Splatfests have been a staple of Nintendo's Splatoon franchise since the original game released in 2015, but Splatoon 3 shook things up with the introduction of a bigger idol team. Instead of having players pick between two choices for their Splatfest allegiance, Deep Cut facilitates questions with three possible choices like Rock-Paper-Scissors, Spicy-Sweet-Sour, and Grass-Fire-Water to celebrate the launch of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. This week, Nintendo confirmed the February 2023 Splatfest will be a debate between dark, milk, and white chocolate.
The "Sneak Peek" period begins on February 3, at which point fans will be able to pick a side and collect conch shells to determine which idol starts with the lead: Shiver on Team Dark Chocolate, Frye on Team Milk Chocolate, and Big Man on Team White Chocolate. Splatoon 3's second season introduced changes to Tricolor Turf War matches that carry into this next Splatfest, which should keep more fans engaged with the process. However, it's also telling that February is receiving a Splatfest as its major community event, suggesting alternates like Big Run are going to be rare.
Splatfests in Splatoon 3
Splatoon fans know what to expect from Splatfests at this point, especially given February 2023 will be Splatoon 3's fifth event (though technically the Rock-Paper-Scissors Splatfest was part of its "world premiere" demo, making this chocolate-themed affair the fourth official Splatfest). After its Sneak Peek period, the actual Splatfest will begin on February 10 at 4:00 p.m. PST, running until February 12 at 4:00 p.m. Splatsville will go dark as Deep Cut performs under the neon lights of player-made posts, and whoever receives the most support with the most Turf War victories will win.
As of this writing there is no suggestion that the chocolate Splatfest will operate any differently than its predecessors. Players will accumulate Clout during their matches for the chance to compete in battles worth 10x the amount of points, and winning a 10x battle earns each member of one's team a Festival Shell. With enough Festival Shells comes an opportunity to compete in matches with 100x or 333x multipliers, creating a more lucrative opportunity to earn points for a given idol's team. After Frye took her first victory as the leader of Team Sweet in January, it will be interesting to see how the next food-themed Splatfest plays out for the members of Deep Cut.
More Frequent Splatfests May Leave Splatoon 3's Big Run in the Dark
Only December 2022 did not feature a Splatfest as Splatoon 3 introduced a new special event called Big Run. Based on the PvE mode Salmon Run, Big Run took Splatsville into a gloomier atmosphere as an antagonistic faction of aquatic beings called Salmonid overran one of the game's typical multiplayer maps: Wahoo World. Players got teasers regarding Big Run in some of Splatoon 3's early marketing, but the fact that Nintendo waited until Chill Season suggested it might begin alternating out Splatfests more often.
That no longer seems to be the case following back-to-back Splatfests in January and February 2023, which is a shame. While Splatfests are a staple of the franchise, including more variety in Splatoon 3's event schedule seems a good way to keep up player engagement. Perhaps the development team is worried about making Super Sea Snails a rarer item by scheduling too many Big Run events, as the locker decoration that players received from the Wahoo World invasion in December wasn't nearly as impactful for core gameplay mechanics.
There is still a chance that Big Run events appear regularly in the game's schedule, just at intervals which aren't immediately apparent. There could be a Big Run scheduled every three months, for example, making it a quarterly treat. Big Run may also be planned to headline the beginning of each new season in Splatoon 3, hence why the first one did not appear until Chill Season. Regardless, it would be great to see Big Run - or even additional events up the developer's sleeve - appear sometime sooner rather than later.
Splatoon 3 is available now on Nintendo Switch.
