The most common cheat skipped to the testing range

While Nintendo is fairly lax about, well, basically everything in regards to its online system,Splatoon 3cheaters are already facing a reckoning — before the game is out.

WhileSplatoon 3is due out on September 9, this past weekend Nintendo ran a “Splatfest” event, which allowed players to download a demo, log in, choose a side (rock, paper, or scissors), and play. Butaccording to famed Switch dataminer OatmealDome,Splatoon 3anti-cheat was not only present during the Splatfest, but it also started issuing console bans.

Splatoon 3 cheaters

This impacts folks who modify the game in any way, and apparently the most popular means of this during the Splatfest was a way to enter the testing range (the lobby system that lets you practice) immediately. Essentially, this allowed folks who shared the user-created patch to skip thetutorialsegment and save some time. Well, in theory, at least. Once the game actually does come out,OatmealDome also has a running total of cycled events, including Salmon Run variants, as well as regular and anarchy battle maps.

As far as the Splatfest itself goes, I had fun up until halftime (as team scissors). Once the 4v2v2 mode started up things got a little dicey, especially for the winning team. As the current winner you’re locked out of manually queuing 4v2v2 matches, and you can “randomly play one” through chance by starting up the regular Splatfest queue. It was too chaotic for my tastes, and as-is, I’ll probably be playing up until halftime for these events before taking a break.

a look at two players using the Game Chat feature on the Switch 2

That said, everything else withSplatoon 3is looking good so far — and that’s before we’ve seen the campaign, Salmon Run, and the new card game.

Mega Evolution in Pokemon Legends: Z-A.

The Pokémon Works logo with Gengar, Pikachu, and Snorlax silhouettes.

Nintendo PlayStation

Article image

Ten Books to read if you like The Legend of Zelda games - Link from many different games with books in front of him

Best selling game console of all time: where does Nintendo Switch stand? - a Mario Red edition Nintendo Switch

Link rides a horse across a landscape with a Nintendo Switch faded into the background.

A bunch of Mario Kart World characters driving together under the game logo