When you think of Nintendo games, certain things come to mind. No matter what the genre or franchise certain things stand out. Games tend to be family-friendly, even when they involve serious concepts like bounty hunting and war. Many times, they explore gameplay concepts that aren’t often explored in games. They have a colorful and definitive style, keeping them from looking like other games on the shelf. They’ll also have hidden depths to them. Splatoon is a masterpiece that ticks all of these boxes.

It was a bloodbath. Rather, it was an inkbath. I went into the Splatoon Rainmaker Ranked Battle mode expecting the best. Instead, my earliest experiences were the worst.