually would have been more open to the idea of Wiimote Plus in every box, call it Wii HD, ship it w/ Sports Club, promote online, and sell it for $200 to compete w/ PS3 adn Xbox360. Then sell Nintnedo Land in an $80 Gamepad bundle (comparable to the balance board and Wii Fit) the second Christmas when WW HD came out and promote how the Gamepad can also be used in that. And all the rest. Except WiiTV, that was stupid from the start.

ahh Monday morning quarterbacking, where we all win and Nintendo loses.

@rjejr The Gamepad was misunderstood by Joe Public. The Kinect 2.0 was spyware.

@rjejr
In Germany you can buy this package, 8GB + remote + sensorbar + nintendoland + party u. Bought this at Easter for 250,00 EUR.
http://www.amazon.de/Party-Basic-white-incl-Nintendo/dp/B00FS345G4

@StarDust4Ever - You say tomato, I say tomahto. Wii HD w/o a Gamepad for $200 - either w/ a Pro or a Wiimote Plus - sells better than a Wii U w/ a Gamepad and Pro controller for $300, even if they could have sold it that cheaply.

And if you asked 100 people who bought an X1 after the Kinect was removed WHY they choose to buy an X1 then - 100 people say $100 cheaper, 0 say "spyware was removed".

@tbuck - Wow, they have a lot of different bundles on Amazon in Germany. The US version of Amazon doens't even sell the Wii U themselves and 3rd parties only offer MK8 bundle or NtinedoLand bundle. I still think Amazon not offering the Wii U has hampered sales in the US. Not by a huge amount, but all those PRIME paying customers want their 2 day delivery. And some people probably thought "Oh, if Amazon doesn't sell it then it must not be good.".

oh two more days to go and i can finally pre-order the download for the game

@Captain_Gonru - I'm sure they could have managed a version of baseball and golf that did't require the Gamepad. The Wii HD really should have been out a year or 2 earlier though, skip the Wii U entirely, and then NX. Instead they made the Wii Mini for $99 to counter the $299 Wii U price. Brilliant.

But I get what they were trying to do, catch lightning in a bottle twice, first w/ the Wiimote then w/ the Gamepad. It's even possible had Apple never released the iPad that the Gamepad would have resonated w/ folk. Instead it just looks like a big clunky Wii controller, and people had already spent $80 on a Balance Board, they didn't need another big clunky Wii accessory called a "U".

@rjejr Nintendo didn't do a good job of explaining the benefits of the gamepad. They thought it was asymmetric play and other innovations- which I thought was pretty cool, but the main reason I like it is b/c of offline play. For families, this is a pretty big deal. I also think it's pretty cool b/c the console is fairly portable.

Anyway, I love the gamepad- almost all of my friends who come over think it's really cool too. The Wii U was a marketing failure, not a technological one. I have an XBone- and my Wii U gets a ton more play. While the XBone has better specs, I don't feel like it just blows away the Wii U. In fact, I'd put Bayonetta, MK8 or SM3dW up against any Xbone game in terms of graphics.

@Inkling UK does not represent the whole of Europe. In UK Xbone sales are strong, on the mainland its sales are poor.

In all of Europe including UK PS4 sales are usually 4 or 5 times more than Xbone. How do you think PS4 sales are at 21m + compare to Xbone 10m +?

It's not NA or Japan, it's Europe.