Splatoon 3: Side Order

Side Order is a downloadable content (DLC) single-player campaign for Splatoon 3. As with its parent title, Side Order is a third-person shooter that centers on the usage of ink as both ammunition and a liquid that can be submerged and swum through. Unlike previous single-player campaigns, Side Order is also a roguelite, meaning the player traverses through a randomized gauntlet of levels, during which they can enhance their abilities, and losing all lives prompts a reset to the beginning. The player controls an Octoling, a humanoid octopus, named Agent 8, who previously starred in Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion (2018).

They can choose one of twelve weapon loadouts, known as Palettes, to use for each attempt. Agent 8 is accompanied by Pearl and Marina of the pop music duo Off the Hook as well as Acht, another character who appeared in Octo Expansion. Pearl in particular transforms into a drone that aides in combat against foes and allows for airborne gliding by the player.

The Splatoon series takes place 12,000 years into the far future on a post-apocalyptic Earth following the extinction of humans and virtually all other mammal life, implied to be the result of rampant climate change. After this cataclysm, the planet is repopulated with evolved marine animals who become terrestrial creatures and in the present day reside in the regions of Inkadia and the Splatlands. Such creatures include the Inklings and Octolings, humanoid squids and octopuses respectively, whom players take control of. The hub worlds of Splatoon and Splatoon 2, Inkopolis Plaza and Inkopolis Square respectively, are located in Inkadia within the greater city of Inkopolis, while the hub world of Splatoon 3, the city of Splatsville, is situated in the Splatlands.

By the events of Side Order, railways are established between these locations, permitting back-and-forth travel by train. The cities hold regular news broadcasts hosted by resident idol groups, those being, as of Splatoon 3, Pearl and Marina of Off the Hook for Inkopolis and Shiver, Frye, and Big Man of Deep Cut for Splatsville.

Side Order's development began sometime after the release of Splatoon 3 on 9 September 2022, with Kenji Matsumodo and Seita Inoue as directors, Toshiyuki Sudo as lead musician, and Inoue as head artist. The team conceptualized a world inspired by the aesthetic of order to diverge from Splatoon 3's emphasis on chaos; Splatoon 3's chaotic art direction was chosen due to Team Chaos' victory in Splatoon 2's final Splatfest, "Chaos vs. Order". Inoue explained in an interview with Famitsu that the team thought it "would be interesting to make a world where [Team] Order triumphed" instead.

In-game environments were deliberately inspired by virtual reality simulations to stress that Side Order's gameplay would differ from that of previous Splatoon entries. Developers settled on the theme of ascending a tall structure partly to contrast the subterranean setting of Splatoon 2's DLC, Octo Expansion. The development team also felt the tower locale lent itself to repetitive challenges, a gameplay framework decided early on. Including a distinctly replayable game mode was conceived to offer players a novel way of engaging with Splatoon, as the levels of previous installments' single-player campaigns were mostly linear and derivative of each other.

Side Order received generally favorable reviews according to the review aggregator website Metacritic. Fellow aggregator OpenCritic gave the expansion a strong approval rating, being recommended by approximately 83% of critics.

The expansion's artistic presentation was praised by critics. Reviewing for IGN Japan, Tea Can lauded its usage of glitch-like special effects and monochromatic color palettes as divergent from Splatoon's typical art direction. Jordan Minor of PCMag concurred, describing Side Order as like "an anime set inside an evil Apple Store". Alex Olney of Nintendo Life appreciated the visual contrast between the expansion's white stage backgrounds and the "void-like black ink" exuded by Jelletons, while Logan Plant of IGN praised the Jelletons themselves as aesthetically intimidating.