48 Fun Facts About Splatoon

The first Splatoon launched on which console, whose second screen showed a live map of the battle?

Wii U: tapping a teammate on the GamePad's map launched the player across the stage to land beside them.

Which first-Splatoon dealer sold gear spotted on other players?

Spyke: the back-alley sea urchin tracks down gear a player has admired on someone else and sells it the next day, at a higher price than the shops charge.

In Splatoon, what are the playable characters evolved from octopuses called?

Octolings were enemy soldiers in the first game's story mode; players could not be one until a paid add-on for Splatoon 2 in 2018.

Which three-minute Splatoon mode is won by the team that inks the most floor?

Turf War scores only the floor covered: splatting a rival earns nothing itself, it just clears them away until they respawn.

Splatoon 2 launched in July 2017 on which console?

Nintendo Switch: an unnamed Splatoon match appeared in the console's October 2016 reveal trailer, and the sequel was confirmed at the Tokyo presentation the following January.

Splatoon 3 set a Switch launch-sales record in which country?

Japan: its 3.45 million copies in three days beat every earlier Switch launch there, and Nintendo's shares jumped about 5% on the news.

What was the 2018 downloadable story add-on for Splatoon 2 called?

Octo Expansion sends an amnesiac test subject through a deep-sea subway of trials; finishing it unlocked a new playable species for online battles.

What is the title of Splatoon 3's 2024 single-player expansion?

Side Order opens in a copy of Splatoon 2's hub square that has been drained of colour and emptied of its crowds.

Splatoon 3's expansion borrows mechanics from which game genre?

Roguelike: losing every life sends the player back to the bottom of the tower, keeping only the upgrades bought between runs.

In Splatoon 3's expansion, which idol fights beside the player as a flying drone?

Pearl becomes a small flying robot that attacks enemies alongside the player, inside a virtual world built by her bandmate Marina.

Which 2026 Switch 2 spin-off sends Splatoon 3's idol trio to explore a chain of remote islands?

Splatoon Raiders is the series' first spin-off, swapping competitive team battles for a story-led adventure built mainly for one player.

In Splatoon, how do players quickly top up an emptying ink tank in mid-battle?

Swimming in their own ink: the tank refills slowly on foot but fast once submerged, so painting the floor is also how a team stays armed.

What is the co-op survival mode introduced in Splatoon 2?

Salmon Run has four players fend off waves of Salmonids to meet a quota, and in Splatoon 2 it was open online only during set time slots.

In Splatoon's co-op mode, what do players collect from defeated bosses to meet each wave's quota?

Golden Eggs drop when a boss is splatted, but they only count once carried back and dropped in the team's egg basket.

Which Ranked mode was brand new in Splatoon 2?

Clam Blitz: gather enough clams and they fuse into a Power Clam, the only thing that can break the barrier around the enemy's basket.

Which Nintendo accessory became an ink weapon in the first Splatoon?

NES Zapper: the N-ZAP '85 copies the grey 1985 light gun, while the N-ZAP '89 is orange, as the real one became after a US law said toy guns must not look real.

How do Splatoon's pop idols appear at their real-world concerts?

Holograms: the idols are projected on stage while a live band plays the games' songs, and recordings of the shows have been released as albums.

Which idol lost the first game's final Splatfest and became an antagonist in Splatoon 2?

Callie lost the 'Callie vs. Marie' vote, and the sequel has her go missing and turn up brainwashed by DJ Octavio.

Which side won Splatoon 2's final Splatfest, apparently shaping Splatoon 3's setting?

Chaos beat Order in July 2019, and Splatoon 3's makers chose its chaotic look to match: a sun-scorched desert in place of tidy Inkopolis.

Which side won Splatoon 3's 'Grand Festival'?

Past took it on the battlefield: Present drew 57% of the votes, but Past won every category decided by matches.

What is the name of the idol duo in the first Splatoon?

Squid Sisters is only a stage name: the two singers are cousins, who became famous by winning a youth folk-singing contest back home.

Which Splatoon 3 idol group steals treasure to help the poor?

Deep Cut spend most of the story mode as rivals, fighting the player over treasure before switching sides for the final battle.

Which of these is a member of the Splatoon 3 idol trio?

Big Man is a manta ray who speaks only in cries of "Ay!", with what he actually means printed on screen for the player.

What codename is the amnesiac hero of Splatoon 2's expansion given?

Agent 8 is short for Applicant 10,008, the number a talking telephone reads out; a companion calls it a mouthful and trims it.

What must the player ink completely in Splatoon 2's expansion finale?

A statue: inking the giant human figure starves its solar cannon of sunlight, yet it fires anyway on reserve power and a pop idol's voice-powered cannon beats the beam back.

Which corporation manages the subway in Splatoon 2's expansion?

Kamabo Co. lures test subjects with talk of a promised land, but those who pass are blended into a genetic ooze meant to breed a new master species.

In Splatoon 2's expansion, the player must collect four objects known as what?

Thangs: the four pieces are promised as the way to the surface, but once assembled they form a giant blender meant for the player.

What is the title of Splatoon 3's single-player campaign?

Return of the Mammalians: furry animals died out long ago in the series' world, and the campaign's creeping Fuzzy Ooze turns sea creatures hairy.

Which fishy sidekick can the player throw at enemies and switches in Splatoon 3's story mode?

Smallfry is immune to the campaign's deadly Fuzzy Ooze and, once fed enough Power Eggs, eats it to clear the way forward.

What is the underground human-era settlement explored in Splatoon 3's campaign?

Alterna was a shelter built by some of the last humans, and the villain plots to spread fur-growing ooze from the rocket still standing at its centre.

Which new city serves as Splatoon 3's main hub?

Splatsville boomed after the second game's last Splatfest, as crowds moved out to the sun-scorched Splatlands.

What does DJ Octavio repeatedly steal from Inkopolis?

The Great Zapfish is a giant electric catfish that powers the whole city, and rescuing it is the goal of the first two story modes.

Where was DJ Octavio imprisoned after his defeat in the first Splatoon?

A snow globe: the octopus warlord was sealed in an outsized one after the first game, then slipped out before Splatoon 2 began.

Who heads the New Squidbeak Splatoon in the first game?

Cap'n Cuttlefish fought the octopus army on the front lines a century ago, and the first game's two pop idols are secretly his granddaughters and his agents.

Roughly how far in the future is the Splatoon series set?

12,000 years: with humans and nearly all mammals wiped out by rising seas, sea creatures evolved to live on land, squid and octopus among them.

What nickname did developers give the first Splatoon test build?

Tofu prototype: the first demo was a white block and a black block squirting ink at each other, each given a little nose so players could tell front from back.

Which animal did Splatoon's developers settle on for the characters before switching to squids?

Rabbits: white fur would show ink clearly and long ears showed which way a player faced, but colleagues kept asking why a rabbit would shoot ink.

Which Nintendo veteran told Splatoon's team their early build had 'no appeal'?

Shigeru Miyamoto feared the first heroes looked as if they could be found in any game, so Mario was his fallback if nothing fresher turned up.

Which studio helped Nintendo develop the first Splatoon and both of its numbered sequels?

Monolith Soft makes the sprawling Xenoblade role-playing games, and opened a Kyoto branch near Nintendo's headquarters to lend a hand on its in-house projects.

The Inklings' square hands are an allusion to what?

Squid noodles: the producer says the hands are tentacle tips with slits cut in, squared off like the Japanese dish of raw squid sliced into thin strips.

Inklings dissolve immediately on contact with what?

Water: stages needed somewhere players could fall out of bounds, and the designers felt lava would look odd in a city, so their squid drown instead.

What inspired the black bands around the Inklings' eyes?

Punk rockers' makeup: the art director wanted the rough cool of a newly debuted rock singer, and only noticed the likeness to Mario's Blooper when people pointed it out.

Which Nintendo series did Splatoon producer Hisashi Nogami direct before turning to ink battles?

Animal Crossing: Nogami recalls that a village game nobody can 'beat' was hard for people to grasp at first, while Splatoon fits one sentence: whoever splatters the most ink wins.

Which two weapon classes did Splatoon 2 add?

Dualies and Brellas: twin pistols that let a player dodge-roll mid-fight, and a shotgun shaped like an umbrella that opens into a shield.

Splatoon 3's new Stringer weapons fire ink like what?

A bow: Stringers are held a moment to charge, then loose their ink from afar, while the game's other new class, the Splatana, swings like a sword.

Splatoon players get just two quick signals for teammates: 'This way!' and which other?

Booyah! is the cheer; the series launched with no voice chat at all, leaving a team two canned signals to talk with.

Which game kept the first Splatoon off the top of the UK chart in its launch week?

The Witcher 3 held on for a second week at number one, though the ink shooter still had the fastest start of any new franchise on Nintendo's console there, beating ZombiU.

Which 2014 event revealed Splatoon when only about 10% of it was finished?

E3: the playable demo had just one weapon and one stage, and the team spent the next ten months building the other 90%.