This weekend, Splatoon 2 will celebrate Super Mario’s 35th Anniversary with a special Mario-themed Splatfest on Nintendo Switch.
The special event will begin at 7 a.m. on 16 January (Japan Time), which is 2 p.m. on 15 January Pacific. The Splatoon 2 Mario 35th Anniversary Festival will last for 48 hours. During the festival, players will choose to join one of two classic Super Mario power-ups: the ‘Giant’ Super Mushroom team (red) or the ‘Invincible’ Super Star team (yellow).
Splatoon has done quite a few of these Splatfests before, although this is the first Mario-themed one. (They did have a Super Smash Bros. one a couple of years ago.)
This Splatfest will be an international event, although some of the rules would appear to be slightly different within Japan and overseas.
Coins and Badges
In North America, MyNintendo members can sign up for a chance to win a commemorative Super Mario Bros. 35th Anniversary coin. According to the rules of the competition, the top 35 players from each team will win a coin (70 players in all). It’s part of Nintendo’s Online Challenge Series.
Japanese players will also be competing for some of those commemorative coins, but only the top 100 from each team will win (for a total of 200 coins).
Japanese Splatoon players can also take part in the Super Mario Bros. 35th Pin Badge Challenge. Players will earn a point just by playing the game during the Splatfest. (There are also various ways to earn points in Mario Kart, Super Mario Maker, etc.)
These points can be used to enter a lottery for Super Mario pin badges. There are 11 different Mario badge designs. They also have a lottery for the complete 11-pin box set. I guess U.S. players don’t need no stinkin’ badges.
Players can also use points to get Super Mario computer or smartphone wallpapers.
Real-Life Items
To go along with the theme of the event, Nintendo of America also offered Super Mushroom and Super Star keychains to MyNintendo members. Although it looks like the items may have already sold out. You can get Super Mushroom and Super Star Splatoon T-shirts separately from Nintendo’s online store.
The Japanese MyNintendo store has the keychains and the T-shirts all in one spot.