Splatoon Players Celebrate The Series' Fifth Anniversary With Lovely Fan Art

It's been five years already? Not so fresh now.

Anyway, congratulations Splatoon!

@Elvie not so fresh like the wii u's entire life

Theres been amazing art in the game from users. Plus awesome protesting. So happy for Splatoons 5th year, the game is amazing.

Happy Birthday Splatoon! Such a unique, charming and yet thrilling IP. Great job by Nintendo.

An amazing series that deserves all the love it gets! Happy birthday, Splatoon, and here's to another 5.

Hopefully @hizake does something - their Splatoon art is insane.

I'm ready for Splatoon to blow up all the way. I'm talking anime series, spin off retro platformer, clothing lines, free smartphone puzzle games, the whole 9 yards. Basically, any move that sounds like a bad decision for franchises like Zelda, I feel like Splatoon can succeed without coming off like a cheap cash in.

Hard to believe it's been 5 years, but I love both games. I'm glad Nintendo created the series because it's one of my favorite shooters now.

Woomy! It just doesn't feel that long. I haven't seen many games that can Stay Fresh for so long though.

#BringBackCallie

@Desrever https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/11/take_a_look_at_the_awesome_nes_splatoon_we_never_got_to_play

Clothing already exists (in Japan) as well I believe (or at least did at a time.)

Splatoon 2 introduced me to the series and I loved this game ever since it launched. A colorful franchise that stands out from the pack of shooting games out there.

Happy birthday. Booyah

I played an hour or so before lunch and I saw a lot of drwings and messages for the anniversary! It was really cool 😃

I’m ready for Splatoon 3 or a spin off game. Rhythm genre seems like a good fit.

I love Splatoon 1 & 2 and it doesn't feel like 5 years. I can't wait to see what Nintendo does for number 3. ☺️

Splatoon is the most successful out of nowhere new IP that I've seen in a very long time. No one expected it and it's one of the most creative and fun shooters ever made.

And yet, they have seemingly abandoned it. While other shooters like Overwatch have gotten regular support for years and years, and series like COD and Halo get regular new entries, aside from that one off splatfest, Nintendo seems to have forgotten Splatoon exists.

They didn't even have the Splatoon items return in Animal Crossing and a bunch of the same people worked on both! (though I do know there's a handful of easter eggs in ACNH referencing it)

@Savino
You know there's an option to turn off motion controls, right?

@Heavyarms55 It is weird how Nintendo has managed to ignore their lightning-in-a-bottle franchise as much as they have. I assume the team being shared with AC is a big part of that. No time for Splatoon if they're working on AC. And now that AC is the Half-Life 3 x Mother 3 crossover nobody saw coming I fear Splatoon will be abandoned to crank out as much AC material as long as possible. I love AC, but there's only so much AC you can play...it's kind of tedious and repetitive and redundant. Delightful, in short bursts. Nintendo does love to pull defeat from the jaws of victory over and over. Plus, I still get the impression the purge of everything Iwata is is an active goal among new management. Splatoon was Iwata's baby.

But it's still so weird, they'd just kind of treat it like "ok you got your 2 years, you're done." I take it as a good sign though they did this one splatfest. They had to be testing something by doing that, not just a goodwill effort. Especially since they repeated a prior theme. Maybe they have some thinking behind the scenes. Maybe 3 is planned by not yet started (until the inevitable 5 AC DLCs are made.)

@NEStalgia,

I don't think having two mainline Splatoon games within a 5 year period is in anyway abandoning the franchise, they supported both games pretty well imho, and the second game got the Octo expansion which was an awesome add on, there are not many Nintendo games that will have two games within a five year period period.

One of the best games on Wii U, it seems like yesterday playing the last Splatfest.

@johnvboy True, though that had more to do with the console generational jump and needing to move Splatoon and it's player base (especially in Japan) to the new hardware to move away from WiiU more than anything else.

But the longer term support somewhat ended a year ago until the recent splatfest. In the shooter world, if you're not doing sequels you at least need events or content. Guaranteed, Smash will continue getting events and/or content for more than 2 years. No full sequel needed. Just something to "keep it fresh" and keep people engaged instead of dropping off over time.

@whatyoulookingat The original Splatoon will always be my most cherished. An amazing and enjoyable game.

@Desrever They did partner with Uniqlo to make some awesome shirts, and there is a manga.

@NEStalgia Nintendo mostly dissolved their teams a few years ago. All their in-house games are basically made by one big team; obviously divided in smaller teams, but no fixed teams like they used to have. So probably more organic, working on whatever game is in development and freely moving to new projects. Splatoon and Animal Crossing can be developed alongside each other now, whereas five years ago that would be the task of a single team.

@Octane That's a good point. I'm not sure if that's a good thing, or a bad thing - and the leadership members only have so much time. But that's still true, yes.

OTOH that means "We're doing BotW2 so everyone needs to be tied up on that indefinitely" can also be true.

@NEStalgia But, but unlikely. They've always had 6+ teams in Kyoto, so it's unlikely they would now put everyone on Zelda. But I wouldn't be surprised if a good 15-20% of them are working on it for example. But that also means that designers can move to other projects more easily when that part is done, whilst the programmers finish the game.

@Desrever except splatoon 2 was a cheap cash in that barely expanded on the first's foundations

I'm already looking forward to Splatoon 3 (although it is going to take a while until we can play it)!

The first one for Wii U blew me away. That game was so fresh that I couldn't believe it. I played so many hours and I got really good at it. Almost every stage was perfect and the variety was great.
For some reason I didn't feel the same way about the 2nd game for Switch. Nonetheless my memories of the first game will serve as some of the best in my 30 years of console gaming experience.

Thank you Splatoon and congratulations.

Splatoon 1 and 2 are my 2 most-played games of all time. Hoping the next five years will be just as fun and worthwhile.

@TheLightSpirit splatoon is even worse tho. It lacks basic features from other shooters. Also I'm not one to buy such games but Nintendo should have a higher standard

@NEStalgia I love AC and I want all that DLC and support.

I don't understand why they can't do both. Not like Nintendo is a small indie company with a handful of employees.

@Savino
Ah, so like the shooter games on the Wii? I definitely think it's a missed opportunity on Nintendo's part, but to be fair, they're still kind of experimenting with this genre.

@Heavyarms55 I love AC though I don't think I can be obsessed with it like i was with new life.

Nintendo isn't small, but their studios aren't modern AAA huge either. They depend on tons of outsourcing to get the required team sizes for modern hd development. Their teams technically are more like indie teams, internally. A big indie, but no Ubisoft.

The last one is the best! ..nappy birthday Splatoon.