The Wii U's Wild Miiverse Lives on in Splatoon 2's Fresh Ecosystem

When Splatoon launched on the Wii U, with it came functionality through the console's Miiverse. The Miiverse was where players could sketch out their wildest dreams, from immensely detailed fan art to memes that looked copy-pasted from the internet. When Splatoon 2 was announced for the Switch, fans expressed worry. With no Miiverse on the Switch, how would the memes and art live on? But Nintendo found a way.

Strolling up to a red mailbox in Inkopolis Square in Splatoon 2, players are now granted the ability to draw things in a rectangular space again through "Posts." The only catch is that most players have to draw with their fingers, as the Switch does not being a stylus-driven touch screen like the Wii U's GamePad. (I tried with the multiple styluses I have, none worked. I'm guessing their tips are too fine.)

Players, however, have risen to the challenge by finding a way to turn the glitter to gold. Some of the more photorealistic art feels a bit like cheating (and according to this step-by-step tedious-sounding instruction from Kotaku, it really is), though others look less so.

The Inkopolis Square pre-release was sparse. There was only a select few pieces of art floating around—mostly from fellow critics, YouTubers, lucky fans who got the game early. Included among them was a lone inkling, proudly scribbling "Target Rules" as excitedly as possible. This was on the Thursday prior to Splatoon 2's wide release, meaning only one thing: this Target obviously broke street date. For shame.

Splatoon 2 fans aren't shy in showing off their admiration for other things too. During my time with Splatoon 2 just over the course of a weekend, I've seen fan art for the cartoon Steven Universe, the games Undertale and Day of the Tentacle (all pictured above), as well as sketches showing characters from the anime and manga properties My Hero Academia and Squid Girl. Squid Girl in particular has been a fixture among Splatoon fans since the first game. Squid Girl's original artist inevitably drew widely circulated fan art for the game. And eventually, the game even offered Squid Girl's adorable outfit in the game. The squid kids went full circle.

The best art, of course, lies in the ones that are seemingly untraced from photos and look like they took hours on the closely zoomed canvas. All across the Miiverse, I was continuously astounded by some of the drawings players were able to sketch with mere styluses. And with the Switch, I'm heartened to see that the non-stylus drawback doesn't seem to be holding artists back from sketching amazing art to share in the virtual space. (Or who knows, maybe there's a magical stylus out there that works with the Switch, and I'm just unaware of it yet.)