Splatoon Global Testfire

The Splatoon Global Testfire was a free Splatoon demo available on the Nintendo eShop for Wii U. It allowed players to engage in free four-versus-four Turf War battles at scheduled times ahead of the release of the game. It was available for download before the scheduled times, but server connection was not possible beforehand. The application was made unavailable for download afterwards. It was eventually succeeded by the Splatoon Testfire demo.

The Splatoon Global Testfire briefly returned from 2015-08-21 to 2015-08-23 for Wii U owners that had not yet purchased Splatoon.

The Testfire also returned for Splatoon 2.

Description
During the Global Testfire, players were able to customize their Inklings and enter a tutorial area where they could pop balloons and get accustomed to the game's controls. They were then able to enter online matches of Turf War and use the Splattershot Jr., Splattershot, Splat Roller, and Splat Charger on both Saltspray Rig and Walleye Warehouse.

Splatoon Pre-Purchase
Players were given the option to pre-purchase Splatoon at various points in the Testfire demo. Players who pre-purchased were awarded special gear to use for the remainder of the event. The gear was only cosmetically different from the gear that regular players had access to, and had the same abilities. This gear did not carry over into the full version of the game.

Pre-purchase players were given with, a shirt that resembles  with a team-colored squid design and , and  with.

Squid Research Lab
During the Testfire, real-life members of the Squid Research Lab participated in battles, appearing in-game as Inklings with special research gear. The gear was only cosmetically different from the gear that regular players had access to, and had the same abilities.

Squid Research Lab gear featured a set of dark sunglasses with, a lab coat with a large banner attached in the team color and , and a pair of black dress shoes with white socks and.

Event times
In order to ensure a sufficient number of players for the Testfire, Nintendo designated the following times to be used.

North America

 * Friday, 2015-05-08 8-9 PM PST
 * Saturday, 2015-05-09 4-5 AM PST
 * Saturday, 2015-05-09 12-1 PM PST
 * Saturday, 2015-05-23 3-4 PM PST (up to 5 PM PST due to connection errors for most of the original time)

Europe

 * Saturday, 2015-05-09 4:00 BST
 * Saturday, 2015-05-09 12:00 BST
 * Saturday, 2015-05-09 20:00 BST

Trivia

 * The Global Testfire application did not create any save data. Players who received pre-purchase gear lost it after closing the software.
 * When the servers were shut down, players online were given the message: "A communications error occurred." They were then taken back to the title screen. However, if they were in the practice area when the servers were shut down, they were not brought back to the title screen and could stay in the area as long as they wanted.
 * The digital manual for the Global Testfire application was the full game's manual.
 * The exclusive Testfire gear was not present in the data of Splatoon at launch, but was added in an update. It is not available through normal gameplay, and if hacked in, all items in a set appear with the same name:
 * ?SUP000 for the pre-purchase gear (includes alternate versions of Studio Headphones and Red Hi-Horses)
 * ?SUP001 for the Squid Research Lab gear
 * In Splatoon 2, gear items and  were granted to players who pre-purchased the Octo Expansion DLC. This is a reference to the pre-purchase gear from the original Splatoon Global Testfire.