Splatoon 3 Will Get a Splatfest-Only Demo This Month [IGN]

August 10, 2022 Matt Kim gaming

And Splatfest itself is adding a twist.

With Splatoon 3 just on the horizon, Nintendo has announced that a pre-release version of the game will arrive on August 27. It will let players take part in a brand new format for Splatfest, the series’ battle-based public voting events.

As part of a Splatoon-themed Nintendo Direct, the company announced that the Splatfest World Premiere will take place on August 27. In the US, it will take place from 9am-9pm Pacific (so 12pm-12am Eastern). In the UK, it will take place from 9am-9pm BST.

The theme will be Rock, Paper, Scissors, which you might notice is different from Splatfest’s usual X vs. Y themes. That’s because Splatfest will now feature three teams instead of two.

The first half of Splatfest will follow the Turf War format, where players will be divided into teams and must splat the arena to advance. The second half will become something called Tricolor Turf War where the leading team with four members will face two other teams of two.

The leading team will start at the center of a large arena, while the other two teams will start on either side and work together to stop the leader.

As usual, Splatfest will be a hosted event, with this new format MC’d by characters Frye, Shiver, and Big Man, the members of an in-game band called Deep Cut. Frye will be the Paper supporter, Shiver backs Rock, and Big Man supports Scissors.

Be sure to check out everything else we learned from today’s Splatoon 3 Nintendo Direct, including how Nintendo is planning years’ worth of DLC, and new gameplay and quality of life changes coming to the sequel.

Splatoon 3 – 132 Screenshots

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.