History Sandbox / RacattackForce

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Shortly after [[Franchise/{{Splatoon}} the Squid Sisters]] stopped hosting Inkopolis News, a mysterious individual by the name of Mr. Grizz set up shop in a shady corner of [[VideoGame/Splatoon2 Inkopolis Square]]. Grizzco Industries probably isn't the most legal of businesses, but he's nonetheless opened his doors to proven Turf Warriors to assist him with the dangerous job of collecting Golden Eggs. It's dangerous work, and no one really knows why he wants so many of the things, but all the fresh clothing and doodads he offers alongside the usual pay definitely helps ensure a steady stream of workers who are content to fight Salmonids without asking too many questions. Heck, operations in Inkopolis Square were so good, he was even able to open up a second offices in [[VideoGame/Splatoon3 the city of Splatsville]].

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/800px_logo_splatoon_wii_u_english.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"Go ahead, make a mess!"]]

[[folder:Franchise.Splatoon]]
''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}''

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/splatoon_logo.png]]

''Splatoon'' is Creator/{{Nintendo}}'s premier {{competitive multiplayer}} ThirdPersonShooter franchise, taking place in a colorful [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic]] world where aquatic life have evolved to replace humanity -- the most prolific of which are the humanoid squid Inklings, whose favourite pastime next to fashion and music is [[ItMakesSenseInContext fighting and spraying each other with their bodily fluids]].

What sets ''Splatoon'' apart from other shooters is the core mechanic of inking and swimming. All your weaponry coats the ground and walls in ink, with Inklings (and Octolings) having the ability to [[VoluntaryShapeshifting switch between their cephalopod and humanoid forms at will]] and swim through ink of their own colour; meanwhile, attempting to walk or swim through enemy ink greatly restricts movement and causes damage. As such, any ink you lay down greatly increases the mobility of your team and greatly hinders that of the opposition, meaning the key to winning matches comes in ''literal'' territory control moreso than "splatting" your enemies (though that certainly still helps). The main online mode of the games, known as Turf War, emphasizes this all the more by having the goal be to take control of the map by coating it in your team's color.

In addition to Turf War, there are several other online gameplay categories. This includes a ranked mode, which itself has several game modes where the focus is on completing more specific objectives (such as [[EscortMission riding a tower all the way to the enemy base]]), and Salmon Run (where you take a part-time job at a cannery wherein you and your team [[MultiMookMelee defeat waves of mutated Salmonids]] and collect their eggs). [[TemporaryOnlineContent Periodically]], there are community-wide weekend events called "Splatfests", where players choose one side of a CavemenVsAstronautsDebate and duke it out to see which side is right.

Each game has a single-player campaign called "Hero Mode", wherein your player character is recruited as the newest member of the New Squidbeak Splatoon, an underground military operation working to defend the surface from outside threats to Inkling society.

The official website can be found [[http://splatoon.nintendo.com/ here]]. ''Splatoon Base'', the official Japanese website detailing the series' mythology and characters, can be found [[https://www.nintendo.co.jp/character/splatoon/en/ here]]. Updates on the games and new information about the series' mythology are delivered via social media under the guise of the [[https://twitter.com/SplatoonNA "Squid Research Lab"]], a hidden group of humans who have dedicated themselves to cataloguing the activities and history of these stylish cephalopods.

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant No relation to Hwang Dong-hyuk's]] ''Series/SquidGame''.
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!!List of games in the series
* ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon|1}}'' (UsefulNotes/WiiU; 2015)
* '' VideoGame/Splatoon2'' (UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch; 2017)
** ''Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion'' (Switch; 2018)
* ''VideoGame/Splatoon3'' (Switch; 2022)

!!Manga
* ''Manga/{{Splatoon}}'' (2015-present; serialized in ''Magazine/CoroCoroComic'')
* ''Mellow Squid 4-Panel Comic'' (2016-present; serialized in ''Weekly Famitsu'')
* ''Splatoon: Squid Kids Comedy Show'' (2017-present; serialized in ''[=CoroCoro=] Comic'')

!!Other Media
* ''Literature/SquidSistersStories'' (2017): A [[WebSerialNovel web serial short story]] detailing the events between the first two games.

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!!Tropes general to the ''Splatoon'' series:
[folder:A-F]
* AbsurdlyHighLevelCap:
** [[VideoGame/{{Splatoon}} The first game's]] Version 2.0.0 update raised the level cap to 50, even though all weapons and gear is unlocked by original cap of level ''20''. There are additional pieces of gear rewarded every five levels past 20, but said clothing has no unique traits that can't be found from others in the store. And assuming you gain experience in the most efficient way possible (winning ''every'' ranked match you play without ever going into overtime) it'll take you over 90 hours of play time (not counting time spent between matches) to go from level 20 to level 50.
** ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'' goes even further by having the original level cap be 99, despite being able to unlock everything by Level 30. Then the Version 2.0.0 update allowed any players that reached to get to that level cap to essentially prestige ala ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' to reach a new level cap of 99★. Expect to spend several hundred hours to reach that cap. And another several hundred hours if you chose to prestige again after ''that'' to reach 99★★, which only the mobile app will even acknowledge. However, instead of clothing every five levels, every new level from 30 onward grants the player a Super Sea Snail, a useful item which can be used in lieu of cash to help augment and re-roll gear abilities.
* AcmeProducts:
** Downplayed in that multiple brands appear, but [[CharacterCustomization hats, clothing, and shoes]] are all made by fictional in-universe brands (Firefin, Krak-On, Forge, Inkline, etc.). [=SquidForce=] in particular, is the official sponsor for ink battles, as evidenced by its logo appearing on the sides of the [[EscortMission tower in Tower Control]] and the button for Ranked Battles. The brand usually has a slight affect on which sub-ability you are more likely to get, such as Krak-On shoes being more likely to get [[SprintShoes Swim Speed Up]] as a sub-ability, although not all brands have such a LuckManipulationMechanic.
** Also downplayed with weapons, which are also made by multiple fictional in-universe brands. Weapons made by a particular brand tend to follow a certain theme, such as "Custom" weapons being based on industrial tools, and variants of main weapons (that have alternate sub and special weapon) tend to have their brand name on them.
* AdvertisingOnlyContinuity: Most of ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'s'' promotional material on social media comes from the perspective of a "Squid Research Lab", a collection of humans who secretly analyze the culture and behavior of the various races within the game. Outside of a promotional clothing item in ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'', they have no trace of existing in the games or manga. This is particularly notable because ''Splatoon'' is set long after humanity went extinct, so where exactly are these {{Buffy Speak}}ing scientists hiding?
* AfterTheEnd: The game is set on Earth [[AndManGrewProud long after humanity died off]], with the official art book for the first game further detailing this to be a combination of climate change and nuclear warfare during [[WorldWarWhatever World War V]]; the latter quickening the former via a stray warhead ''melting the entire continent of Antarctica''. Cue mass extinction of almost every mammal on Earth, paving the way for various sea-life to evolve and become the new dominant species on the planet.
* AlienHair: Most of the characters are ApparentlyHumanMerfolk that retain their [[LittleBitBeastly beastly bits]] as hair resembling the fish they take after. Inklings and Octolings in particular have some of their tentacles act as hair when in humanoid form.
* AliensStealCable: Downplayed. According to WordOfGod, Splatfest themes are received as a result of humans' arguments about mundane topics being among the various radio waves transmitted into space thousands of years ago, and getting reflected back to the planet. In effect, it's Earth stealing cable from itself, and explains why the Splatfest themes can cover aspects of present-day pop culture.
* AllThereInTheManual: A lot of information about the setting and the characters are only alluded to within the game itself, with bonus material such as artbooks, soundtrack inserts, developer interviews, and the official websites elaborating or revealing more details.
* {{Americasia}}: Modern culture in this world is largely a mix of Japanese and American elements, from architecture to music to clothing.
* AndYourRewardIsClothes: Clothing is frequently given as rewards for accomplishing challenges. Each piece of clothing has a main ability to aid in battle, plus up to three sub-slots for additional buffs, with one sub-slot ability being about a third as powerful as a main ability.
* AnimalIsTheNewMan: The backstory of the series' numerous societies is that after humanity destroyed itself through several world wars and climate change, sea life evolved into the new dominant species of the planet. The fact that these new species developed similar virtues and vices as humankind becomes a plot point in ''Octo Expansion''.
* AnimalJingoism: There's a fervent animosity between the squid-based Inklings and the octopus-like Octarians, birthed from a past war that resulted in the later species being forced to live BeneathTheEarth for the past century prior to the first game. While some Octolings would begin living on the surface as of the second game, they're all military defectors who are HiddenInPlainSight rather than openly revealing their race.
* AntiFrustrationFeatures: In the first ''Splatoon'', if you lose a ranked match in which one of your teammates was disconnected, you'll only lose one ranking point instead of the usual ten, though this was only if they disconnected at the start. Later installments are more forgiving, not altering your rank whatsoever regardless of when that player disconnected.
* AntiRageQuitting: The game makes it hard to "rage quit", as the game doesn't let you exit during a Turf War or Ranked Battle match. You have to close the game entirely; this results in a penalty in Ranked in the first game, and a short five-minute suspension from playing online at all in following entries.
* AntiVillain: The Octarians. Despite being painted as a gratuitous EvilCounterpartRace of the Inklings in the Hero Modes of the first two games, it's made clear through Sunken Scrolls, the ''Octo Expansion'' campaign, and other in-game sources that their heavy militarization was the result of being forced underground due to losing a war years prior. While they certainly want revenge, they also have the issue of their underground homes now facing an energy crisis that they're desperate to resolve.
* ArmorIsUseless:
** Bulkier equipment doesn't really have any effect on the player's survivability, unless it happens to have a defense ability attached; and even then, the effect is still fairly minor and can be replicated by anything less bulky.
** Averted in single player, where your character can equip up to 3 pieces of armor that serve as extra lives of sorts.
* ArtAttacker: All the ink weaponry makes for some bizarrely artistic fights; even things like paint rollers and paintbrushes are weaponized.
* ArtShift: Many of the Sea Scrolls are drawn in a realistic art style, the most detailed of which are wartime photos of the Great Turf War.
* AwesomeButImpractical:
** Hiding on inked walls can ''sometimes'' be a good way to ambush opponents, as most people focus on inking the ground because that's where most people hide and inking walls is purely for transveral and don't count toward the point total anyway. The problem is that you constantly slide down walls if you aren't actively climbing them, meaning that you'll most likely be so preoccupied with trying not to fall off that you won't be able to do any ambushing before someone ''does'' notice you.
** The Rainmaker. When fully charged, it fires a large tornado of ink. Unfortunately, it's only effective when it's fully charged, which takes about 2 seconds. Furthermore, the Rainmaker locks the user out of using their usual sub and special weapons, leaving them with no defensive options. Slow and steady strategies won't work either, because the Rainmaker will explode on its own after a set period of time. Combine that with the fact that [[BlessedWithSuck you're a giant target on the map]], and it is unlikely you'll get far without your teammates distracting the enemy or protecting you directly.
* BackgroundMusicOverride: During a Splatfest, the signature song of that game's {{Idol Singer}}s overrides most of the hub world's musical tracks; it even can be heard from the weapon testing area.
* BadassAdorable: The Inklings and Octolings are colorful cephalopods who shape-shift into humanoid teenagers. They are also very skilled with ink-based weaponry and are surprisingly powerful fighters.
* {{BFS}}: The Inkbrush and Octobrush are longer than your character is tall and about as wide, too.
* BoringButPractical: Despite all the cool toys that are eventually unlocked, it's still common to see hardened veterans wielding the games' starter weapon, the Splattershot Jr. The gun doesn't have anything fancy going for it: it just sprays a good amount of ink for a long amount of time with decent range and damage, and has a defensive special that protects both the player and their teammates for a reasonably low cost. It's no GameBreaker by any stretch, but it has the versatility to act as [[JackOfAllStats a consistent, solid choice for any situation and team]].
* BuffySpeak: The Squid Research Lab, for all of their interest in 100% methodical and serious research of technicolor squids, is a victim of unscientific speaking when revealed new details about the games, er, Inkling and Octarian societies. For instance, ''[[http://splatoonus.tumblr.com/post/115170908195/octarian-alert-one-of-our-mail-guys-he-does-some "These suckers use one tentacle to work their little steering joystick thingy"]]''.
* ButtonMashing: Want to use Brush and Splatanas weapons effectively? Then you better get working on that trigger finger. Unlike other weapon classes, they attack as quickly as the player can press the trigger button. Since one gets the most out of it in coverage ability and attack power by swinging it as fast as possible, improving your button mashing skills is a must.
* CameraAbuse: When bosses explode, they shower everything in ink, including the camera.
* CaptureTheFlag: Rainmaker is an odd variant where the eponymous Rainmaker sits in the center of the stage and functions working as a single "flag" that has to be carried to the enemy base. The Rainmaker gives its holder a slow but powerful ChargedAttack; however, it greatly slows the carrier's walking speed, constantly marks their location to opponents, and self-destructs if they hold on to it for too long, doing it faster if they try to retreat.
* CavemenVsAstronautsDebate: Splatfests are periodically-held weekend-long community events where players choose sides in simple debates like "dogs vs. cats" or "rock vs. paper vs. scissors," with the winner decided in Turf Wars matches. In-universe, these are framed as large-scale festivals complete with all-night parties.
->'''Pearl''': Yo, Marina! Tell the people the good news before we introduce the stages!\\
'''Marina''': Huh? Like, right now?! Um... What was the good news again?\\
'''Pearl''': You know... The single most important celebration of our culture?
* CharacterCustomization: The appearance of your Inkling and Octoling can be customized, which then is combined with customization of their offensive and cosmetic equipment. Furthermore, each piece of cosmetic equipment comes with a main ability that affects gameplay, and up to three other sub-abilities.
* CharacterLevel: The multiplayer features a leveling system, with the amount of experience gained being based on performance during a Turf War or ranked match (area inked, plus any time or winning team bonuses). Your level determines access to certain weapon types, with Level 10 being the requirement to access ranked modes.
* ChargedAttack:
** Charger class weapons work like sniper rifles, and cover a long area in front of the player which increases the longer the attack is charged, with them being [[OneHitKO instant splats]] at max charge, with the exception of the Bamboozler and its variants.
** Splatling class weapons have a charge time used to pressurize ink and wind up the weapon before firing, with longer charges giving longer bursts of fire. The reward for this charge time is superb range and fire rate.
** Splatana class weapons have a close-ranged charged attack that does instant knock-out damage while sliding the user forward.
** In Rainmaker mode, the eponymous Rainmaker can be charged up to fire a large blast of ink. Trying to attack without charging simply fires a tiny little twister that barely travels forward.
* CherryTapping:
** As far as main weapons go, the Inkbrush's "rolling" attack does a measly 20 damage when hitting an opponent, while Inklings have 100 health. Combine this with the Inkbrush user being pushed back after running into someone, and the chances of actually finishing off an opponent with that attack are close to none.
** Chargers and Splatlings can be rapidly fired by mashing the trigger, but they'll do relatively little damage with extremely little range and coverage.
** The Sprinkler does minuscule damage-per-hit, but a careless opponent can still get splatted by it.
** When you shoot a platform propeller, the ink ''can'' rebound off onto enemies and splat them if they're low enough on health. [[DevelopersForesight And yes, the game has a specific message for dying this way.]]
* CivilWarcraft: Nothing serious, but during Splatfest a team can face off against members of their own team (such as Dog vs. Dog) if the matchmaking system can't find enough members of an opposing team. While these matches grant the usual Splatfest points for players, they do not affect the overall standings.
* CloseRangeCombatant:
** The Brushes are very much melee weapons, with users tending to rely on ambush tactics even more than other players do.
** Some Blaster weapons, particularly the Luna Blaster, have explosions with a wide blast radius and great power, but the shots travel only a short distance before detonating.
** The Dapple Dualies and its variants trade the range that most of its fellow Dualie class weapons have in favor of high damage.
** The Sploosh-o-Matic has poor accuracy and absolutely minuscule range, but excellent damage and fire rate. Like the Luna Blaster, it's geared explicitly and exclusively towards close-quarters combat.
* ColorblindMode: Enabling "Color-lock" in the options locks teams colors to a particular set of bright, high-contrast ones depending on the game mode. For example, ''Splatoon 2'' online battles will always be yellow vs. blue.
* ColorCodedArmies: Each team of Inklings can have a variety of colors. There are many team color combinations for Turf War and ranked battles that are guaranteed to have significant ColorContrast to help gameplay. Sometimes Splatfests add extra colors to the fray, depending on the teams.
* ComebackMechanic:
** Since special weapons are charged by covering the ground in your team's color, a losing team can charge up their special weapons more easily since there's more ground for them to cover. This is especially true for Turf War, since the objective ''is'' to cover everything in ink.
** Some gear abilities exist to give benefits to players or teams in bad situations: for example, "Tenacity" fills the special bar faster if the enemy team has more active players, while the aptly named "Comeback" gives a temporary boost in stats to its user after respawning.
** In ranked modes, if time runs out when the losing team is in control of the objective, the match goes into overtime. Overtime finishes once the losing team either loses control of the objective, manages to pull ahead and overtake the opposing team's score, or the hidden overtime timer runs out. This encourages losing players to keep trying until the very end.
*** Splat Zones in particular has a mechanic that punishes the team that lost control of the zone(s) with a penalty timer, with bigger penalties being given the closer they were to running out the main timer. While this penalty doesn't affect the final score after the match ends, it does make it so the losing team has a bigger chance to turn a match around, even if the enemy was a few seconds away from victory; and it forces the enemy to fully commit to taking the zone(s) back and keeping control.
* CompanyCrossReferences: There's the occasional reference to other Nintendo properties and [[ConsoleCameo products]], but the most common comes in the form of 8-bit renderings of Bloopers, the squid enemies from the ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' games, hidden as stickers in several [[EasterEgg out-of-the-way locations]].
* CompetitiveBalance: Weapons have a general balance of fire rate, accuracy, range, and power. For example, a weapon with high fire rate might have poor damage, range, and accuracy but can coat more area faster. Meanwhile, weapons with high range, like chargers and Squelchers, have excellent accuracy and power but are less efficient at coating areas. Furthermore, most weapons have branded or reskinned variants that have the exact same stats as the regular version but require a different play style due to having a different sub and special weapon.
* CompetitiveMultiplayer: While every installment has a single-player campaign, the series is primarily a 4-vs-4 online multiplayer shooter.
* ConLang: The series features a number of languages, though the only ones we ever hear are Inkling and Octarian.
* CoveredInGunge: The whole point of the game is to cover everything in ink, both scenery and enemies.
* CoverVersion:
** In-universe, "[[SongsInTheKeyOfPanic Now Or Never]]" was a rock song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwivv1AeOcc originally performed by Squid Squad]], but has since been covered by various other in-universe bands throughout every installment.
** "Calamari Inkantation" is also this in-universe, being a modernized pop version of "Chorus of Calamari County" [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RBG4KLnGjY a popular traditional folk tune and dance in Inkling culture]].
* CrossCounter: It's possible to pull this off with any encounter, but the most direct example is when two Roller users charge each other head on, immediately splatting each other.
* CrosshairAware: This is done for targeted DeathFromAbove-style specials such as the Inkstrike (''1'') or Tenta Missiles (''2'' and ''3'').
* CrutchCharacter: Or weapon. In any case, the Aerospray family of weapons tends to get labeled this by the competitive scene. In Turf Wars, its insane fire rate and spread makes it great for inking turf, but people who take it into ranked play are usually in for a rude wake-up call, where it's short range and random spread shots make most people who play it glorified target practice.
* CuteLittleFangs: A variation of the trope. Inklings and Octolings have little fangs where the canines would be like most versions of the trope, but they also have a fang on the front bottom tooth made to look like the beak of a squid/octopus.
* CycleOfHurting:
** While spawn-camping is certainly possible in the first two games, players have the benefit of their team's spawn point having an unbreakable shield that enemies can't attack through, but you and your teammates can. ''Splatoon 2'' would make it impossible to even reach the enemy spawn point on several maps, while ''Splatoon 3'' [[AvertedTrope would eliminate the issue entirely]] by giving each player their own airborne "spawner drones" that shoot the player onto the stage and grants them temporary invincibility upon landing.
** ZigZagged with Super Jumping. Players can jump to any other active teammate, spawn, or Squid Beakon via a Super Jump, enabling quick escapes when they realize they've been cornered or are in any other tough scenario, but poor timing will mean that you just jumped to someone who just died in the middle of a fire-fight, causing you to get splatted anyway by an enemy awaiting your arrival. And if several teammates do this at once to get back into the action quickly...
* DeathOfAThousandCuts: The "Brush" weapons have some of the lowest damage-per-hit values with its "fling" attack; however, they can attack as quickly as the player can press the button, meaning that despite needing multiple hits to splat an opponent, it can still be pulled off very quickly.
* DefeatEqualsExplosion:
** You explode when splatted, leaving [[RightOutOfMyClothes your clothes]] and an opposite-team-colored ink stain behind.
** The same also goes for splatted enemies in single-player. Bosses in particular explode into massive gushes of ink [[OverdrawnAtTheBloodBank that would look quite different in red]].
* DeployableCover:
** The Splash Wall sub weapon is this, stopping enemy attacks dead in their tracks, heavily damaging anyone foolish enough to walk or swim into them, and instantly splatting any poor unlucky fella that happens to be under it when activated. They stay on the field for a limited amount of time, but do dissipate faster with damage.
** Brella weapons, with the exception of the Undercover Brella, will deploy the shield if the fire trigger is held for a prolonged period of time. The shield will slowly travel forward, protecting anyone who is behind it, and like the Splash Wall, stays on the field for a limited amount of time but dissipates faster with damage. Meanwhile, the weapon will regenerate a new shield after a few seconds.
* DesperationAttack: The Last-Ditch Effort equipment ability gives you several buffs when less than 30 seconds remain on the clock, or if you're in a ranked mode and the enemy team is close to victory.
* DifficultButAwesome:
** The default gyroscopic controls can take a bit of getting used to if one is accustomed to console shooters that use sticks with aim assist, with some new players balking at the idea of even trying them thanks to the [[{{Waggle}} stigma surrounding motion controls]]. That said, the vast majority of ''Splatoon'' players (competitive or otherwise) view them as the optimal way to play.
** Charger-type weapons don't cover ground as efficiently as other type and require steady aim to be used effectively, but while novice chargers will probably find themselves splatted constantly, experts are an invaluable support unit for their team, managing to shut down enemy advancement from a distance with powerful [[OneHitKO one-hit splats]] while also creating long and clean trails of ink to allow them and their team a quick route to move in. The shorter-ranged chargers and the two-hit Bamboozlers are more difficult to master, but are ideal for ambushes and maps with lots of closed areas and very few vantage points.
** The L-3 Nozzlenose and its variants have a unique feature among Shooters in that holding the trigger down does not produce a constant stream of fire; each press only produces a three shot burst, meaning you have to press the trigger repeatedly to keep firing. However, the Nozzlenose is incredibly ink-efficient and fairly accurate, allowing you to do a lot between refills.
** While the Inkbrush and Octobrush weapons work similarly to a Roller, using it like one is useless, as their "rolling" produces a thin line nearly useless for covering turf, it relies on DeathOfAThousandCuts as opposed to the {{One Hit KO}}s that Rollers are used to, and have almost melee-like range. However, their high movement speed and "fling" attack, which is as quick as the player can tap the button, means that a skilled user can thoroughly cover mass amounts of turf quickly, and its "rolling" attack moves nearly as fast as Squid/Octo form, allowing Inkbrush users to excel at moving through turf not covered in their own team's ink quickly. Skilled Inkbrush users can use to this trait to compensate for the lack of range as well, both to escape bad situations and to rapidly close in on both ranged attackers and unaware opponents.
** Splatlings don't have the run and gun factor of the shooters, or the sheer kill power of the chargers. That said, they have the range of a charger and the coverage of a shooter, which can handily compensate for the lack of immediate firepower.
* DiminishingReturnsForBalance:
** Having multiple copies of the same ability isn't very efficient, because the benefits get smaller with each successive duplicate. Exactly how less efficient depends on the stacked ability in question.
** The Charger and Roller weapons have useful abilities, but teams won't function very well if there's too many of them. Having too many of the same weapon class means multiple people share the same weaknesses, and if no other weapons are around to cover those weaknesses, neither weapon will be able to perform as well as they would on a more balanced team. At the very least, having more than one Charger on a team is generally a bad idea.
* DominoMask: The Inklings have black outlines around their eyes, giving them the appearance of wearing masks.
* DownloadableContent: New content is periodically added to the games over their first few years via free updates that include new multiplayer stages, weapons, gear, and even Battle Modes. There is also occasionally paid content in the form of new single-player campaigns.
* EarlyGameHell: Downplayed. The clothing and equipment you can get is directly related to your level, but the devs did a good job of making early weapons such as the Splattershot Jr. balanced enough to remain viable and effective even in higher level play, and though you're limited to buying only one- or two-star gear in stores until Level 10, you can order three-star gear or upgrade any current gear to three-star through your FriendInTheBlackMarket.
* ElaborateUndergroundBase: The various single-player campaigns largely take place in large underground domes and other locations. The elaborate nature of the tech is part of the reason why the Octarians kept stealing Zapfish in the first two games; they're undergoing a bit of an energy crisis trying to maintain it all and the Inklings are seen as having energy to spare.
* EliteMook:
** The Twintacle Octotroopers, Octarian enemies that have two tentacles instead of one, are much stronger than their one-tentacled counterparts. Why is that? For one, they can use their free tentacle to {{Button Mash|ing}} their fire button.
** Octolings are already elite troops for the Octarian army, but among them there are those with kelp in their hair, who are tougher than the regular Octolings.
* EliteTweak:
** Getting the right perks on your gear can be time-consuming and tedious due to the extra perks being chosen at random, but it's still entirely possible to get a killer set of abilities that goes great with your weapon of choice through rerolling and using ability chunks.
* EscortMission: The Rainmaker mode essentially is this combined with CaptureTheFlag. The player with the Rainmaker has a very slow charge attack meaning that if they try to move ahead alone, there's a very good chance that they'll get splatted by the other team. To win, the rest of the team needs to protect them.
* ExcitedTitleTwoPartEpisodeName: The levels in the single-player campaigns are titled this way.
* ExplodingBarrels: The single-player campaigns feature pufferfish balloons that burst and spread ink everywhere if you shoot them.
* FamilyFriendlyFirearms: Ink guns, ink bazookas, ink grenades, oversized paint rollers... you might see a pattern here. The weapons are also either colorful and toy-like, or cobbled together from random household objects.
* FictionalAgeOfMajority: While not adulthood per se, most Inklings and Octolings gain a humanoid form and the ability to [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shapeshift]] by the age of 14, and thus can begin partaking in Turf Wars.
* FictionalHoliday:
** Splatfests are special holidays in Inkling culture. They occur every now and then, and during those times normal online gameplay is put on hold in favor of Splatfest Battles, which are Turf Wars that pit teams of thematically opposed sides against each other. Additionally, they take place at night with special concerts by a given game's musical hosts.
** Squidmas is brought up a few times, as is Squidoween. Their Easter equivalent is simply referred to as Spring Fest.
* FieldPowerEffect: The ink you spray in general has effects on everyone on the stage. Ink of the same color allows players to quickly swim in it and quickly refill their ink supply. Enemy ink, on the other hand, slows you to a crawl, while also leaving you damaged for easy splatting.
* FightingForAHomeland: The Octarians, as the underground domes they've called home after the war are rapidly falling apart, and running out of energy.
* FinalExamBoss: A lot of the skills learned and gadgets used by the player have to be used in each game's final boss fight.
* FishPeople: Most of the [=NPCs=] are anthropomorphic (or at least talking) aquatic life, while the rest are ApparentlyHumanMerfolk. Meanwhile, Judd is initially the only mammal in the series, with Lil' Judd being his clone.
* FloatingContinent: The levels in Hero Mode take place on platforms floating in the air within the Octarian homes.
* FriendlyFireproof: An unusually {{Justified|Trope}} example. The ink you fire is the same ink that your teammates' bodies are made of and that they can merge completely into when in swim form, so it makes sense that only opposing ink could harm them. The flipside of this is that your teammates will absorb and block your shots, which is especially bad for Chargers since they attack with single shots that use a lot of ink, and a frequent issue for Splatling users since they hold their weapons far lower to the ground that other weapon types.
* FunnyForeigner: Most Jellyfish can't speak the Inkling language, and while the Jellyfish shopkeepers are able to, they tend to butcher the language slightly in the process.
* FunnyOctopus:
** The Inklings and Octolings, being cartoony cephalopods that can change into humanoids that maintain some of their aquatic features.
** Non-Octoling Octarians are shown as a more disturbing version, with the lower ranking soldiers taking the form of single tentacles with eyes, mouth and legs.
[/folder]

[folder:G-M]
* GatlingGood: Splatling guns are [[{{BFG}} large ink miniguns]] that have to be wound up before raining colorful destruction on the [[JustForPun splattlefield]].
* GenderedOutfit: Female inklings wear shorter shorts than males. Other than that, almost all of the equipable clothing averts this, being identical between genders save for some minor form tweaking done for t-shirts and long shirts. Only a few outfits show remarkable differences between male and female variations.
* TheGoomba: Octotroopers, the basic one-tentacled Octarian troops. They move slow, fire slow, and are generally very easy to take care of.
* GraffitiTown: The setting of many arenas is largely urban or industrial, while nonetheless still being colorful even before the Inklings wreak havoc all over. The games also make use of an in-game postbox (or Website/{{Miiverse}}, in the case of the first game), having any message or artwork created serve as randomized graffiti that can show up in the overworld and multiplayer stages.
* GrandFinale: Each game has one in the form of a final Splatfest. As opposed to the usual regional ones, the final Splatfest is a worldwide event with unified results, and the outcome tends to affect [[AudienceParticipation some major aspects of the next installment]], from the plot to the setting.
* GreatOffscreenWar: The Great Turf War between Inklings and Octarians that took place 100 years before the first game's events.
* GrenadeSpam: Normally averted due to them taking a huge chunk out of your [[ManaMeter Ink Gauge]], however the "Bomb Rush" [[LimitBreak specials]] grant ample usage of a given bomb type for a limited time.
* GreyAndGrayMorality: The animosity between Octarians and Inklings originated over a territorial dispute, with the Octarian Army still making moves in the modern day because the underground domes they have lived in since the Great Turf War are decaying. Neither side is as much "good" or "evil" as they are simply opposing sides in a war.
* HartmanHips: Female Inklings and Octarians have proportionately wide hips. Their idle animations place some emphasis on this.
* TheHedonist: The Inklings as a race care mostly about fun, parties, and looking fresh. It got to the point that they were losing the first battles of the Great Turf War because they couldn't wake up early enough in the morning to defend themselves.
* HeroicMime: {{Lampshaded}}. The other members of the Squidbeak Splatoon are aware that your character isn't all that talkative and tend to interpret your silence however they want. Downplayed with Agent 8 from the second game's ''Octo Expansion'', as their campaign's collectables have each one accompanied by [[WarriorPoet a short poem written by them]].
* HiddenBadass: The musical acts that headline each game are usually shown at some point to be quite talented on the battlefield.
* HoldTheLine: In ranked modes, if the round goes into its last minute, an effective strategy for the winning team is to make less of an effort to push the objective and switch to preventing the enemy from overtaking their score until time runs out. Inversely, a team that is losing and has no chance to win can switch to putting all their might into preventing the enemy from at least scoring a knockout before time runs out.
* HoldYourHippogriffs: Going with the WorldOfPun this game is, sea life counterparts of phrases show up every now and then.
-->''"Hold on to your tentacles!"''\\
''"You gotta be squiddin' me!"''
* HubLevel: Each game has a shopping district in a major city serve as the "menu" where all areas and modes can be accessed. Likewise, the Hero Modes have some location outside of said city contain the various areas that the player traverses and uses to find and access the single player stages.
* HumanitysWake: The game is set millennia after the disappearance of humanity, with all signs pointing to the Inklings and other races of the world developing their civilizations on top of what humanity left behind. Despite this, they seem to be largely ignorant of what humanity was beyond their status as the previous dominant species.
* HumanPopsicle: Or feline, rather. Judd was put in cryogenic stasis for 10,000 years by his scientist owner before the extinction of humanity, waking up about 2,000 years before the first game's events.
* HyperspaceArsenal: It's never explained how Inklings and Octolings are able to store their weapons, some of which are larger than they are, when they change into cephalopod forms. Then there's the sub and special weapons they can throw out of nowhere.
* ImprobableWeaponUser: Of the main weapon classes, about a third of them qualify. Brushes consist of oversized paintbrushes and paint rollers, Sloshers mostly consist of buckets, Brellas are [[ParasolOfPain umbrellas]], and Splatanas are windshield wipers.
* ImprovisedWeapon: While certain weapons look like factory-made water guns or pastiches of actual guns, the ''vast'', '''''vast''''' majority of weapons in the series appear cobbled up from various household and office items. Outside the aforementioned Brushes, Sloshers, Brellas, and Splatanas, examples include the L-3 and H-3 Nozzlenoses (basically a hose, its spool, and a spray nozzle), the various Splatling guns (heavily modified water coolers and fire hydrants), the Squelchers (power drills), and Squiffers (a detergent bottle, a mop handle, and a windshield wiper stuck together). This even extends to the sub-weapons, with Splat Bombs just being plastic bags of ink surrounded by a pressure sensitive frame, and the Fizzy Bomb just being an overfilled soda can leaking ink until it finally explodes from being shaken.
* InvincibleMinorMinion:
** Squee-Gs are little fish-shaped drones that clean up ink, cannot be hurt and can't be stunned. The standard ones are completely unable to harm you, but the industrial-sized ones can run you over due to deeming ''your entire body'' as ink to be cleaned.
** Flooders are giant rolling machines that spray a constant wall of ink below them, ''will'' actively attempt to harm you, and will move faster if they notice you. And like the Squee-Gs, they also can't be harmed or stunned at all.
* JackOfAllStats: The first weapons that a player can unlock by leveling up (the Splattershot, the Splat Roller, Splat Charger, etc.) are all generally middle of the road in stats as far as the weapon type they represent go, allowing players to decide the playstyle they prefer as the later weapons they unlock become more specialized.
* KentBrockmanNews: The news hosts, while helpful in introducing the playable levels and updates whenever you boot up the game, usually default to making quips, going on tangents, and generally engaging in casual conversation rather than give any practical advice.
* KryptoniteProofSuit: The "Ink Resistance" ability lowers the damage Inklings receive while standing in enemy ink, while also decreasing the movement penalty while moving through enemy ink.
* LaserSight:
** A Charger weapon's line of fire is marked with a laser as it's being charged. You don't want to be on the wrong end of those.
** If a Flooder notices you, it will focus a laser on you to let you know that you're being pursued.
* LateArrivalSpoiler: The revelation that the series is AfterTheEnd was originally hidden in the first game's Sunken Scrolls. Callie outright mentions this factoid during the announcement of that game's 10th North American Splatfest, and the setting's post-apocalyptic status goes on to become a major plot point in following entries.
* LayeredMetropolis: [[http://41.media.tumblr.com/3e95640571129b51485c6b93902bc6c3/tumblr_ni69veHKeF1u3akyno1_1280.jpg The surface world]] is a bustling metropolis dominated by Inklings, while the subterranean [[http://41.media.tumblr.com/9e3016e7991db4dbdc77e513a367f600/tumblr_nfxk4ihCuy1u3akyno1_1280.jpg Octarian domes]] are comparatively dystopian militarized societies, with the Octarians having giant monitors in their domes that simulate the sky.
* LimitBreak: As you ink territory in multiplayer matches, a meter fills up that, when filled completely, gives a you access to a special weapon. The points needed to activate a special differs based on the weapon you're using.
* LongRangeFighter:
** [[SniperRifle Charger weapon]] users. The long charging time most of them have prevents many weapons in this category from going up close, but its range and high damage at a full charge makes up for that. Taken even further with specific chargers like the E-Liter series -- which sacrifices mobility, charge time, and ink efficiency for even greater range -- and the chargers equipped with scopes, allowing for easier aiming and a slight increase in range at the expense of being automatically forced into tunnel vision after reaching a certain level of charge.
** The Dynamo Roller's forte. Despite rollers normally being close range, the Dynamo Roller attacks very slowly, to the point that one getting caught in melee rarely comes out on top. However, their ink flinging attack has an impressively long range and wide spread, allowing it to excel at keeping opponents at arms length.
** Among Shooter and Dualie weapons, the Squelcher lines have comparable range to Chargers (other than the E-Liter series). While they have less damage, slower fire rate and worse turf coverage compared to most lower range shooters, they have the advantage in combat as long as the user stays out of reach of any rivals.
** Splatlings sacrifice the ability to fire immediately by having superb range combined with quick fire rate. However, this means that a Splatling user caught by surprise at close range is at a severe disadvantage.
* LostInTranslation: As noted in CargoCult, Inklings society seems to worship a fax machine. Why? Because due to AlternateCharacterReading, the Japanese word for "god" can also mean "paper". This is also why Inkopolis Square boasts a giant paper crane on one of its buildings.
* MagicPants: Only an Inkling or Octoling's humanoid form wears clothes and holds a gun; they disappear from sight when they transform. What's more vexing is that [[RightOutOfMyClothes they leave behind these clothes]] after being splatted, yet respawn with a fresh set.
* ManaMeter: Your ink supply, which is expended when firing main and sub weapons and recharges when not in use. It recharges even quicker when one is submerged.
* {{Metamorphosis}}: As shown [[http://i.imgur.com/VwRXAVn.png in this image]], Inklings start their life as baby squids, and slowly become more humanoid as they age. By the time they hit 14, most have taken on their familiar humanoid forms, and gain full control of their VoluntaryShapeshifting abilities. Octolings function in the same manner.
* MissionControl: Your character gets one of these in the single-player campaigns.
* MorphicResonance: Inklings and Octolings retain their large eyes, as well as their tentacle/hair color, in their swim forms. Furthermore, they both have the number of limbs [[https://33.media.tumblr.com/3395d26b2dfd2a4a381652a64db2b61f/tumblr_nhcpy0m5Rb1u3akyno1_1280.jpg represented in their humanoid forms]]: 2 legs, 2 arms, and the remainder being hair. Except for the Octoling Boy's afro, which the character designers fully admit is just RuleOfCool.
* MutualKill: Thanks to the games' RocketTagGameplay and fast-paced battles, it is ''very'' common for two opposing players to experience this trope, especially with with shooters and rollers.
[/folder]

[folder:N-S]
* NoArcInArchery: A variation with the ink rounds of a lot of weapons.
** Longer-range Shooters tend to shoot blobs of ink almost completely straight until their max range (which is why a Splattershot Pro, .96 Gal or Squelcher will hit as long as the enemy is in range and the crosshair is right on them) before the projectile rapidly falls off.
** Subverted with bomb-type Sub Weapons. Once thrown, they tend to follow a realistic trajectory... for a while. Then they rapidly lose horizontal momentum similar to Shooter ink shots.
** Chargers fire a stream of ink straight out of the gun. Said stream inexplicably stops and falls downwards once it reaches maximum distance.
** Averted with Roller and Brush flicking attacks and the ink hurl of the Sloshers, which do have a plausible arc.
* NonIndicativeName: The teams, or "splatoons" if you will, only have four inklings. They're really more of a [[JustForPun splire team]].
* NonLethalKO: What being splatted amounts to. Inklings and Octolings can easily restore themselves after GivingUpTheGhost as long as they're synced to a respawning device.
* NonLethalWarfare: Justified. The term "respawn" is widely used by characters in-universe to describe the process of returning from being splatted, and terms like "spawn point" and "spawning drone" are likewise given to various machines that are used for regenerating the body after it is splatted. That said, Inklings and Octolings can only function like this when they've been synced to such spawning devices; they'll die like normal if they aren't, which WordOfGod says is the case during [[spoiler:the escape sequence]] in the second game's ''Octo Expansion''.
* OneHitKO:
** A fully charged and direct hit with all Chargers (except the Bamboozler series) will splat the target immediately.
** Most Roller weapons, due to their weight, are capable of running over opponents and killing them instantly. The sole exceptions are the Carbon Roller and its variants, which explicitly lack the weight to do this.
** The strongest Blaster weapons (Blaster, Luna Blaster, and Range Blaster) can finish off opponents in a single, direct hit.
** Most offensive specials will immediately finish off opponents pretty much the instant they hit.
* OneHitPolykill:
** Specials that have wide areas of effect make it entirely possible to [[TotalPartyKill eliminate an entire enemy team]] with a careful (or lucky) shot.
** Using a charger weapon, it's possible to splat two opponents in one shot if one is hit directly and the other happens to be very close behind. Of course, this is easier said than done.
* OneManArmy: Your player character in any given game, armed only with a "hero suit", regularly take on enemy forces and become TheDreaded in the process.
* OneUp: Checkpoints serve as this in the single-player campaigns. In the event that you got splatted, reaching a new checkpoint grants an extra respawn.
* OhNoNotAgain: Returning to the FinalBoss level after finishing the main campaign will have MissionControl exasperated about whatever mundane or random event resulted in this bizarre rematch:
** ''Splatoon 1'' has [[spoiler:Cap'n Cuttlefish getting distracted by his TrademarkFavoriteFood when he was supposed to be watching the imprisoned DJ Ocativo]].
** ''Splatoon 2'' has [[spoiler:Callie deciding to wear the MindControl glasses again, because she likes how cool they make her look]].
* PainfullySlowProjectile:
** The ink shots that most low-ranked Octarian soldiers fire are slow enough to ''outrun'', or at least dodge.
** While not too slow, shots from the Rainmaker are still slow enough that they can be escaped at a distance fairly easily, provided you see it coming.
* PaintingTheMedium: A RunningGag is someone communicating with a radio while being or holding it upside down, and this causing [[AchievementsInIgnorance their dialogue box be upside down as well]], rendering them unintelligible.
* PlayEveryDay: The clothing shops change their stock daily, and you can only special order only one item per day.
* PointyEars: Humanoid Inklings feature them, not only making them look more alien, but also giving another level of MorphicResonance by looking like the fins real squids have in their heads. Octolings have more rounded ones of equal length.
* PopularityPower: Popularity is one of the factors judged in Splatfests, though the win rate (''1'') or clout (''2'' onward) of each team is weighed more heavily for the final score.
* PowerGlows: An Inkling or Octoling's "hair" glows with their own color when they can use their special weapon.
* ProductPlacement:
** Several Splatfests (mostly those in Japan) have been sponsored by various food, drink, clothing, and toy brands, as well as other video games. These have ranged from instant noodles brand Maruchan to ''Franchise/HelloKitty'' to ''VideoGame/DragonQuest''. Nintendo has also used Splatfests to celebrate the anniversaries of their own games, such as ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' and ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros''.
** Some of the clothing lines and weapons, such as the ''[[Manga/SquidGirl SQUID GIRL]]'' outfit in the first game.
* ProjectilePocketing: In the single player mode, power eggs can be collected by shooting at them. This comes in handy for the eggs that are stuck on walls, ceilings, or thin rails and poles.
* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: PlayedForLaughs. In multiplayer, the "good guys" are always whichever team the player is on, and the "bad guys" are always the other team.
* PunBasedTitle: A play on the terms "splat" and "platoon".
* PunnyName: All over the place. From the locations around the hub world, to stage names, to various [=NPCs=]. Some character pairs even get ThemeNaming, such as Callie and Marie ("calamari").
--> '''Marie:''' ''(when rematching the FinalBoss in the second game)'' Ohhhhh! I just realized that mine and Callie's names... Actually, now's not the time.
* PurelyAestheticGender: Male and female Inklings/Octolings play exactly alike, making the choice up to personal preference.
* RainbowPimpGear: Downplayed. Clothing and gameplay-affecting perks are linked together, which can lead to players using some bizarre combinations of clothing to suit their needs. However, this is mitigated by being able to alter whatever abilities your clothing has. With enough time and effort, you can get an outfit that's fashionable ''and'' suits your gameplay style.
* RecurringRiff:
** "Calamari Inkantation", a folk song that the first game remarks "may as well be carved into the very DNA of all Inklings" that the the in-universe pop duo the Squid Sisters made a cover of and turned into their signature song. The song and its core melody shows up a number of times throughout the games.
** The Octarian Army has a 5-note jingle that appears throughout the Hero Mode campaigns, serving as the level clear fanfare, in addition to being remixed as part of some of the tracks.
* RegeneratingHealth: Staying a couple of seconds away from fire will "clean-up" the player and regenerate their health. Swimming on their own ink significantly speeds this process up.
* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: Inklings and Octolings in both cephalopod and human form are pretty adorable.
* RightOutOfMyClothes: Getting splatted will cause your character's [[WingedSoulFliesOffAtDeath soul to fly off]] while leaving their various accessories like headphones behind.
* RocketTagGameplay: Because of the high weapon damage, it only takes a few hits to splat opposing team members. In fact, because of how the ammunition of some weapons works, TakingYouWithMe or [[MutualKill Mutual Splat]] scenarios are commonplace in regular firefights, with someone getting knocked-out themselves by a spray of ink that the opponent managed to shoot or throw at the last second.
* RubberHoseLimbs:
** Inverted. Despite most of the existing races being boneless, Inklings and Octolings included, they have clearly defined and formed extremities.
** Played straight with jellyfish, who are regularly seen moving and stretching their arms out wildly.
* RuleOfThree:
** Players carry three weapons at once: a main weapon, sub weapon, and special weapon. They can equip three pieces of gear: a hat, shirt, and shoes. Each one can have up to four stat-boosting abilities on them: one main and ''three'' secondary.
** Almost all bosses follow the classic Nintendo pattern of three similar phases that become progressively harder before defeat.
* {{Scatting}}: Since the Inkling Language is not really a ''well-defined'' {{Conlang}} the way something like [[Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium Quenya]] is, the "lyrics" of all the songs heard in the game probably qualify as this, at least when looked at from an [[{{Doylist}} out-of-universe]] perspective.
* SeldomSeenSpecies: All sorts of marine life, with named characters, background [=NPCs=], and the musicians in the various bands running the gamut from sea anemones, isopods, ping pong tree sponges, sea angels, and gulper eels.
* SeriesMascot: The light-skinned orange female Inkling with the [[MegaTwintails "Hippie" hairstyle]] and wearing a White Tee and Pink Trainers (Studio Headphones optional) takes front and center in most artwork and several trailers for the first game, and is the series' representative in other Nintendo franchises like ''VideoGame/MarioKart'' and ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros''.
* SeriousBusiness:
** Ink battles are a big part of Inkling society, with records showing they have existed since the dawn of their civilization thousands of years ago. Inklings come from all over to take part on these events, and it is even mentioned in passing that there are entire classes in school solely dedicated to them.
** On a meta level, Splatfest is this for many players. There is a good reason why people call it "Saltfest". Players will often dismiss their own personal preferences in favor of picking the side deemed more likely to win, {{sore loser}}s will complain about the results, sore winners will engage in UnsportsmanlikeGloating for days afterwards, and [[StopHavingFunGuys some]] have even called for permanent bans for the losing side.
* ShowsDamage: Damaged characters, including enemies in the single-player campaigns, will be covered in enemy ink until they are splatted or RegeneratingHealth kicks in.
* SmolderingShoes: A splatted Inkling will explode, leaving behind only their clothes (and weapon).
* SongsInTheKeyOfPanic: When one minute remains on the timer in a Turf War match, the song changes from whatever song is currently playing to the track "Now Or Never", a faster-paced song that lasts about a minute, finishing right when time's up. It can be interpreted also as a [[NearVictoryFanfare Near Victory (or Defeat) Fanfare]].
* SoundTest: The Squid Beatz minigame is an odd example, wherein you can toggle between the actual rhythm game and a regular sound test with a single button.
* SpeakingSimlish: The language heard in the game is a bunch of gibberish, though some of the things characters say sound like garbled English and Japanese vocalizations. This extends to any song that has lyrics.
* SprintShoes: Among the abilities your clothing can have are perks that increase walking or swimming speed, though even if you max out walking speed as much as possible, it's still not as fast as your base swim movement.
* StandardFPSGuns:
** Shooters are variations on [[MoreDakka automatic weapons]], and can vary from automatic pistol-types, to rapid-grenade launchers, to assault-rifle types.
** Chargers are [[SniperRifle sniper rifles]] capable of painting long straight lines with one shot.
** Rollers play this trope less straight, but could be seen as [[ShortRangeShotgun shotguns]] or [[FireBreathingWeapon flamethrowers]]: Powerful, but with very limited range. The Brush variations of this type operate more like swords or other melee weapons.
** Sloshers weapons are akin to [[ShortRangeShotgun shotguns]], but with a more generous range (about half that of chargers) and since the paint from them is thrown in an arc, it can go over walls.
** Splatlings are [[GatlingGood gatling guns]] that function like a mix between Chargers and Shooters. They have a windup time like the former, but at max charge can shoot rapidly like a Shooter, with range that can rival that of some Chargers.
** Dualies are [[GunsAkimbo dual-welded pistols]] that grant greater mobility by way of allowing the user to dodge two-to-four times while shooting, with increased aim accuracy for a short time after a dodge.
** Brellas are [[ShortRangeShotgun shotguns]] with the added bonus of having a built-in [[LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe shield]] that can also function as DeployableCover.
** Stringers and Splatanas avert this, being standard bows (rather than crossbows) and swords, respectively.
** For the sub-weapon options, most of them actually avert this, having unconventional effects. There are exceptions to this in the form of the various bombs. For example, the Splat Bomb is basically just the ink version of a standard hand grenade-{{Caltrop|s}} hybrid, the Suction Bomb is a StickyBomb, and the Ink Mine is a proximity mine.
* StealthyCephalopod: Both Inklings and Octolings have the ability to hide in their ink to keep hidden from enemies. The "Ninja Squid" ability takes this UpToEleven, reducing base swim speed in exchange for minimizing the usual splashes seen when swimming through ink.
* StoryBreadcrumbs: In Hero Mode, there are hidden scrolls in each stage. The scrolls provide background information on the story and world of the game.
* StrangeSyntaxSpeaker: Jellyfish [=NPCs=] have their own native language, with the few that have speaking roles (i.e., Jelonzo, Jelfonzo, and Jel La Fleur) falling into this when trying to speak Inkling.
-->''"You! You are not the cool! You are needing more cool for wearing of my clothes!"''
* SuperDrowningSkills: Inklings and Octolings are splatted the second they touch water. While it may not look like it makes much sense since they're squids, the games have [[JustifiedTrope justified it in various ways over the years]]; from the idea of them being made of ink and thus dissociating in water, to their bodies simply not being able to handle the sudden change from air-to-water pressure very well.
[/folder]

[folder:T-Z]
* TakeThatAudience: The news commentators in each game will regularly poke fun at common player reactions and behaviors.
-->'''Callie:''' My team is always terrible on this stage!\\
'''Marie:''' Yeah, "your team" is terrible.
* TitleDrop: "Splatoon" is the term for the most basic form of Inkling military units, and was used to refer to the combat teams who took part in the Great Turf War over a century prior. The group your player character ends up being recruited by at the start of each game is known as the New Squidbeak Splatoon, named after the most decorated military units from that conflict and founded by the captain of that original team. By extension, the teams in the Turf War sport are also referred to as "splatoons".
* TruckDriversGearChange: The music in single-player levels (not counting boss fights) jumps up a pitch when entering the final checkpoint.
* TwinkleInTheEye: Appears when your special weapon gauge fills up. Chargers also have their own small twinkle at the end of a barrel when their charge is full.
* VariableMix:
** During gameplay, the background music gets muffled while the player is hiding in ink, going back to normal once they jump back out.
** When you play the game for the first time, a downbeat remix of the game's main theme plays in the tutorial zone. As the player progresses further into the area and gets closer to the hub world, more instruments are gradually added to the song, becoming its complete version once you reach the end.
** The shopping theme changes instrumentation depending on which of the stores the player is currently in.
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential:
** While ridiculously minor, you can harass any birds on a stage by trying to shoot at them.
** There are players who barely throw out any ink, if any, and instead just "feed" the opponents by walking into enemy fire, dropping into water, or jumping out of bounds, effectively making them dead weight in a match -- this is as debilitating as it sounds, since every match has four inklings per team at most.
* VirtualCelebrity: All the music in the games is stated to be performed by different bands in-universe, but this trope kicks in with the [[{{Defictionalization}} real-life Japanese concerts]] featuring [[MotionCapture mocapped]] holographic projections of each game's {{Idol Singer}}s, who perform both their own songs and some covers of the game's other bands. Funnily enough, despite all these characters having assigned voice actresses, since the games utilize SpeakingSimlish, they need to have all their dialogue between songs subtitled anyway.
* VirtualPaperDoll: Your player character has a large variety of clothes, shoes and hats they can be equipped with. Each of them also come with perks that improve different abilities.
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: Inklings and Octoling are capable of changing between "swim" and humanoid forms at will. They gain full control of this ability when their {{Metamorphosis}} ends once they hit their teenage years.
* WallCrawl: Spreading ink up along a wall allows you to swim up it to cover more ground more quickly.
* WarpWhistle: Of a sort, as you can super jump to any of your teammates, your spawn point, or a Squid Beakon at any time. Performing a super jump also creates an icon visible to all players, unless you have the Stealth Jump ability. This can mean warping to the back of the enemy's base for easy inking... or jumping into the wrong end of a firefight.
* WidgetSeries: Anthropomorphic cephalopods turn into teenagers with guns that join up after school to fight in ink-soaked battles at the local mall or scrapyard, work part-time jobs at a cannery to shoot ProudWarriorRace salmon who use kitchenware as weapons, or assist in protecting the surface world as part of a secret militia partially-run by popular musicians.
* WorldOfFunnyAnimals: The cast is made up of a variety of aquatic animals such as jellyfish, anemones, cephalopods, etc; with the most prominent characters being the [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shapeshifting]] Inklings and Octolings. Given that is this Earth in tens of thousands of years, the severe lack of mammals is actually a major plot point.
* WorldOfPun: Puns are absolutely ''everywhere'' in this world. Sea life puns, squid puns, octo puns; if it can be made a pun, chances are high it'll be made one.
* YetAnotherStupidDeath: An irritatingly common and preventable way to die is to go into swim form on top of a grating, forgetting that 1. gratings can't be inked, and 2. you'll pass through the grating, causing you to most likely fall into [[SuperDrowningSkills water]] or a BottomlessPit.
[/folder]
----

----

[[folder:Misc]]
For GodNeverSaidThat, in the event that this does become an unchecked rumor.
*** Ironically, this would pop up again years after the show's conclusion, with some fans spreading the idea that the creators [[WhatCouldHaveBeen wanted Mabel to die in the second season]], but Disney vetoed it. This comes from head writer Michael Rianda discussing abandoned story ideas on Twitter after the latter stumbled upon a collection of his old ''Gravity Falls'' writing; one of them being an outline for an alternate Season 2 ColdOpen where a future Dipper warns the Pines Twins of a BadFuture where Mabel dies. Not only would the plot have focused on ''preventing'' Mabel's death, but since Hirsch and Rianda couldn't figure out how such a StoryArc would end, they scrapped it before the rest of the writing staff could see it (much less any Disney executives).
''The Noble Girl With a Crush on a Plain and Studious Guy''
* AttemptedMurder: Prince Ronald introduces himself to Sharina and Riol by attempting to murder them in what he brushes off as a test of their abilities.
* BrosBeforeHoes: Discussed. After questioning Sharina, Angelica learns that her best friend would absolutely choose love over their life-long friendship, to her mildly annoyance. Later, Angelica mentally pats herself on the back for being able to follow this trope, as she immediately decides not to even try pursuing a relationship beyond friendship with Riol when she realizes she might be developing a crush on the boy herself.
* BystanderSyndrome: Outside Sharina, Riol, and Angelica, there are two other students during the first story arc who were fully aware that the prince's attention was unwanted. However, they didn't say anything publicly until after the duel, where they back up Riol with their own testimonies. They stayed quiet when the duel was first announced because they feared backlash from going against the official story being painted by the prince and because no one would have believed them anyway.
* CannotSpitItOut: Riol, once he realizes he returns Sharina's affections. He manages to say it once without thinking, before going three months without saying it again. He initially justifies it as wanting to save his proper declaration of love for another major event, such as winning a magic tournament, but when that plan falls south due to the unrelated machinations of the royal family, he admits he's just being cowardly considering that the two of them have been unofficially dating for months, and so sneaks it in when she's least expecting.
* CassandraTruth: Basically the plot of the first two arcs, especially the fist. ''Everyone'' refuses to believe the protagonists' side of things due how incomprehensible it is that someone would choose being with a poor baron's son over potentially becoming queen. Whatever Sharina says or does is regularly warped to fit the other party's preconceptions; be it her as a naive country girl who thinks life is a fairy tale or a devious manipulator jumping from man to man as she pleases. It eventually gets to the point where, in the second story arc, Sharina and Riol are legitimately impressed that the second prince bothered to listen to Tobias before dismissing everything he said, since they've both gotten used to never even getting that far.
* ExplainExplainOhCrap: Several characters do this whenever they finally realize that Sharina really does love Riol, mentally or verbally going through a checklist of all the things that should be prove that the former has been aiming to become queen only to realize to their horror that everything that was supposedly her PlayingHardToGet or putting together a complex scheme to get riches and power was just a frustrated teenager who is happily enamored with her boyfriend and wanted nothing to do with any of them.
* IShouldWriteABookAboutThis: Angelica wrote a book based on the events of the first story arc for her own personal enjoyment after burning/giving away most of her romance collection. However it quickly got plagiarized by the bookbinder, who sold their copy of the manuscript to a traveling playwright, and within a few months the play is a national hit in a nearby kingdom. Sharina and Riol are impressed when they learn her role in this, while Angelica is deeply embarrassed that her private writing is now public knowledge.
* PrinceCharmingWannabe: Prince Leonardo to Sharina, made worse by the fact that everyone assumes that the feeling is mutual. It takes [[spoiler:Riol beating him in a duel and removing his right to the throne]] for it to finally click that Leonardo was chasing her, not the other way around.
* RescueRomance: In the most mundane way possible. Riol simply warns her not to touch a plant in the school garden, noting that someone accidentally planted dangerous flora there. She immediately goes from barely grasping the concept of love to seeing this gloomy honors student as her soulmate.
* RightForTheWrongReasons: The main group rightfully deduce that the Queen is [[spoiler:making a Sharina a fiancée candidate to help her son save face]], but also believe that she's aware that Sharina does love Riol. When we get the Queen's POV a few chapters later, it's shown that she thinks Sharina is a GoldDigger who is only with Riol as a temporary boyfriend while planning to marry into the royal family, and that Sharina purposefully manipulated the situation so that she'd have no choice but to [[spoiler:make her Roland's fiancee]].
* ShowWithinAShow: Angelica is a huge fan of a series of romance novels that she, upon re-reading, realizes matches Sharina's recent romantic situation closely. Specifically, the official couple are an expy of Sharina and Leonardo and mirrors how their dynamic would have gone in most romantic comedy situations. Meanwhile, the beta couple are expies of Sharina and Riol, right down to her book equivalent finally understanding romance and falling head-over-heels in love after her love interest alerts her that she's about to touch a deadly plant.
* WrongGenreSavvy: Angelica starts out like this. She's an avid reader of romantic comedies and initially views real-life romance in the same way, so when Sharina starts sharing her gripes with the prince, she's confused that his actions would anger her; in a traditional romcom, his rude behavior would be charming and attractive. It isn't until Sharina starts contextualizing it by giving parallels to decidely non-romantic things that it clicks.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/800px_logo_splatoon_wii_u_english.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"Go ahead, make a mess!"]]
[[/folder]]

* GrenadeSpam: Normally averted due to them taking a huge chunk out of your [[ManaMeter Ink Gauge]], however the "Bomb Rush" [[LimitBreak specials]] grant ample usage of certain bomb subweapons for a limited time.

* HiddenBadass: The musical acts that headline each game (the Squid Sisters in the first, Off the Hook in the second, etc.) are usually shown at some point to be quite talented on the battlefield.
* HoldTheLine: In Ranked Battles, if the round goes into its last minute, an effective strategy for the winning team is to make less of an effort to push the objective and switch to preventing the enemy from overtaking their score until time runs out. Inversely, a team that is losing and has no chance to win can switch to putting all their might into preventing the enemy from at least scoring a knockout before time runs out.

* HumanPopsicle: Or feline, rather. Judd was put in cryogenic stasis for 10,000 years by his scientist owner before the extinction of humanity, waking up about 2,000 years before the game's events.
* HyperspaceArsenal: It's never explained how Inklings and Octolings are able to store their weapons, some of which are larger than they are, when they change into celoplopod forms. Then there's the sub and special weapons they can throw out of nowhere.
* ImprobableWeaponUser: Of the main weapon classes, about a third of them qualify. Brushes consist of oversized paintbrushes and paint rollers, Sloshers mostly consist of buckets, and Brellas are [[ParasolOfPain umbrellas]].
* ImprovisedWeapon: While certain weapons look like factory-made water guns or pastiches of actual guns, the ''vast'', '''''vast''''' majority of weapons in the series look cobbled up from various household and office items. Outside the aforementioned Brushes, Sloshers, and Brellas, examples include the L-3 and H-3 Nozzlenoses (basically a hose, its spool, and a spray nozzle), the various Splatling guns (heavily modified water coolers and fire hydrants), the Squelchers (power drills), and Squiffers (a detergent bottle, a mop handle, and a windshield wiper stuck together). This even extends to the sub-weapons, with Splat Bombs just being plastic bags of ink surrounded by a pressure sensitive frame, and the Fizzy Bomb just being an overfilled soda can leaking ink until it finally explodes from being shaken.

* KentBrockmanNews: The news hosts, while helpful in introducing the playable levels and updates whenever you boot up the game, usually default to making quips, going on tangents, and generally engaging in casual banter rather than give any practical tips.

* LateArrivalSpoiler: The revelation that the series is AfterTheEnd was originally hidden in the first game's Sunken Scrolls. Callie outright mentions this factoid during the announcement of that game's 10th North American Splatfest, and the setting's post-apocalypstic status goes on to become a major plot point in following entries.
* LayeredMetropolis: [[http://41.media.tumblr.com/3e95640571129b51485c6b93902bc6c3/tumblr_ni69veHKeF1u3akyno1_1280.jpg The surface world]] is a bustling metropolis dominated by Inklings, while the subterranean [[http://41.media.tumblr.com/9e3016e7991db4dbdc77e513a367f600/tumblr_nfxk4ihCuy1u3akyno1_1280.jpg Octarian domes]] are comparatively dystopian, with the Octarians having giant monitors in their domes that simulate the sky.
* LimitBreak: There is a meter in the top-right corner of the screen that, when filled completely, gives a super weapon.

** [[SniperRifle Charger weapon]] users. The long charging time most of them have prevents many weapons in this category from going up close, but its range and high damage at a full charge makes up for that. Taken even further with specific chargers like the E-Liter series, which sacrifices mobility, charge time, and ink efficiency for even greater range, and the chargers equipped with scopes, allowing for easier aiming and a slight increase in range at the expense of being automatically forced into tunnel vision after reaching a certain level of charge.

* MagicPants: Only an Inkling or Octoling's humanoid form wears clothes and holds a gun; they disappear from sight when they turn into a squid. What's more vexing is that [[RightOutOfMyClothes they leave behind these clothes]] after being splatted, yet respawn with a fresh set.

* {{Metamorphosis}}: As shown [[http://i.imgur.com/VwRXAVn.png in this image]], Inklings start their life as baby squids, and slowly become more humanoid as they age. Once they hit 14, they take their familiar almost human-looking form, and gain full control of their VoluntaryShapeshifting abilities. Octolings presumably function in a similar manner.

* MoneyForNothing: Money is used to buy weapons and equipment, as well as add and/or reroll the ability slots for said equipment (in the first game). Despite all this, even if one buys all of the available weapons and equipment in a given entry, and work to optimize a build for all these weapons, those who play regularly will probably still have a lot of money left over. In addition to money, your FriendInTheBlackMarket also accepts Super Sea Snails instead. While these could only be gotten via Splatfests in the first game, making them a limited commodity, starting in the second game, you're given one as a reward every time you level up past Level 30, allowing you to stockpile mountains of cash. As a trade-off, adding and rerolling slots can only be paid for with snails, but the game also gives you multiple ways to get food tickets that not only allow you to increase your rate of experience gain (so you can get snails much quicker), but also increase your monetary payout after winning a game.
* MorphicResonance: Inklings and Octolings retain their eyes and their tentacle/hair is the same color as in their squid form. Furthermore, they both have the number of limbs [[https://33.media.tumblr.com/3395d26b2dfd2a4a381652a64db2b61f/tumblr_nhcpy0m5Rb1u3akyno1_1280.jpg represented in their humanoid forms]]: 2 legs, 2 arms, the remainder being hair. Except for the Octoling Boy's afro, which the character designers fully admit is just RuleOfCool.

* NonLethalWarfare: Justified. The term "respawn" is actually widely used by characters in-universe to describe the process of "dying" and having your ghost come back to life, and terms like "spawn point" and "spawning drone" are likewise given to various machines that are used for regenerating the body after it is splatted. This technology is exactly what allowed Inklings to turn what used to be violent war battles into a recreational sport. This is also the case in the single-player campaigns. That said, Inklings and Octolings can only function like this when they've been synced to such spawning devices; they'll die like normal if they aren't, which WordOfGod says is the case during [[spoiler:the escape sequence]] in the second game's ''Octo Expansion''.

** A fully charged and direct hit with all chargers (except the Bamboozler series) will splat the target immediately.

* PaintingTheMedium: A RunningGag is someone communicating with a radio while being or holding it upside down, and [[AchievementsInIgnorance managing to become unintelligible]], by way of having their dialogue box be upside down as well.

* PurelyAestheticGender: Male and female Inklings play exactly alike, making the choice up to personal preference.
* RainbowPimpGear: Downplayed. Clothing and gameplay-affecting perks are linked together, which can lead to players using some bizarre combinations of clothing to suit their needs. However, this is mitigated by each item of clothing only having one fixed main ability, with sub-slots that can be changed. On top of that, several pieces of clothing can share the same ability, and from the second game onward, it's possible to get pieces of clothing that have different main abilities than normal. All this meaning that with enough time and effort, you can get an outfit that's fashionable ''and'' suits your gameplay style.
* RankInflation: The first ''Splatoon'' had nine ranks for Ranked Battles, from C- to A+, with Version 2.0.0 adding S and S+ on top of those. ''Splatoon 2'' would give S+ ''50 sub-ranks'' of its own, with Version 3.0.0 merging S+10 and above into Rank X, which contains roughly the Top 1% of players in the game (the Top 500 players get a special crown icon next to their name) and works on its own power level system. Unlike the other ranks, where you'll maintain your position even if you don't play for those modes for a while, you can automatically be removed from Rank X if your power level is under a certain threshold at the end of each month's "Calculating" period. In addition, starting with ''2'', each mode of Ranked Battle now also has their own separate meter rather than giving the player an overall rank in competitive, meaning that you could be an S+ rank in Splat Zones while also being A- in Tower Control, for example.

* RocketTagGameplay: Because of the high weapon damage, it only takes a few hits to splat the opposing team members. In fact, because the ink from most weapons needs a split second actually travel to the opponent, TakingYouWithMe or [[MutualKill Mutual Splat]] scenarios are commonplace in regular firefights, with someone getting knocked-out themselves by a spray of ink that the opponent managed to shoot or throw at the last second.

* SeriesMascot: The light-skinned orange female Inkling with the [[MegaTwintails "Hippie" hairstyle]] and wearing a White Tee and Pink Trainers (Studio Headphones optional) takes front and center in most artwork and several trailers for the first game, and is the series' representative in other franchises like ''VideoGame/MarioKart'' and ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros''.

** Ink battles are a big part of Inkling society, with records showing they have existed since as early as the beginning of their civilization thousands of years ago, at least. Inklings come from all over to take part on these events, and it is even mentioned in passing that there are entire classes in school solely dedicated to them.
** On a meta level, Splatfest is this for many players. There is a good reason why people call it "Saltfest". Players will often dismiss their own personal preferences in favor of picking the side more likely to win, {{sore loser}}s will complain about the results, sore winners will engage in UnsportsmanlikeGloating for days afterwards, and [[StopHavingFunGuys some]] have even called for permanent bans for the losing side.

* SongsInTheKeyOfPanic: When one minute remains on the timer in a Turf War match, the song changes from the usual random soundtrack to the track "Now Or Never", a faster-paced song that lasts about a minute, finishing right when time's up. It can be interpreted also as a [[NearVictoryFanfare Near Victory (or Defeat) Fanfare]].

** Stringers avert this, being standard bows rather than crossbows.

* StrangeSyntaxSpeaker: Jellyfish [=NPCs=] have their own native language, with the few that have speaking roles (i.e., Jelonzo and Jelfonzo) falling into this when trying to speak Inkling.

* UnstableEquilibrium: Generally downplayed.
** Winning allows players to gain perks on their clothes faster thanks to the victory point bonus, slightly easing gameplay in further matches. This becomes a non-issue once gear is maxed out, however.
** The game as a whole lends itself to this due to being territory-based as well. A winning team will have more area to work with (and thus use to heal and outmaneuver opponents) and will be able to keep the pressure on with super jumps without losing momentum from individual losses, whereas a losing team will spend much of their time defending and reclaiming the same territory before they can push forward. However, the losing team will also be able to charge up their Specials faster due to having more turf to cover, potentially allowing for comebacks.

** The shopping theme changes instrumentation depending on which of the four stores the player is currently in.

* VirtualPaperDoll: The Inklings have a large variety of clothes, shoes and hats they can be equipped with. Each of them also come with perks that improve different abilities.
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: The Inklings are capable of changing between squid and humanoid form at will. They gain full control of this ability when their {{Metamorphosis}} ends once they hit their teenage years. On the villains side, Octolings are also capable of changing between octopus and humanoid forms.

* WidgetSeries: Anthropomorphic cephalopods turn into teenagers with guns that join up after school to fight in ink-soaked battles at the local mall or scrapyard, work part-time jobs at a cannery to shoot ProudWarriorRace salmon who use kitchenware as weapons, or assist in protecting the surface world as part of a secret military militia as {{Child Soldier}}s.

* YetAnotherStupidDeath: An irritatingly common and preventable way to die is to go into squid/octo form on top of a grating, forgetting that 1. gratings can't be inked, and 2. you'll pass through the grating, causing you to most likely fall into [[SuperDrowningSkills water]] or a BottomlessPit.

In addition to Turf War, there are several other online gameplay categories. These include Ranked Battle, which itself has several game modes where the focus is on completing more specific objectives (such as [[EscortMission riding a tower all the way to the enemy base]]), and Salmon Run (where you take a part-time job at a cannery wherein you and your team [[MultiMookMelee defeat waves of mutated Salmonids]] and collect their eggs). [[TemporaryOnlineContent Periodically]], there are community-wide weekend events called "Splatfests", where players choose one side of a CavemenVsAstronautsDebate and duke it out to see which side is right.

* {{Americasia}}: Modern culture in this world is largely a mix of Japanese and American elements, from architecture to music to clothing. The urban-industrial GraffitiTown setting of Inkopolis could pass off as both, with the first game's HubWorld invoking [[TokyoIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse Shibuya]] , while the second's invoked [[BigApplesauce Times Square]].
* AndYourRewardIsClothes: Clothing is frequently given as rewards for accomplishing challenges. Each piece of clothing has a main ability to aid in battle (such as Special Charge Up, which increases the speed at which you fill your [[LimitBreak special weapon]] gauge) plus up to three sub-slots for additional buffs, with one sub-slot ability being about a third as powerful as a main ability. Cash and various items can be used to reroll or, from [[VideoGame/Splatoon2 the second game]] onward, directly replace sub abilities with different ones, add more slots for gear that has less than three, and influence the chance of a clothing level-up resulting in the ability you want.

* BossOnlyLevel: As soon as you arrive to a boss stage in any installment of the series, you're only a few meters away from the battlefield.

* ButtonMashing: Want to use Brush weapons effectively? Then you better get working on that trigger finger. Unlike other weapons, Brushes attack as quickly as the player can press the button. Since one gets the most out of it in coverage ability and attack power by swinging it as fast as possible, mashing on that ZR button is a must.

* CavemenVsAstronautsDebate: Splatfests are periodically-held weekend-long community events where players choose sides in simple debates like dogs vs. cats, rock music vs. pop music, or lemon tea vs. milk tea, with the winner decided in Turf Wars matches. In-universe, these are framed as large-scale festivals complete with all-night parties.

* CharacterCustomization: The appearance of your Inkling and Octoling can be customized, which then is combined with customization of their offensive and cosmetic equipment. Furthermore, each piece of cosmetic equipment comes with a fixed associated ability that affects gameplay, and up to three other customizable sub-abilties.
* CharacterLevel: The multiplayer features a leveling system, with the amount of experience gained being based on performance during a Turf War or Ranked Battle match (area inked, plus any time or winning team bonuses). Your level determines access to certain weapon types, with Level 10 being the requirement to access Ranked Battles.

* CivilWarcraft: Nothing serious, but during Splatfest a team can face off against members of their own team (such as Dog vs. Dog) if the matchmaking system can't find enough members of the opposing team. While these matches grant the usual Splatfest points for players, they do not affect the overall standings.

* ColorCodedArmies: Each team of Inklings can have a variety of colors. There are many team color combinations for Turf War and Ranked Battles that are guaranteed to have significant ColorContrast to help gameplay. Sometimes Splatfests add extra colors to the fray, depending on the teams.

** In Ranked Battles, if time runs out when the losing team is in control of the objective, the match goes into overtime. Overtime finishes once the losing team either loses control of the objective, manages to pull ahead and overtake the opposing team's score. This encourages losing players to keep trying until the very end.
*** Splat Zones in particular has a mechanic that punishes the team that lost control of the zone(s) with a penalty timer, with bigger penalties being given the closer they were to running out the main timer. While this penalty doesn't affect the final score after the match ends, it does make it so the losing team has a bigger chance to turn a match around, even if the enemy was a few seconds away from victory; and it forces the enemy to fully commit to taking the zone(s) back and keeping them.

* CompetitiveMultiplayer: While every installment has a single-player campagin, the series is primarily a 4-vs-4 online multiplayer shooter.
* ConLang: The series features a number of languages, though the only ones we ever see are Inkling and Octarian.

** "Calamari Inkantation" is also this in-universe, with its chorus being a modernized version of "Chorus of Calamari County" [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RBG4KLnGjY a popular traditional folk tune and dance in Inkling culture]].
* CrossCounter: It's possible to pull this off with any encounter, but the most direct example is when two Roller users charge each other head on, immediately splatting each other
* CrosshairAware: This is done for targeted DeathFromAbove-style specials such as the Inkstrike (''1'') or Tenta Missiles (''2'').

** While spawn-camping is certainly possible in the first two games, players have the benefit of their team's spawn point having an unbreakable shield that enemies can't attack through, but you and your teammates can. ''Splatoon 2'' would make it impossible to even reach the enemy spawn point on several maps, while ''Splatoon 3'' [[AvertedTrope would eliminate the issue entirely]] by giving each player their own "spawner drones" that shoot the player onto the stage and grants them temporary invincibility upon landing.
** ZigZagged with Super Jumping. Players can jump to any other active teammate, spawn, or Squid Beakon via a Super Jump, enabling quick escapes when they realize they've been cornered or are in any other tough scenario, but if you use this to jump to another player without examining to map to make sure they themselves aren't ''also'' struggling, you can get splatted anyway. And if several teammates do this at once to get back into the action quickly...

* DesperationAttack: The Last-Ditch Effort equipment ability gives you several buffs when less than 30 seconds remain on the clock, or if you're in a Ranked mode and the enemy team is close to victory.

** The Charger and Roller weapons have useful abilities, but teams won't function very well if there's too many of them. Having too many of the same weapon means multiple people share the same weaknesses, and if no other weapons are around to cover those weaknesses, neither weapon will be able to perform as well as they would on a more balanced team. At the very least, having more than one Charger on a team is generally a bad idea.

* ElaborateUndergroundBase: The various single-player campaigns largely take place in large underground domes made to simulate the surface world. The elaborate nature of the tech is part of the reason why the Octarians kept stealing Zapfish in the first two games; they're undergoing a bit of an energy crisis trying to maintain it all and the Inklings are seen as having energy to spare.

* EscortMission: The Rainmaker mode essentially is this combined with CaptureTheFlag. The player with the Rainmaker has a very slow charge attack meaning that if they try to head to the goal alone, there's a very good chance that they'll get splatted by the other team, which means that if you want to win, the rest of the team has to protect them.

* FictionalAgeOfMajority: While not adulthood per se, the age of 14 is when Inklings and Octolings are finally able to fully control their VoluntaryShapeshifting and thus begin partaking in Turf Wars.

** Splatfests are special holidays in Inkling culture. They occur every now and then, and during those times normal online gameplay is put on hold in favor of Splatfest Battles, which are battles that pit teams of two thematically opposed sides against each other. Additionally, they take place at night with special concerts by a given game's musical hosts.

* FishPeople: Most of the [=NPCs=] are anthromorphic (or at least talking) aquatic life, while the rest are ApparentlyHumanMerfolk. Meanwhile, Judd is initially the only mammal in the series, with Lil' Judd being his clone.

* FriendlyFireproof: An unusually {{Justified|Trope}} example. The ink you fire is the same ink that your teammates' bodies are made of and that they can merge completely into in their squid form, so it makes sense that only opposing ink could harm them. The flipside of this is that your teammates will absorb and block your shots, which is especially bad for Chargers since they attack with single shots that use a lot of ink, and a frequent issue for Splatling users since they hold their weapons far lower to the ground that other weapon types.
* FunnyForeigner: Several jellyfish appear around the city, but most can't speak the Inkling language. Jellyfish shopkeeps, as a result, tend to butcher it slightly.

The official website can be found [[http://splatoon.nintendo.com/ here]]. Updates on the games and new information about the series' mythology are delivered via social media under the guise of the [[https://twitter.com/SplatoonNA "Squid Research Lab"]], a hidden group of humans who have dedicated themselves to cataloguing the activities and history of these stylish cephalopods.

* Since 2016, live musical performances [[VirtualCelebrity starring the various idols of the games]]

''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}''

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/splatoon_logo.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"Go ahead, make a mess!"]]

''Splatoon'' is Creator/{{Nintendo}}'s premier {{competitive multiplayer}} ThirdPersonShooter franchise, taking place in a colorful [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic]] world where aquatic life have evolved to replace humanity -- the most prolific of which are the humanoid squid Inklings, whose favourite pastime next to fashion and music is [[ItMakesSenseInContext fighting and spraying each other with their bodily fluids]].

What sets ''Splatoon'' apart from other shooters is the core mechanic of inking and swimming. All your weaponry coats the ground and walls in ink, with Inklings (and Octolings) having the ability to [[VoluntaryShapeshifting switch between their cephalopod and humanoid forms at will]] and swim through ink of their own colour; meanwhile, attempting to walk or swim through enemy ink greatly restricts movement and causes damage. As such, any ink you lay down greatly increases the mobility of your team and greatly hinders that of the opposition, meaning the key to winning matches comes in ''literal'' territory control moreso than "splatting" your enemies (though that certainly still helps). The main online mode of the games, known as Turf War, emphasizes this all the more by having the goal be to take control of the map by coating it in your team's color.

In addition to Turf War, there are several other online gameplay categories. These include Ranked Battle, which itself has several game modes where the focus is on completing more specific objectives (such as [[EscortMission riding a tower all the way to the enemy base]]), and Salmon Run (where you take a part-time job at a cannery wherein you and your team [[MultiMookMelee defeat waves of mutated Salmonids]] and collect their eggs). [[TemporaryOnlineContent Periodically]], there are community-wide weekend events called "Splatfests", where players choose one side of a CavemenVsAstronautsDebate and duke it out to see which side is right.

Each game has a single-player campaign called "Hero Mode", wherein your player character is recruited as the newest member of the New Squidbeak Splatoon, an underground military operation working to defend the surface from outside threats to Inkling society.

The official website can be found [[http://splatoon.nintendo.com/ here]]. Updates on the games and new information about the series' mythology are delivered via social media under the guise of the [[https://twitter.com/SplatoonNA "Squid Research Lab"]], a hidden group of humans who have dedicated themselves to cataloguing the activities and history of these stylish cephalopods.

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant No relation to Hwang Dong-hyuk's]] ''Series/SquidGame''.

!!List of games in the series
* ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon|1}}'' (UsefulNotes/WiiU; 2015)
* '' VideoGame/Splatoon2'' (UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch; 2017)
** ''Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion'' (Switch; 2018)
* ''VideoGame/Splatoon3'' (Switch; 2022)

!!Manga
* ''Manga/{{Splatoon}}'' (2015-present; serialized in ''Magazine/CoroCoroComic'')
* ''Mellow Squid 4-Panel Comic'' (2016-present; serialized in ''Weekly Famitsu'')
* ''Splatoon: Squid Kids Comedy Show'' (2017-present; serialized in ''[=CoroCoro=] Comic'')

!!Other Media
* Since 2016, live musical performances [[VirtualCelebrity starring the various idols of the games]]
* ''Literature/SquidSistersStories'' (2017): A [[WebSerialNovel web serial short story]] detailing the events between the first two games.

!!Tropes general to the ''Splatoon'' series:
[[folder:A-F]]
* AbsurdlyHighLevelCap:
** [[VideoGame/{{Splatoon}} The first game's]] Version 2.0.0 update raised the level cap to 50, even though all weapons and gear is unlocked by original cap of level ''20''. There are additional pieces of gear rewarded every five levels past 20, but said clothing has no unique traits that can't be found from others in the store. And assuming you gain experience in the most efficient way possible (winning ''every'' ranked match you play without ever going into overtime) it'll take you over 90 hours of play time (not counting time spent between matches) to go from level 20 to level 50.
** ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'' goes even further by having the original level cap be 99, despite being able to unlock everything by Level 30. Then the Version 2.0.0 update allowed any players that reached to get to that level cap to essentially prestige ala ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' to reach a new level cap of 99★. Expect to spend several hundred hours to reach that cap. And another several hundred hours if you chose to prestige again after ''that'' to reach 99★★, which only the mobile app will even acknowledge. However, instead of clothing every five levels, every new level from 30 onward grants the player a Super Sea Snail, a useful item which can be used in lieu of cash to help augment and re-roll gear abilities.
* AcmeProducts:
** Downplayed in that multiple brands appear, but [[CharacterCustomization hats, clothing, and shoes]] are all made by fictional in-universe brands (Firefin, Krak-On, Forge, Inkline, etc.). [=SquidForce=] in particular, is the official sponsor for ink battles, as evidenced by its logo appearing on the sides of the [[EscortMission tower in Tower Control]] and the button for Ranked Battles. The brand usually has a slight affect on which sub-ability you are more likely to get, such as Krak-On shoes being more likely to get [[SprintShoes Swim Speed Up]] as a sub-ability, although not all brands have such a LuckManipulationMechanic.
** Also downplayed with weapons, which are also made by multiple fictional in-universe brands. Weapons made by a particular brand tend to follow a certain theme, such as "Custom" weapons being based on industrial tools, and variants of main weapons (that have alternate sub and special weapon) tend to have their brand name on them.
* AdvertisingOnlyContinuity: Most of ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'s'' promotional material on social media comes from the perspective of a "Squid Research Lab", a collection of humans who secretly analyze the culture and behavior of the various races within the game. Outside of a promotional clothing item in ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'', they have no trace of existing in the games or manga. This is particularly notable because ''Splatoon'' is set long after humanity went extinct, so where exactly are these {{Buffy Speak}}ing scientists hiding?
* AfterTheEnd: The game is set on Earth [[AndManGrewProud long after humanity died off]], with the official art book for the first game further detailing this to be a combination of climate change and nuclear warfare during [[WorldWarWhatever World War V]]; the latter quickening the former via a stray warhead ''melting the entire continent of Antarctica''. Cue mass extinction of almost every mammal on Earth, paving the way for various sea-life to evolve and become the new dominant species on the planet.
* AlienHair: Most of the characters are ApparentlyHumanMerfolk that retain their [[LittleBitBeastly beastly bits]] as hair resembling the fish they take after. Inklings and Octolings in particular have some of their tentacles act as hair when in humanoid form.
* AliensStealCable: Downplayed. According to WordOfGod, Splatfest themes are received as a result of humans' arguments about mundane topics being among the various radio waves transmitted into space thousands of years ago, and getting reflected back to the planet. In effect, it's Earth stealing cable from itself, and explains why the Splatfest themes can cover aspects of present-day pop culture.
* AllThereInTheManual: A lot of information about the setting and the characters are only alluded to within the game itself, with bonus material such as artbooks, soundtrack inserts, developer interviews, and the official websites elaborating or revealing more details.
* {{Americasia}}: Modern culture in this world is largely a mix of Japanese and American elements, from architecture to music to clothing. The urban-industrial GraffitiTown setting of Inkopolis could pass off as both, with the first game's HubWorld invoking [[TokyoIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse Shibuya]] , while the second's invoked [[BigApplesauce Times Square]].
* AndYourRewardIsClothes: Clothing is frequently given as rewards for accomplishing challenges. Each piece of clothing has a main ability to aid in battle (such as Special Charge Up, which increases the speed at which you fill your [[LimitBreak special weapon]] gauge) plus up to three sub-slots for additional buffs, with one sub-slot ability being about a third as powerful as a main ability. Cash and various items can be used to reroll or, from [[VideoGame/Splatoon2 the second game]] onward, directly replace sub abilities with different ones, add more slots for gear that has less than three, and influence the chance of a clothing level-up resulting in the ability you want.
* AnimalIsTheNewMan: The backstory of the series' numerous societies is that after humanity destroyed itself through several world wars and climate change, sea life evolved into the new dominant species of the planet. The fact that these new species developed similar virtues and vices as humankind becomes a plot point in ''Octo Expansion''.
* AnimalJingoism: There's a fervent animosity between the squid-based Inklings and the octopus-like Octarians, birthed from a past war that resulted in the later species being forced to live BeneathTheEarth for the past century prior to the first game. While some Octolings would begin living on the surface as of the second game, they're all military defectors who are HiddenInPlainSight rather than openly revealing their race.
* AntiFrustrationFeatures: In the first ''Splatoon'', if you lose a ranked match in which one of your teammates was disconnected, you'll only lose one ranking point instead of the usual ten, though this was only if they disconnected at the start. Later installments are more forgiving, not altering your rank whatsoever regardless of when that player disconnected.
* AntiRageQuitting: The game makes it hard to "rage quit", as the game doesn't let you exit during a Turf War or Ranked Battle match. You have to close the game entirely; this results in a penalty in Ranked in the first game, and a short five-minute suspension from playing online at all in following entries.
* AntiVillain: The Octarians. Despite being painted as a gratuitous EvilCounterpartRace of the Inklings in the Hero Modes of the first two games, it's made clear through Sunken Scrolls, the ''Octo Expansion'' campaign, and other in-game sources that their heavy militarization was the result of being forced underground due to losing a war years prior. While they certainly want revenge, they also have the issue of their underground homes now facing an energy crisis that they're desperate to resolve.
* ArmorIsUseless:
** Bulkier equipment doesn't really have any effect on the player's survivability, unless it happens to have a defense ability attached; and even then, the effect is still fairly minor and can be replicated by anything less bulky.
** Averted in single player, where your character can equip up to 3 pieces of armor that serve as extra lives of sorts.
* ArtAttacker: All the ink weaponry makes for some bizarrely artistic fights; even things like paint rollers and paintbrushes are weaponized.
* ArtShift: Many of the Sea Scrolls are drawn in a realistic art style, the most detailed of which are wartime photos of the Great Turf War.
* AwesomeButImpractical:
** Hiding on inked walls can ''sometimes'' be a good way to ambush opponents, as most people focus on inking the ground because that's where most people hide and inking walls is purely for transveral and don't count toward the point total anyway. The problem is that you constantly slide down walls if you aren't actively climbing them, meaning that you'll most likely be so preoccupied with trying not to fall off that you won't be able to do any ambushing before someone ''does'' notice you.
** The Rainmaker. When fully charged, it fires a large tornado of ink. Unfortunately, it's only effective when it's fully charged, which takes about 2 seconds. Furthermore, the Rainmaker locks the user out of using their usual sub and special weapons, leaving them with no defensive options. Slow and steady strategies won't work either, because the Rainmaker will explode on its own after a set period of time. Combine that with the fact that [[BlessedWithSuck you're a giant target on the map]], and it is unlikely you'll get far without your teammates distracting the enemy or protecting you directly.
* BackgroundMusicOverride: During a Splatfest, the signature song of that game's {{Idol Singer}}s overrides most of the hub world's musical tracks; it even can be heard from the weapon testing area.
* BadassAdorable: The Inklings and Octolings are colorful cephalopods who shape-shift into humanoid teenagers. They are also very skilled with ink-based weaponry and are surprisingly powerful fighters.
* {{BFS}}: The Inkbrush and Octobrush are longer than your character is tall and about as wide, too.
* BoringButPractical: Despite all the cool toys that are eventually unlocked, it's still common to see hardened veterans wielding the games' starter weapon, the Splattershot Jr. The gun doesn't have anything fancy going for it: it just sprays a good amount of ink for a long amount of time with decent range and damage, and has a defensive special that protects both the player and their teammates for a reasonably low cost. It's no GameBreaker by any stretch, but it has the versatility to act as [[JackOfAllStats a consistent, solid choice for any situation and team]].
* BossOnlyLevel: As soon as you arrive to a boss stage in any installment of the series, you're only a few meters away from the battlefield.
* BuffySpeak: The Squid Research Lab, for all of their interest in 100% methodical and serious research of technicolor squids, is a victim of unscientific speaking when revealed new details about the games, er, Inkling and Octarian societies. For instance, ''[[http://splatoonus.tumblr.com/post/115170908195/octarian-alert-one-of-our-mail-guys-he-does-some "These suckers use one tentacle to work their little steering joystick thingy"]]''.
* ButtonMashing: Want to use Brush weapons effectively? Then you better get working on that trigger finger. Unlike other weapons, Brushes attack as quickly as the player can press the button. Since one gets the most out of it in coverage ability and attack power by swinging it as fast as possible, mashing on that ZR button is a must.
* CameraAbuse: When bosses explode, they shower everything in ink, including the camera.
* CaptureTheFlag: Rainmaker is an odd variant where the eponymous Rainmaker sits in the center of the stage and functions working as a single "flag" that has to be carried to the enemy base. The Rainmaker gives its holder a slow but powerful ChargedAttack; however, it greatly slows the carrier's walking speed, constantly marks their location to opponents, and self-destructs if they hold on to it for too long, doing it faster if they try to retreat.
* CavemenVsAstronautsDebate: Splatfests are periodically-held weekend-long community events where players choose sides in simple debates like dogs vs. cats, rock music vs. pop music, or lemon tea vs. milk tea, with the winner decided in Turf Wars matches. In-universe, these are framed as large-scale festivals complete with all-night parties.
->'''Pearl''': Yo, Marina! Tell the people the good news before we introduce the stages!\\
'''Marina''': Huh? Like, right now?! Um... What was the good news again?\\
'''Pearl''': You know... The single most important celebration of our culture?
* CharacterCustomization: The appearance of your Inkling and Octoling can be customized, which then is combined with customization of their offensive and cosmetic equipment. Furthermore, each piece of cosmetic equipment comes with a fixed associated ability that affects gameplay, and up to three other customizable sub-abilties.
* CharacterLevel: The multiplayer features a leveling system, with the amount of experience gained being based on performance during a Turf War or Ranked Battle match (area inked, plus any time or winning team bonuses). Your level determines access to certain weapon types, with Level 10 being the requirement to access Ranked Battles.
* ChargedAttack:
** Charger class weapons work like sniper rifles, and cover a long area in front of the player which increases the longer the attack is charged, with them being [[OneHitKO instant splats]] at max charge, with the exception of the Bamboozler and its variants.
** Splatling class weapons have a charge time used to pressurize ink and wind up the weapon before firing, with longer charges giving longer bursts of fire. The reward for this charge time is superb range and fire rate.
** In Rainmaker mode, the eponymous Rainmaker can be charged up to fire a large blast of ink. Trying to attack without charging simply fires a tiny little twister that barely travels forward.
* CherryTapping:
** As far as main weapons go, the Inkbrush's "rolling" attack does a measly 20 damage when hitting an opponent, while Inklings have 100 health. Combine this with the Inkbrush user being pushed back after running into someone, and the chances of actually finishing off an opponent with that attack are close to none.
** Chargers and Splatlings can be rapidly fired by mashing the trigger, but they'll do relatively little damage with extremely little range and coverage.
** The Sprinkler does minuscule damage-per-hit, but a careless opponent can still get splatted by it.
** When you shoot a platform propeller, the ink ''can'' rebound off onto enemies and splat them if they're low enough on health. [[DevelopersForesight And yes, the game has a specific message for dying this way.]]
* CivilWarcraft: Nothing serious, but during Splatfest a team can face off against members of their own team (such as Dog vs. Dog) if the matchmaking system can't find enough members of the opposing team. While these matches grant the usual Splatfest points for players, they do not affect the overall standings.
* CloseRangeCombatant:
** The Brushes are very much melee weapons, with users tending to rely on ambush tactics even more than other players do.
** Some Blaster weapons, particularly the Luna Blaster, have explosions with a wide blast radius and great power, but the shots travel only a short distance before detonating.
** The Dapple Dualies and its variants trade the range that most of its fellow Dualie class weapons have in favor of high damage.
** The Sploosh-o-Matic has poor accuracy and absolutely minuscule range, but excellent damage and fire rate. Like the Luna Blaster, it's geared explicitly and exclusively towards close-quarters combat.
* ColorblindMode: Enabling "Color-lock" in the options locks teams colors to a particular set of bright, high-contrast ones depending on the game mode. For example, ''Splatoon 2'' online battles will always be yellow vs. blue.
* ColorCodedArmies: Each team of Inklings can have a variety of colors. There are many team color combinations for Turf War and Ranked Battles that are guaranteed to have significant ColorContrast to help gameplay. Sometimes Splatfests add extra colors to the fray, depending on the teams.
* ComebackMechanic:
** Since special weapons are charged by covering the ground in your team's color, a losing team can charge up their special weapons more easily since there's more ground for them to cover. This is especially true for Turf War, since the objective ''is'' to cover everything in ink.
** Some gear abilities exist to give benefits to players or teams in bad situations: for example, "Tenacity" fills the special bar faster if the enemy team has more active players, while the aptly named "Comeback" gives a temporary boost in stats to its user after respawning.
** In Ranked Battles, if time runs out when the losing team is in control of the objective, the match goes into overtime. Overtime finishes once the losing team either loses control of the objective, manages to pull ahead and overtake the opposing team's score. This encourages losing players to keep trying until the very end.
*** Splat Zones in particular has a mechanic that punishes the team that lost control of the zone(s) with a penalty timer, with bigger penalties being given the closer they were to running out the main timer. While this penalty doesn't affect the final score after the match ends, it does make it so the losing team has a bigger chance to turn a match around, even if the enemy was a few seconds away from victory; and it forces the enemy to fully commit to taking the zone(s) back and keeping them.
* CompanyCrossReferences: There's the occasional reference to other Nintendo properties and [[ConsoleCameo products]], but the most common comes in the form of 8-bit renderings of Bloopers, the squid enemies from the ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' games, hidden as stickers in several [[EasterEgg out-of-the-way locations]].
* CompetitiveBalance: Weapons have a general balance of fire rate, accuracy, range, and power. For example, a weapon with high fire rate might have poor damage, range, and accuracy but can coat more area faster. Meanwhile, weapons with high range, like chargers and Squelchers, have excellent accuracy and power but are less efficient at coating areas. Furthermore, most weapons have branded or reskinned variants that have the exact same stats as the regular version but require a different play style due to having a different sub and special weapon.
* CompetitiveMultiplayer: While every installment has a single-player campagin, the series is primarily a 4-vs-4 online multiplayer shooter.
* ConLang: The series features a number of languages, though the only ones we ever see are Inkling and Octarian.
* CoveredInGunge: The whole point of the game is to cover everything in ink, both scenery and enemies.
* CoverVersion:
** In-universe, "[[SongsInTheKeyOfPanic Now Or Never]]" was a rock song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwivv1AeOcc originally performed by Squid Squad]], but has since been covered by various other in-universe bands throughout every installment.
** "Calamari Inkantation" is also this in-universe, with its chorus being a modernized version of "Chorus of Calamari County" [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RBG4KLnGjY a popular traditional folk tune and dance in Inkling culture]].
* CrossCounter: It's possible to pull this off with any encounter, but the most direct example is when two Roller users charge each other head on, immediately splatting each other
* CrosshairAware: This is done for targeted DeathFromAbove-style specials such as the Inkstrike (''1'') or Tenta Missiles (''2'').
* CrutchCharacter: Or weapon. In any case, the Aerospray family of weapons tends to get labeled this by the competitive scene. In Turf Wars, its insane fire rate and spread makes it great for inking turf, but people who take it into ranked play are usually in for a rude wake-up call, where it's short range and random spread shots make most people who play it glorified target practice.
* CuteLittleFangs: A variation of the trope. Inklings and Octolings have little fangs where the canines would be like most versions of the trope, but they also have a fang on the front bottom tooth made to look like the beak of a squid/octopus.
* CycleOfHurting:
** While spawn-camping is certainly possible in the first two games, players have the benefit of their team's spawn point having an unbreakable shield that enemies can't attack through, but you and your teammates can. ''Splatoon 2'' would make it impossible to even reach the enemy spawn point on several maps, while ''Splatoon 3'' [[AvertedTrope would eliminate the issue entirely]] by giving each player their own "spawner drones" that shoot the player onto the stage and grants them temporary invincibility upon landing.
** ZigZagged with Super Jumping. Players can jump to any other active teammate, spawn, or Squid Beakon via a Super Jump, enabling quick escapes when they realize they've been cornered or are in any other tough scenario, but if you use this to jump to another player without examining to map to make sure they themselves aren't ''also'' struggling, you can get splatted anyway. And if several teammates do this at once to get back into the action quickly...
* DeathOfAThousandCuts: The "Brush" weapons have some of the lowest damage-per-hit values with its "fling" attack; however, they can attack as quickly as the player can press the button, meaning that despite needing multiple hits to splat an opponent, it can still be pulled off very quickly.
* DefeatEqualsExplosion:
** You explode when splatted, leaving [[RightOutOfMyClothes your clothes]] and an opposite-team-colored ink stain behind.
** The same also goes for splatted enemies in single-player. Bosses in particular explode into massive gushes of ink [[OverdrawnAtTheBloodBank that would look quite different in red]].
* DeployableCover:
** The Splash Wall sub weapon is this, stopping enemy attacks dead in their tracks, heavily damaging anyone foolish enough to walk or swim into them, and instantly splatting any poor unlucky fella that happens to be under it when activated. They stay on the field for a limited amount of time, but do dissipate faster with damage.
** Brella weapons, with the exception of the Undercover Brella, will deploy the shield if the fire trigger is held for a prolonged period of time. The shield will slowly travel forward, protecting anyone who is behind it, and like the Splash Wall, stays on the field for a limited amount of time but dissipates faster with damage. Meanwhile, the weapon will regenerate a new shield after a few seconds.
* DesperationAttack: The Last-Ditch Effort equipment ability gives you several buffs when less than 30 seconds remain on the clock, or if you're in a Ranked mode and the enemy team is close to victory.
* DifficultButAwesome:
** The default gyroscopic controls can take a bit of getting used to if one is accustomed to console shooters that use sticks with aim assist, with some new players balking at the idea of even trying them thanks to the [[{{Waggle}} stigma surrounding motion controls]]. That said, the vast majority of ''Splatoon'' players (competitive or otherwise) view them as the optimal way to play.
** Charger-type weapons don't cover ground as efficiently as other type and require steady aim to be used effectively, but while novice chargers will probably find themselves splatted constantly, experts are an invaluable support unit for their team, managing to shut down enemy advancement from a distance with powerful [[OneHitKO one-hit splats]] while also creating long and clean trails of ink to allow them and their team a quick route to move in. The shorter-ranged chargers and the two-hit Bamboozlers are more difficult to master, but are ideal for ambushes and maps with lots of closed areas and very few vantage points.
** The L-3 Nozzlenose and its variants have a unique feature among Shooters in that holding the trigger down does not produce a constant stream of fire; each press only produces a three shot burst, meaning you have to press the trigger repeatedly to keep firing. However, the Nozzlenose is incredibly ink-efficient and fairly accurate, allowing you to do a lot between refills.
** While the Inkbrush and Octobrush weapons work similarly to a Roller, using it like one is useless, as their "rolling" produces a thin line nearly useless for covering turf, it relies on DeathOfAThousandCuts as opposed to the {{One Hit KO}}s that Rollers are used to, and have almost melee-like range. However, their high movement speed and "fling" attack, which is as quick as the player can tap the button, means that a skilled user can thoroughly cover mass amounts of turf quickly, and its "rolling" attack moves nearly as fast as Squid/Octo form, allowing Inkbrush users to excel at moving through turf not covered in their own team's ink quickly. Skilled Inkbrush users can use to this trait to compensate for the lack of range as well, both to escape bad situations and to rapidly close in on both ranged attackers and unaware opponents.
** Splatlings don't have the run and gun factor of the shooters, or the sheer kill power of the chargers. That said, they have the range of a charger and the coverage of a shooter, which can handily compensate for the lack of immediate firepower.
* DiminishingReturnsForBalance:
** Having multiple copies of the same ability isn't very efficient, because the benefits get smaller with each successive duplicate. Exactly how less efficient depends on the stacked ability in question.
** The Charger and Roller weapons have useful abilities, but teams won't function very well if there's too many of them. Having too many of the same weapon means multiple people share the same weaknesses, and if no other weapons are around to cover those weaknesses, neither weapon will be able to perform as well as they would on a more balanced team. At the very least, having more than one Charger on a team is generally a bad idea.
* DominoMask: The Inklings have black outlines around their eyes, giving them the appearance of wearing masks.
* DownloadableContent: New content is periodically added to the games over their first few years via free updates that include new multiplayer stages, weapons, gear, and even Battle Modes. There is also occasionally paid content in the form of new single-player campaigns.
* EarlyGameHell: Downplayed. The clothing and equipment you can get is directly related to your level, but the devs did a good job of making early weapons such as the Splattershot Jr. balanced enough to remain viable and effective even in higher level play, and though you're limited to buying only one- or two-star gear in stores until Level 10, you can order three-star gear or upgrade any current gear to three-star through your FriendInTheBlackMarket.
* ElaborateUndergroundBase: The various single-player campaigns largely take place in large underground domes made to simulate the surface world. The elaborate nature of the tech is part of the reason why the Octarians kept stealing Zapfish in the first two games; they're undergoing a bit of an energy crisis trying to maintain it all and the Inklings are seen as having energy to spare.
* EliteMook:
** The Twintacle Octotroopers, Octarian enemies that have two tentacles instead of one, are much stronger than their one-tentacled counterparts. Why is that? For one, they can use their free tentacle to {{Button Mash|ing}} their fire button.
** Octolings are already elite troops for the Octarian army, but among them there are those with kelp in their hair, who are tougher than the regular Octolings.
* EliteTweak:
** Getting the right perks on your gear can be time-consuming and tedious due to the extra perks being chosen at random, but it's still entirely possible to get a killer set of abilities that goes great with your weapon of choice through rerolling and using ability chunks.
* EscortMission: The Rainmaker mode essentially is this combined with CaptureTheFlag. The player with the Rainmaker has a very slow charge attack meaning that if they try to head to the goal alone, there's a very good chance that they'll get splatted by the other team, which means that if you want to win, the rest of the team has to protect them.
* ExcitedTitleTwoPartEpisodeName: The levels in the single-player campaigns are titled this way.
* ExplodingBarrels: The single-player campaigns feature pufferfish balloons that burst and spread ink everywhere if you shoot them.
* FamilyFriendlyFirearms: Ink guns, ink bazookas, ink grenades, oversized paint rollers... you might see a pattern here. The weapons are also either colorful and toy-like, or cobbled together from random household objects.
* FictionalAgeOfMajority: While not adulthood per se, the age of 14 is when Inklings and Octolings are finally able to fully control their VoluntaryShapeshifting and thus begin partaking in Turf Wars.
* FictionalHoliday:
** Splatfests are special holidays in Inkling culture. They occur every now and then, and during those times normal online gameplay is put on hold in favor of Splatfest Battles, which are battles that pit teams of two thematically opposed sides against each other. Additionally, they take place at night with special concerts by a given game's musical hosts.
** Squidmas is brought up a few times, as is Squidoween. Their Easter equivalent is simply referred to as Spring Fest.
* FieldPowerEffect: The ink you spray in general has effects on everyone on the stage. Ink of the same color allows players to quickly swim in it and quickly refill their ink supply. Enemy ink, on the other hand, slows you to a crawl, while also leaving you damaged for easy splatting.
* FightingForAHomeland: The Octarians, as the underground domes they've called home after the war are rapidly falling apart, and running out of energy.
* FinalExamBoss: A lot of the skills learned and gadgets used by the player have to be used in each game's final boss fight.
* FishPeople: Most of the [=NPCs=] are anthromorphic (or at least talking) aquatic life, while the rest are ApparentlyHumanMerfolk. Meanwhile, Judd is initially the only mammal in the series, with Lil' Judd being his clone.
* FloatingContinent: The levels in Hero Mode take place on platforms floating in the air within the Octarian homes.
* FriendlyFireproof: An unusually {{Justified|Trope}} example. The ink you fire is the same ink that your teammates' bodies are made of and that they can merge completely into in their squid form, so it makes sense that only opposing ink could harm them. The flipside of this is that your teammates will absorb and block your shots, which is especially bad for Chargers since they attack with single shots that use a lot of ink, and a frequent issue for Splatling users since they hold their weapons far lower to the ground that other weapon types.
* FunnyForeigner: Several jellyfish appear around the city, but most can't speak the Inkling language. Jellyfish shopkeeps, as a result, tend to butcher it slightly.
* FunnyOctopus:
** The Inklings and Octolings, being cartoony cephalopods that can change into humanoids that maintain some of their aquatic features.
** Non-Octoling Octarians are shown as a more disturbing version, with the lower ranking soldiers taking the form of single tentacles with eyes, mouth and legs.

[[folder:G-M]]
* GatlingGood: Splatling guns are [[{{BFG}} large ink miniguns]] that have to be wound up before raining colorful destruction on the [[JustForPun splattlefield]].
* GenderedOutfit: Female inklings wear shorter shorts than males. Other than that, almost all of the equipable clothing averts this, being identical between genders save for some minor form tweaking done for t-shirts and long shirts. Only a few outfits show remarkable differences between male and female variations.
* TheGoomba: Octotroopers, the basic one-tentacled Octarian troops. They move slow, fire slow, and are generally very easy to take care of.
* GraffitiTown: The setting of many arenas is largely urban or industrial, while nonetheless still being colorful even before the Inklings wreak havoc all over. The games also make use of an in-game postbox (or Website/{{Miiverse}}, in the case of the first game), having any message or artwork created serve as randomized graffiti that can show up in the overworld and multiplayer stages.
* GrandFinale: Each game has one in the form of a final Splatfest. As opposed to the usual regional ones, the final Splatfest is a worldwide event with unified results, and the outcome tends to affect [[AudienceParticipation some major aspects of the next installment]], from the plot to the setting.
* GreatOffscreenWar: The Great Turf War between Inklings and Octarians that took place 100 years before the first game's events.
* GrenadeSpam: Normally averted due to them taking a huge chunk out of your [[ManaMeter Ink Gauge]], however the "Bomb Rush" [[LimitBreak specials]] grant ample usage of certain bomb subweapons for a limited time.
* GreyAndGrayMorality: The animosity between Octarians and Inklings originated over a territorial dispute, with the Octarian Army still making moves in the modern day because the underground domes they have lived in since the Great Turf War are decaying. Neither side is as much "good" or "evil" as they are simply opposing sides in a war.
* HartmanHips: Female Inklings and Octarians have proportionately wide hips. Their idle animations place some emphasis on this.
* TheHedonist: The Inklings as a race care mostly about fun, parties, and looking fresh. It got to the point that they were losing the first battles of the Great Turf War because they couldn't wake up early enough in the morning to defend themselves.
* HeroicMime: {{Lampshaded}}. The other members of the Squidbeak Splatoon are aware that your character isn't all that talkative and tend to interpret your silence however they want. Downplayed with Agent 8 from the second game's ''Octo Expansion'', as their campaign's collectables have each one accompanied by [[WarriorPoet a short poem written by them]].
* HiddenBadass: The musical acts that headline each game (the Squid Sisters in the first, Off the Hook in the second, etc.) are usually shown at some point to be quite talented on the battlefield.
* HoldTheLine: In Ranked Battles, if the round goes into its last minute, an effective strategy for the winning team is to make less of an effort to push the objective and switch to preventing the enemy from overtaking their score until time runs out. Inversely, a team that is losing and has no chance to win can switch to putting all their might into preventing the enemy from at least scoring a knockout before time runs out.
* HoldYourHippogriffs: Going with the WorldOfPun this game is, sea life counterparts of phrases show up every now and then.
-->''"Hold on to your tentacles!"''\\
''"You gotta be squiddin' me!"''
* HubLevel: Each game has a shopping district in a major city serve as the "menu" where all areas and modes can be accessed. Likewise, the Hero Modes have some location outside of said city contain the various areas that the player traverses and uses to find and access the single player stages.
* HumanitysWake: The game is set millennia after the disappearance of humanity, with all signs pointing to the Inklings and other races of the world developing their civilizations on top of what humanity left behind. Despite this, they seem to be largely ignorant of what humanity was beyond their status as the previous dominant species.
* HumanPopsicle: Or feline, rather. Judd was put in cryogenic stasis for 10,000 years by his scientist owner before the extinction of humanity, waking up about 2,000 years before the game's events.
* HyperspaceArsenal: It's never explained how Inklings and Octolings are able to store their weapons, some of which are larger than they are, when they change into celoplopod forms. Then there's the sub and special weapons they can throw out of nowhere.
* ImprobableWeaponUser: Of the main weapon classes, about a third of them qualify. Brushes consist of oversized paintbrushes and paint rollers, Sloshers mostly consist of buckets, and Brellas are [[ParasolOfPain umbrellas]].
* ImprovisedWeapon: While certain weapons look like factory-made water guns or pastiches of actual guns, the ''vast'', '''''vast''''' majority of weapons in the series look cobbled up from various household and office items. Outside the aforementioned Brushes, Sloshers, and Brellas, examples include the L-3 and H-3 Nozzlenoses (basically a hose, its spool, and a spray nozzle), the various Splatling guns (heavily modified water coolers and fire hydrants), the Squelchers (power drills), and Squiffers (a detergent bottle, a mop handle, and a windshield wiper stuck together). This even extends to the sub-weapons, with Splat Bombs just being plastic bags of ink surrounded by a pressure sensitive frame, and the Fizzy Bomb just being an overfilled soda can leaking ink until it finally explodes from being shaken.
* InvincibleMinorMinion:
** Squee-Gs are little fish-shaped drones that clean up ink, cannot be hurt and can't be stunned. The standard ones are completely unable to harm you, but the industrial-sized ones can run you over due to deeming ''your entire body'' as ink to be cleaned.
** Flooders are giant rolling machines that spray a constant wall of ink below them, ''will'' actively attempt to harm you, and will move faster if they notice you. And like the Squee-Gs, they also can't be harmed or stunned at all.
* JackOfAllStats: The first weapons that a player can unlock by leveling up (the Splattershot, the Splat Roller, Splat Charger, etc.) are all generally middle of the road in stats as far as the weapon type they represent go, allowing players to decide the playstyle they prefer as the later weapons they unlock become more specialized.
* KentBrockmanNews: The news hosts, while helpful in introducing the playable levels and updates whenever you boot up the game, usually default to making quips, going on tangents, and generally engaging in casual banter rather than give any practical tips.
* KryptoniteProofSuit: The "Ink Resistance" ability lowers the damage Inklings receive while standing in enemy ink, while also decreasing the movement penalty while moving through enemy ink.
* LaserSight:
** A Charger weapon's line of fire is marked with a laser as it's being charged. You don't want to be on the wrong end of those.
** If a Flooder notices you, it will focus a laser on you to let you know that you're being pursued.
* LateArrivalSpoiler: The revelation that the series is AfterTheEnd was originally hidden in the first game's Sunken Scrolls. Callie outright mentions this factoid during the announcement of that game's 10th North American Splatfest, and the setting's post-apocalypstic status goes on to become a major plot point in following entries.
* LayeredMetropolis: [[http://41.media.tumblr.com/3e95640571129b51485c6b93902bc6c3/tumblr_ni69veHKeF1u3akyno1_1280.jpg The surface world]] is a bustling metropolis dominated by Inklings, while the subterranean [[http://41.media.tumblr.com/9e3016e7991db4dbdc77e513a367f600/tumblr_nfxk4ihCuy1u3akyno1_1280.jpg Octarian domes]] are comparatively dystopian, with the Octarians having giant monitors in their domes that simulate the sky.
* LimitBreak: There is a meter in the top-right corner of the screen that, when filled completely, gives a super weapon.
* LongRangeFighter:
** [[SniperRifle Charger weapon]] users. The long charging time most of them have prevents many weapons in this category from going up close, but its range and high damage at a full charge makes up for that. Taken even further with specific chargers like the E-Liter series, which sacrifices mobility, charge time, and ink efficiency for even greater range, and the chargers equipped with scopes, allowing for easier aiming and a slight increase in range at the expense of being automatically forced into tunnel vision after reaching a certain level of charge.
** The Dynamo Roller's forte. Despite rollers normally being close range, the Dynamo Roller attacks very slowly, to the point that one getting caught in melee rarely comes out on top. However, their ink flinging attack has an impressively long range and wide spread, allowing it to excel at keeping opponents at arms length.
** Among Shooter and Dualie weapons, the Squelcher lines have comparable range to Chargers (other than the E-Liter series). While they have less damage, slower fire rate and worse turf coverage compared to most lower range shooters, they have the advantage in combat as long as the user stays out of reach of any rivals.
** Splatlings sacrifice the ability to fire immediately by having superb range combined with quick fire rate. However, this means that a Splatling user caught by surprise at close range is at a severe disadvantage.
* LostInTranslation: As noted in CargoCult, Inklings society seems to worship a fax machine. Why? Because due to AlternateCharacterReading, the Japanese word for "god" can also mean "paper". This is also why Inkopolis Square boasts a giant paper crane on one of its buildings.
* MagicPants: Only an Inkling or Octoling's humanoid form wears clothes and holds a gun; they disappear from sight when they turn into a squid. What's more vexing is that [[RightOutOfMyClothes they leave behind these clothes]] after being splatted, yet respawn with a fresh set.
* ManaMeter: Your ink supply, which is expended when firing main and sub weapons and recharges when not in use. It recharges even quicker when one is submerged.
* {{Metamorphosis}}: As shown [[http://i.imgur.com/VwRXAVn.png in this image]], Inklings start their life as baby squids, and slowly become more humanoid as they age. Once they hit 14, they take their familiar almost human-looking form, and gain full control of their VoluntaryShapeshifting abilities. Octolings presumably function in a similar manner.
* MissionControl: Your character gets one of these in the single-player campaigns.
* MoneyForNothing: Money is used to buy weapons and equipment, as well as add and/or reroll the ability slots for said equipment (in the first game). Despite all this, even if one buys all of the available weapons and equipment in a given entry, and work to optimize a build for all these weapons, those who play regularly will probably still have a lot of money left over. In addition to money, your FriendInTheBlackMarket also accepts Super Sea Snails instead. While these could only be gotten via Splatfests in the first game, making them a limited commodity, starting in the second game, you're given one as a reward every time you level up past Level 30, allowing you to stockpile mountains of cash. As a trade-off, adding and rerolling slots can only be paid for with snails, but the game also gives you multiple ways to get food tickets that not only allow you to increase your rate of experience gain (so you can get snails much quicker), but also increase your monetary payout after winning a game.
* MorphicResonance: Inklings and Octolings retain their eyes and their tentacle/hair is the same color as in their squid form. Furthermore, they both have the number of limbs [[https://33.media.tumblr.com/3395d26b2dfd2a4a381652a64db2b61f/tumblr_nhcpy0m5Rb1u3akyno1_1280.jpg represented in their humanoid forms]]: 2 legs, 2 arms, the remainder being hair. Except for the Octoling Boy's afro, which the character designers fully admit is just RuleOfCool.
* MutualKill: Thanks to the games' RocketTagGameplay and fast-paced battles, it is ''very'' common for two opposing players to experience this trope, especially with with shooters and rollers.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:N-S]]
* NoArcInArchery: A variation with the ink rounds of a lot of weapons.
** Longer-range Shooters tend to shoot blobs of ink almost completely straight until their max range (which is why a Splattershot Pro, .96 Gal or Squelcher will hit as long as the enemy is in range and the crosshair is right on them) before the projectile rapidly falls off.
** Subverted with bomb-type Sub Weapons. Once thrown, they tend to follow a realistic trajectory... for a while. Then they rapidly lose horizontal momentum similar to Shooter ink shots.
** Chargers fire a stream of ink straight out of the gun. Said stream inexplicably stops and falls downwards once it reaches maximum distance.
** Averted with Roller and Brush flicking attacks and the ink hurl of the Sloshers, which do have a plausible arc.
* NonIndicativeName: The teams, or "splatoons" if you will, only have four inklings. They're really more of a [[JustForPun splire team]].
* NonLethalKO: What being splatted amounts to. Inklings and Octolings can easily restore themselves after GivingUpTheGhost as long as they're synced to a respawning device.
* NonLethalWarfare: Justified. The term "respawn" is actually widely used by characters in-universe to describe the process of "dying" and having your ghost come back to life, and terms like "spawn point" and "spawning drone" are likewise given to various machines that are used for regenerating the body after it is splatted. This technology is exactly what allowed Inklings to turn what used to be violent war battles into a recreational sport. This is also the case in the single-player campaigns. That said, Inklings and Octolings can only function like this when they've been synced to such spawning devices; they'll die like normal if they aren't, which WordOfGod says is the case during [[spoiler:the escape sequence]] in the second game's ''Octo Expansion''.
* OneHitKO:
** A fully charged and direct hit with all chargers (except the Bamboozler series) will splat the target immediately.
** Most Roller weapons, due to their weight, are capable of running over opponents and killing them instantly. The sole exceptions are the Carbon Roller and its variants, which explicitly lack the weight to do this.
** The strongest Blaster weapons (Blaster, Luna Blaster, and Range Blaster) can finish off opponents in a single, direct hit.
** Most offensive specials will immediately finish off opponents pretty much the instant they hit.
* OneHitPolykill:
** Specials that have wide areas of effect make it entirely possible to [[TotalPartyKill eliminate an entire enemy team]] with a careful (or lucky) shot.
** Using a charger weapon, it's possible to splat two opponents in one shot if one is hit directly and the other happens to be very close behind. Of course, this is easier said than done.
* OneManArmy: Your player character in any given game, armed only with a "hero suit", regularly take on enemy forces and become TheDreaded in the process.
* OneUp: Checkpoints serve as this in the single-player campaigns. In the event that you got splatted, reaching a new checkpoint grants an extra respawn.
* OhNoNotAgain: Returning to the FinalBoss level after finishing the main campaign will have MissionControl exasperated about whatever mundane or random event resulted in this bizarre rematch:
** ''Splatoon 1'' has [[spoiler:Cap'n Cuttlefish getting distracted by his TrademarkFavoriteFood when he was supposed to be watching the imprisoned DJ Ocativo]].
** ''Splatoon 2'' has [[spoiler:Callie deciding to wear the MindControl glasses again, because she likes how cool they make her look]].
* PainfullySlowProjectile:
** The ink shots that most low-ranked Octarian soldiers fire are slow enough to ''outrun'', or at least dodge.
** While not too slow, shots from the Rainmaker are still slow enough that they can be escaped at a distance fairly easily, provided you see it coming.
* PaintingTheMedium: A RunningGag is someone communicating with a radio while being or holding it upside down, and [[AchievementsInIgnorance managing to become unintelligible]], by way of having their dialogue box be upside down as well.
* PlayEveryDay: The clothing shops change their stock daily, and you can only special order only one item per day.
* PointyEars: Humanoid Inklings feature them, not only making them look more alien, but also giving another level of MorphicResonance by looking like the fins real squids have in their heads. Octolings have more rounded ones of equal length.
* PopularityPower: Popularity is one of the factors judged in Splatfests, though the win rate (''1'') or clout (''2'' onward) of each team is weighed more heavily for the final score.
* PowerGlows: An Inkling or Octoling's "hair" glows with their own color when they can use their special weapon.
* ProductPlacement:
** Several Splatfests (mostly those in Japan) have been sponsored by various food, drink, clothing, and toy brands, as well as other video games. These have ranged from instant noodles brand Maruchan to ''Franchise/HelloKitty'' to ''VideoGame/DragonQuest''. Nintendo has also used Splatfests to celebrate the anniversaries of their own games, such as ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' and ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros''.
** Some of the clothing lines and weapons, such as the ''[[Manga/SquidGirl SQUID GIRL]]'' outfit in the first game.
* ProjectilePocketing: In the single player mode, power eggs can be collected by shooting at them. This comes in handy for the eggs that are stuck on walls, ceilings, or thin rails and poles.
* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: PlayedForLaughs. In multiplayer, the "good guys" are always whichever team the player is on, and the "bad guys" are always the other team.
* PunBasedTitle: A play on the terms "splat" and "platoon".
* PunnyName: All over the place. From the locations around the hub world, to stage names, to various [=NPCs=]. Some character pairs even get ThemeNaming, such as Callie and Marie ("calamari").
--> '''Marie:''' ''(when rematching the FinalBoss in the second game)'' Ohhhhh! I just realized that mine and Callie's names... Actually, now's not the time.
* PurelyAestheticGender: Male and female Inklings play exactly alike, making the choice up to personal preference.
* RainbowPimpGear: Downplayed. Clothing and gameplay-affecting perks are linked together, which can lead to players using some bizarre combinations of clothing to suit their needs. However, this is mitigated by each item of clothing only having one fixed main ability, with sub-slots that can be changed. On top of that, several pieces of clothing can share the same ability, and from the second game onward, it's possible to get pieces of clothing that have different main abilities than normal. All this meaning that with enough time and effort, you can get an outfit that's fashionable ''and'' suits your gameplay style.
* RankInflation: The first ''Splatoon'' had nine ranks for Ranked Battles, from C- to A+, with Version 2.0.0 adding S and S+ on top of those. ''Splatoon 2'' would give S+ ''50 sub-ranks'' of its own, with Version 3.0.0 merging S+10 and above into Rank X, which contains roughly the Top 1% of players in the game (the Top 500 players get a special crown icon next to their name) and works on its own power level system. Unlike the other ranks, where you'll maintain your position even if you don't play for those modes for a while, you can automatically be removed from Rank X if your power level is under a certain threshold at the end of each month's "Calculating" period. In addition, starting with ''2'', each mode of Ranked Battle now also has their own separate meter rather than giving the player an overall rank in competitive, meaning that you could be an S+ rank in Splat Zones while also being A- in Tower Control, for example.
* RecurringRiff:
** "Calamari Inkantation", a folk song that the first game remarks "may as well be carved into the very DNA of all Inklings" that the the in-universe pop duo the Squid Sisters made a cover of and turned into their signature song. The song and its core melody shows up a number of times throughout the games.
** The Octarian Army has a 5-note jingle that appears throughout the Hero Mode campaigns, serving as the level clear fanfare, in addition to being remixed as part of some of the tracks.
* RegeneratingHealth: Staying a couple of seconds away from fire will "clean-up" the player and regenerate their health. Swimming on their own ink significantly speeds this process up.
* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: Inklings and Octolings in both cephalopod and human form are pretty adorable.
* RightOutOfMyClothes: Getting splatted will cause your character's [[WingedSoulFliesOffAtDeath soul to fly off]] while leaving their various accessories like headphones behind.
* RocketTagGameplay: Because of the high weapon damage, it only takes a few hits to splat the opposing team members. In fact, because the ink from most weapons needs a split second actually travel to the opponent, TakingYouWithMe or [[MutualKill Mutual Splat]] scenarios are commonplace in regular firefights, with someone getting knocked-out themselves by a spray of ink that the opponent managed to shoot or throw at the last second.
* RubberHoseLimbs:
** Inverted. Despite most of the existing races being boneless, Inklings and Octolings included, they have clearly defined and formed extremities.
** Played straight with jellyfish, who are regularly seen moving and stretching their arms out wildly.
* RuleOfThree:
** Players carry three weapons at once: a main weapon, sub weapon, and special weapon. They can equip three pieces of gear: a hat, shirt, and shoes. Each one can have up to four stat-boosting abilities on them: one main and ''three'' secondary.
** Almost all bosses follow the classic Nintendo pattern of three similar phases that become progressively harder before defeat.
* {{Scatting}}: Since the Inkling Language is not really a ''well-defined'' {{Conlang}} the way something like [[Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium Quenya]] is, the "lyrics" of all the songs heard in the game probably qualify as this, at least when looked at from an [[{{Doylist}} out-of-universe]] perspective.
* SeldomSeenSpecies: All sorts of marine life, with named characters, background [=NPCs=], and the musicians in the various bands running the gamut from sea anemones, isopods, ping pong tree sponges, sea angels, and gulper eels.
* SeriesMascot: The light-skinned orange female Inkling with the [[MegaTwintails "Hippie" hairstyle]] and wearing a White Tee and Pink Trainers (Studio Headphones optional) takes front and center in most artwork and several trailers for the first game, and is the series' representative in other franchises like ''VideoGame/MarioKart'' and ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros''.
* SeriousBusiness:
** Ink battles are a big part of Inkling society, with records showing they have existed since as early as the beginning of their civilization thousands of years ago, at least. Inklings come from all over to take part on these events, and it is even mentioned in passing that there are entire classes in school solely dedicated to them.
** On a meta level, Splatfest is this for many players. There is a good reason why people call it "Saltfest". Players will often dismiss their own personal preferences in favor of picking the side more likely to win, {{sore loser}}s will complain about the results, sore winners will engage in UnsportsmanlikeGloating for days afterwards, and [[StopHavingFunGuys some]] have even called for permanent bans for the losing side.
* ShowsDamage: Damaged characters, including enemies in the single-player campaigns, will be covered in enemy ink until they are splatted or RegeneratingHealth kicks in.
* SmolderingShoes: A splatted Inkling will explode, leaving behind only their clothes (and weapon).
* SongsInTheKeyOfPanic: When one minute remains on the timer in a Turf War match, the song changes from the usual random soundtrack to the track "Now Or Never", a faster-paced song that lasts about a minute, finishing right when time's up. It can be interpreted also as a [[NearVictoryFanfare Near Victory (or Defeat) Fanfare]].
* SoundTest: The Squid Beatz minigame is an odd example, wherein you can toggle between the actual rhythm game and a regular sound test with a single button.
* SpeakingSimlish: The language heard in the game is a bunch of gibberish, though some of the things characters say sound like garbled English and Japanese vocalizations. This extends to any song that has lyrics.
* SprintShoes: Among the abilities your clothing can have are perks that increase walking or swimming speed, though even if you max out walking speed as much as possible, it's still not as fast as your base swim movement.
* StandardFPSGuns:
** Shooters are variations on [[MoreDakka automatic weapons]], and can vary from automatic pistol-types, to rapid-grenade launchers, to assault-rifle types.
** Chargers are [[SniperRifle sniper rifles]] capable of painting long straight lines with one shot.
** Rollers play this trope less straight, but could be seen as [[ShortRangeShotgun shotguns]] or [[FireBreathingWeapon flamethrowers]]: Powerful, but with very limited range. The Brush variations of this type operate more like swords or other melee weapons.
** Sloshers weapons are akin to [[ShortRangeShotgun shotguns]], but with a more generous range (about half that of chargers) and since the paint from them is thrown in an arc, it can go over walls.
** Splatlings are [[GatlingGood gatling guns]] that function like a mix between Chargers and Shooters. They have a windup time like the former, but at max charge can shoot rapidly like a Shooter, with range that can rival that of some Chargers.
** Dualies are [[GunsAkimbo dual-welded pistols]] that grant greater mobility by way of allowing the user to dodge two-to-four times while shooting, with increased aim accuracy for a short time after a dodge.
** Brellas are [[ShortRangeShotgun shotguns]] with the added bonus of having a built-in [[LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe shield]] that can also function as DeployableCover.
** Stringers avert this, being standard bows rather than crossbows.
** For the sub-weapon options, most of them actually avert this, having unconventional effects. There are exceptions to this in the form of the various bombs. For example, the Splat Bomb is basically just the ink version of a standard hand grenade-{{Caltrop|s}} hybrid, the Suction Bomb is a StickyBomb, and the Ink Mine is a proximity mine.
* StealthyCephalopod: Both Inklings and Octolings have the ability to hide in their ink to keep hidden from enemies. The "Ninja Squid" ability takes this UpToEleven, reducing base swim speed in exchange for minimizing the usual splashes seen when swimming through ink.
* StoryBreadcrumbs: In Hero Mode, there are hidden scrolls in each stage. The scrolls provide background information on the story and world of the game.
* StrangeSyntaxSpeaker: Jellyfish [=NPCs=] have their own native language, with the few that have speaking roles (i.e., Jelonzo and Jelfonzo) falling into this when trying to speak Inkling.
-->''"You! You are not the cool! You are needing more cool for wearing of my clothes!"''
* SuperDrowningSkills: Inklings and Octolings are splatted the second they touch water. While it may not look like it makes much sense since they're squids, the games have [[JustifiedTrope justified it in various ways over the years]]; from the idea of them being made of ink and thus dissociating in water, to their bodies simply not being able to handle the sudden change from air-to-water pressure very well.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:T-Z]]
* TakeThatAudience: The news commentators in each game will regularly poke fun at common player reactions and behaviors.
-->'''Callie:''' My team is always terrible on this stage!\\
'''Marie:''' Yeah, "your team" is terrible.
* TitleDrop: "Splatoon" is the term for the most basic form of Inkling military units, and was used to refer to the combat teams who took part in the Great Turf War over a century prior. The group your player character ends up being recruited by at the start of each game is known as the New Squidbeak Splatoon, named after the most decorated military units from that conflict and founded by the captain of that original team. By extension, the teams in the Turf War sport are also referred to as "splatoons".
* TruckDriversGearChange: The music in single-player levels (not counting boss fights) jumps up a pitch when entering the final checkpoint.
* TwinkleInTheEye: Appears when your special weapon gauge fills up. Chargers also have their own small twinkle at the end of a barrel when their charge is full.
* UnstableEquilibrium: Generally downplayed.
** Winning allows players to gain perks on their clothes faster thanks to the victory point bonus, slightly easing gameplay in further matches. This becomes a non-issue once gear is maxed out, however.
** The game as a whole lends itself to this due to being territory-based as well. A winning team will have more area to work with (and thus use to heal and outmaneuver opponents) and will be able to keep the pressure on with super jumps without losing momentum from individual losses, whereas a losing team will spend much of their time defending and reclaiming the same territory before they can push forward. However, the losing team will also be able to charge up their Specials faster due to having more turf to cover, potentially allowing for comebacks.
* VariableMix:
** During gameplay, the background music gets muffled while the player is hiding in ink, going back to normal once they jump back out.
** When you play the game for the first time, a downbeat remix of the game's main theme plays in the tutorial zone. As the player progresses further into the area and gets closer to the hub world, more instruments are gradually added to the song, becoming its complete version once you reach the end.
** The shopping theme changes instrumentation depending on which of the four stores the player is currently in.
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential:
** While ridiculously minor, you can harass any birds on a stage by trying to shoot at them.
** There are players who barely throw out any ink, if any, and instead just "feed" the opponents by walking into enemy fire, dropping into water, or jumping out of bounds, effectively making them dead weight in a match -- this is as debilitating as it sounds, since every match has four inklings per team at most.
* VirtualCelebrity: All the music in the games is stated to be performed by different bands in-universe, but this trope kicks in with the [[{{Defictionalization}} real-life Japanese concerts]] featuring [[MotionCapture mocapped]] holographic projections of each game's {{Idol Singer}}s, who perform both their own songs and some covers of the game's other bands. Funnily enough, despite all these characters having assigned voice actresses, since the games utilize SpeakingSimlish, they need to have all their dialogue between songs subtitled anyway.
* VirtualPaperDoll: The Inklings have a large variety of clothes, shoes and hats they can be equipped with. Each of them also come with perks that improve different abilities.
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: The Inklings are capable of changing between squid and humanoid form at will. They gain full control of this ability when their {{Metamorphosis}} ends once they hit their teenage years. On the villains side, Octolings are also capable of changing between octopus and humanoid forms.
* WallCrawl: Spreading ink up along a wall allows you to swim up it to cover more ground more quickly.
* WarpWhistle: Of a sort, as you can super jump to any of your teammates, your spawn point, or a Squid Beakon at any time. Performing a super jump also creates an icon visible to all players, unless you have the Stealth Jump ability. This can mean warping to the back of the enemy's base for easy inking... or jumping into the wrong end of a firefight.
* WidgetSeries: Anthropomorphic cephalopods turn into teenagers with guns that join up after school to fight in ink-soaked battles at the local mall or scrapyard, work part-time jobs at a cannery to shoot ProudWarriorRace salmon who use kitchenware as weapons, or assist in protecting the surface world as part of a secret military militia as {{Child Soldier}}s.
* WorldOfFunnyAnimals: The cast is made up of a variety of aquatic animals such as jellyfish, anemones, cephalopods, etc; with the most prominent characters being the [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shapeshifting]] Inklings and Octolings. Given that is this Earth in tens of thousands of years, the severe lack of mammals is actually a major plot point.
* WorldOfPun: Puns are absolutely ''everywhere'' in this world. Sea life puns, squid puns, octo puns; if it can be made a pun, chances are high it'll be made one.
* YetAnotherStupidDeath: An irritatingly common and preventable way to die is to go into squid/octo form on top of a grating, forgetting that 1. gratings can't be inked, and 2. you'll pass through the grating, causing you to most likely fall into [[SuperDrowningSkills water]] or a BottomlessPit.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:YMMV Federation Force]]
YMMV.MetroidPrimeFederationForce

* AntiClimaxBoss: The final boss battle has been heavily criticized for being a lot more tedious than challenging, [[spoiler:and the fact that the final boss is a BrainwashedAndCrazy Samus, which sounded like it could make for an ''amazing'' FinalExamBoss fight where she uses all of her arsenal against your team... but instead she's [[ModeLock locked into her Morph Ball form]]]], and the final battle ends up being a glorified Blast Ball match except as a boss battle.
* AudienceAlienatingPremise: Most fans of ''Metroid'' generally point to the exploration and sense of isolation as the series' hallmarks, so an installment that ditches all of that for a more action-oriented, CoOpMultiplayer installment that doesn't even star the main character became a hard sell for them. It being five years since the last installment in the franchise, which itself was widely regarded as the worst entry in the entire series, only aggravated the issue. Even among those who didn't mind the idea of a spin-off game and weren't part of the intense backlash were apathetic to it and criticized the timing, feeling the premise would've been harmless at worst otherwise. Upon release, the game received mixed to poor reviews, and became the worst-selling game in the series by a wide margin.
* CharacterRerailment: Although her appearance is brief, there's no trace of Samus Aran's controversial characterization in ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM''. It also helps that the Galactic Federation defers to her intel and treats her with respect like in ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption'', instead of coldly treating her like an outsider like Adam and the Colonel in ''Other M''.
* CriticalBacklash: Whilst it is agreed the game could have been released at a better time, a lot of fans consider the game's initial overwhelming negative reception to be unfair and outright ridiculous. Though just ''mentioning'' the game still garners knee-jerk hate and ridicule even years after its release from the fanbase, general consensus is that the game is actually SoOkayItsAverage, and that most of the anger directed towards the game was excessive at best.
* FanNickname: ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime: [[VideoGame/StarWarsRepublicCommando Federation Commando]]'', because [[SpiritualAdaptation it's the closest there is]] to a sequel to ''VideoGame/StarWarsRepublicCommando''. %%Do not add derisive nicknames from detractors, please. The page Detractor Nickname was excised for a good reason.
* GameBreaker:
** The humble Ice Beam is effective on virtually every enemy in the game, including bosses, which makes it the perfect tool for getting an enemy to stand still while their weak point is exposed and doubling the damage of your regular shots. This is especially effective on the final boss. Combining the Ice Beam with a missile will also help gain a high score on missions thanks to a whopping 300 point bonus for LiterallyShatteredLives.
** The Samus amiibo skin makes all Missile ammo packs contain 10 missiles each, and since missiles only take up one unit of weight, it's possible to carry nearly a hundred missiles into a mission.
* HilariousInHindsight:
** Due to [[spoiler:Samus herself]] being the final boss, some people have joked about how the game has you [[spoiler:kill Metroid (in reference to [[IAmNotShazam people who think that Metroid is the name of the main character]]), despite Samus not dying in the game]].
** Due to the backlash and low interest the game got, many people assumed that the series was going back into hibernation or might even be dead for good, despite Tanabe teasing another mainline ''Prime'' game during this game's press cycle. With ''VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns'' releasing the following year, with its reveal being preceded by the official announcement of that aforementioned ''Metroid Prime 4'', statements that the series is dead and Nintendo no longer cared about it now look more like fan overreaction than anything else.
* MisBlamed:
** From the moment of its reveal, the game received immense criticism and the assumption that it was [[DolledUpInstallment an original concept with the Metroid name slapped onto it]] to drum up sales. However, the game's own producer first got the idea to explore the Federation side of the ''VideoGame/{{Metroid Prime|Trilogy}}'' universe during the production of ''Corruption''.
** Some fans blame Creator/YoshioSakamoto for the reason Samus isn't the protagonist of the game, citing his supposed possessiveness of the character, "hatred" of the ''Prime'' series, and overall questionable decisions during the development of ''Other M''. In reality, not only did he have no involvement with the game at all, but he also has no hate for the ''Prime'' series, viewing them as perfectly valid side-stories. He would even go on to reference the ''Prime'' series in [[VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns his next game]]. The real reason given for Samus not being playable is because producer Kensuke Tanabe had wanted to do a game focused on the Galactic Federation and, as a multiplayer game, it wouldn't make sense for ''four'' Samuses to be running around anyway.
* OlderThanTheyThink:
** The SuperDeformed art style featured here didn't start with this game; the [[VideoGame/{{Metroid 1}} original NES game]] had a chibi style ([[GraphicsInducedSuperDeformed though mainly due to graphical restrictions]]) and the official art reflected this. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RExHUXbFt5E An early version]] of ''[[VideoGame/MetroidZeroMission Zero Mission]]'' would have used a similar style, but this got changed to a more realistic style in the final release.
** This isn't the first use of the ''Prime'' title that makes it an ArtifactTitle nor the first shooting-focused spin-off of ''Metroid''; ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeHunters'', released between ''Echoes'' and ''Corruption'', had no appearance from the eponymous creature (except in the ''First Hunt'' demo for some reason) or Phazon, and it even had a greater focus on shooting rather than exploration and puzzle solving.
** Kensuke Tanabe had wanted to make this game since 2009. He didn't do it then because the UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo DS}}i didn't have the graphical power he needed.
* OvershadowedByControversy: This game is almost never mentioned without talking about the firestorm it caused upon its announcement. It had the misfortune of being a spin-off announced on the franchise's 30th anniversary, at a time when the franchise's future seemed uncertain and fans were demanding a new game starring Samus to fix the franchise after ''Other M'' left it in bad shape. Even its defenders only acknowledge it for the timing of its release tanking an otherwise okay game.
* ScrappyMechanic: The Blast Ball game mode. It's essentially [[JustForFun/RecycledInSpace soccer in space]], requires 6 players to play, and can be played on a friend's 3DS through Download Play... but due to the game's poor reception, and even worse sales, there's little opportunity to actually play it. It doesn't help that the main game practically forces it down your throat in the tutorial and boss fight [[spoiler:against Samus]] and, unlike the main game, you can only have 3 people to a team instead of 4.
* SoOkayItsAverage: After all the aforementioned controversy surrounding the game's very existence, the general consensus is that ''Federation Force'' amounts to little more than a mediocre spin-off with a handful of decent concepts.
* SpiritualLicensee:
** The main missions are the closest players will get to a sequel to ''VideoGame/StarWarsRepublicCommando''.
** Blast Ball is like a first-person, mech-based ''VideoGame/RocketLeague''.
* TaintedByThePreview: With ''Metroid''[='s=] [[MilestoneCelebration 30th anniversary]] on the horizon, and [[SequelGap 6 years]] having passed since ''Other M'', fans were hoping for another classic {{Metroidvania}} to undo the controversial gameplay and characterization choices of that title. So when the next game of the franchise to be announced was ''Federation Force'', a cartoony GaidenGame SpinOff with Samus in a supporting role while [[ADayInTheLimelight the main focus is placed on the Galactic Federation army]], the backlash was swift and furious. Additionally, the game's Blast Ball mode was shown during Nintendo World Championships before the game's official reveal, which had the unintended effect of making the game look too generic to pass for a ''Metroid'' title. It reached the point that the trailer on Website/YouTube received over 34,000 dislikes in only ''24 hours'', and a petition was drafted to cancel the game.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: [[spoiler:The final boss of the game is a BrainwashedAndCrazy Samus [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever who has been enlarged to giant-size]], but absolutely nothing interesting is done with the concept. What could have been an exciting fight with several distinct phases where a giant Samus unleashes her entire arsenal upon the Galactic Federation Marines, reminiscent of the SA-X encounters from ''[[VideoGame/MetroidFusion Fusion]]'', only on a, well, larger scale, is immediately thrown out of the window as Samus is {{Mode Lock}}ed into her Morph Ball for the entire fight, making the whole final boss battle into a glorified round of Blast Ball.]]
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: A spin-off starring [[BadassNormal normal Federation troops]] without OP [[AppliedPhlebotinum Bird Magic]] could've been the most intense and gritty Metroid game to date. Imagine playing the final days of [[VideoGame/MetroidPrime2Echoes the Tyr's crew on Aether]], or having a more intimate look at the Space Pirates' effects on galactic civilization akin to what ''VideoGame/RepublicCommando'' was to ''Franchise/StarWars''. What fans got were chibi-style soldiers in mechs fighting cartoonish incarnations of the Space Pirates, complete with a very basic evil plan premise.
* VindicatedByHistory: From the time of its announcement to the months after its eventual release, this game was viciously torn apart by fans and critics for being an action-based CoOpMultiplayer spinoff with a goofy-looking art style that didn't focus on Samus, but on these seemingly completely unrelated troopers instead. In short, it was basically everything the fans didn't want, coming off the polarizing ''Other M'' and during a time fans were sure Nintendo would put the franchise on ice. After ''Samus Returns'' was released to warm reception in 2017, with it only becoming more clear that the ''Metroid'' series would continue going strong in the years following, the game is looked back upon much more kindly than it was at release. It is now acknowledged and treated by fans as the worldbuilding side-story that the creators intended it to be, rather than a cruel insult, and -- even if it wasn't a great game -- an interesting attempt to experiment with the franchise.

[[folder:Nintendo GameCube]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gamecube_console_set.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The little lunchbox that could... [[UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} and did when you duct-taped two of them together.]]]]

->''"Who Are You?"''

The '''Creator/{{Nintendo}} [=GameCube=]''' (officially abbreviated as GCN) was Nintendo's entry into the [[UsefulNotes/TheSixthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames sixth generation]] of the UsefulNotes/ConsoleWars, was released in late 2001.

The previous generation of consoles was a game changer, for better and for worse. As far as Nintendo is concerned, it may have been for the worse. For the first time since they entered the gaming business, their home console wasn't number one worldwide, as they were unceremoniously dethroned by a new rival of their own making: the UsefulNotes/PlayStation, born from the ashes of a [[UsefulNotes/{{SNESCDROM}} failed SNES CD add-on]]. To call it a fight would be generous. The [=PlayStation=] outsold the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 3:1, thanks to marketing towards a young adult audience and grabbing all the third-party developers that scoffed at the [=N64=]'s use of cartridges over [=CDs=]. Enter the new millennium: with Creator/{{Sony}} gearing up to release [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 a follow-up]] to that runaway success, Sega mounting [[UsefulNotes/SegaDreamcast their final stand]], and [[UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}} a new kid]] eager to prove themselves, it was time for Nintendo to prove that last time was a mere miscalculation and that they were still a major player in the industry... this would end up being [[EndOfAnEra the last time Nintendo would compete directly]] with its competitors in the video game market. But we're getting ahead of ourselves.

Recognizing where Sony went right and where they didn't, the first order of business was using optical media instead of cartridges. However, instead of using [=CDs=] and [=DVDs=] like everyone else, the [=GameCube=] would be using proprietary 8cm discs based on the [=miniDVD=] format due to a desire to [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil cut down on piracy rates]] and avoid paying licensing fees to the DVD Forum, of which Sony was a member. These mini-discs still offered less storage than other systems (1.5GB vs. 8.5GB), but this was still enough room for most games of that generation. And if a single disc wasn't enough for any of the larger titles, multi-disc games was now a possibility that third-parties could take advantage of.

Next was courting back their old third-party partners, and what better way to accomplish that than by giving the keys to the castle? While Nintendo was no stranger to licensing out their IP for small edutainment games, the [=GameCube=] was the beginning of the company allowing others to develop major installments in their biggest franchises. [[note]]Under supervision, of course: no need to have a repeat of ''VideoGame/HotelMario'' or the "[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaCDiGames Unholy Triforce]]".[[/note]] And none wasted the opportunity. [[Creator/BandaiNamcoEntertainment Namco]] thought up the ''VideoGame/DonkeyKonga'' series and produced ''VideoGame/StarFoxAssault''; Creator/{{Konami}} gifted us with ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolutionMarioMix''; Sega (now out of the hardware game) delivered ''[[VideoGame/FZero F-Zero GX]]''; and Creator/{{Treasure}} gave us ''VideoGame/WarioWorld''. To say nothing of all the multi-platform games whose [=GameCube=] releases boasted appearances from various Nintendo characters.

Finally, since it didn't seem to hurt them last time, the [=GameCube=] was made the most powerful system of its generation once again. The system's graphical capabilities were more than capable of surpassing the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2, and its performance was on-par with the UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}}; ''Franchise/StarWars: VideoGame/RogueSquadron III'' actually holds the sixth-gen record for polygon count at 20 million polygons. So naturally, all of this resulted in the Nintendo [=GameCube=] coming in third place, behind the Xbox and far, ''far'' behind the [=PlayStation 2=]. Alright, what happened?

By far one of the biggest difficulties Nintendo tried (and mostly failed) to surmount was their reputation as a "kiddy" company being "kiddy" games, which had solidified during [[UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 the previous generation]]. Sounds like early message board console warring, sure, but the reality was that the most profitable demographic in gaming was now teenage and young adult males who wanted "mature" games. Games that Nintendo themselves certainly didn't make, and that their overseas branches (namely Nintendo of America) had outright discouraged other publishers from releasing on their systems for well over a decade, censoring content for games on their system to make them as family-friendly as possible. Even if the ESRB had already slapped an M rating on the box; speaking of, [=NOA=] ''doubled-down'' on their family-friendly position during the 1993 Congressional hearings that resulted in the ESRB to begin with. In short, Nintendo trapped itself the gaming equivalent of the AnimationAgeGhetto, and releasing what looked like a purple lunchbox didn't help. Although they tried to shed that image by green-lighting more teen- and young adult-oriented games (as well as some [[https://web.archive.org/web/20130819010845/http://www.notenoughshaders.com/2013/08/15/the-struggles-of-marketing-the-gamecube/ brow-raising marketing decisions]] from NOA), these efforts were still deemed too tame to be meaningful, especially compared to the libraries of the [=PS2=] and Xbox.













ost famously, Creator/RetroStudios rose to fame with the smash hit ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'' and its sequel ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime2Echoes''. Creator/{{Capcom}} was working on ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames'' on Game Boy Color and liked the 'Cube so much they promised a few exclusive games for it, dubbed the "Capcom 5". They are, in order of release:

* ''VideoGame/PN03'' (the only game to stay exclusive - [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes and it still is almost two decades after release]])
* ''VideoGame/ViewtifulJoe'' (ported to the [=PS2=])
* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' (ported to the [=PS2=] again, [[PortOverdosed among others]])
* ''VideoGame/{{killer7}}'' (ported to--[[RuleOfThree you guessed it]]--the [=PS2=])
* ''Dead Phoenix'' ([[{{Vaporware}} cancelled]])

had been a thing for years by this point. still just a fraction of Its The [=GameCube=] was the first Nintendo console to have fewer buttons on its controller than its predecessor; this was due to the introduction of a second analog stick to replace the N64's C buttons, though this C-stick was smaller than the primary analog stick; Nintendo wouldn't release a proper dual analog controller until the UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} Classic Controller five years later.

* ''VideoGame/PN03'' (the only game to stay exclusive - [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes and it still is almost two decades after release]])
* ''VideoGame/ViewtifulJoe'' (ported to the [=PS2=])
* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' (ported to the [=PS2=] again, [[PortOverdosed among others]])
* ''VideoGame/{{killer7}}'' (ported to--[[RuleOfThree you guessed it]]--the [=PS2=])
* ''Dead Phoenix'' ([[{{Vaporware}} cancelled]])

By offloading the development (and its associated costs) of some of their less iconic intellectual properties to third parties, Nintendo managed to reclaim some of the losses incurred by the N64's poor performance in the previous generation. While the [=GameCube=] ''also'' failed to meet expectations (at one point, Nintendo had to halt production of the console, as they were manufacturing them faster than they could be sold), it did ultimately manage to turn in a consistent and overall profit.

Additionally, by the time of the [=GameCube=]'s release, Nintendo had mostly removed its restrictions ensuring that their games met their family-friendly image (this process was in fact underway close to the end of the N64 era, with the release of ''VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay''), and indeed Nintendo would officially publish the M-rated ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness'' to show that they were willing to break out of their "kiddie" image. This also helped encourage sales to older gamers.

Oh, and this thing is ''[[MadeOfIndestructium tough]]'', as in physically. There are stories of people having dropped [=GameCubes=] off the top of tall buildings and finding them still perfectly intact. One Creator/{{G4|TV}} segment circa 2003 involved Morgan Webb abusing a [=PS2=], [=GameCube=] and Xbox, with the [=GameCube=] surviving every single bit of abuse. It's gotten a reputation for being damn near-indestructible; someone once fended off a knife-wielding mugger with his [=GameCube=] and ''it wasn't even damaged.'' Intentionally trying to break it is just about the only way to go. Considering Nintendo's history of making their products Tonka Tough, there might be a reason for that.

Its code name during development was "Project Dolphin" and there are often little nods to this throughout later N64 and early [=GameCube=] games. ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'' is set on "Isle Delfino" (Italian for dolphin), Olimar's ship in ''VideoGame/Pikmin1'' is called the "Dolphin", and there's a painting of a dolphin in Donkey Kong's house in ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong64''. Additionally, the water-centric gameplay of ''Super Mario Sunshine'' and ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' is thought by some to be a more subtle reference to Project Dolphin, for obvious reasons. All official games and products also start with DOL in their product code. An early rumored release name for the console was "Starcube", which was apparently dropped for copyright reasons (or because a Nintendo executive insisted the word "game" be in the name).

Nintendo received some criticism for not featuring DVD playback in their new console, bucking the trend set by Sony and Microsoft with their respective entries in the Sixth Generation. However, there ''was'' a stylish-looking variant of the GCN that played DVD videos and contained other multimedia functionality that saw limited release. Called the Panasonic Q, it was [[NoExportForYou only sold in Japan]], and nowadays can only be bought by those who do not care about the health of their wallet[[note]]In fact, it wasn't in production very long due to its cost; it was actually cheaper to buy both a regular [=GameCube=] ''and'' a standalone DVD player than a Panasonic Q[[/note]]. There's also the fact that they're region-locked, although people have modded Qs to remove this limitation.

The [=GameCube=], like the UsefulNotes/SegaDreamcast before it, is a perfect case of VindicatedByHistory. During its lifetime, the [=GameCube=] was outsold by both of its competitors, and was Nintendo's worst-performing home console until the UsefulNotes/WiiU.[[note]]This is not as bad is it sounds. The [=GameCube=] came in at a close third place, trailing only a couple million units behind the Xbox; meanwhile the [=PlayStation=] 2's [[CurbStompBattle utter dominance]] led to it outselling both systems ''combined''. The Dreamcast, for its part, sold about half of what the [=GameCube=] did, though this may be due to its limited lifespan as much as anything else. In the U.S., at least, Creator/{{Sega}}'s last hurrah had just a year and a half between its launch and its discontinuation.[[/note]] By 2004, the already comparatively low sales for the system completely imploded once people realized that Nintendo didn't have any more tricks up their sleeve in regards to their home console lineup. Up until the UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} became a record-breaking success, the idea of Nintendo exiting the home console market altogether and limiting their hardware development to handhelds (given that the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance and UsefulNotes/NintendoDS were still smash successes) seemed like a realistic possibility. This is, of course, ignoring the fact that Nintendo was the only home console maker at the time to actually make a profit off of their system, but to many, the low market share alone seemed like a good enough motivator.

By far one of the biggest difficulties Nintendo tried (and mostly failed) to surmount was their reputation as a company that made only children's games, which had solidified during [[UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 the previous generation]]. This image was downright lethal in the early 2000s. For one thing, the industry's demographics had shifted, and young adults now made up the bulk of gamers. In addition, developers, gamers, and the gaming press had by this point begun to advocate for video games to be taken seriously as a new art form. In other words, Nintendo was trapped in a video game equivalent of the AnimationAgeGhetto (and some consider that they still are). Although they tried to shed that image by green-lighting more teen- and young adult-oriented games (as well as some [[https://web.archive.org/web/20130819010845/http://www.notenoughshaders.com/2013/08/15/the-struggles-of-marketing-the-gamecube/ brow-raising marketing decisions]] from NOA), these efforts were still deemed too tame to be meaningful, especially compared to the libraries of the [=PS2=] and Xbox.

Thus, the console received lots of undeserved hate due to its toy-like design and moves like ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' changing the semi-realistic and comparatively darker atmospheres of its [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime two]] [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask predecessors]] for a cartoony cel-shading art style. This decision prompted what was among the first (possibly ''the'' first), and probably biggest, examples of video game backlash on the Internet in the days before social media (in fact, it could even easily give many social media-driven backlashes a run for their money).

While the [=GameCube=] was capable of online like its rivals, it was extremely underutilized. Only 5 games with online support were ever created, only one of which was first-party, and an adaptor was required to hook up to the internet. The only online games to be released internationally (and take up most of the list) are the 3 versions of ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarOnline'', which were ported from the UsefulNotes/SegaDreamcast with extra content. ''Phantasy Star Online'' on the Gamecube were also infamous for having an exploit which, by setting the port into a locally connected and specially configured PC, one can access homebrew and eventually offload dumped disc images. ''Homeland'' is also notable for being the only [=GameCube=] game to ever receive [[DownloadableContent DLC]]. Online was rapidly gaining traction during this generation, which made the [=GameCube=] and its borderline nonexistent online less appealing, especially when compared to the newcomer Xbox and its robust Xbox Live online service.

Another major issue was third-party support. Nintendo managed to get a lot of companies on board for developing for the system, and it surely received many more third-party titles than the [=N64=] ever did. However, the vast majority of these titles were multi-platform games. Very few companies dared to develop any ''exclusives'' for it, and most of the few that did were only because Nintendo struck deals with them by publishing the games or even partially producing them. On top of that, ''almost all'' of these multi-platform titles performed worse on the [=GameCube=] than on its two competitors, often ''significantly'' worse, so this support started to dwindle after the first couple of years; exactly why they performed so poorly on the [=GameCube=] is hard to pin down, but given that the system was more powerful and much easier to develop for than the far more successful [=PS2=], the limited capacity of the [=GameCube's=] proprietary discs and/or developer underestimation of them in the wake of the [=N64=]'s hugely limited cartridges may have been a leading factor. Couple this with the aforementioned "kiddie" reputation, and many T- and M-rated titles wound up getting released on the [=PS2=] and Xbox, but not the [=GameCube=]. Probably the most iconic example of this was the fact that the [=GameCube=] was the only 6th Generation home console that never received a ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' game (it got both ''VideoGame/TrueCrime'' games[[note]]in which you play as cops rather than criminals[[/note]], but between the two properties, ''GTA'' was a far bigger name and had a much more rebellious image that appealed to older gamers).

It didn't help that many of Nintendo's first-party titles for the console were considered divisive when they first came out. ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' and ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' one generation prior were considered absolutely groundbreaking in their day, transitioning gracefully from 2D to 3D. Meanwhile, ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'' and ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' (even leaving aside the aforementioned backlash) were less impressive transitions to the newer technology, and left some fans cold, with their new mechanics (e.g. the water jetpack/squirt gun FLUDD in ''Sunshine'' and the sailing mechanics in ''Wind Waker'') being seen as clumsy and ill-conceived, among other criticisms; ''Sunshine'' would see its mechanics VindicatedByHistory later on, though with ''Wind Waker'' it'd still be regarded as so big of a ScrappyMechanic that the remake 11 years later would go out of its way to address the issue. Other games like ''VideoGame/MarioKartDoubleDash'', ''VideoGame/StarFoxAdventures'', ''VideoGame/StarFoxAssault'', ''[[VideoGame/WaveRace Wave Race: Blue Storm]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TenEightySnowboarding 1080º Avalanche]]'' were also contested, with ''Adventures'' having the added baggage of being a heavy ExecutiveMeddling-induced retool of what was supposed to be a new IP in ''VideoGame/DinosaurPlanet''. More damning still, while games like ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'' and ''VideoGame/Pikmin1'' received overall ''critical'' acclaim, ''popular'' enthusiasm for them is largely a matter of hindsight.

However, several of these games and others have become {{cult classic}}s over time, or have simply been given their deserved accolades retroactively. It helps that the much more successful Wii was fully compatible with [=GameCube=] games until later in its life, making it easier for people to play games for the 'Cube without actually having to buy one. With critics putting increased emphasis on the importance of [[LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading loading times]] in the modern age, the [=GameCube=]'s design towards faster loads (in the form of smaller discs and special RAM caches) is also becoming more appreciated.

And of course, there are those titles that were absolute hits among gamers from day one. The clearest example of this would be ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'' and (to a lesser degree) its sequel ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime2Echoes''. While the first game's first-person perspective was initially met with a very cold reception upon teaser reveal (being yet another controversy Nintendo had to deal with during the first year of the console's lifespan), upon ''release'' it and the sequel brought back the ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' series after skipping the [=N64=] altogether. Many people consider these the best titles on the console, even to this day, a title only contested by ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosMelee'', a game that was not only the biggest seller on the console, but also single-handedly created one of the biggest and most devoted fan communities in video game history and - much like ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom2'' used to be to the Dreamcast - maintains a thriving [[TournamentPlay competitive scene]] two decades after its release, giving the [=GameCube=] a reason to live outside of the usual {{retrogaming}} circles way past its expiration date. The absolute masterful remake of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil1'', ''[[VideoGame/FZero F-Zero GX]]'', ''[[VideoGame/RogueSquadron Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader]]'' and ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' are other examples of exclusive titles that had a really warm reception even back in the day (though ''Symphonia'' did appear on the [=PS2=] eventually). Then there's the [=GameCube=] version of ''[[VideoGame/SoulSeries Soul Calibur II]]'', which was considered the best out of the three versions, in no small part due to [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Link]] appearing as a guest character (a practice that has become a staple of the fighting genre ever since).

Additionally, the [=GameCube=]'s controller was also a case of VindicatedByHistory. The unorthodox layout of the face buttons, and the fact that it had two fewer buttons than the controllers from its competitors, (to be precise, it was one shoulder button and one "Select"-type button less) were common criticisms during its day, to the point that many third party developers considered it a liability for porting some of their titles. However, it has been consistently praised from day one for its comfortable design, which was ergonomically friendly for nearly all demographics. As with many other aspects of the console, the controller is now deemed one of the most, if not ''the'' most comfortable game controller ever designed (its limited versatility though is still a point of contention). The enduring popularity of the [=GameCube=] controller among ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' players eventually led to Nintendo re-releasing the controller specifically for ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU Super Smash Bros. for Wii U]]'' and ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'', complete with a [=GameCube=] controller adapter for the UsefulNotes/WiiU and UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch (compatible with only ''Smash'' on the Wii U but with considerably more games on the Switch including ''VideoGame/MarioKart8'').

One of the biggest reasons of the growing appreciation for the system is the people who played with it when they were children reaching adulthood. Although the industry as a whole was fully focused on teenagers and young adults during the early 2000s, that's not to say that kids had become irrelevant. Even the [=PS2=] and Xbox had their fair share of family friendly titles. However, kids were no longer the ones driving the market, not only because they had become a smaller demographic, but also because the discourse surrounding it had fully transitioned from the schoolyard to the Internet, where their voices were collectively all but silenced next to their older counterparts. But now that the children who played with the [=GameCube=] have entered their 20s, they've taken the opportunity to voice their appreciation for the console that marked their childhoods, turning it into probably the biggest "nostalgic" home console of the 2010s.

Oh, and the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUHJUJkbv-k slow, haunting theme]] that plays when you turn the thing on and go into the menu? It's the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F_vTOZQLxY start-up theme]] ''(EpilepticFlashingLights warning)'' for the old [[UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem Famicom Disk System]], slowed down a whole bunch. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1m6j38CDOc Pretty neat]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:VideoGame/MetroidPrime4]]
''VideoGame/MetroidPrime4''

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_2017_06_14_11_14_01_kindlephoto_35870315_1.jpg]]

''Metroid Prime 4'' is an upcoming [[FirstPersonShooter First Person]] [[GenreBusting Adventure]] game published by Creator/{{Nintendo}} and scheduled for a 2023 release on the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch. The game serves as the fourth main installment within the ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' franchise's ''[[VideoGame/MetroidPrimeTrilogy Prime]]'' sub-series.

Initially announced as being in development via a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFbDmTjS_MI brief teaser trailer]] at [[UsefulNotes/ElectronicEntertainmentExpo E3 2017]], no further news was given on the game until January 2019, when Nintendo revealed that the game was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLIv_UXI_So suffering from a troubled production]]. ''Metroid Prime 4'' would be restarting development from scratch, with production moving from an unnamed development studio to Creator/RetroStudios, which developed the prior numbered entries.

* TrilogyCreep: ''[[VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption Prime 3]]'' was advertised as the final chapter of the ''Prime'' series upon its release in 2007, fifteen years prior. With that in mind, the sub-series already had two spin-offs in ''[[VideoGame/MetroidPrimeHunters Hunters]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/MetroidPrimePinball Pinball]]'' during the original trilogy, as well as ''[[VideoGame/MetroidPrimeFederationForce Federation Force]]'' years later. In addition, both ''Prime 3'' and ''Federation Force'' had {{sequel hook}}s in their post-credits scenes alluding to another major installment.

Trivia.MetroidPrime4 Page
* TroubledProduction: In 2017, ''Metroid Prime 4'' was announced as entering development under an [[BTeamSequel unknown, new development team]] before development troubles had Nintendo [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLIv_UXI_So publicly announce]] in early 2019 that they'd be restarting the project from scratch and returning the reins to Creator/RetroStudios. [[https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-02-08-yes-namco-bandai-is-working-on-metroid-prime-4 Many sources]] claimed the original team to be Creator/BandaiNamco's Singapore branch, with one journalist elaborating that their sources said the game was being made in an "[[https://twitter.com/imranzomg/status/1088857688027480065 experimental ad-hoc development process]]."

YMMV.MetroidPrime4 page

* AuthorsSavingThrow: The game was this upon its initial announcement. After the major DorkAge that started with ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'', continued with ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeFederationForce'', and was compounded by Creator/{{Nintendo}} taking down the FanRemake ''VideoGame/AnotherMetroid2Remake'' via DMCA claims, the mere announcement of this game and ''VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns'' went a long way to restoring much of the fanbase's faith in the series and Nintendo.
* HolyShitQuotient: To say people were shocked at this game's announcement would be an understatement - despite the reveal teaser being under a minute long and only showing the game's logo, it was one of the most publicized games at E3 2017.
* OnlyTheCreatorDoesItRight: Some fans had concerns about Creator/RetroStudios not returning to develop this title. On the other hand, many were just happy that series co-creator Yoshio Sakamoto will continue his non-involvement with the ''Prime'' series, considering his heavy involvement with the much maligned ''Other M''. Ultimately averted when production restarted in 2019 with Creator/RetroStudios as the lead studio.

WMG.MetroidPrime4 page

!Pre-Development Reboot [=WMGs=]

[[WMG: Metroid Prime is still alive.]]
When all the Phazon was destroyed Dark Samus was turned back into Metroid Prime.
* This doesn't seem terribly likely, given that [[spoiler:Metroid Prime carapaces can be found on Phaaze, suggesting that they only exist because of Phazon corruption. The design of Hopping Metroids also seems to allude to this, since they explicitly only take that form due to exposure to Phazon]].
** Whatever the Metroid Prime started out as, she seemed to ditch her metroid characteristics when she jacked the phazon suit as a body, and by the time of Corruption, the game was very clear that she was more phazon shaped like a power suit than anything else.

[[WMG: Metroid Prime 4 will have a Sequel Hook.]]
It will lead into ''Metroid Prime 5'', or ''VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns'', or ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid''.
* Possible, given that the Prime series has been stated to be an interquel between ''Metroid'' and ''Metroid II''.

[[WMG: Meta Kraid will be a boss battle.]]
We have had Meta Ridley, so why not Meta Kraid? There is concept art for Meta Kraid for Metroid Prime 1.

[[WMG: Somehow, Phazon will return.]]
Possibly, given how massive the galaxy is, Phaaze will be revealed to not be [[ThereIsAnother the only planet that naturally produces Phazon]].
* A planet such as the [[VideoGame/MetroidPrime3 Pirate Homeworld]]?

[[WMG: Ridley will be a big antagonist.]]
Much like how he was a overarching antagonist in the original Metroid Prime game he will again be a looming threat that you will have to face in the end to make it to the last boss.
* This game may also explain how Ridley was able to shed his metal plating and become fully organic again for his appearance in Super Metroid.
** This is at least partly explained in the semi-canonical manga, where he could eat any form of biomass to facilitate regeneration. He recovers from near-fatal injury this way, so it's likely the same ability that allows him to survive both the horrific experiments and the removal of his cybernetics.

[[WMG: The aftereffects of ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeFederationForce'' will be an important part of the plot.]]
Apart from the obvious [[spoiler:Sylux stealing the Metroid]] thing from The Stinger to that game, there's also the matter of Samus recovering from [[spoiler:being captured and mind-controlled by the Space Pirates]], as well as how the Mechs will contribute now that they're no longer the main characters.
* Don't forget The Stinger from [=MP3=], where [[spoiler: Sylux follows after Samus]].

[[WMG: The game will have a multiplayer mode]]
There will be options for splitscreen, LAN, and [=WiFi=], and in addition to Samus herself (with multiple skins based on other games in the series) you can also play as any of the previously seen Hunters, Dark Samus, and Anthony from ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM''.

[[WMG: To add to the above, there will be a ''VideoGame/{{Evolve}} style multiplayer mode where four players compete against one lone player taking control of a boss monster]]
One of the playable boss monsters will be Ridley, even if he doesn't make an appearance in single player.
* Nah, [[MemeticMutation he's too big]].

[[WMG: Metroid Prime 4 will explain how Ridley returned from his death in Corruption]]
The game will start off with Samus investigating rumors of a space pirate complex trying to resurrect Ridley, kicking the whole plot off. Bonus points if the subtitle is ''Resurrection''.

[[WMG: Sylux, when he shows up in Prime 4, will come with a larger arsenal of weaponry and abilities to make him a more competent threat]]
At least one of Sylux's new weapons will be an energy-based whip with the power to tear enemies and buildings asunder. His Shock Coil will also be upgraded to fire powerful ball lightnings. New abilities will include the capability to propel himself into the air with an electric blast, as well as the power to cause an explosive burst when he lands from sufficient height.
* so [[VideoGame/{{Infamous}} Cole MacGrath]]?

[[WMG: There will be a Raid Mode inspired minigame called Bounty Hunter Mode]]
In this mode you play as Samus (and perhaps others) on different maps based on locations from throughout the series, taking on waves of enemies and earning points. With these points you can purchase upgrades, as well as cosmetic rewards (some of which may carry over to the main game). Some maps will have branching paths to accommodate different locomotive abilities. Co-op will also be supported.

[[WMG: Sylux's reasons for opposing the Galactic Federation will be revealed]]
Sylux's status as a self-made enemy of the Federation has always been one of the character's few defining traits. [[VideoGame/MetroidOtherM Later]] [[VideoGame/MetroidFusion games]] in the timeline reveal a dark side of the Galactic Federation, a side whose quest to weaponize practically everything could make [[Franchise/ResidentEvil Umbrella]] envious. The top-secret technology that Sylux stole, the Shock Coil, is even stated to bear a suspicious similarity to a Metroid's energy siphon.\\
Could Sylux be aware of this darker side of the organization, and is motivated out of civic responsibility to stop it? Could Sylux have even been a former Federation employee who left out of disgust, possibly explaining how Sylux keeps managing to slip through all these darn GF facilities so well?

[[WMG: Ridley will finally be the BigBad.]]
With the Metroid Prime/Dark Samus and Phazon as a whole dead and gone, Ridley could have ADayInTheLimelight and become the BigBad for the first time - and considering the last time he was seen in the ''Prime'' trilogy, he'll probably be in a new form while recovering from ''Corruption'''s events.

[[WMG: Sylux will turn out to oppose the Federation, but as an unsung hero and not a villain]]
Knowing in hindsight that the Federation does some extremely shady crap, with Metroids to boot(like the one Sylux stole at the end of Federation Force) it's not unreasonable to suggest that Sylux is someone opposing them in order to expose the more corrupt factions, and Samus is simply [[NothingPersonal an obstacle]]. Hell, it could probably lead to an EnemyMine with Samus.

[[WMG: The other [[VideoGame/MetroidPrimeHunters Hunters]] will appear.]]
Sure, Sylux is the one with it out for the Galactic Federation and Samus, but the other Hunters potentially have reasons to get involved. Including reasons as straightforward as being paid.
* In ''Hunters'', they were in the Amblic Cluster looking for "The Ultimate Power". If they all survived that (or NegativeContinuity is in play), they could be motivated by {{revenge}} (especially so for Weavel and Trace), the existence of TheCorruption (a good reason for Noxus or Kanden to show up), other hints on Spire's past, or just because the Federation is involved (hence Sylux).
** Pretty sure that the other 6 Hunters all survived the ending of Hunters. Right before the Oubliette explodes, 6 colored lights, seemingly the ships of the other Hunters, can be seen departing before Samus herself does.
* Although, if they do show up, how cool would it be for at least a few to be Samus's allies?
** If a few were to be Samus's allies, it would make the most sense for Noxus and/or Spire, since those two were the only ones who would likely not have come into conflict with Samus had the events of Hunters not happened. [[note]]Noxus wanted to make sure no one would get the Omega Cannon, and Spire wanted to use it to find out what happened to his people.[[/note]]

[[WMG: Mother Brain will make an appearance.]]
Why should Ridley have all the fun? Let's have the mind behind the monsters show up and cause havoc.

[[WMG: The Metroid Sylux hatched will parallel Samus' relationship with the Baby Metroid.]]
Sylux being the first thing that hatchling saw will likely mean it imprinted on him, like the Baby Metroid did with Samus. This could be used to draw parallels or contrasts between him and Samus as characters.

[[WMG: The game will end with Samus accepting a [[VideoGame/MetroidIIReturnOfSamus mission]] to [[Videogame/MetroidSamusReturns SR388]].]]
Hey, she's gotta go there sometime.

[[WMG: Predictions for new possible weapons]]
It's normal for each Metroid game to introduce new weapons/powers, and considering that Other M had no new powerups, it's likely that they'll introduce something new to make up for this. Possibilities include[[note]]feel free to add your own suggestions here[[/note]]:
* The [[GatlingGood Gatling Beam]], a beam designed for rapid fire, which when charged, would fire a long burst of beams, much like the [[VideoGame/MetroidPrime3 Hyper Mode's Phazon Beam]].
* The [[GrapplingHookPistol Combat Grapple]], a pair of twin grappling beams that would allow Samus to slam her opponents together similar to [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDCE73Stargazer the Strike Noir's rocket arrows]]. [[RuleOfCool Could be combined with the Grapple Voltage to allow Samus to drain the energy from one enemy and then redirect said energy into another opponent]].
* The Remote EMP Mines, which can attach to most surfaces and detonate when an enemy closes in on them. In the case of any invisible enemies (like a certain drone from the first game), this has the added effect of temporarily disabling their cloaking abilities.
* The Anti-Phazon Device, or APD (only applicable if there's more Phazon in this game), which launches a crystalline structure that causes Phazon to rapidly degrade, doing heavy damage to any Phazon-based enemies and destroying Phazite objects. However, as a safety measure, the compound does virtually nothing to organic material or machinery.

[[WMG: The game will be set after ''Fusion'']]
And the Federation will be the main antagonist.

[[WMG: Metroid Prime/Dark Samus will be the first boss.]]
After the battle she will turn out to be a robot designed to look like Dark Samus, build by the Space Pirates' Science Team to scare Samus.
* It'll be half-dysfunctional, pretty obviously a fake as the battle goes on and ultimately ineffective. After all, [[MemeticMutation the Science Team has vapor for brains]].

[[WMG: The game is being developed by Creator/NextLevelGames]]
Assuming the theory that this is a sequel to ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeFederationForce'' is true.
** '''{{Jossed}}.''' It was originally developed by Creator/BandaiNamco, before development got rebooted and the game given to Creator/RetroStudios instead.

[[WMG: If Ridley is in the game...]]
He will be so horribly wounded from ''Corruption'' to the point where he becomes a full on DarkLordOnLifeSupport - his entire body is covered or implanted with mechanical parts, with cables and anesthetic tubes and all, therefore becoming a NonActionBigBad. He orders the Space Pirates around until the end of the game, where he recovers just enough to be able to fight Samus himself. Since ''Samus Returns'' is likely to take place after this, he won't have recovered fully until ''Super Metroid''.

[[WMG: If this game does take place after Metroid Fusion, the ultimate suit upgrade will be Samus regaining her proper Varia Suit.]]
The Varia Suit is just way too iconic to be replaced by the Fusion suit. In addition, it's been established several times that the Fusion suit is far weaker than Samus' Varia Suit proper. It'd be fitting that the ultimate suit upgrade for her in the game after Fusion would be regaining her original power armor.

[[WMG: Samus will have to fight against [[spoiler:Chozo]]]]
[[spoiler:The 11th Chozo Memory from ''VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns'' features a rogue group of Chozo who have killed some of their own brethren.]]

[[WMG: If set before her mission to [=SR388=]...]]
This game will feature the Gravity Suit, initially as a Varia Suit PaletteSwap before Samus — as in ''VideoGame/MetroidZeroMission'' — has to get a more powerful Power Suit, explaining its redesigned appearance in ''Samus Returns''.

[[WMG: The game is being developed by Armature Studio.]]
They're comprised by a good deal of former Retro Studios employees that worked on the original Prime trilogy, so why not bring them back?
** '''{{Jossed}}.''' Bandai Namco started it, before their stuff was scrapped. ''Retro'' is doing it now.

[[WMG: The game will contain between 200 and 1000 suit upgrades.]]
After the large numbers of [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild koroks]] and [[VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey moons]] in recent Nintendo games, it seems like they wouldn't stop at 100 collectibles.

[[WMG: The four will be removed from the title]]
This would allow the game to remain outside the trilogy, and the number is just to signify that its a fourth Metroid Prime game on a console until they can come up with a better name, or they just want to keep the name a secret for now.

[[WMG: This game will use Proteus Ridley instead of Meta Ridley]]
A lot of people have speculated that Ridley's Phazon intake as a leviathan guardian overclocked his healing factor and eventually let him regain his biological form. Proteus Ridley will be used to illustrate him getting more of his original body back.

!Post-2022 Re-Reveal

[[folder:Steven Universe: Future (REWRITTEN)]]
Fanfic/StevenUniverseFutureRewritten

->''Threat terminated.''

''Steven Universe: Future (Rewritten)'' is a ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseFuture'' FixFic by [=KiwiQueen=] 13, written in order to better address plot points and ideas that the author felt were LeftHanging or resolved in an underwhelming manner in the show's actual final episodes. Instead of the Diamond essence successfully bringing Jasper back to life, the Gem remains shattered. Faced with the horrible truth of his actions, Steven's already poor mental health worsens as he finds himself spiraling further and further into self-loathing and madness. Steven Quartz Universe was the savior of the the galaxy... but who's going to save him in his darkest hour?

The fanfic takes the form of an illustrated audiobook that was released weekly on Website/YouTube beginning on August 25th, 2020, with chapters ranging in length from 15-to-30 minutes. The final chapter was released December 22nd, 2020. It was later followed by ''Steven Universe: Future (Rewritten) (Epilogue)'', a sequel series that ran from April 1st to July 21st, 2021.

The series can be listened to in the playlist [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLg4YlmvY4zgwFr9Vvp3Yu1jtJ6noMlu4 here]].
----
!!Tropes:
* AdaptationalAngstUpgrade: In addition to some blood and gore due to the fic having far more moments of violence, events that did happen in canon are made more dramatic.
** Unlike the show, Jasper is KilledOffForReal. The Diamond Essence doesn't work, and Steven ends up having to hide the shards by burying them in a cave by the lighthouse.
** Whereas attacking White Diamond's gem during the body possession merely broke the link in the show, here it not only manages to crack the gem, but also cause White to poof for the very first time. Steven is able to heal the cracks, but White is out of commission for several chapters afterward.
* ClosestThingWeGot: When Steven passes out due to his most recent case of pink swelling closing his throat, Spinel is the only one with a solid understanding of human physiology (or any understanding, for that matter). However, since that knowledge was gained from wanting to murder Steven at the time, she never bothered to look up medical treatments. Her insight manages to be enough for the group to revive Steven, though WordOfGod notes that almost everything they did was wrong and that Steven's Gem was what actually did most of the work after Yellow reduced the swelling.
* ConditionedToAcceptHorror: Once Steven starts explaining what's been happening to him, Spinel immediately deduces that a childhood of fighting his mother's enemies and fixing her problems is the root of everything. Spinel then dismisses Steven's shock at the accurate assessment, stating that even if it wasn't obvious from context, Steven had already voiced this frustration to her in the past.
-->'''Spinel''': You kinda [[https://youtu.be/zYe0HpVWp5U?t=52 cried a lot about your whole life being just fixing stuff over and over again]] when I tried to kill you, because of Pink.
* FailedASpotCheck: In the stress and excitement of Chapter 12, [[spoiler:both Steven and Kunzite herself don't notice that Spinel and Volleyball fused to form the latter until halfway through the following chapter]].
* HeroicBSOD: Steven jumps between panic, rage, and catatonic shock for an entire night after shattering Jasper and discovering that there is no way to undo it.
* HeroicRROD: By Chapter 13, Steven hasn't eaten properly, drank much of anything, and had barely slept for a week. He's minutes away from passing out and his entire body and Gem are in utter pain, but he still insists on trying to push on. [[spoiler:Kunzite]] has to force him to take a break.
* HeroWithBadPublicity: Steven ends up becoming this on Homeworld when Bluebird manages to get a recording of him poofing White and broadcasts it all over the planet, with her claiming that it's proof he wants to shatter all the Diamonds and become sole ruler. Steven must escape back to Earth with the help of Spinel and Volleyball when immediately causes hundreds of Gems to storm the palace.
* IgnoredEpiphany: In Chapter 7, Spinel realizes from their comments towards an unconscious Steven that the Diamonds aren't calling Steven "Pink" out of stubbornness, but because they honestly believe Steven is just Pink Diamond having an extended temper tantrum and playing a role. When they continuously dismiss Spinel's arguments, Volleyball angrily steps in to call out White on the fact that ''she'' should at least be completely aware of Steven's true identity, given that she had [[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E28ChangeYourMind already tried separating him from his Gem years prior]]. White admits that she's deliberately been trying to forget.
* LastSecondWordSwap: "Oh, f-f-family-friendly."
* MoodWhiplash: The increasingly dour atmosphere of the fic plays in stark contrast to the title sequence, which is Peridot happily singing the name of the show. Especially when watched in the playlist, as chapters that end on a sullen no te (which is to say, a good majority of them) are immediately followed by ironic, uplifting melody of "Happily Ever After".
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Steven's reaction to... a lot of things.
** The fact he shattered Jasper, which increases tenfold when he realizes there's no fixing it.
** His reaction to Spinel's punishment, getting angry at himself for not realizing that putting a victim of abuse in the home of those who glorify and mourn the memory of said abuser was a recipe for disaster.
* TraumaButton: Spinel has been regularly punished whenever she badmouths Pink Diamond with a stay in a dark, isolated tower for days at a time. Steven is the only one who sees the problem inherent in doing this to someone with millennia-worth of abandonment issues.

[[/folder]]
----

Outside the games, the franchise has also spawned several pieces of spin-off material, namely manga. The main manga series, Magazine/CoroCoroComic's ''Manga/{{Splatoon}}'', is a GagSeries about a team of Inklings attempting to rise through the ranks in both Turf War and Ranked Battle despite their eccentricities. Other manga include ''Splatoon: Squid Kids Comedy Show'', a [[{{Yonkoma}} 4-Koma]] which also runs in Coco-Coro, as well as the [[NoExportForYou Japan-only]] ''Mellow Squid 4-Panel Comic'', another 4-Koma that runs in Weekly Famitsu.

The official website can be found [[http://splatoon.nintendo.com/ here]]. Also featured is an official Website/{{Tumblr}}, which gives updates on the game and reveals new information about the series' mythology under the guise of the [[http://splatoonus.tumblr.com/ "Squid Research Lab"]], a hidden group of humans who have dedicated themselves to cataloguing the activities and history of these stylish cephalopods.

Compare ''VideoGame/DeBlob'' for similar premise and concept (ink-spraying creatures spreading ink). [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant No relation to Hwang Dong-hyuk's]] ''Series/SquidGame''.

Inklings were the first new characters to be unveiled for the fifth installment of Nintendo's ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' franchise, ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'', with the game taking most of its ''Splatoon'' elements from this first installment.

----

* BrosBeforeHoes: Discussed. After questioning Sharina, Angelica learns that her best friend would absolutely choose love over their life-long friendship, to her mildly annoyance. Later, Angelica mentally pats herself on the back for being able to follow this trope, as she immediately decides not to even try pursuing a relationship beyong friendship with Riol when she realizes she might be developing a crush on the boy herself.

* Live musical performances [[VirtualCelebrity starring the various idols of the games]] (2016-present)

!!!Books and Web Serials

!!! [[VirtualCelebrity Live musical performances]]
** Shiokalive at Tokaigi 2016
** Shiokalive at Chokaigi 2016
** Squid Sisters at Japan Expo 2016
** Shiokalive at Cho Party 2016
** Haicalive at Tokaigi 2018
** Off the Hook Concert at Polymanga 2018
** Haicalive at Chokaigi 2018
** Tentalive at Tokaigi 2019
** Haicalive Kyoto Mix (ft. [[VideoGame/AnimalCrossing K.K. Slider]])

''Literature/SquidSistersStories''

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/squid_sisters_stories_introduction_eu.png]]
%%[[caption-width-right:350:some caption text]]

''Squid Sisters Stories'' is a 2017 ''Splatoon'' {{web serial novel}} taking place between the [[VideoGame/Splatoon1 first]] [[VideoGame/Splatoon2 two]] games, serving as promotional material for the latter. Mainly focusing on Marie, the story focuses on the relationship between her and her cousin Callie in the aftermath of the first game's GrandFinale Splatfest that pitted the two idol singers against each other.

New chapters were released weekly on the official North American and Japanese websites for ''Splatoon 2'', as well as the News section of Nintendo of Europe's website.

'''Chapters:''' [[http://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2017/April/Squid-Sisters-Stories-Prologue-1217011.html Prologue]], [[http://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2017/April/Squid-Sisters-Stories-Chapter-1-1218763.html Chapter 1]], [[http://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2017/May/Squid-Sisters-Stories-Chapter-2-1219214.html Chapter 2]], [[http://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2017/May/Squid-Sisters-Stories-Chapter-3-1221487.html Chapter 3]], [[http://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2017/May/Squid-Sisters-Stories-Chapter-4-1222417.html Chapter 4]], [[http://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2017/May/Squid-Sisters-Stories-Chapter-5-1224382.html Chapter 5]], [[http://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2017/May/Squid-Sisters-Stories-Chapter-6-1225154.html Chapter 6]], [[http://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2017/May/Squid-Sisters-Stories-Chapter-7-1225439.html Chapter 7]]
----
!!''Squid Sisters Stories'' contains examples of:
* AcquiredSituationalNarcissism: Discussed. In Chapter 2, Marie briefly muses that Callie might harbor resentment over the outcome of the "Callie vs. Marie" Splatfest, only to immediately dismiss this as being uncharacteristic of her cousin and blame the train of thought on her own inflated ego from winning the event.
-->''"Maybe winning that final Splatfest has made you full of yourself." The very idea stung Marie with a twinge of self-loathing...''
* CallBack: When the Squid Sisters spend the day together in Chapter 4, they visit a food court, with [[TrademarkFavoriteFood whatever they order]] being a direct reference to one of the first game's food-related Splatfests. In North America, Callie orders a burger and Marie orders a slice of pizza; in Europe, they both get pizza, but Callie goes for one with pineapple, while Marie goes without; in Japan, they just order drinks, with Callie getting lemon tea and Marie getting milk tea.
* CelebrityIsOverrated: Many of Callie and Marie's worries about their relationship surrounds how their increased popularity and fame has pulled them in different directions, to the point that they [[LonelyAtTheTop barely even see each other]] despite being roommates. Callie in particular gets the brunt of it, becoming a major television and film star, which causes her so much stress that she eventually skips town without telling anyone.
* DuelingDubs: Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Europe use separate English translations for the web serial. The story itself only has minor changes in wording between versions, with the main difference coming in the introduction. Both use the FramingDevice of these being reports found by the Squid Research Lab, but the North American version is short and direct, while the European version is longer and uses the group's usual conversational tone.
* HereWeGoAgain: To her conseration, Marie finds that in addition to Callie going missing while Marie was out of town visiting her parents, DJ Octavio has escaped and the Great Zapfish is gone again, mirroring the plot of the first game.
* {{Interquel}}: The story takes place during the two years between ''VideoGame/Splatoon1'' and ''VideoGame/Splatoon2''. In addition to providing greater context to that game's story, it only provides more direct explanation for some of the changes to Inkopolis that have occurred since the first entry:
** Crusty Sean quit his job as store manager at Shrimp Kicks due to wanting to be in-charge of his own business. Running the Crust Bucket food truck came as a suggestion from a close friend.
** Annie, who was the manager at Cooler Heads, left that job because she never felt comfortable working in front-facing retail. She spent some time as a part-time worker at Ammo Knights helping to decorate weapons, which inspired her to creating a new online storefront where she'd sell customized gear (i.e. the [=SplatNet=] Gear Shop on the mobile app).
** Sheldon is the only returning shopkeeper in the second game because the Ammo Knights in Inkopolis Square is a second location; he'd been spending the two years working on plans to begin franchising his weapons store.
* ToBeContinued: The final chapter ends with Marie heading to Inkopolis Square to scout out talent to become an agent for the New Squidbeak Splatoon in the absence of her grandfather and Agent 3, leading directly into ''Splatoon 2'''s "Hero Mode" single-player campaign.

----

* AcquiredSituationalNarcissism: Discussed. In Chapter 2, Marie briefly muses that Callie might harbor resentment over the outcome of the "Callie vs. Marie" Splatfest, only immediately dismiss this as being uncharacteristic of her cousin and blame the train of thought on her own inflated ego from winning the event.

* CallBack: When the duo spend the day together in Chapter 4, they visit a food court, with [[TrademarkFavoriteFood whatever they order]] being a direct reference to one of the first game's food-related Splatfests. In North America, Callie orders a burger and Marie orders a slice of pizza; in Europe, they both get pizza, but Callie goes for one with pineapple, while Marie goes without; in Japan, they just order drinks, with Callie getting lemon tea and Marie getting milk tea.

* {{Interquel}}: The story takes place during the two years between ''VideoGame/Splatoon1'' and ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'', leading directly into the latter's "Hero Mode" campaign. In addition to providing greater context to that game's story, it only provides more direct explanation for some of the changes to Inkopolis that have occurred since the first entry:

** Annie, who was the manager at Cooler Heads, left that job because she never felt comfortable working in front-facing retail. She spent some time as a part-time worker at Ammo Knights helping to decorate weapons, which inspired her to creating a new online storefront where she'd sell customized gear (i.e. the SplatNet Gear Shop).

''Squid Sisters Stories'' is a 2017 ''Splatoon'' {{web serial novel}} taking place between the [[VideoGame/Splatoon1 first]] [[VideoGame/Splatoon2 two]] games. The story focuses on the relationship between Callie and Marie from the latter's perspective, following the events of the first game's GrandFinale Splatfest that pitted the two cousins against each other.

-->''"Maybe winning that final Splatfest has made you full of yourself," [she thought]. The very idea stung Marie with a twinge of self-loathing...''

** Sheldon is still the weapons shop owner despite ''Splatoon 2'' switching locations from Inkopolis Plaza to Inkopolis Square because he had been working on franchising Ammo Knights with a second location.

''Squid Sisters Stories'' is a 2017 ''Splatoon'' {{web serial novel}} taking place between the [[VideoGame/Splatoon1 first]] [[VideoGame/Splatoon2 two]] games. The story focuses on the relationship between Callie and Marie in the aftermath of the first game's GrandFinale Splatfest that pitted the two cousins against each other, while also touching upon the other changes that occurred in the city of Inkopolis during the two year TimeSkip.

* {{Interquel}}: The story takes place during the two years between ''VideoGame/Splatoon1'' and ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'', leading directly into the latter's "Hero Mode" campaign. In addition to providing greater context to that game's story, it only provides more direct explaination for some of the changes to Inkopolis that have occurred since the first entry:

** Sheldon is still the weapons shop owner despite ''Splatoon 2'' switching locations from Inkopolis Plaza to Inkopolis Square because he had been working on franchizing Ammo Knights with a second location.

''Squid Sisters Stories'' is a 2017 ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'' {{web serial novel}} taking place between the [[VideoGame/Splatoon1 first]] [[VideoGame/Splatoon2 two]] games. The story focuses on the relationship between cousins Callie and Marie in the aftermath of the first game's GrandFinale Splatfest that pitted the two cousins against each other, while also touching upon the other changes that occurred in the city of Inkopolis during the two year TimeSkip.

* {{Interquel}}: The story takes place during the two years between ''VideoGame/Splatoon1'' and ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'', leading directly into the latter's "Hero Mode" campaign.
* ShipperOnDeck: Callie becomes excited at the idea of Sheldon and Annie potentially working together long-term and becoming a couple, as the latter had been helping out a lot at the former's Ammo Knights weapons store recently. Marie rejects the idea, noting that Sheldon is too focused on business for any relationships and Annie is no longer interested in front-facing retail work.

''Squid Sisters Stories'' is a 2017 ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'' {{web serial novel}} taking place between the [[VideoGame/Splatoon1 first]] [[VideoGame/Splatoon2 two]] games. The story focuses on the relationship between Callie and Marie in the aftermath of the first game's GrandFinale Splatfest that pitted the two cousins against each other, while also touching upon the other changes that occurred in the city of Inkopolis during the two year TimeSkip.

* DuelingDubs: Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Europe use separate English translations for the story. The story itself only has minor changes in wording between versions, with the main difference coming in the introduction. Both use the FramingDevice of these being reports found by the Squid Research Lab, but the North American version is short and direct, while the European version being longer and using the group's usual conversational tone.
* {{Interquel}}: The story takes place during the two years between ''VideoGame/Splatoon1'' and ''VideoGame/Splatoon2''.

''Squid Sisters Stories'' is a 2017 ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' {{web serial novel}} taking place during the two year TimeSkip between the first two games. The story focuses on the Squid Sisters idol singer duo, Callie and Marie, and their deterioating relationship in the aftermath of the first game's GrandFinale Splatfest that pitted the two cousins against each other.

'''''Chapters:''' [[http://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2017/April/Squid-Sisters-Stories-Prologue-1217011.html Prologue]], [[http://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2017/April/Squid-Sisters-Stories-Chapter-1-1218763.html Chapter 1]], [[http://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2017/May/Squid-Sisters-Stories-Chapter-2-1219214.html Chapter 2]], [[http://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2017/May/Squid-Sisters-Stories-Chapter-3-1221487.html Chapter 3]], [[http://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2017/May/Squid-Sisters-Stories-Chapter-4-1222417.html Chapter 4]], [[http://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2017/May/Squid-Sisters-Stories-Chapter-5-1224382.html Chapter 5]], [[http://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2017/May/Squid-Sisters-Stories-Chapter-6-1225154.html Chapter 6]], [[http://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2017/May/Squid-Sisters-Stories-Chapter-7-1225439.html Chapter 7]]''

* ''Literature/SquidSistersStories'' (2017): A short WebSerialNovel detailing the events between ''Splatoon 1'' and ''2''

''Squid Sisters Stories'' is a 2017 ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' {{web serial novel}}, originally hosted on the official website for ''VideoGame/Splatoon2''. The short story details the events that occurred during the two-year TimeSkip between the first two games, specifically focusing on Marie's

[[folder:YMMV Federation Force]]
YMMV.MetroidPrimeFederationForce

* AntiClimaxBoss: The final boss battle has been heavily criticized for being a lot more tedious than challenging, [[spoiler:and the fact that the final boss is a BrainwashedAndCrazy Samus, which sounded like it could make for an ''amazing'' FinalExamBoss fight where she uses all of her arsenal against your team... but instead she's [[ModeLock locked into her Morph Ball form]]]], and the final battle ends up being a glorified Blast Ball match except as a boss battle.
* AudienceAlienatingPremise: Most fans of ''Metroid'' generally point to the exploration and sense of isolation as the series' hallmarks, so an installment that ditches all of that for a more action-oriented, CoOpMultiplayer installment that doesn't even star the main character became a hard sell for them. It being five years since the last installment in the franchise, which itself was widely regarded as the worst entry in the entire series, only aggravated the issue. Even among those who didn't mind the idea of a spin-off game and weren't part of the intense backlash were apathetic to it and criticized the timing, feeling the premise would've been harmless at worst otherwise. Upon release, the game received mixed to poor reviews, and became the worst-selling game in the series by a wide margin.
* CharacterRerailment: Although her appearance is brief, there's no trace of Samus Aran's controversial characterization in ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM''. It also helps that the Galactic Federation defers to her intel and treats her with respect like in ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption'', instead of coldly treating her like an outsider like Adam and the Colonel in ''Other M''.
* CriticalBacklash: Whilst it is agreed the game could have been released at a better time, a lot of fans consider the game's initial overwhelming negative reception to be unfair and outright ridiculous. Though just ''mentioning'' the game still garners knee-jerk hate and ridicule even years after its release from the fanbase, general consensus is that the game is actually SoOkayItsAverage, and that most of the anger directed towards the game was excessive at best.
* FanNickname: ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime: [[VideoGame/StarWarsRepublicCommando Federation Commando]]'', because [[SpiritualAdaptation it's the closest there is]] to a sequel to ''VideoGame/StarWarsRepublicCommando''. %%Do not add derisive nicknames from detractors, please. The page Detractor Nickname was excised for a good reason.
* GameBreaker:
** The humble Ice Beam is effective on virtually every enemy in the game, including bosses, which makes it the perfect tool for getting an enemy to stand still while their weak point is exposed and doubling the damage of your regular shots. This is especially effective on the final boss. Combining the Ice Beam with a missile will also help gain a high score on missions thanks to a whopping 300 point bonus for LiterallyShatteredLives.
** The Samus amiibo skin makes all Missile ammo packs contain 10 missiles each, and since missiles only take up one unit of weight, it's possible to carry nearly a hundred missiles into a mission.
* HilariousInHindsight:
** Due to [[spoiler:Samus herself]] being the final boss, some people have joked about how the game has you [[spoiler:kill Metroid (in reference to [[IAmNotShazam people who think that Metroid is the name of the main character]]), despite Samus not dying in the game]].
** Due to the backlash and low interest the game got, many people assumed that the series was going back into hibernation or might even be dead for good, despite Tanabe teasing another mainline ''Prime'' game during this game's press cycle. With ''VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns'' releasing the following year, with its reveal being preceded by the official announcement of that aforementioned ''Metroid Prime 4'', statements that the series is dead and Nintendo no longer cared about it now look more like fan overreaction than anything else.
* MisBlamed:
** From the moment of its reveal, the game received immense criticism and the assumption that it was [[DolledUpInstallment an original concept with the Metroid name slapped onto it]] to drum up sales. However, the game's own producer first got the idea to explore the Federation side of the ''VideoGame/{{Metroid Prime|Trilogy}}'' universe during the production of ''Corruption''.
** Some fans blame Creator/YoshioSakamoto for the reason Samus isn't the protagonist of the game, citing his supposed possessiveness of the character, "hatred" of the ''Prime'' series, and overall questionable decisions during the development of ''Other M''. In reality, not only did he have no involvement with the game at all, but he also has no hate for the ''Prime'' series, viewing them as perfectly valid side-stories. He would even go on to reference the ''Prime'' series in [[VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns his next game]]. The real reason given for Samus not being playable is because producer Kensuke Tanabe had wanted to do a game focused on the Galactic Federation and, as a multiplayer game, it wouldn't make sense for ''four'' Samuses to be running around anyway.
* OlderThanTheyThink:
** The SuperDeformed art style featured here didn't start with this game; the [[VideoGame/{{Metroid 1}} original NES game]] had a chibi style ([[GraphicsInducedSuperDeformed though mainly due to graphical restrictions]]) and the official art reflected this. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RExHUXbFt5E An early version]] of ''[[VideoGame/MetroidZeroMission Zero Mission]]'' would have used a similar style, but this got changed to a more realistic style in the final release.
** This isn't the first use of the ''Prime'' title that makes it an ArtifactTitle nor the first shooting-focused spin-off of ''Metroid''; ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeHunters'', released between ''Echoes'' and ''Corruption'', had no appearance from the eponymous creature (except in the ''First Hunt'' demo for some reason) or Phazon, and it even had a greater focus on shooting rather than exploration and puzzle solving.
** Kensuke Tanabe had wanted to make this game since 2009. He didn't do it then because the UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo DS}}i didn't have the graphical power he needed.
* OvershadowedByControversy: This game is almost never mentioned without talking about the firestorm it caused upon its announcement. It had the misfortune of being a spin-off announced on the franchise's 30th anniversary, at a time when the franchise's future seemed uncertain and fans were demanding a new game starring Samus to fix the franchise after ''Other M'' left it in bad shape. Even its defenders only acknowledge it for the timing of its release tanking an otherwise okay game.
* ScrappyMechanic: The Blast Ball game mode. It's essentially [[JustForFun/RecycledInSpace soccer in space]], requires 6 players to play, and can be played on a friend's 3DS through Download Play... but due to the game's poor reception, and even worse sales, there's little opportunity to actually play it. It doesn't help that the main game practically forces it down your throat in the tutorial and boss fight [[spoiler:against Samus]] and, unlike the main game, you can only have 3 people to a team instead of 4.
* SoOkayItsAverage: After all the aforementioned controversy surrounding the game's very existence, the general consensus is that ''Federation Force'' amounts to little more than a mediocre spin-off with a handful of decent concepts.
* SpiritualLicensee:
** The main missions are the closest players will get to a sequel to ''VideoGame/StarWarsRepublicCommando''.
** Blast Ball is like a first-person, mech-based ''VideoGame/RocketLeague''.
* TaintedByThePreview: With ''Metroid''[='s=] [[MilestoneCelebration 30th anniversary]] on the horizon, and [[SequelGap 6 years]] having passed since ''Other M'', fans were hoping for another classic {{Metroidvania}} to undo the controversial gameplay and characterization choices of that title. So when the next game of the franchise to be announced was ''Federation Force'', a cartoony GaidenGame SpinOff with Samus in a supporting role while [[ADayInTheLimelight the main focus is placed on the Galactic Federation army]], the backlash was swift and furious. Additionally, the game's Blast Ball mode was shown during Nintendo World Championships before the game's official reveal, which had the unintended effect of making the game look too generic to pass for a ''Metroid'' title. It reached the point that the trailer on Website/YouTube received over 34,000 dislikes in only ''24 hours'', and a petition was drafted to cancel the game.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: [[spoiler:The final boss of the game is a BrainwashedAndCrazy Samus [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever who has been enlarged to giant-size]], but absolutely nothing interesting is done with the concept. What could have been an exciting fight with several distinct phases where a giant Samus unleashes her entire arsenal upon the Galactic Federation Marines, reminiscent of the SA-X encounters from ''[[VideoGame/MetroidFusion Fusion]]'', only on a, well, larger scale, is immediately thrown out of the window as Samus is {{Mode Lock}}ed into her Morph Ball for the entire fight, making the whole final boss battle into a glorified round of Blast Ball.]]
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: A spin-off starring [[BadassNormal normal Federation troops]] without OP [[AppliedPhlebotinum Bird Magic]] could've been the most intense and gritty Metroid game to date. Imagine playing the final days of [[VideoGame/MetroidPrime2Echoes the Tyr's crew on Aether]], or having a more intimate look at the Space Pirates' effects on galactic civilization akin to what ''VideoGame/RepublicCommando'' was to ''Franchise/StarWars''. What fans got were chibi-style soldiers in mechs fighting cartoonish incarnations of the Space Pirates, complete with a very basic evil plan premise.
* VindicatedByHistory: From the time of its announcement to the months after its eventual release, this game was viciously torn apart by fans and critics for being an action-based CoOpMultiplayer spinoff with a goofy-looking art style that didn't focus on Samus, but on these seemingly completely unrelated troopers instead. In short, it was basically everything the fans didn't want, coming off the polarizing ''Other M'' and during a time fans were sure Nintendo would put the franchise on ice. After ''Samus Returns'' was released to warm reception in 2017, with it only becoming more clear that the ''Metroid'' series would continue going strong in the years following, the game is looked back upon much more kindly than it was at release. It is now acknowledged and treated by fans as the worldbuilding side-story that the creators intended it to be, rather than a cruel insult, and -- even if it wasn't a great game -- an interesting attempt to experiment with the franchise.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Nintendo GameCube]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gamecube_console_set.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The little lunchbox that could... [[UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} and did when you duct-taped two of them together.]]]]

->''"Who Are You?"''

The '''Creator/{{Nintendo}} [=GameCube=]''' (officially abbreviated as GCN) was Nintendo's entry into the [[UsefulNotes/TheSixthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames sixth generation]] of the UsefulNotes/ConsoleWars, was released in late 2001.

The previous generation of consoles was a game changer, for better and for worse. As far as Nintendo is concerned, it may have been for the worse. For the first time since they entered the gaming business, their home console wasn't number one worldwide, as they were unceremoniously dethroned by a new rival of their own making: the UsefulNotes/PlayStation, born from the ashes of a [[UsefulNotes/{{SNESCDROM}} failed SNES CD add-on]]. To call it a fight would be generous. The [=PlayStation=] outsold the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 3:1, thanks to marketing towards a young adult audience and grabbing all the third-party developers that scoffed at the [=N64=]'s use of cartridges over [=CDs=]. Enter the new millennium: with Creator/{{Sony}} gearing up to release [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 a follow-up]] to that runaway success, Sega mounting [[UsefulNotes/SegaDreamcast their final stand]], and [[UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}} a new kid]] eager to prove themselves, it was time for Nintendo to prove that last time was a mere miscalculation and that they were still a major player in the industry... this would end up being [[EndOfAnEra the last time Nintendo would compete directly]] with its competitors in the video game market. But we're getting ahead of ourselves.

Recognizing where Sony went right and where they didn't, the first order of business was using optical media instead of cartridges. However, instead of using [=CDs=] and [=DVDs=] like everyone else, the [=GameCube=] would be using proprietary 8cm discs based on the [=miniDVD=] format due to a desire to [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil cut down on piracy rates]] and avoid paying licensing fees to the DVD Forum, of which Sony was a member. These mini-discs still offered less storage than other systems (1.5GB vs. 8.5GB), but this was still enough room for most games of that generation. And if a single disc wasn't enough for any of the larger titles, multi-disc games was now a possibility that third-parties could take advantage of.

Next was courting back their old third-party partners, and what better way to accomplish that than by giving the keys to the castle? While Nintendo was no stranger to licensing out their IP for small edutainment games, the [=GameCube=] was the beginning of the company allowing others to develop major installments in their biggest franchises. [[note]]Under supervision, of course: no need to have a repeat of ''VideoGame/HotelMario'' or the "[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaCDiGames Unholy Triforce]]".[[/note]] And none wasted the opportunity. [[Creator/BandaiNamcoEntertainment Namco]] thought up the ''VideoGame/DonkeyKonga'' series and produced ''VideoGame/StarFoxAssault''; Creator/{{Konami}} gifted us with ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolutionMarioMix''; Sega (now out of the hardware game) delivered ''[[VideoGame/FZero F-Zero GX]]''; and Creator/{{Treasure}} gave us ''VideoGame/WarioWorld''. To say nothing of all the multi-platform games whose [=GameCube=] releases boasted appearances from various Nintendo characters.

Finally, since it didn't seem to hurt them last time, the [=GameCube=] was made the most powerful system of its generation once again. The system's graphical capabilities were more than capable of surpassing the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2, and its performance was on-par with the UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}}; ''Franchise/StarWars: VideoGame/RogueSquadron III'' actually holds the sixth-gen record for polygon count at 20 million polygons. So naturally, all of this resulted in the Nintendo [=GameCube=] coming in third place, behind the Xbox and far, ''far'' behind the [=PlayStation 2=]. Alright, what happened?

By far one of the biggest difficulties Nintendo tried (and mostly failed) to surmount was their reputation as a "kiddy" company being "kiddy" games, which had solidified during [[UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 the previous generation]]. Sounds like early message board console warring, sure, but the reality was that the most profitable demographic in gaming was now teenage and young adult males who wanted "mature" games. Games that Nintendo themselves certainly didn't make, and that their overseas branches (namely Nintendo of America) had outright discouraged other publishers from releasing on their systems for well over a decade, censoring content for games on their system to make them as family-friendly as possible. Even if the ESRB had already slapped an M rating on the box; speaking of, [=NOA=] ''doubled-down'' on their family-friendly position during the 1993 Congressional hearings that resulted in the ESRB to begin with. In short, Nintendo trapped itself the gaming equivalent of the AnimationAgeGhetto, and releasing what looked like a purple lunchbox didn't help. Although they tried to shed that image by green-lighting more teen- and young adult-oriented games (as well as some [[https://web.archive.org/web/20130819010845/http://www.notenoughshaders.com/2013/08/15/the-struggles-of-marketing-the-gamecube/ brow-raising marketing decisions]] from NOA), these efforts were still deemed too tame to be meaningful, especially compared to the libraries of the [=PS2=] and Xbox.













ost famously, Creator/RetroStudios rose to fame with the smash hit ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'' and its sequel ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime2Echoes''. Creator/{{Capcom}} was working on ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames'' on Game Boy Color and liked the 'Cube so much they promised a few exclusive games for it, dubbed the "Capcom 5". They are, in order of release:

* ''VideoGame/PN03'' (the only game to stay exclusive - [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes and it still is almost two decades after release]])
* ''VideoGame/ViewtifulJoe'' (ported to the [=PS2=])
* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' (ported to the [=PS2=] again, [[PortOverdosed among others]])
* ''VideoGame/{{killer7}}'' (ported to--[[RuleOfThree you guessed it]]--the [=PS2=])
* ''Dead Phoenix'' ([[{{Vaporware}} cancelled]])

had been a thing for years by this point. still just a fraction of Its The [=GameCube=] was the first Nintendo console to have fewer buttons on its controller than its predecessor; this was due to the introduction of a second analog stick to replace the N64's C buttons, though this C-stick was smaller than the primary analog stick; Nintendo wouldn't release a proper dual analog controller until the UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} Classic Controller five years later.

* ''VideoGame/PN03'' (the only game to stay exclusive - [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes and it still is almost two decades after release]])
* ''VideoGame/ViewtifulJoe'' (ported to the [=PS2=])
* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' (ported to the [=PS2=] again, [[PortOverdosed among others]])
* ''VideoGame/{{killer7}}'' (ported to--[[RuleOfThree you guessed it]]--the [=PS2=])
* ''Dead Phoenix'' ([[{{Vaporware}} cancelled]])

By offloading the development (and its associated costs) of some of their less iconic intellectual properties to third parties, Nintendo managed to reclaim some of the losses incurred by the N64's poor performance in the previous generation. While the [=GameCube=] ''also'' failed to meet expectations (at one point, Nintendo had to halt production of the console, as they were manufacturing them faster than they could be sold), it did ultimately manage to turn in a consistent and overall profit.

Additionally, by the time of the [=GameCube=]'s release, Nintendo had mostly removed its restrictions ensuring that their games met their family-friendly image (this process was in fact underway close to the end of the N64 era, with the release of ''VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay''), and indeed Nintendo would officially publish the M-rated ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness'' to show that they were willing to break out of their "kiddie" image. This also helped encourage sales to older gamers.

Oh, and this thing is ''[[MadeOfIndestructium tough]]'', as in physically. There are stories of people having dropped [=GameCubes=] off the top of tall buildings and finding them still perfectly intact. One Creator/{{G4|TV}} segment circa 2003 involved Morgan Webb abusing a [=PS2=], [=GameCube=] and Xbox, with the [=GameCube=] surviving every single bit of abuse. It's gotten a reputation for being damn near-indestructible; someone once fended off a knife-wielding mugger with his [=GameCube=] and ''it wasn't even damaged.'' Intentionally trying to break it is just about the only way to go. Considering Nintendo's history of making their products Tonka Tough, there might be a reason for that.

Its code name during development was "Project Dolphin" and there are often little nods to this throughout later N64 and early [=GameCube=] games. ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'' is set on "Isle Delfino" (Italian for dolphin), Olimar's ship in ''VideoGame/Pikmin1'' is called the "Dolphin", and there's a painting of a dolphin in Donkey Kong's house in ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong64''. Additionally, the water-centric gameplay of ''Super Mario Sunshine'' and ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' is thought by some to be a more subtle reference to Project Dolphin, for obvious reasons. All official games and products also start with DOL in their product code. An early rumored release name for the console was "Starcube", which was apparently dropped for copyright reasons (or because a Nintendo executive insisted the word "game" be in the name).

Nintendo received some criticism for not featuring DVD playback in their new console, bucking the trend set by Sony and Microsoft with their respective entries in the Sixth Generation. However, there ''was'' a stylish-looking variant of the GCN that played DVD videos and contained other multimedia functionality that saw limited release. Called the Panasonic Q, it was [[NoExportForYou only sold in Japan]], and nowadays can only be bought by those who do not care about the health of their wallet[[note]]In fact, it wasn't in production very long due to its cost; it was actually cheaper to buy both a regular [=GameCube=] ''and'' a standalone DVD player than a Panasonic Q[[/note]]. There's also the fact that they're region-locked, although people have modded Qs to remove this limitation.

The [=GameCube=], like the UsefulNotes/SegaDreamcast before it, is a perfect case of VindicatedByHistory. During its lifetime, the [=GameCube=] was outsold by both of its competitors, and was Nintendo's worst-performing home console until the UsefulNotes/WiiU.[[note]]This is not as bad is it sounds. The [=GameCube=] came in at a close third place, trailing only a couple million units behind the Xbox; meanwhile the [=PlayStation=] 2's [[CurbStompBattle utter dominance]] led to it outselling both systems ''combined''. The Dreamcast, for its part, sold about half of what the [=GameCube=] did, though this may be due to its limited lifespan as much as anything else. In the U.S., at least, Creator/{{Sega}}'s last hurrah had just a year and a half between its launch and its discontinuation.[[/note]] By 2004, the already comparatively low sales for the system completely imploded once people realized that Nintendo didn't have any more tricks up their sleeve in regards to their home console lineup. Up until the UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} became a record-breaking success, the idea of Nintendo exiting the home console market altogether and limiting their hardware development to handhelds (given that the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance and UsefulNotes/NintendoDS were still smash successes) seemed like a realistic possibility. This is, of course, ignoring the fact that Nintendo was the only home console maker at the time to actually make a profit off of their system, but to many, the low market share alone seemed like a good enough motivator.

By far one of the biggest difficulties Nintendo tried (and mostly failed) to surmount was their reputation as a company that made only children's games, which had solidified during [[UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 the previous generation]]. This image was downright lethal in the early 2000s. For one thing, the industry's demographics had shifted, and young adults now made up the bulk of gamers. In addition, developers, gamers, and the gaming press had by this point begun to advocate for video games to be taken seriously as a new art form. In other words, Nintendo was trapped in a video game equivalent of the AnimationAgeGhetto (and some consider that they still are). Although they tried to shed that image by green-lighting more teen- and young adult-oriented games (as well as some [[https://web.archive.org/web/20130819010845/http://www.notenoughshaders.com/2013/08/15/the-struggles-of-marketing-the-gamecube/ brow-raising marketing decisions]] from NOA), these efforts were still deemed too tame to be meaningful, especially compared to the libraries of the [=PS2=] and Xbox.

Thus, the console received lots of undeserved hate due to its toy-like design and moves like ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' changing the semi-realistic and comparatively darker atmospheres of its [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime two]] [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask predecessors]] for a cartoony cel-shading art style. This decision prompted what was among the first (possibly ''the'' first), and probably biggest, examples of video game backlash on the Internet in the days before social media (in fact, it could even easily give many social media-driven backlashes a run for their money).

While the [=GameCube=] was capable of online like its rivals, it was extremely underutilized. Only 5 games with online support were ever created, only one of which was first-party, and an adaptor was required to hook up to the internet. The only online games to be released internationally (and take up most of the list) are the 3 versions of ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarOnline'', which were ported from the UsefulNotes/SegaDreamcast with extra content. ''Phantasy Star Online'' on the Gamecube were also infamous for having an exploit which, by setting the port into a locally connected and specially configured PC, one can access homebrew and eventually offload dumped disc images. ''Homeland'' is also notable for being the only [=GameCube=] game to ever receive [[DownloadableContent DLC]]. Online was rapidly gaining traction during this generation, which made the [=GameCube=] and its borderline nonexistent online less appealing, especially when compared to the newcomer Xbox and its robust Xbox Live online service.

Another major issue was third-party support. Nintendo managed to get a lot of companies on board for developing for the system, and it surely received many more third-party titles than the [=N64=] ever did. However, the vast majority of these titles were multi-platform games. Very few companies dared to develop any ''exclusives'' for it, and most of the few that did were only because Nintendo struck deals with them by publishing the games or even partially producing them. On top of that, ''almost all'' of these multi-platform titles performed worse on the [=GameCube=] than on its two competitors, often ''significantly'' worse, so this support started to dwindle after the first couple of years; exactly why they performed so poorly on the [=GameCube=] is hard to pin down, but given that the system was more powerful and much easier to develop for than the far more successful [=PS2=], the limited capacity of the [=GameCube's=] proprietary discs and/or developer underestimation of them in the wake of the [=N64=]'s hugely limited cartridges may have been a leading factor. Couple this with the aforementioned "kiddie" reputation, and many T- and M-rated titles wound up getting released on the [=PS2=] and Xbox, but not the [=GameCube=]. Probably the most iconic example of this was the fact that the [=GameCube=] was the only 6th Generation home console that never received a ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' game (it got both ''VideoGame/TrueCrime'' games[[note]]in which you play as cops rather than criminals[[/note]], but between the two properties, ''GTA'' was a far bigger name and had a much more rebellious image that appealed to older gamers).

It didn't help that many of Nintendo's first-party titles for the console were considered divisive when they first came out. ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' and ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' one generation prior were considered absolutely groundbreaking in their day, transitioning gracefully from 2D to 3D. Meanwhile, ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'' and ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' (even leaving aside the aforementioned backlash) were less impressive transitions to the newer technology, and left some fans cold, with their new mechanics (e.g. the water jetpack/squirt gun FLUDD in ''Sunshine'' and the sailing mechanics in ''Wind Waker'') being seen as clumsy and ill-conceived, among other criticisms; ''Sunshine'' would see its mechanics VindicatedByHistory later on, though with ''Wind Waker'' it'd still be regarded as so big of a ScrappyMechanic that the remake 11 years later would go out of its way to address the issue. Other games like ''VideoGame/MarioKartDoubleDash'', ''VideoGame/StarFoxAdventures'', ''VideoGame/StarFoxAssault'', ''[[VideoGame/WaveRace Wave Race: Blue Storm]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TenEightySnowboarding 1080º Avalanche]]'' were also contested, with ''Adventures'' having the added baggage of being a heavy ExecutiveMeddling-induced retool of what was supposed to be a new IP in ''VideoGame/DinosaurPlanet''. More damning still, while games like ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'' and ''VideoGame/Pikmin1'' received overall ''critical'' acclaim, ''popular'' enthusiasm for them is largely a matter of hindsight.

However, several of these games and others have become {{cult classic}}s over time, or have simply been given their deserved accolades retroactively. It helps that the much more successful Wii was fully compatible with [=GameCube=] games until later in its life, making it easier for people to play games for the 'Cube without actually having to buy one. With critics putting increased emphasis on the importance of [[LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading loading times]] in the modern age, the [=GameCube=]'s design towards faster loads (in the form of smaller discs and special RAM caches) is also becoming more appreciated.

And of course, there are those titles that were absolute hits among gamers from day one. The clearest example of this would be ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'' and (to a lesser degree) its sequel ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime2Echoes''. While the first game's first-person perspective was initially met with a very cold reception upon teaser reveal (being yet another controversy Nintendo had to deal with during the first year of the console's lifespan), upon ''release'' it and the sequel brought back the ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' series after skipping the [=N64=] altogether. Many people consider these the best titles on the console, even to this day, a title only contested by ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosMelee'', a game that was not only the biggest seller on the console, but also single-handedly created one of the biggest and most devoted fan communities in video game history and - much like ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom2'' used to be to the Dreamcast - maintains a thriving [[TournamentPlay competitive scene]] two decades after its release, giving the [=GameCube=] a reason to live outside of the usual {{retrogaming}} circles way past its expiration date. The absolute masterful remake of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil1'', ''[[VideoGame/FZero F-Zero GX]]'', ''[[VideoGame/RogueSquadron Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader]]'' and ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' are other examples of exclusive titles that had a really warm reception even back in the day (though ''Symphonia'' did appear on the [=PS2=] eventually). Then there's the [=GameCube=] version of ''[[VideoGame/SoulSeries Soul Calibur II]]'', which was considered the best out of the three versions, in no small part due to [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Link]] appearing as a guest character (a practice that has become a staple of the fighting genre ever since).

Additionally, the [=GameCube=]'s controller was also a case of VindicatedByHistory. The unorthodox layout of the face buttons, and the fact that it had two fewer buttons than the controllers from its competitors, (to be precise, it was one shoulder button and one "Select"-type button less) were common criticisms during its day, to the point that many third party developers considered it a liability for porting some of their titles. However, it has been consistently praised from day one for its comfortable design, which was ergonomically friendly for nearly all demographics. As with many other aspects of the console, the controller is now deemed one of the most, if not ''the'' most comfortable game controller ever designed (its limited versatility though is still a point of contention). The enduring popularity of the [=GameCube=] controller among ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' players eventually led to Nintendo re-releasing the controller specifically for ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU Super Smash Bros. for Wii U]]'' and ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'', complete with a [=GameCube=] controller adapter for the UsefulNotes/WiiU and UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch (compatible with only ''Smash'' on the Wii U but with considerably more games on the Switch including ''VideoGame/MarioKart8'').

One of the biggest reasons of the growing appreciation for the system is the people who played with it when they were children reaching adulthood. Although the industry as a whole was fully focused on teenagers and young adults during the early 2000s, that's not to say that kids had become irrelevant. Even the [=PS2=] and Xbox had their fair share of family friendly titles. However, kids were no longer the ones driving the market, not only because they had become a smaller demographic, but also because the discourse surrounding it had fully transitioned from the schoolyard to the Internet, where their voices were collectively all but silenced next to their older counterparts. But now that the children who played with the [=GameCube=] have entered their 20s, they've taken the opportunity to voice their appreciation for the console that marked their childhoods, turning it into probably the biggest "nostalgic" home console of the 2010s.

Oh, and the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUHJUJkbv-k slow, haunting theme]] that plays when you turn the thing on and go into the menu? It's the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F_vTOZQLxY start-up theme]] ''(EpilepticFlashingLights warning)'' for the old [[UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem Famicom Disk System]], slowed down a whole bunch. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1m6j38CDOc Pretty neat]].

[[folder:VideoGame/MetroidPrime4]]
''VideoGame/MetroidPrime4''

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_2017_06_14_11_14_01_kindlephoto_35870315_1.jpg]]

''Metroid Prime 4'' is an upcoming [[FirstPersonShooter First Person]] [[GenreBusting Adventure]] game published by Creator/{{Nintendo}} and scheduled for a 2023 release on the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch. The game serves as the fourth main installment within the ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' franchise's ''[[VideoGame/MetroidPrimeTrilogy Prime]]'' sub-series.

Initially announced as being in development via a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFbDmTjS_MI brief teaser trailer]] at [[UsefulNotes/ElectronicEntertainmentExpo E3 2017]], no further news was given on the game until January 2019, when Nintendo revealed that the game was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLIv_UXI_So suffering from a troubled production]]. ''Metroid Prime 4'' would be restarting development from scratch, with production moving from an unnamed development studio to Creator/RetroStudios, which developed the prior numbered entries.

''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}''

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/splatoon_logo.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"Go ahead, make a mess!"]]

''Splatoon'' is Creator/{{Nintendo}}'s premier {{competitive multiplayer}} ThirdPersonShooter franchise, taking place in a colorful [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic]] world where aquatic life have evolved to replace humanity -- the most prolific of which are the humanoid squid Inklings, whose favourite pastime next to fashion and music is [[ItMakesSenseInContext fighting and spraying each other with their bodily fluids]].

What sets ''Splatoon'' apart from other shooters is the core mechanic of inking and swimming. All your weaponry coats the ground and walls in ink, with Inklings (and Octolings) having the ability to [[VoluntaryShapeshifting switch between their cephalopod and humanoid forms at will]] and swim through ink of their own colour; meanwhile, attempting to walk or swim through enemy ink greatly restricts movement and causes damage. As such, any ink you lay down greatly increases the mobility of your team and greatly hinders that of the opposition, meaning the key to winning matches comes in ''literal'' territory control moreso than "splatting" your enemies (though that certainly still helps). The main online mode of the games, known as Turf War, emphasizes this all the more by having the goal be to take control of the map by coating it in your team's color.

In addition to Turf War, there are several other online gameplay categories. These include Ranked Battle, which itself has several game modes where the focus is on completing more specific objectives (such as [[EscortMission riding a tower all the way to the enemy base]]), and Salmon Run (where you take a part-time job at a cannery wherein you and your team [[MultiMookMelee defeat waves of mutated Salmonids]] and collect their eggs). [[TemporaryOnlineContent Periodically]], there are community-wide weekend events called "Splatfests", where players choose one side of a CavemenVsAstronautsDebate and duke it out to see which side is right.

Each game has a single-player campaign called "Hero Mode", wherein your player character is recruited as the newest member of the New Squidbeak Splatoon, an underground military operation working to defend the surface from outside threats to Inkling society.

The official website can be found [[http://splatoon.nintendo.com/ here]]. Updates on the games and new information about the series' mythology are delivered via social media under the guise of the [[https://twitter.com/SplatoonNA "Squid Research Lab"]], a hidden group of humans who have dedicated themselves to cataloguing the activities and history of these stylish cephalopods.

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant No relation to Hwang Dong-hyuk's]] ''Series/SquidGame''.

!!List of games in the series
* ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon|1}}'' (UsefulNotes/WiiU; 2015)
* '' VideoGame/Splatoon2'' (UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch; 2017)
** ''Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion'' (Switch; 2018)
* ''VideoGame/Splatoon3'' (Switch; 2022)

!!Manga
* ''Manga/{{Splatoon}}'' (2015-present; serialized in ''Magazine/CoroCoroComic'')
* ''Mellow Squid 4-Panel Comic'' (2016-present; serialized in ''Weekly Famitsu'')
* ''Splatoon: Squid Kids Comedy Show'' (2017-present; serialized in ''[=CoroCoro=] Comic'')

!!Other Media
* ''Literature/SquidSistersStories'' (2017): A short WebSerialNovel detailing the events between ''Splatoon 1'' and ''2''

----
!!Tropes general to the ''Splatoon'' series:
[[folder:A-F]]
* AbsurdlyHighLevelCap:
** [[VideoGame/{{Splatoon}} The first game's]] Version 2.0.0 update raised the level cap to 50, even though all weapons and gear is unlocked by original cap of level ''20''. There are additional pieces of gear rewarded every five levels past 20, but said clothing has no unique traits that can't be found from others in the store. And assuming you gain experience in the most efficient way possible (winning ''every'' ranked match you play without ever going into overtime) it'll take you over 90 hours of play time (not counting time spent between matches) to go from level 20 to level 50.
** ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'' goes even further by having the original level cap be 99, despite being able to unlock everything by Level 30. Then the Version 2.0.0 update allowed any players that reached to get to that level cap to essentially prestige ala ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' to reach a new level cap of 99★. Expect to spend several hundred hours to reach that cap. And another several hundred hours if you chose to prestige again after ''that'' to reach 99★★, which only the mobile app will even acknowledge. However, instead of clothing every five levels, every new level from 30 onward grants the player a Super Sea Snail, a useful item which can be used in lieu of cash to help augment and re-roll gear abilities.
* AcmeProducts:
** Downplayed in that multiple brands appear, but [[CharacterCustomization hats, clothing, and shoes]] are all made by fictional in-universe brands (Firefin, Krak-On, Forge, Inkline, etc.). [=SquidForce=] in particular, is the official sponsor for ink battles, as evidenced by its logo appearing on the sides of the [[EscortMission tower in Tower Control]] and the button for Ranked Battles. The brand usually has a slight affect on which sub-ability you are more likely to get, such as Krak-On shoes being more likely to get [[SprintShoes Swim Speed Up]] as a sub-ability, although not all brands have such a LuckManipulationMechanic.
** Also downplayed with weapons, which are also made by multiple fictional in-universe brands. Weapons made by a particular brand tend to follow a certain theme, such as "Custom" weapons being based on industrial tools, and variants of main weapons (that have alternate sub and special weapon) tend to have their brand name on them.
* AdvertisingOnlyContinuity: Most of ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'s'' promotional material on social media comes from the perspective of a "Squid Research Lab", a collection of humans who secretly analyze the culture and behavior of the various races within the game. Outside of a promotional clothing item in ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'', they have no trace of existing in the games or manga. This is particularly notable because ''Splatoon'' is set long after humanity went extinct, so where exactly are these {{Buffy Speak}}ing scientists hiding?
* AfterTheEnd: The game is set on Earth [[AndManGrewProud long after humanity died off]], with the official art book for the first game further detailing this to be a combination of climate change and nuclear warfare during [[WorldWarWhatever World War V]]; the latter quickening the former via a stray warhead ''melting the entire continent of Antarctica''. Cue mass extinction of almost every mammal on Earth, paving the way for various sea-life to evolve and become the new dominant species on the planet.
* AlienHair: Most of the characters are ApparentlyHumanMerfolk that retain their [[LittleBitBeastly beastly bits]] as hair resembling the fish they take after. Inklings and Octolings in particular have some of their tentacles act as hair when in humanoid form.
* AliensStealCable: Downplayed. According to WordOfGod, Splatfest themes are received as a result of humans' arguments about mundane topics being among the various radio waves transmitted into space thousands of years ago, and getting reflected back to the planet. In effect, it's Earth stealing cable from itself, and explains why the Splatfest themes can cover aspects of present-day pop culture.
* AllThereInTheManual: A lot of information about the setting and the characters are only alluded to within the game itself, with bonus material such as artbooks, soundtrack inserts, developer interviews, and the official websites elaborating or revealing more details.
* {{Americasia}}: Modern culture in this world is largely a mix of Japanese and American elements, from architecture to music to clothing. The urban-industrial GraffitiTown setting of Inkopolis could pass off as both, with the first game's HubWorld invoking [[TokyoIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse Shibuya]] , while the second's invoked [[BigApplesauce Times Square]].
* AndYourRewardIsClothes: Clothing is frequently given as rewards for accomplishing challenges. Each piece of clothing has a main ability to aid in battle (such as Special Charge Up, which increases the speed at which you fill your [[LimitBreak special weapon]] gauge) plus up to three sub-slots for additional buffs, with one sub-slot ability being about a third as powerful as a main ability. Cash and various items can be used to reroll or, from [[VideoGame/Splatoon2 the second game]] onward, directly replace sub abilities with different ones, add more slots for gear that has less than three, and influence the chance of a clothing level-up resulting in the ability you want.
* AnimalIsTheNewMan: The backstory of the series' numerous societies is that after humanity destroyed itself through several world wars and climate change, sea life evolved into the new dominant species of the planet. The fact that these new species developed similar virtues and vices as humankind becomes a plot point in ''Octo Expansion''.
* AnimalJingoism: There's a fervent animosity between the squid-based Inklings and the octopus-like Octarians, birthed from a past war that resulted in the later species being forced to live BeneathTheEarth for the past century prior to the first game. While some Octolings would begin living on the surface as of the second game, they're all military defectors who are HiddenInPlainSight rather than openly revealing their race.
* AntiFrustrationFeatures: In the first ''Splatoon'', if you lose a ranked match in which one of your teammates was disconnected, you'll only lose one ranking point instead of the usual ten, though this was only if they disconnected at the start. Later installments are more forgiving, not altering your rank whatsoever regardless of when that player disconnected.
* AntiRageQuitting: The game makes it hard to "rage quit", as the game doesn't let you exit during a Turf War or Ranked Battle match. You have to close the game entirely; this results in a penalty in Ranked in the first game, and a short five-minute suspension from playing online at all in following entries.
* AntiVillain: The Octarians. Despite being painted as a gratuitous EvilCounterpartRace of the Inklings in the Hero Modes of the first two games, it's made clear through Sunken Scrolls, the ''Octo Expansion'' campaign, and other in-game sources that their heavy militarization was the result of being forced underground due to losing a war years prior. While they certainly want revenge, they also have the issue of their underground homes now facing an energy crisis that they're desperate to resolve.
* ArmorIsUseless:
** Bulkier equipment doesn't really have any effect on the player's survivability, unless it happens to have a defense ability attached; and even then, the effect is still fairly minor and can be replicated by anything less bulky.
** Averted in single player, where your character can equip up to 3 pieces of armor that serve as extra lives of sorts.
* ArtAttacker: All the ink weaponry makes for some bizarrely artistic fights; even things like paint rollers and paintbrushes are weaponized.
* ArtShift: Many of the Sea Scrolls are drawn in a realistic art style, the most detailed of which are wartime photos of the Great Turf War.
* AwesomeButImpractical:
** Hiding on inked walls can ''sometimes'' be a good way to ambush opponents, as most people focus on inking the ground because that's where most people hide and inking walls is purely for transveral and don't count toward the point total anyway. The problem is that you constantly slide down walls if you aren't actively climbing them, meaning that you'll most likely be so preoccupied with trying not to fall off that you won't be able to do any ambushing before someone ''does'' notice you.
** The Rainmaker. When fully charged, it fires a large tornado of ink. Unfortunately, it's only effective when it's fully charged, which takes about 2 seconds. Furthermore, the Rainmaker locks the user out of using their usual sub and special weapons, leaving them with no defensive options. Slow and steady strategies won't work either, because the Rainmaker will explode on its own after a set period of time. Combine that with the fact that [[BlessedWithSuck you're a giant target on the map]], and it is unlikely you'll get far without your teammates distracting the enemy or protecting you directly.
* BackgroundMusicOverride: During a Splatfest, the signature song of that game's {{Idol Singer}}s overrides most of the hub world's musical tracks; it even can be heard from the weapon testing area.
* BadassAdorable: The Inklings and Octolings are colorful cephalopods who shape-shift into humanoid teenagers. They are also very skilled with ink-based weaponry and are surprisingly powerful fighters.
* {{BFS}}: The Inkbrush and Octobrush are longer than your character is tall and about as wide, too.
* BoringButPractical: Despite all the cool toys that are eventually unlocked, it's still common to see hardened veterans wielding the games' starter weapon, the Splattershot Jr. The gun doesn't have anything fancy going for it: it just sprays a good amount of ink for a long amount of time with decent range and damage, and has a defensive special that protects both the player and their teammates for a reasonably low cost. It's no GameBreaker by any stretch, but it has the versatility to act as [[JackOfAllStats a consistent, solid choice for any situation and team]].
* BossOnlyLevel: As soon as you arrive to a boss stage in any installment of the series, you're only a few meters away from the battlefield.
* BuffySpeak: The Squid Research Lab, for all of their interest in 100% methodical and serious research of technicolor squids, is a victim of unscientific speaking when revealed new details about the games, er, Inkling and Octarian societies. For instance, ''[[http://splatoonus.tumblr.com/post/115170908195/octarian-alert-one-of-our-mail-guys-he-does-some "These suckers use one tentacle to work their little steering joystick thingy"]]''.
* ButtonMashing: Want to use Brush weapons effectively? Then you better get working on that trigger finger. Unlike other weapons, Brushes attack as quickly as the player can press the button. Since one gets the most out of it in coverage ability and attack power by swinging it as fast as possible, mashing on that ZR button is a must.
* CameraAbuse: When bosses explode, they shower everything in ink, including the camera.
* CaptureTheFlag: Rainmaker is an odd variant where the eponymous Rainmaker sits in the center of the stage and functions working as a single "flag" that has to be carried to the enemy base. The Rainmaker gives its holder a slow but powerful ChargedAttack; however, it greatly slows the carrier's walking speed, constantly marks their location to opponents, and self-destructs if they hold on to it for too long, doing it faster if they try to retreat.
* CavemenVsAstronautsDebate: Splatfests are periodically-held weekend-long community events where players choose sides in simple debates like dogs vs. cats, rock music vs. pop music, or lemon tea vs. milk tea, with the winner decided in Turf Wars matches. In-universe, these are framed as large-scale festivals complete with all-night parties.
->'''Pearl''': Yo, Marina! Tell the people the good news before we introduce the stages!\\
'''Marina''': Huh? Like, right now?! Um... What was the good news again?\\
'''Pearl''': You know... The single most important celebration of our culture?
* CharacterCustomization: The appearance of your Inkling and Octoling can be customized, which then is combined with customization of their offensive and cosmetic equipment. Furthermore, each piece of cosmetic equipment comes with a fixed associated ability that affects gameplay, and up to three other customizable sub-abilties.
* CharacterLevel: The multiplayer features a leveling system, with the amount of experience gained being based on performance during a Turf War or Ranked Battle match (area inked, plus any time or winning team bonuses). Your level determines access to certain weapon types, with Level 10 being the requirement to access Ranked Battles.
* ChargedAttack:
** Charger class weapons work like sniper rifles, and cover a long area in front of the player which increases the longer the attack is charged, with them being [[OneHitKO instant splats]] at max charge, with the exception of the Bamboozler and its variants.
** Splatling class weapons have a charge time used to pressurize ink and wind up the weapon before firing, with longer charges giving longer bursts of fire. The reward for this charge time is superb range and fire rate.
** In Rainmaker mode, the eponymous Rainmaker can be charged up to fire a large blast of ink. Trying to attack without charging simply fires a tiny little twister that barely travels forward.
* CherryTapping:
** As far as main weapons go, the Inkbrush's "rolling" attack does a measly 20 damage when hitting an opponent, while Inklings have 100 health. Combine this with the Inkbrush user being pushed back after running into someone, and the chances of actually finishing off an opponent with that attack are close to none.
** Chargers and Splatlings can be rapidly fired by mashing the trigger, but they'll do relatively little damage with extremely little range and coverage.
** The Sprinkler does minuscule damage-per-hit, but a careless opponent can still get splatted by it.
** When you shoot a platform propeller, the ink ''can'' rebound off onto enemies and splat them if they're low enough on health. [[DevelopersForesight And yes, the game has a specific message for dying this way.]]
* CivilWarcraft: Nothing serious, but during Splatfest a team can face off against members of their own team (such as Dog vs. Dog) if the matchmaking system can't find enough members of the opposing team. While these matches grant the usual Splatfest points for players, they do not affect the overall standings.
* CloseRangeCombatant:
** The Brushes are very much melee weapons, with users tending to rely on ambush tactics even more than other players do.
** Some Blaster weapons, particularly the Luna Blaster, have explosions with a wide blast radius and great power, but the shots travel only a short distance before detonating.
** The Dapple Dualies and its variants trade the range that most of its fellow Dualie class weapons have in favor of high damage.
** The Sploosh-o-Matic has poor accuracy and absolutely minuscule range, but excellent damage and fire rate. Like the Luna Blaster, it's geared explicitly and exclusively towards close-quarters combat.
* ColorblindMode: Enabling "Color-lock" in the options locks teams colors to a particular set of bright, high-contrast ones depending on the game mode. For example, ''Splatoon 2'' online battles will always be yellow vs. blue.
* ColorCodedArmies: Each team of Inklings can have a variety of colors. There are many team color combinations for Turf War and Ranked Battles that are guaranteed to have significant ColorContrast to help gameplay. Sometimes Splatfests add extra colors to the fray, depending on the teams.
* ComebackMechanic:
** Since special weapons are charged by covering the ground in your team's color, a losing team can charge up their special weapons more easily since there's more ground for them to cover. This is especially true for Turf War, since the objective ''is'' to cover everything in ink.
** Some gear abilities exist to give benefits to players or teams in bad situations: for example, "Tenacity" fills the special bar faster if the enemy team has more active players, while the aptly named "Comeback" gives a temporary boost in stats to its user after respawning.
** In Ranked Battles, if time runs out when the losing team is in control of the objective, the match goes into overtime. Overtime finishes once the losing team either loses control of the objective, manages to pull ahead and overtake the opposing team's score. This encourages losing players to keep trying until the very end.
*** Splat Zones in particular has a mechanic that punishes the team that lost control of the zone(s) with a penalty timer, with bigger penalties being given the closer they were to running out the main timer. While this penalty doesn't affect the final score after the match ends, it does make it so the losing team has a bigger chance to turn a match around, even if the enemy was a few seconds away from victory; and it forces the enemy to fully commit to taking the zone(s) back and keeping them.
* CompanyCrossReferences: There's the occasional reference to other Nintendo properties and [[ConsoleCameo products]], but the most common comes in the form of 8-bit renderings of Bloopers, the squid enemies from the ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' games, hidden as stickers in several [[EasterEgg out-of-the-way locations]].
* CompetitiveBalance: Weapons have a general balance of fire rate, accuracy, range, and power. For example, a weapon with high fire rate might have poor damage, range, and accuracy but can coat more area faster. Meanwhile, weapons with high range, like chargers and Squelchers, have excellent accuracy and power but are less efficient at coating areas. Furthermore, most weapons have branded or reskinned variants that have the exact same stats as the regular version but require a different play style due to having a different sub and special weapon.
* CompetitiveMultiplayer: While every installment has a single-player campagin, the series is primarily a 4-vs-4 online multiplayer shooter.
* ConLang: The series features a number of languages, though the only ones we ever see are Inkling and Octarian.
* CoveredInGunge: The whole point of the game is to cover everything in ink, both scenery and enemies.
* CoverVersion:
** In-universe, "[[SongsInTheKeyOfPanic Now Or Never]]" was a rock song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwivv1AeOcc originally performed by Squid Squad]], but has since been covered by various other in-universe bands throughout every installment.
** "Calamari Inkantation" is also this in-universe, with its chorus being a modernized version of "Chorus of Calamari County" [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RBG4KLnGjY a popular traditional folk tune and dance in Inkling culture]].
* CrossCounter: It's possible to pull this off with any encounter, but the most direct example is when two Roller users charge each other head on, immediately splatting each other
* CrosshairAware: This is done for targeted DeathFromAbove-style specials such as the Inkstrike (''1'') or Tenta Missiles (''2'').
* CrutchCharacter: Or weapon. In any case, the Aerospray family of weapons tends to get labeled this by the competitive scene. In Turf Wars, its insane fire rate and spread makes it great for inking turf, but people who take it into ranked play are usually in for a rude wake-up call, where it's short range and random spread shots make most people who play it glorified target practice.
* CuteLittleFangs: A variation of the trope. Inklings and Octolings have little fangs where the canines would be like most versions of the trope, but they also have a fang on the front bottom tooth made to look like the beak of a squid/octopus.
* CycleOfHurting:
** While spawn-camping is certainly possible in the first two games, players have the benefit of their team's spawn point having an unbreakable shield that enemies can't attack through, but you and your teammates can. ''Splatoon 2'' would make it impossible to even reach the enemy spawn point on several maps, while ''Splatoon 3'' [[AvertedTrope would eliminate the issue entirely]] by giving each player their own "spawner drones" that shoot the player onto the stage and grants them temporary invincibility upon landing.
** ZigZagged with Super Jumping. Players can jump to any other active teammate, spawn, or Squid Beakon via a Super Jump, enabling quick escapes when they realize they've been cornered or are in any other tough scenario, but if you use this to jump to another player without examining to map to make sure they themselves aren't ''also'' struggling, you can get splatted anyway. And if several teammates do this at once to get back into the action quickly...
* DeathOfAThousandCuts: The "Brush" weapons have some of the lowest damage-per-hit values with its "fling" attack; however, they can attack as quickly as the player can press the button, meaning that despite needing multiple hits to splat an opponent, it can still be pulled off very quickly.
* DefeatEqualsExplosion:
** You explode when splatted, leaving [[RightOutOfMyClothes your clothes]] and an opposite-team-colored ink stain behind.
** The same also goes for splatted enemies in single-player. Bosses in particular explode into massive gushes of ink [[OverdrawnAtTheBloodBank that would look quite different in red]].
* DeployableCover:
** The Splash Wall sub weapon is this, stopping enemy attacks dead in their tracks, heavily damaging anyone foolish enough to walk or swim into them, and instantly splatting any poor unlucky fella that happens to be under it when activated. They stay on the field for a limited amount of time, but do dissipate faster with damage.
** Brella weapons, with the exception of the Undercover Brella, will deploy the shield if the fire trigger is held for a prolonged period of time. The shield will slowly travel forward, protecting anyone who is behind it, and like the Splash Wall, stays on the field for a limited amount of time but dissipates faster with damage. Meanwhile, the weapon will regenerate a new shield after a few seconds.
* DesperationAttack: The Last-Ditch Effort equipment ability gives you several buffs when less than 30 seconds remain on the clock, or if you're in a Ranked mode and the enemy team is close to victory.
* DifficultButAwesome:
** The default gyroscopic controls can take a bit of getting used to if one is accustomed to console shooters that use sticks with aim assist, with some new players balking at the idea of even trying them thanks to the [[{{Waggle}} stigma surrounding motion controls]]. That said, the vast majority of ''Splatoon'' players (competitive or otherwise) view them as the optimal way to play.
** Charger-type weapons don't cover ground as efficiently as other type and require steady aim to be used effectively, but while novice chargers will probably find themselves splatted constantly, experts are an invaluable support unit for their team, managing to shut down enemy advancement from a distance with powerful [[OneHitKO one-hit splats]] while also creating long and clean trails of ink to allow them and their team a quick route to move in. The shorter-ranged chargers and the two-hit Bamboozlers are more difficult to master, but are ideal for ambushes and maps with lots of closed areas and very few vantage points.
** The L-3 Nozzlenose and its variants have a unique feature among Shooters in that holding the trigger down does not produce a constant stream of fire; each press only produces a three shot burst, meaning you have to press the trigger repeatedly to keep firing. However, the Nozzlenose is incredibly ink-efficient and fairly accurate, allowing you to do a lot between refills.
** While the Inkbrush and Octobrush weapons work similarly to a Roller, using it like one is useless, as their "rolling" produces a thin line nearly useless for covering turf, it relies on DeathOfAThousandCuts as opposed to the {{One Hit KO}}s that Rollers are used to, and have almost melee-like range. However, their high movement speed and "fling" attack, which is as quick as the player can tap the button, means that a skilled user can thoroughly cover mass amounts of turf quickly, and its "rolling" attack moves nearly as fast as Squid/Octo form, allowing Inkbrush users to excel at moving through turf not covered in their own team's ink quickly. Skilled Inkbrush users can use to this trait to compensate for the lack of range as well, both to escape bad situations and to rapidly close in on both ranged attackers and unaware opponents.
** Splatlings don't have the run and gun factor of the shooters, or the sheer kill power of the chargers. That said, they have the range of a charger and the coverage of a shooter, which can handily compensate for the lack of immediate firepower.
* DiminishingReturnsForBalance:
** Having multiple copies of the same ability isn't very efficient, because the benefits get smaller with each successive duplicate. Exactly how less efficient depends on the stacked ability in question.
** The Charger and Roller weapons have useful abilities, but teams won't function very well if there's too many of them. Having too many of the same weapon means multiple people share the same weaknesses, and if no other weapons are around to cover those weaknesses, neither weapon will be able to perform as well as they would on a more balanced team. At the very least, having more than one Charger on a team is generally a bad idea.
* DominoMask: The Inklings have black outlines around their eyes, giving them the appearance of wearing masks.
* DownloadableContent: New content is periodically added to the games over their first few years via free updates that include new multiplayer stages, weapons, gear, and even Battle Modes. There is also occasionally paid content in the form of new single-player campaigns.
* EarlyGameHell: Downplayed. The clothing and equipment you can get is directly related to your level, but the devs did a good job of making early weapons such as the Splattershot Jr. balanced enough to remain viable and effective even in higher level play, and though you're limited to buying only one- or two-star gear in stores until Level 10, you can order three-star gear or upgrade any current gear to three-star through your FriendInTheBlackMarket.
* ElaborateUndergroundBase: The various single-player campaigns largely take place in large underground domes made to simulate the surface world. The elaborate nature of the tech is part of the reason why the Octarians kept stealing Zapfish in the first two games; they're undergoing a bit of an energy crisis trying to maintain it all and the Inklings are seen as having energy to spare.
* EliteMook:
** The Twintacle Octotroopers, Octarian enemies that have two tentacles instead of one, are much stronger than their one-tentacled counterparts. Why is that? For one, they can use their free tentacle to {{Button Mash|ing}} their fire button.
** Octolings are already elite troops for the Octarian army, but among them there are those with kelp in their hair, who are tougher than the regular Octolings.
* EliteTweak:
** Getting the right perks on your gear can be time-consuming and tedious due to the extra perks being chosen at random, but it's still entirely possible to get a killer set of abilities that goes great with your weapon of choice through rerolling and using ability chunks.
* EscortMission: The Rainmaker mode essentially is this combined with CaptureTheFlag. The player with the Rainmaker has a very slow charge attack meaning that if they try to head to the goal alone, there's a very good chance that they'll get splatted by the other team, which means that if you want to win, the rest of the team has to protect them.
* ExcitedTitleTwoPartEpisodeName: The levels in the single-player campaigns are titled this way.
* ExplodingBarrels: The single-player campaigns feature pufferfish balloons that burst and spread ink everywhere if you shoot them.
* FamilyFriendlyFirearms: Ink guns, ink bazookas, ink grenades, oversized paint rollers... you might see a pattern here. The weapons are also either colorful and toy-like, or cobbled together from random household objects.
* FictionalAgeOfMajority: While not adulthood per se, the age of 14 is when Inklings and Octolings are finally able to fully control their VoluntaryShapeshifting and thus begin partaking in Turf Wars.
* FictionalHoliday:
** Splatfests are special holidays in Inkling culture. They occur every now and then, and during those times normal online gameplay is put on hold in favor of Splatfest Battles, which are battles that pit teams of two thematically opposed sides against each other. Additionally, they take place at night with special concerts by a given game's musical hosts.
** Squidmas is brought up a few times, as is Squidoween. Their Easter equivalent is simply referred to as Spring Fest.
* FieldPowerEffect: The ink you spray in general has effects on everyone on the stage. Ink of the same color allows players to quickly swim in it and quickly refill their ink supply. Enemy ink, on the other hand, slows you to a crawl, while also leaving you damaged for easy splatting.
* FightingForAHomeland: The Octarians, as the underground domes they've called home after the war are rapidly falling apart, and running out of energy.
* FinalExamBoss: A lot of the skills learned and gadgets used by the player have to be used in each game's final boss fight.
* FishPeople: Most of the [=NPCs=] are anthromorphic (or at least talking) aquatic life, while the rest are ApparentlyHumanMerfolk. Meanwhile, Judd is initially the only mammal in the series, with Lil' Judd being his clone.
* FloatingContinent: The levels in Hero Mode take place on platforms floating in the air within the Octarian homes.
* FriendlyFireproof: An unusually {{Justified|Trope}} example. The ink you fire is the same ink that your teammates' bodies are made of and that they can merge completely into in their squid form, so it makes sense that only opposing ink could harm them. The flipside of this is that your teammates will absorb and block your shots, which is especially bad for Chargers since they attack with single shots that use a lot of ink, and a frequent issue for Splatling users since they hold their weapons far lower to the ground that other weapon types.
* FunnyForeigner: Several jellyfish appear around the city, but most can't speak the Inkling language. Jellyfish shopkeeps, as a result, tend to butcher it slightly.
* FunnyOctopus:
** The Inklings and Octolings, being cartoony cephalopods that can change into humanoids that maintain some of their aquatic features.
** Non-Octoling Octarians are shown as a more disturbing version, with the lower ranking soldiers taking the form of single tentacles with eyes, mouth and legs.

[[folder:G-M]]
* GatlingGood: Splatling guns are [[{{BFG}} large ink miniguns]] that have to be wound up before raining colorful destruction on the [[JustForPun splattlefield]].
* GenderedOutfit: Female inklings wear shorter shorts than males. Other than that, almost all of the equipable clothing averts this, being identical between genders save for some minor form tweaking done for t-shirts and long shirts. Only a few outfits show remarkable differences between male and female variations.
* TheGoomba: Octotroopers, the basic one-tentacled Octarian troops. They move slow, fire slow, and are generally very easy to take care of.
* GraffitiTown: The setting of many arenas is largely urban or industrial, while nonetheless still being colorful even before the Inklings wreak havoc all over. The games also make use of an in-game postbox (or Website/{{Miiverse}}, in the case of the first game), having any message or artwork created serve as randomized graffiti that can show up in the overworld and multiplayer stages.
* GrandFinale: Each game has one in the form of a final Splatfest. As opposed to the usual regional ones, the final Splatfest is a worldwide event with unified results, and the outcome tends to affect [[AudienceParticipation some major aspects of the next installment]], from the plot to the setting.
* GreatOffscreenWar: The Great Turf War between Inklings and Octarians that took place 100 years before the first game's events.
* GrenadeSpam: Normally averted due to them taking a huge chunk out of your [[ManaMeter Ink Gauge]], however the "Bomb Rush" [[LimitBreak specials]] grant ample usage of certain bomb subweapons for a limited time.
* GreyAndGrayMorality: The animosity between Octarians and Inklings originated over a territorial dispute, with the Octarian Army still making moves in the modern day because the underground domes they have lived in since the Great Turf War are decaying. Neither side is as much "good" or "evil" as they are simply opposing sides in a war.
* HartmanHips: Female Inklings and Octarians have proportionately wide hips. Their idle animations place some emphasis on this.
* TheHedonist: The Inklings as a race care mostly about fun, parties, and looking fresh. It got to the point that they were losing the first battles of the Great Turf War because they couldn't wake up early enough in the morning to defend themselves.
* HeroicMime: {{Lampshaded}}. The other members of the Squidbeak Splatoon are aware that your character isn't all that talkative and tend to interpret your silence however they want. Downplayed with Agent 8 from the second game's ''Octo Expansion'', as their campaign's collectables have each one accompanied by [[WarriorPoet a short poem written by them]].
* HiddenBadass: The musical acts that headline each game (the Squid Sisters in the first, Off the Hook in the second, etc.) are usually shown at some point to be quite talented on the battlefield.
* HoldTheLine: In Ranked Battles, if the round goes into its last minute, an effective strategy for the winning team is to make less of an effort to push the objective and switch to preventing the enemy from overtaking their score until time runs out. Inversely, a team that is losing and has no chance to win can switch to putting all their might into preventing the enemy from at least scoring a knockout before time runs out.
* HoldYourHippogriffs: Going with the WorldOfPun this game is, sea life counterparts of phrases show up every now and then.
-->''"Hold on to your tentacles!"''\\
''"You gotta be squiddin' me!"''
* HubLevel: Each game has a shopping district in a major city serve as the "menu" where all areas and modes can be accessed. Likewise, the Hero Modes have some location outside of said city contain the various areas that the player traverses and uses to find and access the single player stages.
* HumanitysWake: The game is set millennia after the disappearance of humanity, with all signs pointing to the Inklings and other races of the world developing their civilizations on top of what humanity left behind. Despite this, they seem to be largely ignorant of what humanity was beyond their status as the previous dominant species.
* HumanPopsicle: Or feline, rather. Judd was put in cryogenic stasis for 10,000 years by his scientist owner before the extinction of humanity, waking up about 2,000 years before the game's events.
* HyperspaceArsenal: It's never explained how Inklings and Octolings are able to store their weapons, some of which are larger than they are, when they change into celoplopod forms. Then there's the sub and special weapons they can throw out of nowhere.
* ImprobableWeaponUser: Of the main weapon classes, about a third of them qualify. Brushes consist of oversized paintbrushes and paint rollers, Sloshers mostly consist of buckets, and Brellas are [[ParasolOfPain umbrellas]].
* ImprovisedWeapon: While certain weapons look like factory-made water guns or pastiches of actual guns, the ''vast'', '''''vast''''' majority of weapons in the series look cobbled up from various household and office items. Outside the aforementioned Brushes, Sloshers, and Brellas, examples include the L-3 and H-3 Nozzlenoses (basically a hose, its spool, and a spray nozzle), the various Splatling guns (heavily modified water coolers and fire hydrants), the Squelchers (power drills), and Squiffers (a detergent bottle, a mop handle, and a windshield wiper stuck together). This even extends to the sub-weapons, with Splat Bombs just being plastic bags of ink surrounded by a pressure sensitive frame, and the Fizzy Bomb just being an overfilled soda can leaking ink until it finally explodes from being shaken.
* InvincibleMinorMinion:
** Squee-Gs are little fish-shaped drones that clean up ink, cannot be hurt and can't be stunned. The standard ones are completely unable to harm you, but the industrial-sized ones can run you over due to deeming ''your entire body'' as ink to be cleaned.
** Flooders are giant rolling machines that spray a constant wall of ink below them, ''will'' actively attempt to harm you, and will move faster if they notice you. And like the Squee-Gs, they also can't be harmed or stunned at all.
* JackOfAllStats: The first weapons that a player can unlock by leveling up (the Splattershot, the Splat Roller, Splat Charger, etc.) are all generally middle of the road in stats as far as the weapon type they represent go, allowing players to decide the playstyle they prefer as the later weapons they unlock become more specialized.
* KentBrockmanNews: The news hosts, while helpful in introducing the playable levels and updates whenever you boot up the game, usually default to making quips, going on tangents, and generally engaging in casual banter rather than give any practical tips.
* KryptoniteProofSuit: The "Ink Resistance" ability lowers the damage Inklings receive while standing in enemy ink, while also decreasing the movement penalty while moving through enemy ink.
* LaserSight:
** A Charger weapon's line of fire is marked with a laser as it's being charged. You don't want to be on the wrong end of those.
** If a Flooder notices you, it will focus a laser on you to let you know that you're being pursued.
* LateArrivalSpoiler: The revelation that the series is AfterTheEnd was originally hidden in the first game's Sunken Scrolls. Callie outright mentions this factoid during the announcement of that game's 10th North American Splatfest, and the setting's post-apocalypstic status goes on to become a major plot point in following entries.
* LayeredMetropolis: [[http://41.media.tumblr.com/3e95640571129b51485c6b93902bc6c3/tumblr_ni69veHKeF1u3akyno1_1280.jpg The surface world]] is a bustling metropolis dominated by Inklings, while the subterranean [[http://41.media.tumblr.com/9e3016e7991db4dbdc77e513a367f600/tumblr_nfxk4ihCuy1u3akyno1_1280.jpg Octarian domes]] are comparatively dystopian, with the Octarians having giant monitors in their domes that simulate the sky.
* LimitBreak: There is a meter in the top-right corner of the screen that, when filled completely, gives a super weapon.
* LongRangeFighter:
** [[SniperRifle Charger weapon]] users. The long charging time most of them have prevents many weapons in this category from going up close, but its range and high damage at a full charge makes up for that. Taken even further with specific chargers like the E-Liter series, which sacrifices mobility, charge time, and ink efficiency for even greater range, and the chargers equipped with scopes, allowing for easier aiming and a slight increase in range at the expense of being automatically forced into tunnel vision after reaching a certain level of charge.
** The Dynamo Roller's forte. Despite rollers normally being close range, the Dynamo Roller attacks very slowly, to the point that one getting caught in melee rarely comes out on top. However, their ink flinging attack has an impressively long range and wide spread, allowing it to excel at keeping opponents at arms length.
** Among Shooter and Dualie weapons, the Squelcher lines have comparable range to Chargers (other than the E-Liter series). While they have less damage, slower fire rate and worse turf coverage compared to most lower range shooters, they have the advantage in combat as long as the user stays out of reach of any rivals.
** Splatlings sacrifice the ability to fire immediately by having superb range combined with quick fire rate. However, this means that a Splatling user caught by surprise at close range is at a severe disadvantage.
* LostInTranslation: As noted in CargoCult, Inklings society seems to worship a fax machine. Why? Because due to AlternateCharacterReading, the Japanese word for "god" can also mean "paper". This is also why Inkopolis Square boasts a giant paper crane on one of its buildings.
* MagicPants: Only an Inkling or Octoling's humanoid form wears clothes and holds a gun; they disappear from sight when they turn into a squid. What's more vexing is that [[RightOutOfMyClothes they leave behind these clothes]] after being splatted, yet respawn with a fresh set.
* ManaMeter: Your ink supply, which is expended when firing main and sub weapons and recharges when not in use. It recharges even quicker when one is submerged.
* {{Metamorphosis}}: As shown [[http://i.imgur.com/VwRXAVn.png in this image]], Inklings start their life as baby squids, and slowly become more humanoid as they age. Once they hit 14, they take their familiar almost human-looking form, and gain full control of their VoluntaryShapeshifting abilities. Octolings presumably function in a similar manner.
* MissionControl: Your character gets one of these in the single-player campaigns.
* MoneyForNothing: Money is used to buy weapons and equipment, as well as add and/or reroll the ability slots for said equipment (in the first game). Despite all this, even if one buys all of the available weapons and equipment in a given entry, and work to optimize a build for all these weapons, those who play regularly will probably still have a lot of money left over. In addition to money, your FriendInTheBlackMarket also accepts Super Sea Snails instead. While these could only be gotten via Splatfests in the first game, making them a limited commodity, starting in the second game, you're given one as a reward every time you level up past Level 30, allowing you to stockpile mountains of cash. As a trade-off, adding and rerolling slots can only be paid for with snails, but the game also gives you multiple ways to get food tickets that not only allow you to increase your rate of experience gain (so you can get snails much quicker), but also increase your monetary payout after winning a game.
* MorphicResonance: Inklings and Octolings retain their eyes and their tentacle/hair is the same color as in their squid form. Furthermore, they both have the number of limbs [[https://33.media.tumblr.com/3395d26b2dfd2a4a381652a64db2b61f/tumblr_nhcpy0m5Rb1u3akyno1_1280.jpg represented in their humanoid forms]]: 2 legs, 2 arms, the remainder being hair. Except for the Octoling Boy's afro, which the character designers fully admit is just RuleOfCool.
* MutualKill: Thanks to the games' RocketTagGameplay and fast-paced battles, it is ''very'' common for two opposing players to experience this trope, especially with with shooters and rollers.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:N-S]]
* NoArcInArchery: A variation with the ink rounds of a lot of weapons.
** Longer-range Shooters tend to shoot blobs of ink almost completely straight until their max range (which is why a Splattershot Pro, .96 Gal or Squelcher will hit as long as the enemy is in range and the crosshair is right on them) before the projectile rapidly falls off.
** Subverted with bomb-type Sub Weapons. Once thrown, they tend to follow a realistic trajectory... for a while. Then they rapidly lose horizontal momentum similar to Shooter ink shots.
** Chargers fire a stream of ink straight out of the gun. Said stream inexplicably stops and falls downwards once it reaches maximum distance.
** Averted with Roller and Brush flicking attacks and the ink hurl of the Sloshers, which do have a plausible arc.
* NonIndicativeName: The teams, or "splatoons" if you will, only have four inklings. They're really more of a [[JustForPun splire team]].
* NonLethalKO: What being splatted amounts to. Inklings and Octolings can easily restore themselves after GivingUpTheGhost as long as they're synced to a respawning device.
* NonLethalWarfare: Justified. The term "respawn" is actually widely used by characters in-universe to describe the process of "dying" and having your ghost come back to life, and terms like "spawn point" and "spawning drone" are likewise given to various machines that are used for regenerating the body after it is splatted. This technology is exactly what allowed Inklings to turn what used to be violent war battles into a recreational sport. This is also the case in the single-player campaigns. That said, Inklings and Octolings can only function like this when they've been synced to such spawning devices; they'll die like normal if they aren't, which WordOfGod says is the case during [[spoiler:the escape sequence]] in the second game's ''Octo Expansion''.
* OneHitKO:
** A fully charged and direct hit with all chargers (except the Bamboozler series) will splat the target immediately.
** Most Roller weapons, due to their weight, are capable of running over opponents and killing them instantly. The sole exceptions are the Carbon Roller and its variants, which explicitly lack the weight to do this.
** The strongest Blaster weapons (Blaster, Luna Blaster, and Range Blaster) can finish off opponents in a single, direct hit.
** Most offensive specials will immediately finish off opponents pretty much the instant they hit.
* OneHitPolykill:
** Specials that have wide areas of effect make it entirely possible to [[TotalPartyKill eliminate an entire enemy team]] with a careful (or lucky) shot.
** Using a charger weapon, it's possible to splat two opponents in one shot if one is hit directly and the other happens to be very close behind. Of course, this is easier said than done.
* OneManArmy: Your player character in any given game, armed only with a "hero suit", regularly take on enemy forces and become TheDreaded in the process.
* OneUp: Checkpoints serve as this in the single-player campaigns. In the event that you got splatted, reaching a new checkpoint grants an extra respawn.
* OhNoNotAgain: Returning to the FinalBoss level after finishing the main campaign will have MissionControl exasperated about whatever mundane or random event resulted in this bizarre rematch:
** ''Splatoon 1'' has [[spoiler:Cap'n Cuttlefish getting distracted by his TrademarkFavoriteFood when he was supposed to be watching the imprisoned DJ Ocativo]].
** ''Splatoon 2'' has [[spoiler:Callie deciding to wear the MindControl glasses again, because she likes how cool they make her look]].
* PainfullySlowProjectile:
** The ink shots that most low-ranked Octarian soldiers fire are slow enough to ''outrun'', or at least dodge.
** While not too slow, shots from the Rainmaker are still slow enough that they can be escaped at a distance fairly easily, provided you see it coming.
* PaintingTheMedium: A RunningGag is someone communicating with a radio while being or holding it upside down, and [[AchievementsInIgnorance managing to become unintelligible]], by way of having their dialogue box be upside down as well.
* PlayEveryDay: The clothing shops change their stock daily, and you can only special order only one item per day.
* PointyEars: Humanoid Inklings feature them, not only making them look more alien, but also giving another level of MorphicResonance by looking like the fins real squids have in their heads. Octolings have more rounded ones of equal length.
* PopularityPower: Popularity is one of the factors judged in Splatfests, though the win rate (''1'') or clout (''2'' onward) of each team is weighed more heavily for the final score.
* PowerGlows: An Inkling or Octoling's "hair" glows with their own color when they can use their special weapon.
* ProductPlacement:
** Several Splatfests (mostly those in Japan) have been sponsored by various food, drink, clothing, and toy brands, as well as other video games. These have ranged from instant noodles brand Maruchan to ''Franchise/HelloKitty'' to ''VideoGame/DragonQuest''. Nintendo has also used Splatfests to celebrate the anniversaries of their own games, such as ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' and ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros''.
** Some of the clothing lines and weapons, such as the ''[[Manga/SquidGirl SQUID GIRL]]'' outfit in the first game.
* ProjectilePocketing: In the single player mode, power eggs can be collected by shooting at them. This comes in handy for the eggs that are stuck on walls, ceilings, or thin rails and poles.
* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: PlayedForLaughs. In multiplayer, the "good guys" are always whichever team the player is on, and the "bad guys" are always the other team.
* PunBasedTitle: A play on the terms "splat" and "platoon".
* PunnyName: All over the place. From the locations around the hub world, to stage names, to various [=NPCs=]. Some character pairs even get ThemeNaming, such as Callie and Marie ("calamari").
--> '''Marie:''' ''(when rematching the FinalBoss in the second game)'' Ohhhhh! I just realized that mine and Callie's names... Actually, now's not the time.
* PurelyAestheticGender: Male and female Inklings play exactly alike, making the choice up to personal preference.
* RainbowPimpGear: Downplayed. Clothing and gameplay-affecting perks are linked together, which can lead to players using some bizarre combinations of clothing to suit their needs. However, this is mitigated by each item of clothing only having one fixed main ability, with sub-slots that can be changed. On top of that, several pieces of clothing can share the same ability, and from the second game onward, it's possible to get pieces of clothing that have different main abilities than normal. All this meaning that with enough time and effort, you can get an outfit that's fashionable ''and'' suits your gameplay style.
* RankInflation: The first ''Splatoon'' had nine ranks for Ranked Battles, from C- to A+, with Version 2.0.0 adding S and S+ on top of those. ''Splatoon 2'' would give S+ ''50 sub-ranks'' of its own, with Version 3.0.0 merging S+10 and above into Rank X, which contains roughly the Top 1% of players in the game (the Top 500 players get a special crown icon next to their name) and works on its own power level system. Unlike the other ranks, where you'll maintain your position even if you don't play for those modes for a while, you can automatically be removed from Rank X if your power level is under a certain threshold at the end of each month's "Calculating" period. In addition, starting with ''2'', each mode of Ranked Battle now also has their own separate meter rather than giving the player an overall rank in competitive, meaning that you could be an S+ rank in Splat Zones while also being A- in Tower Control, for example.
* RecurringRiff:
** "Calamari Inkantation", a folk song that the first game remarks "may as well be carved into the very DNA of all Inklings" that the the in-universe pop duo the Squid Sisters made a cover of and turned into their signature song. The song and its core melody shows up a number of times throughout the games.
** The Octarian Army has a 5-note jingle that appears throughout the Hero Mode campaigns, serving as the level clear fanfare, in addition to being remixed as part of some of the tracks.
* RegeneratingHealth: Staying a couple of seconds away from fire will "clean-up" the player and regenerate their health. Swimming on their own ink significantly speeds this process up.
* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: Inklings and Octolings in both cephalopod and human form are pretty adorable.
* RightOutOfMyClothes: Getting splatted will cause your character's [[WingedSoulFliesOffAtDeath soul to fly off]] while leaving their various accessories like headphones behind.
* RocketTagGameplay: Because of the high weapon damage, it only takes a few hits to splat the opposing team members. In fact, because the ink from most weapons needs a split second actually travel to the opponent, TakingYouWithMe or [[MutualKill Mutual Splat]] scenarios are commonplace in regular firefights, with someone getting knocked-out themselves by a spray of ink that the opponent managed to shoot or throw at the last second.
* RubberHoseLimbs:
** Inverted. Despite most of the existing races being boneless, Inklings and Octolings included, they have clearly defined and formed extremities.
** Played straight with jellyfish, who are regularly seen moving and stretching their arms out wildly.
* RuleOfThree:
** Players carry three weapons at once: a main weapon, sub weapon, and special weapon. They can equip three pieces of gear: a hat, shirt, and shoes. Each one can have up to four stat-boosting abilities on them: one main and ''three'' secondary.
** Almost all bosses follow the classic Nintendo pattern of three similar phases that become progressively harder before defeat.
* {{Scatting}}: Since the Inkling Language is not really a ''well-defined'' {{Conlang}} the way something like [[Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium Quenya]] is, the "lyrics" of all the songs heard in the game probably qualify as this, at least when looked at from an [[{{Doylist}} out-of-universe]] perspective.
* SeldomSeenSpecies: All sorts of marine life, with named characters, background [=NPCs=], and the musicians in the various bands running the gamut from sea anemones, isopods, ping pong tree sponges, sea angels, and gulper eels.
* SeriesMascot: The light-skinned orange female Inkling with the [[MegaTwintails "Hippie" hairstyle]] and wearing a White Tee and Pink Trainers (Studio Headphones optional) takes front and center in most artwork and several trailers for the first game, and is the series' representative in other franchises like ''VideoGame/MarioKart'' and ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros''.
* SeriousBusiness:
** Ink battles are a big part of Inkling society, with records showing they have existed since as early as the beginning of their civilization thousands of years ago, at least. Inklings come from all over to take part on these events, and it is even mentioned in passing that there are entire classes in school solely dedicated to them.
** On a meta level, Splatfest is this for many players. There is a good reason why people call it "Saltfest". Players will often dismiss their own personal preferences in favor of picking the side more likely to win, {{sore loser}}s will complain about the results, sore winners will engage in UnsportsmanlikeGloating for days afterwards, and [[StopHavingFunGuys some]] have even called for permanent bans for the losing side.
* ShowsDamage: Damaged characters, including enemies in the single-player campaigns, will be covered in enemy ink until they are splatted or RegeneratingHealth kicks in.
* SmolderingShoes: A splatted Inkling will explode, leaving behind only their clothes (and weapon).
* SongsInTheKeyOfPanic: When one minute remains on the timer in a Turf War match, the song changes from the usual random soundtrack to the track "Now Or Never", a faster-paced song that lasts about a minute, finishing right when time's up. It can be interpreted also as a [[NearVictoryFanfare Near Victory (or Defeat) Fanfare]].
* SoundTest: The Squid Beatz minigame is an odd example, wherein you can toggle between the actual rhythm game and a regular sound test with a single button.
* SpeakingSimlish: The language heard in the game is a bunch of gibberish, though some of the things characters say sound like garbled English and Japanese vocalizations. This extends to any song that has lyrics.
* SprintShoes: Among the abilities your clothing can have are perks that increase walking or swimming speed, though even if you max out walking speed as much as possible, it's still not as fast as your base swim movement.
* StandardFPSGuns:
** Shooters are variations on [[MoreDakka automatic weapons]], and can vary from automatic pistol-types, to rapid-grenade launchers, to assault-rifle types.
** Chargers are [[SniperRifle sniper rifles]] capable of painting long straight lines with one shot.
** Rollers play this trope less straight, but could be seen as [[ShortRangeShotgun shotguns]] or [[FireBreathingWeapon flamethrowers]]: Powerful, but with very limited range. The Brush variations of this type operate more like swords or other melee weapons.
** Sloshers weapons are akin to [[ShortRangeShotgun shotguns]], but with a more generous range (about half that of chargers) and since the paint from them is thrown in an arc, it can go over walls.
** Splatlings are [[GatlingGood gatling guns]] that function like a mix between Chargers and Shooters. They have a windup time like the former, but at max charge can shoot rapidly like a Shooter, with range that can rival that of some Chargers.
** Dualies are [[GunsAkimbo dual-welded pistols]] that grant greater mobility by way of allowing the user to dodge two-to-four times while shooting, with increased aim accuracy for a short time after a dodge.
** Brellas are [[ShortRangeShotgun shotguns]] with the added bonus of having a built-in [[LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe shield]] that can also function as DeployableCover.
** Stringers avert this, being standard bows rather than crossbows.
** For the sub-weapon options, most of them actually avert this, having unconventional effects. There are exceptions to this in the form of the various bombs. For example, the Splat Bomb is basically just the ink version of a standard hand grenade-{{Caltrop|s}} hybrid, the Suction Bomb is a StickyBomb, and the Ink Mine is a proximity mine.
* StealthyCephalopod: Both Inklings and Octolings have the ability to hide in their ink to keep hidden from enemies. The "Ninja Squid" ability takes this UpToEleven, reducing base swim speed in exchange for minimizing the usual splashes seen when swimming through ink.
* StoryBreadcrumbs: In Hero Mode, there are hidden scrolls in each stage. The scrolls provide background information on the story and world of the game.
* StrangeSyntaxSpeaker: Jellyfish [=NPCs=] have their own native language, with the few that have speaking roles (i.e., Jelonzo and Jelfonzo) falling into this when trying to speak Inkling.
-->''"You! You are not the cool! You are needing more cool for wearing of my clothes!"''
* SuperDrowningSkills: Inklings and Octolings are splatted the second they touch water. While it may not look like it makes much sense since they're squids, the games have [[JustifiedTrope justified it in various ways over the years]]; from the idea of them being made of ink and thus dissociating in water, to their bodies simply not being able to handle the sudden change from air-to-water pressure very well.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:T-Z]]
* TakeThatAudience: The news commentators in each game will regularly poke fun at common player reactions and behaviors.
-->'''Callie:''' My team is always terrible on this stage!\\
'''Marie:''' Yeah, "your team" is terrible.
* TitleDrop: "Splatoon" is the term for the most basic form of Inkling military units, and was used to refer to the combat teams who took part in the Great Turf War over a century prior. The group your player character ends up being recruited by at the start of each game is known as the New Squidbeak Splatoon, named after the most decorated military units from that conflict and founded by the captain of that original team. By extension, the teams in the Turf War sport are also referred to as "splatoons".
* TruckDriversGearChange: The music in single-player levels (not counting boss fights) jumps up a pitch when entering the final checkpoint.
* TwinkleInTheEye: Appears when your special weapon gauge fills up. Chargers also have their own small twinkle at the end of a barrel when their charge is full.
* UnstableEquilibrium: Generally downplayed.
** Winning allows players to gain perks on their clothes faster thanks to the victory point bonus, slightly easing gameplay in further matches. This becomes a non-issue once gear is maxed out, however.
** The game as a whole lends itself to this due to being territory-based as well. A winning team will have more area to work with (and thus use to heal and outmaneuver opponents) and will be able to keep the pressure on with super jumps without losing momentum from individual losses, whereas a losing team will spend much of their time defending and reclaiming the same territory before they can push forward. However, the losing team will also be able to charge up their Specials faster due to having more turf to cover, potentially allowing for comebacks.
* VariableMix:
** During gameplay, the background music gets muffled while the player is hiding in ink, going back to normal once they jump back out.
** When you play the game for the first time, a downbeat remix of the game's main theme plays in the tutorial zone. As the player progresses further into the area and gets closer to the hub world, more instruments are gradually added to the song, becoming its complete version once you reach the end.
** The shopping theme changes instrumentation depending on which of the four stores the player is currently in.
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential:
** While ridiculously minor, you can harass any birds on a stage by trying to shoot at them.
** There are players who barely throw out any ink, if any, and instead just "feed" the opponents by walking into enemy fire, dropping into water, or jumping out of bounds, effectively making them dead weight in a match -- this is as debilitating as it sounds, since every match has four inklings per team at most.
* VirtualCelebrity: All the music in the games is stated to be performed by different bands in-universe, but this trope kicks in with the [[{{Defictionalization}} real-life Japanese concerts]] featuring [[MotionCapture mocapped]] holographic projections of each game's {{Idol Singer}}s, who perform both their own songs and some covers of the game's other bands. Funnily enough, despite all these characters having assigned voice actresses, since the games utilize SpeakingSimlish, they need to have all their dialogue between songs subtitled anyway.
* VirtualPaperDoll: The Inklings have a large variety of clothes, shoes and hats they can be equipped with. Each of them also come with perks that improve different abilities.
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: The Inklings are capable of changing between squid and humanoid form at will. They gain full control of this ability when their {{Metamorphosis}} ends once they hit their teenage years. On the villains side, Octolings are also capable of changing between octopus and humanoid forms.
* WallCrawl: Spreading ink up along a wall allows you to swim up it to cover more ground more quickly.
* WarpWhistle: Of a sort, as you can super jump to any of your teammates, your spawn point, or a Squid Beakon at any time. Performing a super jump also creates an icon visible to all players, unless you have the Stealth Jump ability. This can mean warping to the back of the enemy's base for easy inking... or jumping into the wrong end of a firefight.
* WidgetSeries: Anthropomorphic cephalopods turn into teenagers with guns that join up after school to fight in ink-soaked battles at the local mall or scrapyard, work part-time jobs at a cannery to shoot ProudWarriorRace salmon who use kitchenware as weapons, or assist in protecting the surface world as part of a secret military militia as {{Child Soldier}}s.
* WorldOfFunnyAnimals: The cast is made up of a variety of aquatic animals such as jellyfish, anemones, cephalopods, etc; with the most prominent characters being the [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shapeshifting]] Inklings and Octolings. Given that is this Earth in tens of thousands of years, the severe lack of mammals is actually a major plot point.
* WorldOfPun: Puns are absolutely ''everywhere'' in this world. Sea life puns, squid puns, octo puns; if it can be made a pun, chances are high it'll be made one.
* YetAnotherStupidDeath: An irritatingly common and preventable way to die is to go into squid/octo form on top of a grating, forgetting that 1. gratings can't be inked, and 2. you'll pass through the grating, causing you to most likely fall into [[SuperDrowningSkills water]] or a BottomlessPit.
[[/folder]]
----

Outside the games, the franchise has also spawned several pieces of spin-off material, namely manga. The main manga series, Magazine/CoroCoroComic's ''Manga/{{Splatoon}}'', is a GagSeries about a team of Inklings attempting to rise through the ranks in both Turf War and Ranked Battle despite their eccentricities. Other manga include ''Splatoon: Squid Kids Comedy Show'', a [[{{Yonkoma}} 4-Koma]] which also runs in Coco-Coro, as well as the [[NoExportForYou Japan-only]] ''Mellow Squid 4-Panel Comic'', another 4-Koma that runs in Weekly Famitsu.

The official website can be found [[http://splatoon.nintendo.com/ here]]. Also featured is an official Website/{{Tumblr}}, which gives updates on the game and reveals new information about the series' mythology under the guise of the [[http://splatoonus.tumblr.com/ "Squid Research Lab"]], a hidden group of humans who have dedicated themselves to cataloguing the activities and history of these stylish cephalopods.

Compare ''VideoGame/DeBlob'' for similar premise and concept (ink-spraying creatures spreading ink). [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant No relation to Hwang Dong-hyuk's]] ''Series/SquidGame''.

Inklings were the first new characters to be unveiled for the fifth installment of Nintendo's ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' franchise, ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'', with the game taking most of its ''Splatoon'' elements from this first installment.

----

[[folder:Misc]]
For GodNeverSaidThat, in the event that this does become an unchecked rumor.
*** Ironically, this would pop up again years after the show's conclusion, with some fans spreading the idea that the creators [[WhatCouldHaveBeen wanted Mabel to die in the second season]], but Disney vetoed it. This comes from head writer Michael Rianda discussing abandoned story ideas on Twitter after the latter stumbled upon a collection of his old ''Gravity Falls'' writing; one of them being an outline for an alternate Season 2 ColdOpen where a future Dipper warns the Pines Twins of a BadFuture where Mabel dies. Not only would the plot have focused on ''preventing'' Mabel's death, but since Hirsch and Rianda couldn't figure out how such a StoryArc would end, they scrapped it before the rest of the writing staff could see it (much less any Disney executives).
''The Noble Girl With a Crush on a Plain and Studious Guy''
* AttemptedMurder: Prince Ronald introduces himself to Sharina and Riol by attempting to murder them in what he brushes off as a test of their abilities.
* BrosBeforeHoes: Discussed. After questioning Sharina, Angelica learns that her best friend would absolutely choose love over their life-long friendship, to her mildly annoyance. Later, Angelica mentally pats herself on the back for being able to follow this trope, as she immediately decides not to even try pursuing a relationship beyong friendship with Riol when she realizes she might be developing a crush on the boy herself.
* BystanderSyndrome: Outside Sharina, Riol, and Angelica, there are two other students during the first story arc who were fully aware that the prince's attention was unwanted. However, they didn't say anything publicly until after the duel, where they back up Riol with their own testimonies. They stayed quiet when the duel was first announced because they feared backlash from going against the official story being painted by the prince and because no one would have believed them anyway.
* CannotSpitItOut: Riol, once he realizes he returns Sharina's affections. He manages to say it once without thinking, before going three months without saying it again. He initially justifies it as wanting to save his proper declaration of love for another major event, such as winning a magic tournament, but when that plan falls south due to the unrelated machinations of the royal family, he admits he's just being cowardly considering that the two of them have been unofficially dating for months, and so sneaks it in when she's least expecting.
* CassandraTruth: Basically the plot of the first two arcs, especially the fist. ''Everyone'' refuses to believe the protagonists' side of things due how incomprehensible it is that someone would choose being with a poor baron's son over potentially becoming queen. Whatever Sharina says or does is regularly warped to fit the other party's preconceptions; be it her as a naive country girl who thinks life is a fairy tale or a devious manipulator jumping from man to man as she pleases. It eventually gets to the point where, in the second story arc, Sharina and Riol are legitimately impressed that the second prince bothered to listen to Tobias before dismissing everything he said, since they've both gotten used to never even getting that far.
* ExplainExplainOhCrap: Several characters do this whenever they finally realize that Sharina really does love Riol, mentally or verbally going through a checklist of all the things that should be prove that the former has been aiming to become queen only to realize to their horror that everything that was supposedly her PlayingHardToGet or putting together a complex scheme to get riches and power was just a frustrated teenager who is happily enamored with her boyfriend and wanted nothing to do with any of them.
* IShouldWriteABookAboutThis: Angelica wrote a book based on the events of the first story arc for her own personal enjoyment after burning/giving away most of her romance collection. However it quickly got plagiarized by the bookbinder, who sold their copy of the manuscript to a traveling playwright, and within a few months the play is a national hit in a nearby kingdom. Sharina and Riol are impressed when they learn her role in this, while Angelica is deeply embarrassed that her private writing is now public knowledge.
* PrinceCharmingWannabe: Prince Leonardo to Sharina, made worse by the fact that everyone assumes that the feeling is mutual. It takes [[spoiler:Riol beating him in a duel and removing his right to the throne]] for it to finally click that Leonardo was chasing her, not the other way around.
* RescueRomance: In the most mundane way possible. Riol simply warns her not to touch a plant in the school garden, noting that someone accidentally planted dangerous flora there. She immediately goes from barely grasping the concept of love to seeing this gloomy honors student as her soulmate.
* RightForTheWrongReasons: The main group rightfully deduce that the Queen is [[spoiler:making a Sharina a fiancée candidate to help her son save face]], but also believe that she's aware that Sharina does love Riol. When we get the Queen's POV a few chapters later, it's shown that she thinks Sharina is a GoldDigger who is only with Riol as a temporary boyfriend while planning to marry into the royal family, and that Sharina purposefully manipulated the situation so that she'd have no choice but to [[spoiler:make her Roland's fiancee]].
* ShowWithinAShow: Angelica is a huge fan of a series of romance novels that she, upon re-reading, realizes matches Sharina's recent romantic situation closely. Specifically, the official couple are an expy of Sharina and Leonardo and mirrors how their dynamic would have gone in most romantic comedy situations. Meanwhile, the beta couple are expies of Sharina and Riol, right down to her book equivalent finally understanding romance and falling head-over-heels in love after her love interest alerts her that she's about to touch a deadly plant.
* WrongGenreSavvy: Angelica starts out like this. She's an avid reader of romantic comedies and initially views real-life romance in the same way, so when Sharina starts sharing her gripes with the prince, she's confused that his actions would anger her; in a traditional romcom, his rude behavior would be charming and attractive. It isn't until Sharina starts contextualizing it by giving parallels to decidely non-romantic things that it clicks.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/800px_logo_splatoon_wii_u_english.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"Go ahead, make a mess!"]]
[[/folder]]

* AdvertisingOnlyContinuity: Most of ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'s'' promotional material on social media comes from the perspective of a "Squid Research Lab", a collection of humans who secretly analyze the culture and behavior of the various races within the game. Outside of a promotional clothing item in ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'', they have no trace of existing in game. This is particularly notable because ''Splatoon'' is set long after humanity went extinct, so... where exactly are these {{Buffy Speak}}ing scientists hiding?

* AndYourRewardIsClothes: Clothing is frequently given as rewards for accomplishing challenges.

* SeldomSeenSpecies: All sorts of marine life, with named characters, background [=NPCs=], and the musicians in the various bands running the gamut from sea anonmes, isopods, ping pong tree sponges, sea angels, and gulper eels.
* SeriesMascot: The light-skinned orange female Inkling with the [[MegaTwintails "Hippie" hairstyle]] and wearing a White Tee and Pink Trainers (Studio Headphones optional) takes front and center in most artwork and several trailers for the first game, and is the series representative in other franchises like ''VideoGame/MarioKart'' and ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros''.

** Ink battles are a big part of Inkling society, records showing they have existed since as early as the beginning of their civilization thousands of years ago, at least. Inklings come from all over to take part on these events, and it is even mentioned in passing that there are entire classes in school solely dedicated to them.

** Rollers play this trope less straight, but could be seen as this game's equivalent to [[ShortRangeShotgun shotguns]] or [[FireBreathingWeapon flamethrowers]]: Powerful, but with very limited range. The Brush variations of this type operate more like swords or other melee weapons.

* StealthyCephalopod: Both the Inklings and Octolings have the ability to hide in their ink to keep hidden from enemies. The "Ninja Squid" ability takes this UpToEleven, reducing base swim speed in exchange for heavily reducing the usual splashes seen when swimming through ink.

* SuperDrowningSkills: Inklings and Octolings are splatted the second they touch water. While it may not look like it makes much sense since they're squids, the games have [[JustifiedTrope justified it in various ways over the years]]; from the idea of them being made of ink and thus dissociating in water, to their bodies simply not being able to handle the sudden change from air-to-water pressue.

* TitleDrop: "Splatoon" is the term for the most basic form of Inkling military units, and was used to refer to the combat teams who took part in the Great Turf War over a century prior. The group your player character ends up being recruited by at the start of each game is known as the New Squidbeak Splatoon, named after one of the most notable teams from that conflict. By extention, the teams in the Turf War sport are also refered as "splatoons".

* UnstableEquilibrium:

** When you play the game for the first time, a downbeat remix of the game's main theme plays in the tutorial zone. As the player progresses further into the area and gets closer to Inkopolis, more instruments are gradually added to the song, becoming its complete version once you reach the end.
** The shopping theme changes background beats depending on which of the four stores the player is currently in.

* VirtualCelebrity: All the music in the games is stated to be performed by different bands in-universe, but this trope kicks in with the [[{{Defictionalization}} real-life Japanese concerts]] featuring [[MotionCapture mocaped]] holographic projections of each game's {{Idol Singer}}s, who perform both their own songs and some covers of the game's other bands. Funnily enough, despite all these characters having assigned voice actresses, since the games utilize SpeakingSimlish, they need to have all their dialogue between songs subtitled anyway.

* WarpWhistle: Of a sort, as you can super jump to any of your teamamates, your spawn point, or a Squid Beakon at any time. Performing a super jump also creates an icon visible to all players, unless you have the Stealth Jump ability. This can mean warping to the back of the enemy's base for easy inking... or jumping into the wrong end of a firefight.
* WidgetSeries: Anthropomorphic cephalopods turn into teenagers with guns that join up after school to fight in ink-soaked battles at the local mall or scrapyard, work part-time jobs at a cannery to shoot ProudWarriorRace salmon who use kitchenware as weapons, or assist in protecting the surface world as part of a secret military milita.
* WorldOfFunnyAnimals: The cast is made up of a variety of aquatic animals such as jellyfish, anemones, cephalopods, etc; with the most prominent characters being the [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shapeshifting]] Inklings and Octolings. The lack of mammals is actually a major plot point.