Nintendo announced the return of its ink-fueled shooter franchise on Wednesday during Wednesday’s Nintendo Direct presentation with Splatoon 3The game’s first trailer didn’t offer much detail, just some gameplay clips and bits of lore. Fans got a meaningful change in, however Splatoon 3: Nintendo seems to have eliminated gender-based language when choosing a character. Rather than asking players to pick a boy or girl Inkling likes Splatoon 2 is doing, Splatoon 3The character creator simply allows players to choose their “style”.
The short clip we saw of the creation line-up on Wednesday featured other options such as skin tone, hairstyles and an assortment of Splatoon’s characteristically fun street style clothing.
The wording was thrilled by Splatoon fans on Twitter, with many of them commenting that Splatoon has officially eliminated the concept of gender itself.
Many raved about how inclusive the change is, developing fan theories about the change and the game’s color scheme. For example, some tweets noted that the colors in the logo are the same as those in the non-binary pride flag.
WAIT THERES NO SEX OPTION IN SPLATOON 3 ALL SQUID KIDS ARE CONFIRMED NON-BINARY
– bit (@splatbit) February 17, 2021
This isn’t the first time fans of the game have made fun of Splatoon. Many fans were convinced that Pearl and Marina were the faces of it Splatoon 2, we’re dating.
Splatoon isn’t the only Nintendo franchise to ditch gender choices. Animal Crossing: New Horizons uses similar language and asks players to choose their ‘style’.
We have contacted Nintendo to confirm these details, and we will update this article with any response we receive.
Splatoon 3 is slated for release on Nintendo Switch in 2022.