Splatoon | Splatoon 2 | Splatoon 3
- Bad Export for You: The Deep Cut amiibo were released both individually and as a three-in-one value pack in every region except North America, which only got the individual releases. Are you a North American Splatoon fan who was hoping to save some money by buying all three at once? Too bad.
- Blooper:
- Prior to Fresh Season 3.0.0, Octolings appeared with Inkling player models in 100x and 333x Battle Splatfest pictures.
- In the Big Run on Banacle & Dime that took place in December 2023, the results announcement wasn't displayed correctly and players got incorrect rewards.
- The Splatoon North America Twitter account has occasionally flubbed translations. In one specific instance, they accidentally wrote that the Snipewriter 5B used the Splattercolor Screen as its sub weapon (which is not only untrue, but also impossible by the game's rules), then later acknowledged their screwup in the rewritten announcement.
- When Side Order was first announced, Nintendo of America's website initially stated the campaign took place in an Alternate Timeline where Team Order won the final Splatfest of Splatoon 2 instead of Team Chaos. This was corrected a few months later, following the release of the second trailer.
- During the Big Run at Eeltail Alley, an error in how the game handles special events caused everything in Inkopolis Square that changes colors during a Splatfest (most notably the origami crane statue on The Shoal) to be rendered invisible, inevitably resulting in a bit of Special Effect Failure like the stickers posted on the screen hanging over the Galleria now floating in midair.
- Content Leak:
- Several songs from the game's multiplayer modes were uploaded ahead of the Splatfest World Premiere, having been datamined from the demo. In addition, all the cutscenes from the "Return of the Mammalians" single-player campaign leaked a week before release, thanks to the street date of some physical copies being broken.
- The existence of the to-be-released "Modded Rainmaker Test-Fire" gamemode was accidentally leaked by the Splatoon North America Twitter account when they intended to announce a rotation for an existing gamemode. The tweet was hastily taken down, and acknowledged in the corrected gamemode announcement.
- Some data related to the Side Order DLC, particularly regarding the Inkopolis Square Hub Level you unlock by completing it, snuck its way into the game files in version 4.0.0. It was removed an update or two later, but not before dataminers had uncovered it. Filenames relating to mechanics, characters, and cutscenes from the campaign were also datamined from version 6.0.0.
- Defictionalization:
- Similar to previous games, various clothing items such as the Tri-Shred Tee and the "Grass vs. Fire vs. Water" Splatfest Tee are available as merchandise at Nintendo stores in Japan and New York.
- Like the Squid Sisters and Off the Hook before them, Deep Cut has been brought to life using the Pepper's ghost illusion effect to perform real-world concerts.
- You can buy an inflatable pool toy that's an exact replica of the Reefslider. Unfortunately (or fortunately), it doesn't explode.
- Development Gag: Off the Hook's special outfits for the Baby Chicks vs. Li'l Bunnies vs. Bear Cubs Splatfest are based on a piece of concept art for their Splatoon 3/Side Order designs.
- Incidental Multilingual Wordplay: Big Man, a manta ray part of the idol group Deep Cut, is named "Mantaro" (a portmanteau of "manta" and "-taro," a common suffix for boy's names in Japan) in the original Japanese version. The German localization was able to get away with leaving this untranslated due to its resemblance to the word for "manta ray" in German, "Mantarochen".
- Meaningful Release Date:
- The game's "Splatfest World Premiere" demo took place on August 27, 2022, with the theme being "Rock vs. Paper vs. Scissors." August 27 is World Rock Paper Scissors Day.
- The release date of September 9 is this too; 3 x 3 = 9, tying into the Arc Number of 3.
- The fact that it released in September at all is this as well, since salmon spawning season starts in September; the added Smallfry companion as well as certain endgame events make this particularly amusing. The fourth Big Run also took place in September 2023, near the game's first anniversary, for the same reasons.
- The release date for Side Order is February 22nd (2/22). Not only does the campaign focus on characters introduced in Splatoon 2 — Pearl, Marina, and Acht — and take place in an alternate version of that game's Hub Level (with the actual Inkopolis Square being made available after beating the campaign once), but the date additionally refers to the campaign's protagonist Eight (2 x 2 x 2 = 8), who also debuted in the series' second entry.
- The game's "Splatfest World Premiere" demo took place on August 27, 2022, with the theme being "Rock vs. Paper vs. Scissors." August 27 is World Rock Paper Scissors Day
- Pop-Culture Urban Legends: After the release of the "Salmon Run: Next Wave" trailer, there were claims that Nintendo hid a QR code within the footage that, when scanned, revealed Splatoon 3's then-unknown release date to be August 18th, 2022. Over 80 gaming news articles and videos across 15+ languages would end up sharing this news over the next few days, before Reddit user dongxipunata came forth and admitted that they originated the hoax as a small gag, not expecting it to spread so quickly. There is a QR code hidden in the UI that isn't present in the final release, but it is far too low-res to scan or recreate with any accuracy, likely being purely aesthetic.
- Prop Recycling: In Side Order, several floor layouts in the Spire of Order contain flying polygonal sea creatures that might look familiar to anybody who's played Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Not surprisingly, both games were produced by the same team.
- Sequel Gap: 3 released a little over five years after 2, albeit only three years after the last major content update of Splatoon 2 and just 1 year after the game's final update.
- Uncredited Role: As of 2024, the voice actor of Big Man has yet to be revealed.
- What Could Have Been:
- The infamously claustrophobic Eeltail Alley and Scorch Gorge once had noticeably wider midpoint areas during development.
- Visible from the RotM trailer is a version of Museum D'Alfonsino that retains the rotating wall spinners at the spawnpoints. The spinners there would be removed later in development.
- From the artbook, Big Man was at one point going to be a giant Octotrooper instead of a manta ray.
- Off the Hook had a number of concepts drawn for their new outfits, most of which are influenced by hip-hop groups of the '80s and '90s, before they settled on the final pop-themed jackets. All play into their cross-species bond quite heavily, though.
- League Battle from Splatoon 2 was initially intended to return, before being indefinitely delayed until it was eventually announced as being merged into Anarchy Battle (Open) in Sizzle Season 2023, with the new Challenges mode taking its place.
