- Primary Subject: Splatoon Raiders and Nintendo’s evolving design philosophy for Splatoon
- Key Idea: Why Splatoon’s success comes from protecting its core identity while continuously allowing experimental redesigns
- Status: Opinion
- Last Verified: August 2, 2026
- Quick Answer: The piece argues that Splatoon Raiders’ development shift reflects Nintendo’s broader philosophy of iterating freely while preserving the “feel” of Splatoon, suggesting that the franchise’s long-term success comes not from sticking to one genre or format, but from consistently redefining ideas without losing its core identity.
Nintendo recently pulled back the curtain on Splatoon Raiders, revealing that the game originally started life as something completely different.
Before becoming the action-adventure game we have today, Splatoon Raiders was envisioned as a tower defense title where carefully placed traps did the heavy lifting against Salmonids.
Eventually, the developers realized it simply didn't feel like Splatoon. Swimming through ink, constantly repositioning, balancing offense with movement, and maintaining that unique rhythm of combat were all missing, so they scrapped the concept and rebuilt the game almost from the ground up.
Reading Nintendo's latest Ask the Developer feature on Splatoon Raiders reminded me of something I don't think we appreciate nearly enough.
Everyone points to Splatoon as one of Nintendo's biggest modern success stories, but I don't think we spend nearly enough time appreciating just how enormous a risk it really was - and perhaps even more importantly, how Nintendo has continued taking risks with it ever since.
Was Splatoon Ever Supposed To Be This Successful?
Looking back now, it's easy to forget just how strange Splatoon seemed in 2015.
Today, Inklings stand alongside Mario, Link, Pikachu, and Isabelle as some of Nintendo's defining faces, but none of that was guaranteed back then.
Nintendo was launching an online-focused multiplayer shooter on the struggling Wii U, a console that was already fighting an uphill battle.
This was also a company that wasn't exactly known for competitive online games, let alone one built around colorful squid kids covering maps in neon ink instead of chasing kill counts.
Judging by the pitch alone, it looked almost comically ambitious. What impressed me wasn't simply that Splatoon succeeded - it was how unapologetically Nintendo stuck to its own instincts instead of chasing the genre.
It would've been easy to chase military shooters or build something that looked more familiar to the wider multiplayer audience, but Nintendo leaned even harder into its weirdness.
Winning favored players who understood space as much as those who won gunfights. Fashion mattered, music mattered, and Splatfests gave the series a pulse that most multiplayer games never quite manage to find.
Nintendo kept supporting the original game with new maps, weapons, modes, and Splatfests, gradually turning what could have been a fun experiment into an entire culture.
Too many live-service games mistake quantity for evolution - Splatoon always made its updates feel like they belonged to a living world rather than a content roadmap.
Most publishers would've looked at a franchise as successful as Splatoon and played it as safely as possible.
Make another competitive shooter, tweak a few mechanics, introduce a handful of new weapons, and call it a day.
Instead, Nintendo spent years developing an entirely different kind of experience, then threw away an entire version of it because it no longer captured what made Splatoon feel like Splatoon.
The tower defense concept probably could have worked. Plenty of franchises have successfully jumped genres before.
But Nintendo wasn't interested in making just any spin-off - they wanted one that still respected the series' core identity.
They weren't asking whether the mechanics were fun in isolation. They were asking whether players would instinctively recognize the feeling of Splatoon.
Those are two very different questions, and I think a lot of publishers would've settled for the first one. I've always believed the best franchises aren't the ones that never change - they're the ones that understand what should never change.
Mario can become an RPG, a racing game, or a sports game because Nintendo knows exactly what makes Mario feel like Mario.
I think Splatoon is finally reaching that same point. It has grown beyond being "Nintendo's shooter" into something flexible enough to support different ideas without losing its identity.
Ironically, that willingness to experiment is exactly what made the original game successful in the first place.
Splatoon was born because Nintendo decided not to play it safe, and more than a decade later, the series still seems willing to challenge itself instead of settling into a comfortable routine.
That isn't always the easiest path, especially once a franchise starts selling millions of copies, but I think it's the reason Splatoon has stayed fresh while so many multiplayer series begin to feel predictable after a few sequels.
Reading the developer interview made me realize I'd almost forgotten what made Splatoon such an extraordinary gamble in the first place. Nintendo could have easily protected Splatoon by repeating what already worked.
Instead, it keeps asking what else the franchise can become without forgetting what made people fall in love with it in the first place. To me, that's the real gamble - and after more than a decade, it still looks like one that's paying off.
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