With Splatoon 2 on the horizon, I thought it might be a good time to “wet” your appetite for ink with some delicious hard candy!  I spotted this candy at my local international grocery store and decided to buy it for the reasonable price of around $3.50. Nobel’s Mario gummies were a big hit in my recent review, so should we expect the same for the hard candy?  Read on to find out!

Packaging – The Splatoon candy comes in a size that is very comparable to the small bags of Lifesavers you see in grocery stores across the U.S.  One big advantage to Splatoon candy is the packaging is much cooler than Lifesavers!  The ink patterns and Splatoon art look great and catch your eye in the store even when surrounded by other Japanese candy.

Unbagging – After opening and pulling out all of the contents of the bag, I was impressed by the amount of candy I received.  It looks like I got about 25 pieces and what is this?  Nobel included some stickers too!  I wonder if there are a few different kinds of stickers you can potentially get but since the packaging is all in Japanese, I can’t really say.  The stickers I got look really nice and have a slightly different and darker style than what you usually see with Splatoon.  Everything has been impressive about the hard candy thus far but the true test is the flavors!

Flavors – I really like almost all of the Japanese candy I have tried and this is no different!  There are four flavors as advertised on the cover.  You can choose from Orange, Grape, Apple, and Ramune (Cola) and all of them are pretty good.  Grape and Apple taste similar to the actual fruit which I appreciate and is often the case with Japanese candy.  Ramune is a great flavor in my opinion too and this one didn’t let me down.  Orange is probably my least favorite of the four but I still think it tastes pretty good and I have no complaints with it at all.  The center of this candy is kind of like the fruit snack Gushers for those of you in the United States.  It is a thick liquid that I can’t quite figure out what the flavor is.  It is good and a nice way to end the candy though the texture can be a bit funky and get stuck to your teeth pretty easily.  I assume the idea is that the brightly colored liquid in the middle ties this candy into Splatoon which is a stretch but when the candy tastes good, who can complain!?

Closing Thoughts – Much like the Super Mario gummies, Nobel makes great tasting candy that is sure to satisfy any Nintendo fan.  Japanese candy is well-known for being creative and high-quality and while this is fairly standard candy flavor-wise, the quality is absolutely there and it is a reasonable price to boot.  If you like Splatoon or just want a nice Nintendo-themed candy treat, I highly recommend checking this product out!