Of course, there's no better way to start than the initial reveal of the game, with its heavy focus on Inklings.
The Context
The Nintendo Switch was officially revealed in October of 2016, and even before its March 2017 launch, game announcements were to be made. As per usual, many were speculating on what the games shown in the initial reveal were, as well as what else might soon be getting a new entry on this new system. One of the main questions asked was "Where is Smash?"
It was easy to assume that a new Smash game would have to make its way onto this system eventually, but as 2017 went on and multiple presentations passed, the fans were slowly becoming more anxious as to when it would finally be announced. I distinctly remember the period early on in the Switch's life when it would be difficult to watch a new Nintendo Direct without somebody during speculation bringing up the possibility of Smash being announced or half the live chat spamming stuff along the lines of "where is smash?!?," "smash?," etc.
Then 2018 rolls around, and the March Direct that many remember very fondly is announced. I distinctly remember just about every speculation video pertaining to that Direct brought up Smash at some point, but the speculation all felt the same as it had been for the last year or so, so nobody was necessarily getting their hopes up. This is especially the case since most of Nintendo's Directs since the Switch launched didn't really have any major first-party reveals, E3 being the main exception. Because of this, there was no precedent for Nintendo to reveal anything big to begin with until E3, much less Smash Bros.
Aside from when Smash would be announced, there was also the question of who would be announced with it. Many people had many ideas, but it was pretty much universally accepted that whenever the reveal finally happened, it would involve the Inklings in some capacity. Splatoon was Nintendo's newest IP and between the success of the first game and the fact that the sequel was one of the first games shown off for the Switch, it just felt inevitable that the Inklings would be in the next Smash game.
The Reveal
So the Direct starts, and it's already kind of insane. The first reveal is a new WarioWare for 3ds, which was a very welcome addition for me. Not long after, a remake of Bowser's Inside Story is revealed (my friend was super hyped for that, and was convinced to watch the Direct because of it), followed by a remake of the original Luigi's Mansion for 3ds. Overall, it was definitely a solid 3ds selection, especially compared to the last couple directs.The insanity doesn't stop there though. The rest of the Direct has announcements ranging from more details on Octopath and Mario Tennis, to a Captain Toad port for Switch and 3ds, to ports of Crash, South Park, and Undertale.
What is seemingly the final announcement for the Direct is for version 3.0 of Splatoon 2. A pretty solid way to end the Direct, but not all too noteworthy at first. Then the gameplay swirls into darkness (which lowkey gave me a heart attack bc I was on edge about Smash, but not fully expecting it), transitioning into the reveal of the Splatoon 2 Octo Expansion. This felt like a hell of a way to end a Direct, and most people were likely satisfied by this.
Then a 7 word sentence was uttered:
"Well, actually we have one more announcement."
A new trailer starts, calling back to the original Splatoon trailer. This was the first hint for me because a Splatoon 1 port made no sense at the time, and the only other reason as to why they would call back to the Splatoon 1 announcement that made sense to me was Smash. I still held out just to avoid getting my hopes up. As the trailer goes on, I notice how the trailer was much faster paced and action-heavy than I was used to for Splatoon, which was sign number 2 for me. Even when everything went dark, I was still trying to stay in disbelief. Then, however, came the iconic image of the flaming Smash ball forming in the Inkling's pupil (literally just got chills typing that out, lol).
I think that was the first time a gaming announcement made me actually shout. I'm not even kidding, I was shaking for the next 10 minutes or so. It was such a weird mixture of disbelief, excitement, and flat out shock that I was experiencing. I distinctly remember texting my friends and struggling because I was both shaking and attempting to type really fast.
Overall, a very fond memory of mine.
Why I like them
I got a Switch roughly 3 months after its initial launch, so as many people know, there wasn't a whole lot to play on it at the time. For the first month or two that I had it, the only game I owned was Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and while I love it to death, I already had Mario Kart 8 on my Wii U. I was in much need of a new experience on Switch, and I didn't have the money to get anything until late July of that year, which happened to be when Splatoon 2 launched.
I never played Splatoon on the Wii U, though I had only heard praise about it, so I was intending on eventually trying it out anyway. Thankfully, the first Splatfest for the sequel was a pre-launch event that anyone could try (a smart move on Nintendo's part). This alone convinced me to get the game, and for a while, it was easily my favorite Switch game that I owned.
Even before this point, I felt like their inclusion in Smash was an inevitability, and me trying them out brought them up much higher on my wish list for the game (I'll get to my number 1 pick in a later post). I even had a few ideas as to how their reveal trailer may play out, which ended up coming fairly close to what we got (definitely not quite on the mark tho). This definitely helped me in getting excited for their inclusion in the game since I now knew more about how they might play and what their moveset might look like.
Speaking of, Inkling is such a fun character to play as. They were my second main from the start of the game, and even though they have been surpassed by a few fighters, they are still one of my favorite characters to play as in the game.
Overall, my experience with Splatoon has given me enough to appreciate the inclusion of Inklings in Smash, and the circumstances surrounding their reveal (and Smash's reveal as a whole) only amplified my excitement for their inclusion. Quite honestly, Smash Ultimate just wouldn't have felt the same without Inkling.
