Topic: Splatoon - OT

Yeah I'm thinking end of may for release. Aside from maybe Mario maker this is going to be their primary Wii u game for the first half of 2015.

Well to play devil's advocate, it does look like Team Fortress meets Super Mario Galaxy with squids. A potentially pretty awesome combination. Also it's often pretty damn hard to tell which games are actually top-tier until after release. So it could be "game of the year" theoretically at least. It'd just likely have to pull off a Stephen Bradbury to do it.

End of May - Early June

If anything, I'm more worried about Arkham Knight and Zelda than Splatoon, if only because I've seen jack squat in terms of how they actually play since E3, if you can even call those scripted trailers genuine gameplay. I'm merely saying it'll be a tough race, and whoever wins the prize definitely deserves it (well, depending on where you go...but you get the idea...right?).

Calling it right now, Mario amiibo will unlock FLUDD weapon.

Yeah, I was thinking the exact same thing

This is 2015's version of Mario Kart 8 so yeah... late May release

Will Link and Isabelle be playable several months later? lol

Hahah I doubt it but I bet there will be Nintendo series' themed stages or posters in the game.

lol, imagine Isabelle as a squid girl. x3

Has Amiibo even been confirmed for this game? If they do give it Amiibo support, that would be awesome.

If this thing is as good as it looks, it could be Nintendo's best new IP since Pokemon.

(does Xenoblade count as new IP?)

Okay, so since I can't stop watching this trailer, I'm going to go ahead and give my thoughts and analyses on the things shown in the trailer:

-Two words that summarize the trailer in general: Mood. Whiplash. The single player mode has a completely different feel to the multiplayer in tone and to a lesser degree, gameplay. Compared to the relatively happy Tony Hawk-esque urban environments in multiplayer, single player looks dark. Very dark. Maybe even apocalyptic, if you look closely at the backgrounds of some of the single player levels you can see floating rubble in the background (guess the war between the squids and octopi got pretty intense, I wonder what happened). Now there's nothing really wrong with this, I mean a single player story should feel pretty intense. But this is a bit drastic IMO.
-Gameplay wise, platforming seems to play much more of a role in single player, and the game feels more like an action shooter. Again, almost feels like a different game. On the plus side though, they do make great use of the Inklings' abilities in these levels. Rotating platforms, wires that you can swim on, platforms and traps that you can activate by shooting. Super Jump also seems to come into play somehow, which raises the question of what the levels are going to be like. Are they like the multiplayer where you have open arenas and you can travel between sections as needed? Are they like Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog where the levels are linear but you can bounce around between checkpoints? Are they simply flashy transitions like Galaxy?
-There seems to be a large variety of enemies and bosses. There's the regular octopi, flying octopi, shielded octopi, kamikaze octopi, the cyborg girl, a giant block, and some random sailor guy. Not sure who the leader and main villain is supposed to be, but sailor guy and cyborg girl show up a few times in the trailer, so it could be one of them. I don't think either of them look the part, though, cyborg girl looks more like a Metal Sonic-esque rival and sailor guy barely even resembles an octopus in the first place (he could have a fairly intimidating octopus form, though).
-The first few seconds of the trailer show a bubble shield and a new type of weapon that shoots balls of ink.
-The PC's gun seems to have an attachment on it in single player. Could be some kind of single player exclusive ability?
-Colored orbs are shown throughout the trailer and the game keeps track of how many you collect. What could they be for?
-There seems to be a first person segment in the game. It could be a first person mode you can do, or a gimmick for something like a turret.
-There's also a 2D 8 bit section which is even further away from the main gameplay. Possibly some type of mini game?
-Pause at 1:05. There seems to be a bubble with some type of robot in it, probably a powerup.

Despite how drastically different the single player mode feels, I like where this game is going. It feels really quirky and innovative.

Holy crap. Wow 2015 is going to be an amazing year for gaming. I haven't been keeping up, real excited now! Yeah, Splatoon probably won't be number one but it's gonna be a top contender. I have not been this excited for a new I.P. from Nintendo in ages.

Personally I think that whenever there's a new Zelda out Zelda will be the default GOTY for me unless something really extraordinary comes out. IMO the only clear year where it wasn't GOTY was when Phantom Hourglass came out in the same year as Super Mario Galaxy and Portal. Although Skyward Sword vs Portal 2 is also a pretty tough choice. I personally don't see anything we know of for next year that will easily reach the standard Zelda sets, especially a non-portable one. Although I do agree, Arkham Knight and Splatoon are the two best hopes for beating Zelda.

More details about the storyline were posted on Twitter:

Investigation Report from the Squid Research Lab. This is the 'Hero Suit'. It is worn by the protagonist in 'Hero Mode'. It has a different feel to the regular clothes. According to our theory, it is designed to resemble a fire fly squid. The glowing translucent lights covering it are beautiful.

Investigative Report from the Squid Research Lab. The protagonist, wearing the Hero Suit, travels through this underground world. The Octopus Army Corps, hoping to invade the Squid's world, built this underground facility. Is it just me that feels the Octopus' longing for the world above-ground from the blue sky projected onto those large monitors?

Well this answers some of my questions. The Hero Suit definitely feels like it's designed to be special, and considering that it has an add on, it's probably going to have exclusive abilities. Also, the Octopi living underground explains why the levels feel darker, but I do have to wonder why the floating rubble? Seems out of place in an underground base.

Also, someone on Youtube did their own analysis of the trailer and found quite a few things that I missed:

Sounds like this game is going to be very challenging.

All the jumping around, and the goo mechanic reminds me so much of Portal 2! (which is a good thing)

I wasn't sold by the multiplayer, but I was certainly with the single player! It looks CRAZY!!!

Oh man that would be cool!

@Bolt_Strike Thanks for sharing that analysis! Would have never found it otherwise. That guy put GameXplain to shame. Man I'm excited for this game. I want more info already and we just got some, gruh!

Am I the only one who thinks this game would be amazing with a Wii Remote? The shooting would be awesomely smooth and easy, and with all the fast paced action, some simple motion controls could take the game to the next level.

Except the Super Jump wouldn't work as well without the Gamepad.