The Splatoon release date is really soon now—it’s coming out May 29. And it may not feel like it, but this is Nintendo’s big release for the spring, and the company has very high hopes for its first-ever shooter. There’s a reason it’s in the same slot that Mario Kart 8 enjoyed last year: Nintendo wants Splatoon to be big. Not just with kids, but with everyone, including lapsed Nintendo fans. It’s a tall order.

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Who among us wasn’t, once upon a time, a Nintendo fan? Many of us, me certainly included, still are Nintendo fans, but Nintendo was how many, many video gamers were introduced to the medium. Its characters are household names worldwide, its greatest hits reason enough to get a Nintendo system—good thing too, since there isn’t much else on them these days. All of us, even if we are lapsed Nintendo fans, still have fond memories.

Splatoon aims to tap into that, according to Nintendolife. In an interview with MCV, a Nintendo marketing manager said that:

We're targeting Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros owners but we're using this opportunity to talk to lapsed Nintendo fans, too. Wii U has a fantastic software line-up and there really is something for everyone. There are a whole load of non-Wii U owning, lapsed Nintendo fans out there who will be tipped over the edge by Splatoon.

Will they, though? Will the Splatoon release date be the catalyst for the hordes of lapsed Nintendo fans to return to the fold? I don’t think it will be, not for most of them. I don’t mean to say that Splatoon won’t be amazing. It will be; the early reviews are all great. The game just doesn’t have the profile of a Smash Bros or a Mario Kart, regardless of the reviews. And it takes a lot to move skeptical gamers into a system that they’ve partially written off, even if there’s loads of fun stuff available for it (which there is).

Trouble is, Splatoon isn’t like Smash Bros. It’s an unknown quantity. And, despite all the hemming and hawing about how Nintendo doesn’t release enough IP, that’s what people come back to. Will they actually embrace Splatoon? I hope so—it sounds like it’s worth it—but the hurdles are high. The Splatoon release date is May 29, and ultimately we just gotta trust Nintendo on this one.