Upcoming Splatoon 3 DLC is probably going to add an innovative new twist on single-player campaign to the multiplayer game, if Nintendo’s teases are anything to go by. Splatoon creator Hisashi Nogami briefly mentioned something “completely new and different” for the ink-splatter’s second wave of DLC in a recent interview with Famitsu, which Nintendo Everything translated, and said it’ll star fan-favorite characters from previous Splatoon games as well.
“As everyone has guessed, [Off the Hook and the Octolings] are definitely making an appearance,” Nogami said in the interview. “We can’t give away any details yet, but it’s going to be a new story that Off the Hook will be part of. We also plan on making the gameplay completely new and different, so please look forward to it.”
Nintendo already mentioned at the end of the Splatoon 3 expansion pass description that Side Order, the pass’ second part, would introduce a single-player experience, but it sounds like Nogami and his team have something more ambitious in mind than Splatoon 2’s single-player mode. That game’s DLC, Octo-Expansion, adds a series of challenging platforming levels, but doesn’t really change how you play the game.
Splatoon 3‘s single-player story mode already follows a similar pattern, so hearing that the Side Order DLC won’t just be more of the same is welcome indeed.
Co-director Seita Inoue said that while Splatoon 3 is based on a world where Team Chaos won the Splatoon 2 Splatfest between order and anarchy, the Side Order expansion is meant to unfold in a dimension where Team Order won. What that actually looks like remains to be seen, though it explains why the hub cities look so drastically different in the expansion’s announcement trailer.
Splatoon 3’s Side Order DLC has no release date, though the expansion pass’ first half is available now.
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF
