Denis Murphy writes- You've got to hand it to Nintendo. When one of their consoles turns out to be an utter failure they don't discontinue it and pack up shop, no, they say, “F*ck it! Lets just keep going”. The Wii U started off as a massive failure, and barely managed to gain any traction in the wake of the Playstation 4 and Xbox One. But now, over three years since it was released, the Wii U is finally starting to make a profit.
Nintendo has recently restored Wii U Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon online after five months of being offline.
Game Rant Writes "Mar10 Day is a fun yearly celebration of the Super Mario series, and Splatoon may warrant a fan-designated day of celebration in its own right."
How, exactly, did Splatoon reach heights rivalled only by Pokémon in Japan? New IPs from the House of Mario appear as often as shiny Pocket Monsters, yet typically move comparatively mediocre numbers or fall into relative obscurity behind the premium marques of Mario, Animal Crossing, Zelda, and Pokémon. Take Pikmin and ARMS, for example, which we adore but struggle to compete with the tentpole franchises when it comes to sales numbers or mainstream mindshare.
So, again, how has Splatoon risen to become one of Nintendo's most important series in Japan?