WaifuRaccoonBL
Inkling Fleet Admiral
I think it is fair to at least argue that Melee is going on more than 14 years for more reasons then just good. Especially if it can be argued Brawl and Smash 4 are also good. Melee has other things like a very active community, memes, podcasts, hype trailers, etc.ultimately, if melee can survive 14 years just on the merit of being a good game, without any kind of support from the developers and publisher and a venomous attitude against it from the general fgc, i think splatoon can get by just fine. obviously they're very different situations - melee is a fighting game with its core gameplay being local multiplayer and can probably outlive the heat death of the universe, and splatoon at its heart is an online experience and will only as live as long as its servers are up, it's just an example that if a game is good and has passionate players, it will survive, if not thrive
side note: as annoying and forced as the YOU'RE A KID NOW/YOU'RE A SQUID NOW meme is, it'll at least attract attention to splatoon from stream monsters and other such communities who just revel in tired jokes. i guess that's a curt point, but it's just an example of how easy it is to get other communities interested in our game.
Melee also has one of the best things for spectator sports. Things happen in it. There is always some sort of combo or death happening less then every 30 seconds. People can even die in 5 seconds. This really doesn't have much to do with how good it is except for because that it is good, people will play it for the spectators.
So then the question has to be ask, is there enough going on in Splatoon for people to get hyped about constatnly while watching? I think there is, just like I think Smash 4 has it to. But ultimately it is up to the speculators to decide.