Inkling

The Inkling (, Inkling) is the species of player characters from the universe.

After making cameos in Super Smash Bros. 4 as a downloadable trophy and Mii Costume, Inkling transitioned into a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Origin


Inklings are creatures that can transform between a squid form and a humanoid form. They act as the players' avatars in the Splatoon series, although players can also choose to play as Octolings in Splatoon 2 if they have purchased and completed the  and from the start in Splatoon 3. Newborn Inklings initially only have access to their squid form and slowly go through a metamorphosis into their humanoid form, reaching maturity after about fourteen years.

battles between teams of Inklings involve using a variety of weapons to cover the map with their team's colored ink—which they can swim in while in squid form—while disrupting the other team's attempt to do the same within the time limit of three minutes. Inklings are also very fashionable, as they can be seen wearing different outfits as well as sporting different hairstyles (though alternate hairstyle options are introduced in Splatoon 2). Inklings are also colored based on the color of their team in battles.

The Inkling outfits and headgear for Mii Fighters resemble the most prominent Inklings featured in promotional art, which are also used for their designs.
 * An orange Inkling girl with the Hippie hairstyle wearing the and, introduced in Splatoon.
 * A blue Inkling boy with the Topknot hairstyle wearing the and, introduced in Splatoon.
 * A green Inkling squid, introduced in Splatoon.
 * A pink Inkling girl with the Haircut hairstyle wearing the, , and , introduced in Splatoon 2.
 * A green Inkling boy with the Slick hairstyle wearing the, , and , introduced in Splatoon 2.

As a costume
The orange Inkling girl and blue Inkling boy shown in the original promotional art for Splatoon are the basis for two paid downloadable content costumes: the Inkling Outfit for s (with matching Inkling Wig headgear) and a standalone piece of headgear, the Inkling Squid Hat. Two QR codes were also released for those who wish to have the exact Miis used in the Inkling Outfit's advertising: one for the Inkling boy and one for the Inkling girl.

These outfits could be obtained for free with copies of Splatoon purchased from GameStop in North America before June 13th, 2015. Otherwise, they were made purchasable on the eShop beginning on June 14th, 2015.

Trophy
The Inkling trophy was automatically unlocked after purchasing the Inkling Outfit.

As a playable character
Both male and female Inklings appear as unlockable newcomers in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The initial teaser trailer for the then-untitled Ultimate featured the and the  from Splatoon's original promotional art, although they were not explicitly confirmed to be fighters until Nintendo's E3 2018 presentation, where Inkling Girl was confirmed to be the default. Inkling can potentially be the first fighter unlocked due to being the first fighter in ' Classic Mode unlock tree.

In Ultimate, Inkling incorporates as a key component of her moveset, and can apply it via a number of attacks. Inkling can also change into her squid form via her dash, spot dodge, air dodge, roll, up throw, back throw and Super Jump, as well as while refilling her Ink Tank. Although Inkling dissolves in water in the Splatoon series, this trait is not carried over into Ultimate; instead, it is referenced by Inkling receiving continuous damage while swimming.

As a costume
In addition to the returning Splatoon costumes from Super Smash Bros. 4, Splatoon 2 costumes for the are available. The Splatoon 2 costumes are based on the pink Inkling girl and the green Inkling boy featured in that game's promotional art.

Trivia

 * The skin color of most Inkling headgear and outfits for Mii Fighters in Smash 4 and Ultimate changes to match the skin color of the Mii wearing them, mirroring the ability to customize the playable Inkling's skin color in Splatoon games.
 * Oddly, the European version of SSB4 doesn't change the spelling of "colored" to "coloured" in the Inkling's trophy description.
 * Inkling and Wii Fit Trainer are the only fighters with male and female variants where the female is the default variant.
 * Inkling is also the only fighter to have male and female variants where both genders have the same voice actor.
 * Inkling and Alph are the only fighters whose console of origin is the Wii U. Unlike Alph, however, Inkling Girl is a standard fighter in her own right (having her own character selection screen slot, being acknowledged by various battle records in-game, etc.), whereas Alph, like Inkling Boy, is an alternate costume character that shares a character slot with Captain Olimar.
 * Due to Alph being an alternate costume character to Olimar (who debuted on the Nintendo GameCube), Inkling is the only standard fighter to debut on the Wii U. By extension, Splatoon is the only franchise to have debuted on the Wii U.
 * As with the other fighters with male and female variants, the default male and female Inklings have been established as separate entities. This has been shown in cinematics that promote Ultimate, such as the opening movie of World of Light.
 * In some languages, Inkling has two different names to refer to the female and male variants. Villager, Wii Fit Trainer, Pokémon Trainer, Byleth, and the Mii Fighters also share this trait. While "Inkling Girl" and "Inkling Boy" have been officially used in English as well as Japanese, German and Dutch in the Splatoon series and , the English, Japanese, German and Dutch versions of Ultimate do not make this name distinction.
 * The French localizations are the only ones not to capitalize "inkling", treating it as a species name instead of a character name.
 * Inkling appears as a playable guest character in Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum 'n' Fun!, alongside Kirby, with "Splatoon 2 Medley" also being one of the game's songs.