Splatoon is officially the most successful (exclusive) new IP of this generation

@AzatiS:

1) Splatoon ended up being more of a system seller than Bloodborne ever did- Wii U sales are up over last year by 124% attributed primarily to Splatoon; Bloodborne did not have a noticeable effect on PS4 sales, which remained steady (and great) as always

2) Splatoon is a AAA caliber new IP

Good for Splatoon.

Seems like a fun game...not my type of game...but fun nonetheless.

1) Did it push hardware sales hard ? Because i see Wii U at 10ish million units still when PS4 heading for 40M.

2) Splatoon never was an AAA caliber game to begin with let alone being AAA since it didnt meet AAA score afterall. AAA caliber games are build from scratch with high values / production level with AAA in mind. It doesnt mean they will meet AAA afterall but are considered AAA caliber games either way. Splatoon wasnt an AAA caliber game and barely made it to be an AA ( metacritic )

1) It brought Wii U sales up from 9.2 million to 12 million, that's actually pretty hard.

2) Yeah, Splatoon is an AAA caliber game, it was built from scratch with high values/production levels in mind. A cartoony artstyle does not change that.

I'm friends with him on Steam and talk to him regularly XD

Ah OK. Just making sure you aren't an alt or something. My bad.

@GoldenElementXL: I'm technically an alt, only because I changed my email address and my password for my original account for the sole intent on leaving; our smear campaign mod is the reason I'm here.

We need to take a break, and someone needs to tell me exactly what I am, because in the last week, I have been accused of being a cow, a filthy hermit, a lemming (no, seriously), and just now, a sheep.

1) Do you have a link to actually verify this or ? Because im searching and cant find total numbers for bundles.

2) Nope , is not. I dont get why you dont getting what is AAA caliber game or not. It didnt build from scratch with AAA in mind at all. Let me enlighten you why is not.

1) 81% Metacritic = lowish AA. Its irrelevant i know since many AAA caliber games dont meet AAA in the end but is almost an A game to be compared to Bloodborne.

2) ""In mid-2013, one member of the Animal Crossing development team, Shintaro Sato, created a four-versus-four ink-based territory control game set in a featureless arena.^[25] After management approved making the prototype into a full game, the team started expanding its concepts, creating the ability to hide in ink,^[26] and wanted to somehow incorporate squids.^[27] After coming up with these ideas, the developers had trouble "filter[ing] it down" to a "simple, fun game ""

So game didnt build up AT ALL with AAA in mind either production or value aspect. Was a small game someone made that Nintendo thought it would work and they just changed some things / added others. If thats what you calling AAA caliber games .. Well then Bloodborne or Zelda or Halo or GTA 5 are what ? AAAAAAAAAA caliber ?

Cartoony style has nothing to do with what im speaking of . Zelda , Mario main series , World of Warcraft and many other AAA caliber games are cartoony.

@charizard1605: You're a Sheeplemhermcow.....no, guys....I'm super serial.

Cookies all around. Go get Splatoon one of those big trophies from the back.

@AzatiS: No, but we do know that Wii U sales were at 9.2 million before Splatoon released, and are at 12 million now, and Nintendo attributes this primarily to Splatoon. We also know that the Splatoon bundle was introduced in October, and Wii U sales since October to December have been 2 million units. That's proof enough.

And yes, the idea came up from a small group of developers, and was then expanded into a AAA scope. Like, I don't know- Metal Gear. Final Fantasy. Street Fighter. Mega Man. Super Smash Bros. The Legend of Zelda. Xenoblade. Ideas always come from individuals, it's the development process that makes a game AAA.

Scores have nothing to do with a game's status as AAA, btw, you should know that.

All you'd really have is the anecdotal evidence of the Splatoon holiday bundle being sold out everywhere. That is the only case of the game itself moving systems Otherwise you can look at media create listings that show Splatoon constantly selling in the top 5 along with higher than last year Wii U sales.

And as for whether or not, that is how Nintendo always makes their games. They focus on a gameplay aspect first, then build around that. If that doesn't meet your standards of AAA, then no Nintendo game is ever AAA.

This talk about AA and AAA batteries reminds me of Smash 64, which cost less than a B battery to produce and had production values to match. It also definitely didn't win any fighting GOTY awards.

Takes a while to click. Might have to do with me having the worst luck and being forced to fight the entirety of Japan in Turf Wars, but I wasn't enjoying it until I got access to Ranked at Lv. 10. Next thing I knew, I was Lv. 20 and could actually handle myself somewhat decently against high-level players with weapons I didn't think I'd ever want to use.

Not really a proof but ok , maybe its because of Splatoon. Because with that statement you dissing Mario Maker and Xeno. But lets say i was wrong and Splatoon was actually a system seller for the sake of discussion.

The idea came from a single guy that made a game for fun, similar to so many AAA games that didnt meet AAA caliber criteria. It wasnt an idea that Nintendo accepted , it was an already finished prototype game. Thats big difference than an idea.

The development process and values is what defines a game if its an AAA caliber or not. Many games that met AAA caliber didnt meet AAA and vice versa. Some fine example are games like Diablo 3 vs Path of Exile. Diablo 3 was an AAA caliber game that sucked balls while Path of exile wasnt even close to an AAA caliber game and made it to challenge diablo 3 like a boss ( Imho it wins vs Diablo 3 in every single way aside graphics ) You get the difference here ? ( you wont if you dont know both games i hope you do )

Splatoon is not an AAA caliber game , neither as of production or graphic engine or art design or world scale or breakthrough gameplay or a million other things ,combined or not , for a 2015 title that would scream " Hey , AAA caliber game here ". AAA caliber = money invested big time from scratch in order to push the game to AAA standards. Splatoon is far from that in every single aspect of it. From art , to development proceess , to final product itself.

So , you can call it fun , great, awesome , AAA ( if you think its 9+ score by your taste/standards ) but no way that is an AAA caliber game like so many other AAA games out there.

Because WiiU owners are starving for games man.

It's because WiiU doesn't really have any third party support so people have to buy first party games lol.

Seriously though starting this in a few days and hoping it's good.

@AzatiS: But this is how all Nintendo games are made. If Splatoon isn't AAA, then neither is Zelda, Mario, Xenoblade, Smash Bros., Metroid, and so on.

lol, that's this thread in a nutshell.

Anyway, you'll like this! Let me know, maybe we can play a few rounds together :)

@charizard1605:

"We need to take a break, and someone needs to tell me exactly what I am, because in the last week, I have been accused of being a cow, a filthy hermit, a lemming (no, seriously), and just now, a sheep."

Look at the recent threads you've been making lol. Just today are three threads where it shows Nintendo in good light and lately Sony. If I was s new user I'd call you a Sony Nintendo fanboy instantly lol.

Don't worry about it. I was called a Lem once too lol

It's just bizarre and overwhelming lol, now ALL factions attack me :p

That's how you know you're doing it right. All of the factions are a little nuts and I wouldn't want to align myself with any of them. I got called a Cow once and almost deleted my account. It felt that icky......

Ha- hey, we're all a cow sometimes, a lem the others, a sheep some of the times, and a hermit the others. Very few people are really all in on just one company.

I think people were too busy playing third party games to care...

A bit questionable because halo 5 guardians could be as high as 4 million(Most likely between 3 and 4 million using the data we know right now) right now including digital.That game has sold most likely between 2-2.5 million including digital right now in NA. Smash is also above splatoon still. It's very good to see that splatoon was a massive success for nintendo. Splatoon will beat halo 5 lifetime most likely unless 343i has some tricks up their sleeves to boost the game's LTD, but it will be by less than 2X.

Splatoon plays a shit load better than the triple A games gassed up on this forum, so I really don't understand why its production is being discussed with all this focus. The game plays fantastic, happens to be one of the freshest games this year, and calling Bloodborne triple A based on metacritic, and ignoring that production value wise the Souls games are glorified middle tier games is being a bit dishonest here.

And I'd take both of those games over a game like Grand Theft Auto V, any day of the week.

Until Dawn???

Ohhh, right, that as well.

@jg4xchamp: No man, Souls games and GTA5 are shinier looking and opt for the hyper-realistic stylised looks. Obviously they are AAA and Splatoon isn't.

That seems to be the metric for many on this forum.

@khoofia_pika: Souls are hardly shinier looking, lol. Bloodborne still looks alright, mostly because of the art, but Demon's and Dark Souls games are average looking at best.

@charizard1605: Compared to the supposedly kiddy looking Splatoon, of course the Souls games are shinier looking.

Hope it gets a sale, I want to play it but not paying full price for it, pretty much sums up my thoughts of Nintendo's 2015 line-up all around, except for maybe Majora's Mask 3D. Also, saying Halo 5: Guardians only selling 1 million, that's crazy talk. I don't doubt Splatoon sold more, but by a factor of 4...

Splatoon is a Japanese word for greatness. The game is so much fun, the controls are so responsive, the 60fps runs flawlessly.

If you're a real gamer you would have this game.

@lamprey263: Well, I see where you're coming from, but it's not really a universal truth. For example, XCX at the very least is deserving of a full price.

ah, you're right, that's one I still want to play very much, not quite the price that's holding me back there it's just I need to clear up some backlist before I dive into another JRPG, and this looks like a meaty one

@lamprey263: Splatoon is worth the $60 now, bro

@lamprey263: Yep, incredible amounts of potential playtime there, if you like that kind of a game

My evidence is as anecdotal as yours. Bring me numbers or didnt happen. But as i said to charizard i might be wrong.

As for Splatoon comparison with Bloodborne it wins only in sales aspect since it lose everything else. Its barely AA both meta/gamerankings , it didnt save Wii U , its not AAA caliber gamer to being with like Bloodborne was , It was one of 2-3 games Wii U had to offer for an entire year therefore was easy for it to be a success when bloodborne had to directly compete with some of the graziest games this generation had to offer like Fallout 4 , MGS 5 and many more and last but not least , the nature of its genre its far more appealing than a horror/RPG for masses. Thore are facts and live with them.

Now , about AAA caliber game or not , you sheep listen. ZELDA IS AAA caliber game , so is MARIO main series. Splatoon is nowhere near . If you cant understand that im not talking about my standards but games values then you need to go check your IQ. And you have to be a big moron if you comparing Splatoon with Zelda , Main mario series and other AAA caliber Nintendo 1st party games. So , let your fanboyism aside and understand what im speaking about. Youre too sensitive.

@AzatiS: established fanbase =/= AAA. If you have an established fanbase, like Zelda or Mario, you probably are AAA. If you don't, that doesn't mean you definitely aren't. Splatoon is AAA, no doubt about it. Look at the budget, the marketing, the commecial aspect, the sales, the reception and how much it is being played. It's outsold undeniably AAA games such as Halo 5 and Bloodborne. Doesn't get more AAA than that.

Nope , not even close. You really comparing Zelda games with Splatoon ? Mario main series and Xeno let alone Metroid to It ? Really now ? What is so difficult to understand , i dont get it. I even gave you an example what is AAA caliber game before it even get a release and what is not , that of Diablo 3 vs Path of exile. Seems you didnt get it... I cant understand what is the problem here but is ok , i guess you dont agree.

Came in to see the reasons this furthered the smear campaign from the usual suspects. Was not disappointed.

Ah metascore, gotta love it.

Splatoon is nowhere near of Zelda or Mario caliber ... Artistic wise, gameplay wise , graphics wise , soundtrack wise ,scale wise , team worked on it wise , time consumed for it wise , money for development wise , overall value wise or ALL together wise .. you name it. Nowhere near in every aspect i can think of when a game STARTS from SCRATCH ( caps to emphasize my point , no rage ) as an AAA caliber title. Thats when a game goes into AAA caliber. If it meets that AAA , its entirely other story.

I think the example i game to charizard , Path of Exile vs Diablo 3, makes everything clear to what i mean by AAA caliber game vs AAA game. Those 2 things are entirely different things. Many AAA caliber games didnt meet AAA or they were way worse than that ( Gran Turismo 6 anyone ? ) and many games out of nowhere became hits and meet AAA standards . Undertale for example or Journey or shovel knight etc

I dont agree that acceptance , sales or reception make games AAA. Thats entirely other topic though. I can name too many AA games that became hits and many AAA games that had subpar sales . I mean , come on now. In the end youll tell me that Wii >> PS3/PC/X360 because of its sales , reception etc ... OR another fine example , since people playing WAY more than any other Shooter out there , Counter Strike GO that is , its AAAA title or something... Come on now. Lets be real here.

@AzatiS: "scale wise , team worked on it wise , time consumed wise , money for development wise"

It is.

"Artistic wise, gameplay wise , graphics wise , soundtrack wise ,scale wise"

That's really very subjective.

Still don't wanna play it.

Splatoon's gameplay mechanics are great, if not exceptional. At launch, that was one of the few things it had going for it.

• Content? 5 maps at launch.
• Features? Lacks even voice chat and custom rooms.
• Technical Graphics? The technical artstyle was never particulary great.
• Artstyle? The artstyle is very good.
• OST? I suppose it works, not a big fan personally but I know someone who was.
• Story? As much as I loved the nod against the scum of the earth that is global warming denialists in the game. The writing was pretty bad.
• Single Player Campaign: The final boss was ace, everything else however, was poor.

And before anyone comments on things that might have changed now... I am stating that at launch this was the case. Splatoon has come a long way. 16 maps available... all from free dlc. Nintendo's support for this game has been nothing but exceptional. Might even go down as one of the classics of the 8th gen. But only time can answer that question.

Focusing on this exactly, right now you are differentiating time, money, and resources put into something vs something actually being done well. Mario has always had a good aesthetic work, but Zelda has been given a giant free pass in the most recent entries. For instance Wind Waker is an easy as **** game, but I would argue it makes sense in the context of The Wind Waker. It's entire presentation (visuals, music, even its plot) are a bit more up beat, there is more energy to it, more whimsical on some level. Makes the difficulty (albeit still dull, and thus a gameplay flaw; to me at least), acceptable. In contrast Twilight Princess goes back to this grainy dirty look of Ocarina of Time, and in typical Nintendo fashion it is polished. However the ease of difficulty is completely unjustified as it betrays the presentation more than anything given how dark that story gets, how grim aspects of that story are, and how the enemies are presented. Which there is context for a Zelda games presentation matching its gameplay in tone and difficulty spikes: Majora's Mask (not hard necessarily, but it's not a pushover).

Skyward Sword is a good color palate; it is however not a good art style, because there is no sense of direction to it. Matthewmatosis put it best when he said it was like this weird fusion of Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, but without the benefit of both. It was different for the sake of being different.

Splatoon artistic wise, graphics wise, and soundtrack wise is probably one of Nintendo's best produced works in decades. I understand that is hyperbole in the context of how many exceptional games Nintendo has made, and for how long, but purely aesthetic direction Splatoon was in a class of its own last year. From how you move in the game, to how the mechanics work, to every splash and sploosh sound some dude must have slaved to get right, to the nature of the music and flowing dynamically with each multiplayer match, to even their story decisions in the campaign (that part is lackluster). So it absolutely is on that caliber, unless you have a reason why it's not as well done that goes beyond the following

A: the popular opinion doesn't agree
B: metacritic

Which are a logic fallacies in a debate, you're being a bit too free lance with your Triple A label as a catch all criticism.

Plenty of people would argue that Path of Exile was a significantly better game than vanilla Diablo 3.

Better platform? **** no. More successful platform? It's not even close.

And no i wouldn't call CSGO any stupid label like that, but I would say Counter Strike GO like any other great Counterstrike (1.6 and Source) is a great game.

No its not . If you start from SCRATCH ( because Splatoon wasnt ) and pay 15 proffesional well-known artists for some badass art that you have to pay some tens of thousands for art alone in order to have some badass results its not the same with ... give 1/100 of that or not give at all in some sort. Everything starts on paper

Gameplay wise , the complexity and the prowress of Mario series that pushing platforms at gameplay peaks if you get what i mean , take time till you think , make it happen , tweak it and repeat till you get the extraordinary platforming results youll getting in game like Mario , or even some of Zelda dungeons. You dont have that in Splatoon. Soundtrack wise is subjective indeed though at the same time is still an indicator of the budget when most of the time bigger budgets means AAA caliber. Scale wise ... you cant compare an arena game which is really easy to design and make for it a "world" to play with that of Zeldas or Bloodborne or Halo or Mario or Witcher 3 or MGS or many others AAA caliber games.

I mean there are so many aspects in games , few or many , that can define which is AAA caliber or not , we can talk for days. Even in Soundtrack aspect , even if things are subjective .. you cant freaking compare Witcher 3 music that are competing with best hollywood soundtracks , made by multiawarded artists which means it costed ALOT for that to happen , to be compared to simplistic soundtracks.

But ill take that as subjective since soundtrack is not something that will scream AAA caliber , even if in some cases it does. ( when games like Starcraft 2 having soundtracks which made from real orchestras vs soundtracks made with few VST plugins and a PC sequencer like Cubase from a single person )

Wouldn't say poor, there is a rhythm to it, mediocre is more like it. It's average Nintendo. It's the things Nintendo always does well, as the campaigns shooter/platforming has a great sense of rhythm to it, but that's all it really has going for it. Nothing in the way of truly clever or elaborate gameplay scenarios that make games like Mario Galaxy shine or the best Zelda dungeons. It's certainly more of a shooter/platformer than the Ratchet games or those jak sequels were, but Ratchet had better high points. Albeit set pieces.

What's wrong with it on a technical level? 60 frames, everything animates nicely, it's not exactly a polygon pusher, and the resolution is whatever, but I would argue even technically its flaws would be more product of hardware, and less an actual lack of design polish ala texture pop in, framerate dips, janky animations, etc.

I wouldn't go out of my way to listen to that soundtrack, but I think aesthetically few soundtracks match their game quite the way Splatoon's does.

The lack of interesting scnearious is what made the single player campaign uninteresting for most of the part. A lack of interesting scenarios leads to a kinda dull campaign.

Most of Splatoon's flaws with technical graphics came down to the hardware. Otherwise, the game was decent, but not great. Anyways, the artstyle lmade more than up for it. To the point I like the visuals more than I like the visuals on some AAA games running on superior hardware.

Awesome. I guess that happens when there's no other games on the system, huh? ;)