This coming weekend, starting May 22 (Fri) at 3pm PT and ending on May 24 (Sun) at 3pm PT, you have a chance to right the wrongs of the past, restore order back into the universe, and have a lot of fun splatting your enemies. Well, one of those is true anyways.
Now is a better time than ever to dust off your pro controller and boot up Splatoon 2. A Splatfest rematch is coming our way, this weekend only, and that puts into question what other surprises Nintendo has in store for the Splatoon community and all of those fresh recruits out there who might have picked up the game recently.
Just Keep Inking
Splatoon 2 released nearly three years ago, on July 21, 2017, and has gone on to sell over 10 million copies. That is twice as much as the first game in the series, which comes as no surprise given that the sequel sits at an 83 metacritic score. This exciting and frantic third-person shooter received substantial after-release support from Nintendo, in the form of periodic Splatfests (in-game events) and the Octo Expansion DLC pack, which added many more challenges to the already impressive single-player mode.
Nintendo had previously announced that last year’s Splatocalypse event, pitting Order versus Chaos, would be the final Splatfest that fans could take part in. That event came and went, determining the look of Inkopolis Square henceforth. This is why it came as a surprise when Nintendo recently announced there would be another Splatfest coming our way, in the form of a rematch!
While this announcement explicitly states that this is a “bonus, one-off Splatfest,” we cannot help but hold onto the hope that given the state of the world, Nintendo might turn to this kind of extended online support for other competitive games in order to fill in the gaps between new game releases. More and more people across the globe are in self-imposed quarantine and these online events are like a breath of fresh air in an otherwise predictable gaming landscape. Additionally, there are a lot of new Switch owners that might have missed out on all the Splatfest fun from before. This breathes new life into a game that most critics had come to think of as all out of steam.
The last time Team Mayo and Team Ketchup went head-to-head in a Splatfest the results were unanimous:
The Ink on the Horizon
How much more can we expect from Splatoon 2 in the months and years to come? There is no official information on when we can expect Splatoon 3, though given the sales numbers, we can go out on a limb and say that the third installment’s development is a sure thing and will eventually release on whatever console follows the final three years of the Switch’s lifecycle.
If you are one of the lucky ones to own a Switch in this time of Nintendo Switch shortages, now is a great time to take part in what could very well be an exciting in-game experience full of paint spatter, sneak attacks and ink bombs galore. Make sure to visit your Inkopolis Square and go to the terminal to pick your team of choice. The most important thing to remember is to have fun out there and to try not to get cooked.
Stay fresh, y’all.
Flavio Huitron is a freelance writer. He is currently working on his first novel and picking weeds on an island populated by anthropomorphic animals. You can follow him on Instagram and Twitter.
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FLAVIO HUITRON 