I haven't had the privilege of playing Splatoon yet, however, although there might not be many games where you are doing team based combat with paint that you can then travel faster through, it's still drawn from the concepts of capture the flag/territory grab (see many a 90s online FPS). It's not the first game to involve paint as the weapon/combat element (Jet Set Radio, Paintball, Epic Mickey heck, even Golden Eye on the N64 had paint as an option), heck there's a real world sport of that, and it's also not the first game where you colour in environments (Epic Mickey, De Blob) for territorial advantages (many a game once you "own" an area, you get perks from this, whether it's increased resources, additional abilities etc.)
So while yes, it's an original combination, none of it's ideas are actually original themselves.
True innovation, is actually a completely fresh idea or implementation, not a hybrid of existing ideas.
RIP Dad 25/11/51 - 13/12/13. You will be missed but never forgotten.
