Arcade machine



The Arcade Machine offers retro-style mini-games in Splatoon and Splatoon 2, all played on the GamePad in Splatoon. They can be played in the Lobby for online battles as well as accessed on their own via the physical Arcade Machine in Inkopolis Plaza and Inkopolis Square.

When a mini-game is interrupted by a battle, the player's current progress is saved automatically and can be continued next time. However, progress is not saved when Splatoon itself is closed; upon starting the game again, mini-games are reset to their first level.

There are four mini-games in total: Squid Jump, Squid Racer, Squidball, and Squid Beatz. Only Squid Jump is unlocked by default, with the other three given as rewards for defeating The Ravenous Octomaw! in amiibo challenges.

Splatoon
The Arcade Machine features four different mini-games in total, with all the amiibo challenges completed.

Squid Jump


Squid Jump (Japanese: イカジャンプ ika janpu) is the first of these games, and was the only game playable in the Splatoon Global Testfire.

This game has the player make a squid jump from platform to platform, holding down the button for longer to get a higher jump and using the  or the  to move. To prevent the player from staying still for too long, some purple ink will chase them after a certain amount of time. As the Stages progress, different types of platform are added: ice (which is slippery), clouds (which move back and forth), and conveyor belts (which come in multiple speeds and move a squid resting on one). The game has 25 stages and after every 10 stages, the background changes, the score per stage is doubled and a checkpoint is saved. The player has three lives. Once they have lost all of their lives they can choose to either restart the game or go back to the last checkpoint. The fish makes the player jump immediately upon contact. The Jellyfish lets them jump once in the middle of the air; they cannot jump in the air again until they either land on the ground or pick up another Jellyfish. The starfish increases the player's acceleration, both from jumps and from gravity; this means that picking it up usually means that the squid will immediately begin falling faster, but if the squid is jumping upward while the star's effect wears off, the result can be an extremely high jump. The player gets an extra life every 10,000 points.

Squid Racer


The second game is Squid Racer (Japanese: イカレース ika rēsu), which is unlocked by the Inkling Boy Amiibo

This mini-game is a race between the player, a white squid, and their blue jellyfish foes. The aim is to reach the end of the map before time runs out, avoiding touching the jellyfish and the sides of the stage, which slow the player down. The or the  is used to steer, the  button is used for accelerating and the  button for drifting. While the player holds to drift, the player's squid cannot change direction, but steering still causes the player's squid to rotate. Releasing it shoots the player's squid in the direction it faces. Holding the button during the second half of when the number 2 appears during the countdown triggers a starting boost very similar to the starting boost in the Mario Kart series.

There are 30 stages and after every 5 stages is a checkpoint. Every track has a time limit. Once time runs out, the player will lose a life. The player gets three lives, with additional lives being earned every 10,000 points. Once they have lost all their lives, they can continue from the last checkpoint reached, or restart from the beginning. While the player gets a bonus to their score based on both their time and how many jellyfish they beat to the end, it's not necessary to place to proceed. The red fish gives the player a speed boost. The Zapfish lets the player swallow jellyfish by touching them, making the squid larger and faster. The green sunfish dramatically increases the player's turning speed while drifting. The player can benefit from only one power-up at a time, so it can sometimes be advantageous to avoid picking one up so as not to replace a more useful one.

Squidball


The third game is Squidball (Japanese: イカボール ika bōru), which is unlocked by the Inkling Girl amiibo. There are 30 stages in it.

In this game, the player (a squid) has to hit the Jellyfish on the other side of the net with a ball (shaped like a Zapfish) to score points. The mechanics are similar to volleyball, with a bump, set, and spike. First, the squid is stuck to the ground and can move using the stick or the  and can only bounce the ball upward (at an angle based on where on the squid the ball struck) by letting the ball bounce off of the squid. Second, the player must press to jump. Third, the player presses while touching the ball to hit it, or the player can continue to hold the  from jumping to hitting the ball to hit it. The angle of the ball changes with the direction held when launching it, which can be either neutral, back or forward. The player must spike the ball for it to count; a ball immediately bounced over the net will pass through the jellyfish harmlessly.

The player gets three balls per stage: one small, one medium, and one large. If the specified number of targets is not reached with all three balls, the game is over and the player can restart from either the beginning or the last checkpoint. After every 5 stages is a checkpoint. Each stage has a fixed number of points awarded for completing it, with bonus points awarded for having balls in reserve or exceeding the required number of hits.

In addition to jellyfish, other creatures can appear on the far side of the net. Starfish are just like jellyfish, but one starfish is worth three jellyfish. Green sunfish burst into fragments when hit, and the fragments can hit other creatures. Sea urchins are obstacles: a small ball will be stopped completely, a medium ball will destroy the urchin but will itself be destroyed, and a large ball will destroy the urchin and keep going, but with greatly diminished momentum.

Squid Beatz


The last mini-game is Squid Beatz (Japanese: イカラジオ ika rajio), which is unlocked by the Inkling Squid amiibo.

This game is a music player featuring all 31 tracks from Splatoon and is also a standard rhythm game. The button switches between no game, normal mode, and hard mode and the  button is the Play/Pause switch. The player will have to press the Control Pad and Buttons represented on the line at the bottom at the correct time to turn the Jellyfish into yellow rabbits. The player can press any direction on the or  button when a D-Pad icon shows up, or the ,,, or  when an icon with 4 circles representing ABXY shows up to play the song correctly in tune, but there is no penalty and risk of losing rabbits if the player presses any of the aforementioned buttons.

Each of the buttons has 2 different sounds depending on whether normal or hard mode is selected.

While waiting for a match to start, Bob Dub's [[Media:Multiplayer Waiting Room & Equip Screen.ogg|Dubble Bath]] is the default song played. By pressing and  at the same time, any selected song can be played as if one was using the arcade machine.

Squid Beatz was updated in Version to include the four new tracks added and their information.

It is the only game not to have a numbered scoring system, instead it uses yellow rabbit type creatures to track the score. It is also the only game not to save progress between matches.

Splatoon 2
In Splatoon 2 there is only one arcade game, Squid Beatz 2. As the sequel to Squid Beatz, it is a rhythm game in which the player presses buttons to the beat of songs from Splatoon 2.

Tracks 1 through 8, 27 through 30, and 43 through 49 are available from start; 36, 38, and 40 are unlocked by the Splatoon 2 amiibos; the rest are unlocked after they have been heard in-game for the first time.

Trivia

 * Squid Beatz and its sequel Squid Beatz 2 are based on the Bandai Namco rhythm game series Taiko No Tatsujin
 * Jellyfish are featured in some way in each of arcade games.
 * The rabbits in Squid Beatz are likely a reference to an early stage of development wherein the protagonists were to be humanoid rabbits.
 * The art for each of the four games parodies that of NES games from popular studios. Squid Racer's artwork is based on Irem's titles, Squid Beatz' is based on Namco's, and Squid Ball's is based on those of Nintendo.
 * The Arcade Machine is also featured in Ancho-V Games, with four individual machines throughout the stage. Unlike the one in Inkopolis Plaza, they cannot be interacted with.
 * Ancho-V Games is said to have developed Squid Beatz.
 * Several official sources also cite them as the developers of Squid Beatz 2.
 * The red fish from the minigames are similar to Cheep Cheeps found in Mario games.
 * To be able to play the final boss music tracks (I am DJ Octavio and Calamari Inkantation) as well as the one from the Credits (Maritime Memory), the player must first beat DJ Octavio in Enter the Octobot King!
 * There is no reward for completing any of the minigames, once the player has passed all of the stages in one of them, a sign saying "Congratulations!" will pop up and the game will reset to the first level.
 * The squid is always white in the games. White squids are not seen anywhere else in Splatoon with an exception on 3 Splatfests, Lemon Tea vs. Milk Tea, Mayo vs. Ketchup and Chicken vs. Egg.
 * In Splatoon 2, arcade machines featuring the artwork from Squid Jump, Squid Ball, and Squid Racer can be seen inside the Shoal when looking in from outside the entrance.