In Splatoon 2, nearly a year after its release, a large DLC expansion to the game called the Octo expansion hit. When Splatoon 3 came out, we naturally expected that something similar would eventually happen. So when an expansion pass with 2 main waves hit that was paid dlc, we had been expecting it. The first part was just a new hub so I didn’t bother getting the expansion pass until the actual meat of the dlc hit and on the 22 of February 2024 that expansion was added to Splatoon 3.

Side Order is a Single Player story expansion to Splatoon 3 that features Agent 8 of Octo expansion finding themselves in a virtual world and having to climb a tower floor by floor to discover what has happened and to get out. Anyone who grew up in the 90s will probably remember that year or two where everyone was obsessed with the concept of Virtual Reality… but also looking back at it understanding those people writing stories featuring it understood nothing about what Virtual Reality actually was. (not important but a fun little bit of info)

The way Side Orders Tower works can best be described as a sort of rogue like. In that each floor is somewhat random meaning your journey won’t be the same every time. You get a choice of basic loadout at the start featuring a weapon type, sub weapon and super and then each floor lets you pick a chip that gives you a buff for that Tower climb. You get a selection of 3 to choose from which generates which challenge you are doing. These can range from destroying enemy spawning portals, guiding a hovering tower to its check point and getting balls into holes (don’t worry it’s not as horrible as those in Octo expansion, and they do reference those).
You’re not alone in your tower climb as you’re aided by the Splatoon 2 cast that hasn’t appeared in the game yet. This is mostly manifest in Pearl who in cyberspace has taken the form of a cute little pearl drone. It too can be powered up with certain chips – get enough of those and it will basically murder every enemy for you.

After the first 10 floors the real plot starts and the tower gets much harder. There are now 30 floors and on every 10th is a boss fight. BUT you can also, thanks to Marina, power yourself up permanently, giving you more lives each run, higher defence, new chips for your pearl drone and many more. As you beat bosses you also gain keys that open lockers which contain new loadouts and many cosmetics. You will probably not succeed on your first climb so building up those permanent buffs helps a lot.

After you do your first successful full run the DLC gives you access to the lobby area from Splatoon 2… yeah it’s nothing as fantastic as playable Octolings from Octo expansion… but it’s also not as brutal, so you will most likely replay the tower multiple times, and you very much should. Completing a run with every loadout will grant more keys as you need to do so to open every locker leading to the big final challenge that gives you some neat additional bits of lore and pictures about some of the cast… oh and also replica versions of all the weapons that you can use in the main game… and you can buy the outfits you wear in the dlc for use in the main game too… ok it’s not all just fun cosmetics for your locker.

My main complaint about the mode is in some of the truly optional things to do. Certain badges you can unlock for your profile require to have used 5 copies of a chip in a run. Now using 5 chips gives some amazing effects that are awesome to behold…. BUT each loud out has a preferred chip type… and some of the chips only drop for certain weapons… and some of those chips that only drop for a certain chip type are not the preferred chip… this means to get 5 of one type of chip can be absolutely infuriating as it just won’t drop… and it’s not cumulative so it has to be 5 at once, not 5 over multiple runs, I’ve done whole runs using all the money I generated in that run just trying to get those chips and only maybe 3 drop in total.

That being said, once you get some decent permanent upgrades in, the more frustrating elements of certain floors are much more mitigated resulting in runs where you can just enjoy getting absolutely insane power ups. Going for runs of all the preferred chip type will rank up huge points at the end of a run allowing you to buy some of those items to use outside as well as enjoy how nuts you can get. You haven’t seen anything till you can just stand there and watch the pearl drone  nuke enemies, and in nuking enemies recharge its meter to create an endless barrage of nukes.

Rating: 🎮🎮🎮🎮