Sanrio signs Hello Kitty up for Splatoon 2 – and Nintendo collaboration even comes with t-shirts
Team Hello Kitty will face off against team Cinnamoroll, then My Melody is set to take on Pompompurin – but only in Japan, for now
NINTENDO'S ink-based family-friendly shooter Splatoon 2 is already pretty damn cute - and it's about to get cuter thanks to Sanrio.
The Japanese kawaii merchants, best known for the ubiquitous Hello Kitty, has teamed up with the Mario maker .
The first of the mass-participation ranked events will kick off on Saturday May 19, and feature team Hello Kitty facing off against team Cinnamoroll, while round 2 will be My Melody vs. Pompompurin and follow a week later.
The whole effort is in conjunction with , the firm's regular battle for public opinion to determine which of their popular characters is the cutest.
Nintendo is also releasing clothing to go with the Splatfests so that you can buy real-life versions of the in-game items your characters will be rocking during the event.
While we'd love to be able to sport My Melody in her fetching squid skull bandana, as things stand you can only buy the shirts.
MOST READ IN GAMING
While previous themed Splatfests, like the current Raph vs Leo Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles event, have been available here, for now the Sanrio Splatfests are, like the clothing range, Japan only.
Splatoon took the world by storm after its launch on Wii U, and the Nintendo Switch sequel Splatoon 2 followed suit. Over six million copies of the game have been sold worldwide, with the game becoming the first since Wii Party in 2008 to ship more than two million copies in Japan.
Splatoon was also nominated at the BAFTAs and Golden Joysticks for best multiplayer game and best Nintendo game of the year.