Splatoon

Splatoon is Nintendo's answer to the online shooter and it works because they changed the win condition. You don't need kills. You need to cover the floor in your colour, which means the objective is visible at all times and a player who never wins a fight can still be the reason the team wins.

The squid transformation is the mechanic that ties it together. Swim through your own ink to move fast and reload, get stuck in the enemy's, and suddenly map control and traversal are the same system. It's the kind of idea that seems obvious once someone has had it.

The presentation is unusually confident for Nintendo - a fictional music scene, in-game idol groups, a fashion economy, and a whole subculture built around squid teenagers who think adults are boring.

The Splatfest events, where the community votes on nonsense and then fights about it, gave the game a social life beyond the matches.

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