This post contains very minor spoilers for Splatoon Raiders
I've been playing Splatoon Raiders the past few days, and so far, it's been an excellent addition to the Splatoon series that proves it can be more than just multiplayer by supporting a standalone solo adventure. And as I've played through the game, I've noticed a cool, somewhat easy to overlook easter egg that pays homage to the series short yet rich history in a really neat way.
One of the upgrades you can add to your training range on the hideout ship is an arcade cabinet. The arcade cabinet features a handful of simple, 8-bit style high score games that harken back to the minigames you could play on the GamePad during matchmaking in the original Splatoon.
But that's not the only way that this cabinet calls back to the original Wii U game. To build the arcade cabinet, you need to scrounge up a bunch of Spirhalite, the game's main currency/resource. Specifically, you'll need to gather 2015 shards, and if that number looks suspiciously familiar, it should, as it's referencing the year in which the first Splatoon originally released, that of course being 2015!
Not convinced it's an intentional reference? Don't worry, there's more.
When I first saw this, I found it to be a really neat callback, strengthened by its relation to the arcade games, which in and of themselves are kinda calling back to the arcade games in Splatoon 1.
But when I reached the point in the game where a third arcade game can be added to the cabinet, I was surprised to see it wasn't an isolated reference. This time, the cost was set at 2017 Spirhalite Shards, referencing Splatoon 2's release year of 2017!
At this point the connection seemed all but certain and entirely intentional, so it wasn't surprising to see that, later in the game, a fourth arcade game could be unlocked for 2022 Spirhalite Shards, which, as you can probably guess, reference Splatoon 3's release year of 2022!
I was always gonna write this post after seeing the 2015 shards for the arcade cabinet, but seeing the shard count for the subsequent upgrade being 2017, I had to put this post idea aside until I could confirm the next upgrade would be 2022, which it obviously was.
I don't know if there are any further upgrades to be made to the arcade cabinet, but if there are, I'm almost certain I'll need 2026 Spirhalite Shards, in reference to the current year in which Splatoon Raiders was released.
Regardless, I just thought this was a cool easter egg the devs included, and I just wanted to point it out. It's small, but it's one of those things that tells me the devs really cared about the details and paying tribute to the series past, and I just think that's neat!
