Splatoon Island

About

Splatoon Island is a fake video game whose trailer was released as an 2019 April Fools Day prank. The game appeared to be a mobile game wherein the Splatoon Inklings are adults and walk around a resort-type island and play mini-games. The trailer was so well made and convincing that the fact it was a prank came as a disappointment to fans, who genuinely wanted to play the game.

Origin

On April 1st, 2019, YouTuber Mike Inel posted a video advertising a fake video game called Splatoon Island. The trailer appeared to advertise a mobile video game featuring adult Inklings from Splatoon, and showed Inklings selecting outfits and playing minigames on a resort. At the end of the video, the video announces “April Fools!” (shown below).

Spread

After the trailer aired, people were quick to remark that they wished the game were real. Twitter user @MolluskHombre^[1] said “Splatoon Island is too damn good to be fake…”, gaining 4 retweets and 28 likes (shown below, left). User @LopuiiArt^[2] tweeted ASCII Art of a crying face wishing the game were real, gaining 30 retweets and 210 likes (shown below, right).

Etika streamed himself reacting to the trailer. It was reposted to YouTube by user RoséKami (shown below). The prank was covered by TheGamer,^[3] NintendoSoup^[5] and GameRevolution.^[4]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References