Miyamoto Almost Used Mario for Splatoon – A Lesson for Handheld

Nintendo almost defaulted to its safety net. In a Famitsu interview, Shigeru Miyamoto revealed that during Splatoon’s conception, he seriously considered scrapping the Inklings and using Mario on the concept instead. For handheld players, that near-miss matters: Splatoon went on to become one of the Switch’s most vibrant system-sellers, a franchise uniquely built for portable play with fast, colorful matches that fit perfectly between commutes.

The Mario That Almost Was

Miyamoto’s instinct was to lean on a guaranteed global icon—a reflex that would have buried one of Nintendo’s most distinctive new franchises before it reached a single handheld screen. The Inklings succeeded because they were built for short, explosive matches with gyro-aiming that feels natural on a portable display, not because they had Mario’s name recognition. For the Switch 2, the lesson is sharp: a library stacked with Mario, Zelda, and Kirby reskins lacks the texture that keeps players engaged across years of commutes and lunch breaks. Splatoon proved that new characters can define a generation of portable gaming, and Miyamoto himself now says Nintendo needs to be “more proactive” in creating them.

Miyamoto’s Last Original Idea Was Pikmin—and That’s Fine

The interview also revealed that Miyamoto’s last original character concept was Pikmin in 2001, a title that struggled on the GameCube but found its footing on portable platforms. He’s explicitly passing the baton, saying he’ll “leave that to the younger generation.” That’s good news for Switch 2: Nintendo’s trademark quality gate remains intact, but the people walking through it grew up playing on handhelds. The result should be more IPs like Splatoon—built from the ground up for pick-up-and-play depth rather than bloated spectacle. The catch remains that new characters must work globally, resonating on small screens across diverse audiences—a bar the 3DS’s own Splatoon already cleared, as Miyamoto has also discussed in the context of shifting player attention spans.