The new system update will make you have to scan an amiibo to load up a game.

The new system update will turn us all into amiibos and we will have to place the sensor in our wrist onto the reader. We will all undergo forced implanting as our skin is ripped off and our bones replaced by wires and our fluids drained and hundreds of squid allowed to crawl into our bodies and spread their tentacles across our veins and we squirt fluid all over the operating table and twitch and shake and moan and the doctor will yell "we are losing the patient!" as our face explodes squid internals all over the operating room and our remains scooped into an ice tray and frozen and used to cool the drinks of tentacle-headed monsters that sit behind great desks and push buttons that seal our fates

Maybe they'll finally let us use the gamepad as a classic controller in Wii mode

So was this yesterday or today? I was able to play Splatoon all through the night last night, and looking at the network maintenance page it shows major downtimes planned for tonight.

http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/network/en_na/network_status.jsp