A Look Back At A Certain Splatoon Promo Image...

The more I think about it, the more I think that we got Splatoon 3 (and another event) a lot later than Nintendo originally envisioned.

The image above was released by Nintendo at Midnight (JST) January 1, 2020. I even remember where I was when I first saw it: partying on New Year's Eve in a karaoke bar with friends.

Right away people were wondering about the image, and what it could mean. This also wasn't too long after the fake-out "Where's Marina?" promo where the answer was "oh, she took the photo!"

Of course, the most obvious hidden meaning was the text on the bottom disguised to look like a reflection in the waves: SOS. And written in the waves, combined with the "reflection", said "Save Our Salmons". This had people wondering if this was a hint as to a later plot. Maybe a new DLC for Splatoon 2, or even a Splatoon 3.

Looking back, it's obvious now that this was meant to be our first tease for Splatoon 3, given the plot of its Story Mode revolving around the consequences of Salmon Run and why Mr. Grizz was having us all steal eggs.

The only thing is...we all know what happened in 2020, and what it did to numerous industries, especially tech-based industries like video game development.

We know now that Splatoon 3 development started about as soon as the Chaos vs. Order Splatfest ended, just like development for Splatoon 2 kicked into high gear after Marie won Splatoon 1's final fest. Given how fast Nintendo put out Splatoon 2 after only a year and change of development, it seems like it's possible Nintendo intended Splatoon 3 to be released sometime in 2021 instead of this year.

But of course, a certain virus had other plans. Eventually with vaccines, air filtration technology, and the virus evolving to be overall less deadly, we we able to slowly get back to an almost normal lifestyle, and a lot of the bottlenecks in the supply chain started to ease up, but in 2020 itself, everyone's plans were thrown into... well... chaos.

If I were to make a guess, absent the pandemic, we would have likely gotten the first Direct Splatoon 3 teaser in September 2020, with a release date of Fall 2021. Instead, Nintendo, trying to keep Splatoon hype going, gave us some extra rerun Splatfests, including a rerun of Splatoween over Halloween weekend (after all, not like anyone had any real plans for the holiday itself), while they played catch-up on game development in a pandemic-strewn world.

And that leads me to another topic: The Super Mario Splatfest.

2020 was also Super Mario's 35th Anniversary as a franchise (discounting 1983's Mario Bros and 1981's Donkey Kong), and if you may have noticed, much of the celebration spilled over into 2021, including a Splatoon 2 Splatfest fitting the theme. Again, absent the pandemic, I think we would have gotten the Super Mario 35th Anniversary celebration confined within the calendar year of 2020, with the related Splatfest in July 2020, one year after "Final Fest".

Again, this is just my musing, and I could be amazingly off-base with this, but given the original timing of the "Save Our Salmons" promo, it seems to make sense.

Stay Fresh, Don't Get Cooked, and Catch Ya Later! 😊