--- title: Watch: Nintendo's Squid Ink Game "Splatoon" Preview description: Take a look at how the new Wii U game is played canonical: https://time.com/2867086/nintendo-splatoon-demo/ author: TIME Video article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-12T22:19:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:02:30.909Z article:section: Business og:title: Watch: Nintendo's Squid Ink Game "Splatoon" Preview og:description: Take a look at how the new Wii U game is played og:url: https://time.com/2867086/nintendo-splatoon-demo/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt09c06da8cad7bdcc/698697c213c79f5681192aa5/splatoon-e3-2014-8.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: splatoon-e3-2014-8 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch: Nintendo's Squid Ink Game "Splatoon" Preview twitter:description: Take a look at how the new Wii U game is played twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt09c06da8cad7bdcc/698697c213c79f5681192aa5/splatoon-e3-2014-8.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch: Nintendo's Squid Ink Game "Splatoon" Preview by [TIME Video](/author/time-video/) and [Corey Protin](/author/corey-protin/) Jun 12, 2014 10:19 PM CUT  Nintendo by [TIME Video](/author/time-video/) and [Corey Protin](/author/corey-protin/) Jun 12, 2014 10:19 PM CUT Nintendo unveiled its new Wii U game “Splatoon” on Tuesday, featuring squid-human characters in a 4-vs-4 ink shooting game. Set for release in 2015, the premise is simple: [try to cover the most square footage with ink](http://time.com/2850345/nintendo-e3-digital-event/ "undefined"). The best part? You can decide whether you want to be a human or a squid. TIME tried it out at the E3 conference — watch how to play in the video above. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2867086/nintendo-splatoon-demo/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2867086/nintendo-splatoon-demo/"},"headline":"Watch: Nintendo's Squid Ink Game \"Splatoon\" Preview","datePublished":"2014-06-12T22:19:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:02:30.909Z","description":"Take a look at how the new Wii U game is played","url":"https://time.com/2867086/nintendo-splatoon-demo/","keywords":["Tech","Games","Nintendo","Gaming","Wii U","e3","e3 2014"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt09c06da8cad7bdcc/698697c213c79f5681192aa5/splatoon-e3-2014-8.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Video","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-video/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Corey Protin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/corey-protin/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt09c06da8cad7bdcc/698697c213c79f5681192aa5/splatoon-e3-2014-8.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"splatoon-e3-2014-8","caption":"","creditText":"Nintendo","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2867086/nintendo-splatoon-demo/","name":"Watch: Nintendo's Squid Ink Game \"Splatoon\" Preview"}}]}] ```