Splatoon’s Splatfest event kicks off July 4 in North America

It’s cats versus dogs in Splatoon this Independence Day.

Nintendo’s innovative third-person shooter for Wii U is getting its players to fight on the side of either cats or dogs for 24 hours next weekend as it brings the first Splatfest event to North America. With over 1 million copies of Splatoon already sold worldwide, Nintendo is trying to keep things fresh and further grow Splatoon’s community by slowly adding new free content. Splatfest is the next part of that drive, adding a new competitive edge along with night-time battles and fireworks.

The first Splatfest event took place in Japan two weeks ago, with players choosing to fight for either rice or bread. Rice emerged victorious, but connection problems partially disrupted the event. These caused a slight delay to the first North American Splatfest, which now takes place for 24 hours starting at 12 a.m. Pacific on July 4.

Nintendo apologized for the delay on the official Splatoon Tumblr page, saying “we experienced some … tentacle difficulties with the Splatfest matchmaking.”