In a recent interview with Time, Nintendo guru Shigeru Miyamoto revealed that Splatoon was originally created not with those lovable inklings in mind, but almost ended up starring everyone's favorite mustachioed plumber, Mario.

Miyamoto discussed what happened during the development process of Splatoon, explaining that, though the core gameplay was fun and exciting, there was something not-quite fresh enough about the game. We're rather surprised to hear that Mario was originally thought to star in the spotlight again when it comes to the early concepts of Splatoon's development.

"The thing which concerned us most was the main character," Miyamoto explained. "It looked as if it could be found in any game and lacked uniqueness. So, I told the game’s producer and the director to even consider using Mario if we could not find the right character. I also explained to them why I was providing such a suggestion.”

Well, the fan reaction to Splatoon so far has proven that Miyamoto and his team were on the right track with this new character direction. There's already all sorts of fan art for this unreleased game, as there's something about this mischievous inklings which draws people to them. Plus, Splatoon's unique ink mechanic brings a new life to an oversaturated genre by taking traditional shooting action in a new direction with all sorts of unorthodox weapon types, like ground-coating paint rollers and a cute cat judge deliberating over the action.

A few weeks later, they gingerly approached me with the squid-like character, and we decided on that direction right on the spot. The director and others who nervously brought the squid character to me must have been surprised with my positive reaction, but at the time, I didn’t accept it for lack of better options. I actually thought, ‘This must be it!’ It’s fun to nurture something so unique, and I’m glad that they were able to experience bringing it to fruition.

Splatoon is slated for a May 2015 release for the Nintendo Wii U.

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