Tentacle to the Metal: Ecosophy, Metamodernism, and Splatoon 3

Nikolas Matovinovic's paper examines Splatoon 3 (Nintendo, 2022) through the lens of ecosophy and metamodernism, using the virtual idol band Off the Hook, comprised of the in-game characters Pearl and Marina, as its central case study. The author argues that the game's ecologically oriented design, particularly its adaptation of cephalopod traits such as colour-changing and ink production, along with its eclectic, nostalgic aesthetics and emphasis on community, reflects a metamodern sensibility. The paper positions this sensibility through the concept of metaxy, an ontological in-betweenness that the author sees in the constant shifting between the player-character's humanoid and cephalopodic "swim form," and in the layered existence of virtual idols across diegetic music, holographic concerts, and their voice actors' star personas.

The theoretical framework draws on Félix Guattari's notion of ecosophy, which treats culture and ecology as an interdependent system, alongside Donna Haraway's writing on tentacular thinking and Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker's account of metamodernism as a structure of feeling. The author reads Vermeulen's characterization of metamodernism as an oscillating pendulum rather than a synthesis, applying it to the game's affective and aesthetic construction. The paper also notes that metamodernist scholarship remains nascent in game studies, and that Splatoon itself, Nintendo's first franchise designed primarily around online play, has received relatively little academic attention relative to its commercial and cultural significance.

The analysis reflects the paper's broader claim that the two bodies of literature, on tentacular ecocriticism and on metamodernism, developed in parallel during the 2010s and can be productively connected through the figure of the cephalopod. The paper's scope is interpretive and theoretical rather than empirical, with no survey or quantitative data, and it situates Splatoon 3's September 2024 "Grand Festival" event within the series' ongoing splatfest tradition as the occasion for its study.