We’ll conclude Squid Week (it’s like Shark Week, but with squids) with a look at some of my favorite tentacled creatures in video games.  This includes both squids and octopi (octopuses is actually an acceptable plural form of octopus, too, I looked it up).  So hide the calamari and let’s begin!

5. Blooper

This swimming squid has been pestering Mario since the original Super Mario Bros.  Not 100 percent sure if it’s “Blooper” or “Bloober” but I’m pretty sure it’s the former.  They’re one of the tougher Mario underwater enemies because of their quick, erratic movements.  Things get even worse in later games when they fly in the air in Mario 2 (Japan), or send their offspring to attack (Mario 3).  Later on, giant Bloopers served as bosses in a few Mario games, too!  They’re even a slightly useless power-up in some Mario Kart games where they squirt ink on your screen.  No matter what, you gotta watch out for them!

4. Octodad

I don’t really know much about this character, as I’ve never played the game, but what I’ve seen, I really want to play it!  It started out as an indie PC game, but now it’s a downloadable title for consoles under the name: Octodad: Dadliest Catch.  In the game, you play as an octopus who is trying to be a head of a household with a human wife and kids.  I think you have to prevent people from noticing you’re not really one of them, and the only one who suspects anything is an evil French chef!  It reminds me of those really creative games that you’d see back in the GameCube and PS2 days.  I think you have to move his tentacles around like arms and legs to do everyday tasks, but it can get awkward since he’s not geared to do things like mow the lawn, pick up groceries, or make dinner!  I know it’s out already on the Vita, but I hear it’s also coming to the Wii U.  Since I don’t have a Vita, I hope it comes out on the Wii U soon.  I really want to play it!

3. Game & Watch Octopus

I never had any of the Game & Watch games as a kid.  I really don’t remember seeing them in stores.  So most of my knowledge comes after when they made collections of them on the Game Boy consoles.  Octopus was one of them.  In this game, you were a diver and had to get treasure from the bottom of the sea and sneak past the tentacles of an octopus as they would go up and down.  If you got caught, you lost a life!  Octopus also had an updated version on a couple of the Game & Watch Galleries for GBC and GBA.  In this one, Mario was the diver and Peach manned the boat on the top of the screen.  The octopus was still just an octopus, but he did change color from time to time.  You’d think they’d use a giant Blooper, but that’s clearly a squid and that wouldn’t make sense since the title of the game IS Octopus.  The Octopus remake also had some pretty catchy music.  In Smash Bros., Mr. Game & Watch has a few attacks based on this game.  He can bash people with his head as the diver, and his Smash move turns him into the octopus!  And in Nintendo Land, there is an Octopus dancing music game, strangely enough.  I guess you could say this was the first octopus in video games.

2. Splatoon Squid Kids

Am I a squid?  Or am I a kid?  These are legitimate questions.  I have to say that these characters, squids that turn into people, are pretty creative.  As kids, their hair acts as tentacles and they shoot ink through guns.  And when they turn into squids, they can swim quickly through their own ink.  I also think it’s pretty cool that they are a new IP from Nintendo and not based on anything prior.  And the squid kids can wear clothes and hats that you buy and dress them up in, so it kind of reminds me of Animal Crossing, too.  They are certainly creative and fun, and will probably hold up well with the rest of Nintendo’s crew.  Stay fresh!

1. Ultros

We saved the best for last.  Ultros comes from one of my top five favorite games of all time: Final Fantasy 6.  He’s a purple octopus and a reoccurring gag villain who shows up to fight you at the most inopportune times during the first half of the story.  In the second half, they seemed to not really know what to do with him as he’s just a desk clerk at the coliseum.  Which is a shame, because he’s a pretty funny bad guy.  I guess real life and work just catches up to you sometimes.  He has some great lines, too.  “Don’t tease the octopus, kids!”  I know he shows up as an enemy in the Theatrhythm games, and he’s a summon in the Dissidia titles.  But is Ultros in any other Final Fantasy game?  If you know, tell me, as I’m not quite as knowledgeable about the newer FF titles.

Honorable Mentions

Of course, there are tons of other squids and octopuseses in games, so I’ll go over a few other critters that didn’t make the list.  Of course the most famous is probably the Octorok from Zelda.  They’ve been a minor enemy since the first game, and a giant Octorok was even a boss in Minish Cap (although it was really just a regular sized Octorok and you were just really small).  It was a pretty tough boss, too.  Octopuses that walk around on land shooting rocks is a pretty creative idea, I suppose.

There were walking tentacles in Maniac Mansion and its sequel: Day of the Tentacle, where the purple tentacle was the villain.  Of course, these were just tentacles, not octopuses or squids, so they don’t make the list.  Plus, I didn’t get into Maniac Mansion as much as I did Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders anyway.  Anyone remember the awful Maniac Mansion TV show?  Yeah that did exist.

And finally there’s Launch Octopus from Mega Man X.  He’s a pretty tricky boss, as he can suck your life meter, make whirlpools, and shoot missiles at the same time.  He’s weak against Armored Armadillo’s weapon, though.  I think there was an electric squid boss in one of the later Mega Man titles, and I think he even made mention of Launch Octopus.

And no, Squidward is not on this list at all.  Although there are so many Squidward Miiverse posts on Splatoon that you’d think it was a Spongebob game.  Well, anyway, that’s it for Squid Week.  In the comments section, let me know what you think of my list, and tell me your favorite squids and octopi in games.  Later!  –Cary

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