Splatoon 2

Can Nintendo’s quick-fire sequel make an even bigger splash?

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Splatoon was the biggest triumph of a troubled era – or, perhaps, the right game on the wrong console. By embracing Wii U’s eccentricities it found an audience, particularly in Japan, where it enjoyed an attach rate of 45 per cent. Nevertheless, the commercial struggles of its host hardware prevented a brilliant game from becoming an even bigger hit. A sequel on Switch, in theory, offers an opportunity to correct that issue, but brings with it additional pressures. This is, by Nintendo standards, a quick-fire follow-up, only two years on from the original. And this time, the surprise factor is gone. How, then, does a series that encouraged us to ‘stay fresh’ continue to do just that?

That burden falls on the shoulders of producer Hisashi Nogami, who admits he couldn’t have foreseen the original’s remarkable success. Its performance in Japan was particularly surprising, since multiplayer shooters aren’t nearly as popular as in the west. But this was a game defined more by its differences to its peers than its similarities. That’s because, Nogami tells us, his team didn’t actually set out to make a shooter. “We felt that one of the biggest reasons so many people played Splatoon was because even at a glance it looked like a lot of fun,” he tells us. “Even just watching over someone’s shoulder, looking at the screen while they play, you can tell what’s going on and know what you need to do. It makes you want to reach out your hand and tell them to give you a turn.”

Word of mouth kept Splatoon in the Japanese software charts for some time, with Nogami suggesting that many players were inspired by videos posted by early adopters. “But of course, the real fun of