Why Splatoon Uses New Characters

So Nintendo has a new IP!  I know, I’m surprised too: seems the last time they did anything with new characters was way back in the Gamecube era with Pikmin.  And while that’s technically not true (if you count the Wii Fit trainer as IP) it certainly feels that way.  Nintendo’s stable of characters has been pretty stable for a long time now, largely because the characters they DO have make the phat stacks and why fix what ain’t broke.

But at this years E3, which apparently I’ll be cursed to write about until I die, we got a rare treat: a new IP out of Nintendo, in the form of Splatoon.   Where the new characters are squid-children who can apparently explode without being inconvenienced too greatly.  Well, talking with Game Informer, the developer behind the new game--Hisashi Nogami—discussed why we have those new characters instead of recycling some of the old ones for a game of extreme paintball.

"With us, first we're making the game, and then we think what kind of characters we would use with it, and obviously, one of those choices is established IP,"  he said "We found that it really had to be new characters to would fit this game we were making. It would be kind of weird if Mario got splattered with ink and then exploded."

Interestingly, that was the same justification for why Capcom won’t consider the often-requested Mortal Kombat/Street Fighter crossover.

"First we started with the ability to shoot ink but then we added the ability to swim really fast through it, and as we kept adding more abilities to what the player was able to do, there was this kind of moment where we all realized, 'Oh yeah, this would work really well with squids.'"

He continued—it’s a pretty interesting look as to Nintendo’s creative process, and I have to say I quite enjoy it.  It’s looking like I’ll turn out a lot better than Wii Music, in any case.

I wonder if Splatoon will make a cameo in Super Smash Brothers.  That would be fun...