Splatoon 2

[Da Robot]

Wait, there's a cameo already?

Heard about this from elsewhere (Reddit maybe?)  In the reveal trailer, when it gets to the new special moves, one of them is a splat bomb launcher that has a design based off the Ultra Machine baseball pitcher toy Nintendo made in the 60's. Appears at 1:09.


While it's not a perfect match it does have design similarities like the a red base, blue holding rack and the rotating white launch arm (it even a notch in it though the original has 2 notches as seen below) it's also now been mirrored so it launches (bombs) from the Inkling's right side instead of the left.




Don't know if the jetpack special will count as being FLUDD inspired though . . .

[Johans Nidorino]

On close inspection, it does have similarities. And on a related topic, this year marks the 50th anniversary of the Ultra Machine.

[Jun The Bob-Omb Ace]

Reminds me of those human... pitcher machines from Rusty's Real Deal Baseball.

[Da Robot]

^ Yeah, those are definite unmodified Ultra Machines in RRDB, (I feel like I'm mentioned this cameo before and how weird they looked). Also appears throughout the WarioWare series and in Animal Crossing.

[Da Robot]

Better images of the "Bomb Launcher" Special have appeared from the official Splatoon Tumblr.

It appears to have have changed (from the original trailer version) to look even more closer to the actual toy. It even has the projectile loader and white flappy launcher on the correct sides. The cross shape bit of blue plastic on the ball holder is there in the new version (from the toy) and explosives are actually stored in visible plastic balls unlike the beta version which has none.