I adore the Splatoon series, and although I was a massive fan of Splatoon 3 when it launched on Nintendo Switch in 2022, I couldn’t help but feel like Nintendo’s latest colorful shooter was missing something. Thankfully, its newly released expansion, Side Order, has quickly proved to be exactly what it needed all along, as well as a fantastic evolution of the series as a whole.
Side Order is the second wave of Splatoon 3’s paid expansion pass, and offers an entirely fresh single-player roguelite experience (including rogue elements like permadeath and random levels, but with some meta-progression), the likes of which the series has never seen before. Playing as the Octoling (half octopus, half kid) Agent 8, who also starred in Splatoon 2’s Octo Expansion downloadable content (DLC), players are tasked with ascending the creepy ‘Spire of Order’ one floor at a time by clearing the challenges waiting on each one.
