Splatoon (lost early build of Wii U third-person shooter game; 2014)

Title screen for Splatoon.

Status: Lost

Splatoon was a game for the Wii U developed and published by Nintendo. It was a third-person shooter featuring humanoid squids called "Inklings". Players participate in online matches against other people with the goal of inking/coloring the most turf/space in the battlefield^[1]. The game was released throughout May 2015.

Background

Prior to release, a demo was available at E3 2014 from June 10th, 2014 to June 12th, 2014. At the time, the game was only 10% complete^[2]^[3]. The demo featured a tutorial teaching the player the controls of the game and 2 rounds of 4v4 matches before returning to the title screen.

Differences

There was no customization, instead every player was assigned a premade character.
Players were given names ranging from "Player 1" to "Player 8".
Only one map and weapon were playable.
The results screen was ranked on who inked the most turf.
Featured an early version of the map "Urchin Underpass".
The names of the main weapon, sub-weapon, and special weapon were all different and unknown. Early versions of gear exist too.

Availability

As of August 2024, nothing related to this demo has leaked or resurfaced though some assets exist in the files for Super Mario Maker, another Nintendo video game^[4].