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Who would have thought the best third-person shooter to emerge at last week's E3 would come from Nintendo? The reveal of Splatoon, a colourful squad-based shooter, was typical of a company that managed to hit all the right beats in Los Angeles, delivering something far more significant than a new Mario, or a new Metroid - it was an all-new IP, produced by the next generation of talent within Nintendo that's all-important to its future. There's a guiding hand too, of course, and as I'm ushered in to meet Splatoon's producer, Hisashi Nogami, and one of its directors, Tsubasa Sakaguchi, in the corner sits Katsuya Eguchi, a veteran of Nintendo's second Entertainment Analysis and Development group whose career stretches back to Super Mario Bros. 3. He jabs away at a laptop, occasionally chuckling to himself at his young team's responses to questions, occasionally prodding them towards certain answers before returning to his work.
It's not as if Splatoon's team are new to Nintendo - producer Nogami boasts 20 years' experience working at EAD, having started as an artist drawing backgrounds on Yoshi's Island before moving on to the Animal Crossing series. Director Sakaguchi, meanwhile, has a full decade under his belt, his career commencing with character design on The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess before most recently working as an artist on NintendoLand.
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