Splatoon 3: Side Order
Developer/publisher Nintendo (EPD)
Format Switch
Release Out now
You’ll face three of four bosses on a single run, one of which is among the series’ finest encounters. However, the final fight – a protracted, at times frustrating, retread of the tutorial’s climax – is a disappointment
There’s a delightful irony that the setting for this singleplayer Roguelike – a genre with randomness at its very core – should be the Spire Of Order.
Following Chaos’s triumph in Splatoon 2’s final Splatfest, Off The Hook’s Marina has retreated to a virtual reality of her own creation within a desolate Inkopolis Plaza, absent its bustle and bleached of its vibrancy. After rescuing her (in an exemplary ten-stage practical tutorial), you’re charged with ascending once more through its central tower, where a rogue AI waits to be taken down: a task for which few players will need further motivation. This time you have but a single life to clear all 30 floors, and given the marked uptick in difficulty you’ll need more than one run to reach the top.