It's now been over three weeks since the official Nintendo 3DS and Wii U online servers were meant to shut down, and believe it or not, some dedicated (and extremely lucky) individuals who've refused to turn off their consoles are somehow still connected. One of these is Splatoon player Lcd101, who's survived for so long that they've now hit a map rotation that won't change for another ten years.
Before this, Splatoon's maps changed every four hours, with the Ranked Battle mode on offer swapping between Tower Control, Splat Zones, and Rainmaker at the same time. However, after the servers were supposed to shut down, dataminer OatmealDome, who runs a website which displays future map and mode rotations for all the Splatoon games, noted that from April 30 at 2PM ET / 11AM PT / 7PM BST, the map rotation was set to last for an entire decade.
If it was actually possible to play, you'd be stuck with Turf War on Blackbelly Skatepark and Port Mackerel, and Rainmaker on Bluefin Depot and Moray Towers. This selection is rather amusing, with Moray Towers being one of the most divisive maps in the game, largely thanks to how much it favors charger (sniper) weapons – one fan describes the ten-year rotation of it as "a fate worse than death."
With no one else to play with, Lcd101 hasn't been able to access the actual multiplayer modes since April 9, but they've finally reached this fabled rotation. It's been a long time coming – for quite some time, they were able to remain waiting in the empty lobbies, but last week, they announced that matchmaking had finally gone offline, putting a stop to their endless search for other players from beyond the void. However, this didn't mean that they'd gone offline, as they were still able to see gear in the shops change, and get those all-important stage rotation updates from Squid Sisters Callie and Marie, which bizarrely, all became delayed by half an hour from when they were actually supposed to happen. No one was supposed to see it get to that point, I suppose.
Today, 30 April 2024 @ 2:30 P.M. EST, marks the final map rotation in Splatoon 1 on the Nintendo Network. These maps are set to be in rotation for the next ten years.Here is the final Squid Sisters broadcast from the Nintendo Network. pic.twitter.com/2syLXgqlmpApril 30, 2024
At the time of writing, it's believed that Callie and Marie have made their final news broadcast, meaning they've told us to "stay fresh" for the last time. Lcd101 reports that no further newsflashes have occurred since the ten-year rotation began, but even so, it doesn't sound like the player is done trying to survive yet.
"So what does this mean for me? I’m still going to stay in the game for as long as there’s something new to document," Lcd101 writes. "Currently, I don’t have any plans to disconnect from the Nintendo Network. I still want to see if the shops update tonight. For now, I’ll just keep swimming."
As of their final update eight hours ago, the gear in the shop did indeed change, despite the lack of map rotation. It's not clear how long Lcd101 plans to hold on for – it seems rather unlikely that they'd be able to stay connected for an entire decade just to see what happens at the end, after all. For now though, they remain one of nine people still known to be connected to the Nintendo Network servers.
Be sure to check out our list of the best Nintendo Switch games for some newer games to dive into.
