I really didn't expect any game, time-wise, to beat the sort of hours that I put into stuff like Monster Hunter, but Splatoon has handily crushed anything else that's released in the past year (the past 5-6 years, really) as far as maintaining my attention. For as poorly as rounds in the game can go for me at times, and for all the bitching and moaning that I've subjected the SplatGAF Discord group to
(Which really is a fantastic and fun community to be a part of, if you haven't stopped by lately), the fact that I keep coming back for more, keep wanting to find that equipment setup that fully clicks, and have never just dropped it entirely for easier and more ego-padding games suggests to me that they really did nail something compelling within the in-the moment gameplay that few games seem to match.
The aforementioned community definitely goes a long way in maintaining that interest, as well as the game itself, so I want to say a big thanks to all of you for helping to make the year, and I'm honestly sorry about all my salt.
Expectations for the sequel are going to be huge...I hope Nintendo has something really interesting up their sleeve to keep this series from being just a one-off success story.