@ShinyGirafarig Awesome pics of the Nintendo store. I sooo want a Takoroka Mesh hat. Is there a guy in the alley behind the store that will add slots for a snail?
It's also interesting that they have backpacks with NES controllers and Mario 1 imagery. I'm thinking these backpacks are not aimed at anyone less than 25? :D
I think this is very premature. Remember PSY and Gangnam Style? It was huge for a while. Everything thought it would launch Kpop to new heights in the US. What happened? It fizzled out. Remember how big a deal Susan Boyle was? That's how these things work. Sometimes, they stick around and most of the time they don't. I think Splatoon appeals to Japanese gamers in a huge way, but I'm not convinced the greater Western world will feel the same way in two years. I hope it does continue to be popular and I think a sequel is a very safe bet, but you have to remember that public consciousness has ADD when it comes to these types of things.
I think you're comparing different things. Those are pop fads. Like the Wii itself. They trend on social media, they become memes, punchlines on evening comedy shows, then vanish, as they always have. Nobody ever seriously thought Kpop would be a thing in the US. But social media and overpaid media pundits kept pretending it would anyway. Fads, like the Wii, explode, they're everywhere within a few years, and they're almost completely forgotten (even avoided as now being a passe outdated fad) after the fact.
The things that last aren't the things that explode and are part of EVERYBODY's lives. Those are all fads. The things that last are things that MANY people are casually aware of simply existing and it joins the background. Most people didn't PLAY Mario or think much of it in the 80's. Most people didn't PLAY Pokemon or think much of it in the 90's. But most everyone became aware of its existence and is that thing that their friends kids like. I'm not saying it'll be a pop culture fad that dominates media cycles. I think it'll more become a reference that people will generally recognize "oh, that Splatoon thing, I've heard of that" while gamers will simply KNOW what it is as a brand. Maybe the Macy's parade will get an Inkling Girl balloon in a few years, then you'll know it's permanent. Assuming Macy's still exists by then which is questionable.
Splatoon hasn't become a fad that EVERYBODY HAS TO BE A PART OF(!!!1!) yet. And that's a good thing for its staying power.
I will disagree with you in the case of Metroid. Samus has been a major icon of gender equality and "girl power" since the day she shocked the world by revealing herself as the main heroine. I'm not sure how you define "cultural," but turning the existing gender paradigm that had existed since time en memoriam in the West on its head certainly counts in my book.
Metroid isn't an icon of anything. It's a washed up directionless series that never actually sold very well to begin with. I happen to be a fan, I enjoy the games, I liked the old 2D games better than the Prime series, but ultimately it never lit up charts, was never tremendously popular, and Nintendo itself has minimal confidence in it (which is why we get that chibi-Metroid game on 3DS (which actually looks fun, but that's beside the point.) The general public was never aware of the existence of Metroid unless you're in gaming circles to begin with, and it never had merchandisable imagery of any sort. One of the Splatoon brand logos has more market potential than the whole of Metroid.
I'm not hating on Metroid, I'm eager for a new Metroid game, it's one of my fondest remembered series, but in terms of the broad market, there never really was much of one. Not in '89, and not in '16. It's like Pikmin. A gaming series for gamers. The "gender paradigm" Samus broke was pretty purely in gaming circles. It never had any significance outside gaming. (And even where it did it was pointed out they had her in a bikini...)
