Splatoon O' Love!

Even though Splatoon quickly grabbed interest during it's debut last at years E3, particularly during Nintendo's treehouse during E3. It is however gained more hype during development even as news such as no voice chat and limited map roll out caused internet message boards to fill with bizarre rage.

Bloody (Great) Mess

A lot of people including us here at GameKnights-UK expected Splatoon to be a good addition to Nintendo's struggle console (like Captain Toad) but it seems it has become one of THE reasons to own the system alongside Smash 4, Mario Kart and Mario 3D world. 

Splatoon had a great launch weekend. Managing to snag the 2nd in the UK all formats charts behind The Witcher 3 and 3rd in the single format charts behind the PS4 and Xbox One versions of Witcher.

Which is pretty good seeing as GAME's entire shipment of special editions was STOLEN so be aware of the green squid amiibo for sale. 

In Japan it did far better. Not only did Splatoon take the top spot selling though its initial shipment and beating 2nd place by over 100,000 but also almost doubled the number of Wii U's being sold.

The top 10 is below, with lifetime sales in brackets.

1. [Wii U] Splatoon (Nintendo, 05/28/15) – 144,818 (New)
2. [3DS] Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX (Sega, 05/28/15) – 41,442 (New)
3. [PS4] The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Spike Chunsoft, 05/21/15) – 22,454 (89,839)
4. [PSV] Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition (SCE, 03/19/15) – 12,449 (179,625)
5. [Wii U] Mario Kart 8 (Nintendo, 05/29/14) – 11,654 (1,006,719)
6. [PSV] Cross Ange: Rondo of Angels and Dragons tr. (Bandai Namco, 05/28/15) – 11,215 (New)
7. [3DS] Downtown Nekketsu Jidaigeki (Arc System Works, 05/28/15) – 9,444 (New)
8. [3DS] Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition (GungHo Online Entertainment, 04/30/15) – 8,920 (252,479)
9. [3DS] Assassination Classroom: Grand Siege on Kurosensei (Bandai Namco, 03/12/15) – 6,620 (75,242)
10. [PSV] Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence with Power-Up Kit (Koei Tecmo, 05/28/15) – 6,360 (New) 

We're still waiting on sales numbers from the states, Arguably it biggest battle where the Military FPS is king.

Here at GKUK if we're not playing the excellent Witcher 3 then we're playing Splatoon. Its a hair's breadth away from becoming our go to online multiplayer game (that should correct itself during the August update). It seems we wasn't the only ones caught up in it's weird, off beat pseudo, 90's attitude, and almost unashamedly fair gameplay. Splatoon has also inspired brilliant artwork such as "Hero of Slime" above. Aswell as other creative works such as this EPIC Inkling hat over at "Epic Costumes" over at ETSY.com 

Splatoon is currently on sale on AMAZON for £29.99 (the exclusive Amiibo bundle is of course now crazy expensive) 

Abe's Take

Think it's safe to say we SPLATTING love Splatoon's gameplay but now we are impressed by just how Nintendo's ALL NEW IP is handling itself. Both in it's online and commercial performance, I expect we'll probably see Splatoon again on what ever the NX is/