When it comes to Nintendo's most popular franchises, Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda will always lead the pack alongside Pokemon if one considers outside development studios like Game Freak. However, Splatoon has quickly risen in the ranks since its first entry released on Wii U. Subsequent entries on Nintendo's more popular Switch console have really bolstered the unique third-person shooter franchise, with Splatoon 3 pushing the envelope in terms of its narrative and worldbuilding. Thus, the upcoming Side Order DLC campaign has a lot of expectations riding on its shoulders.
Announced during the February 2023 Nintendo Direct, Side Order is the second wave of a two-part Splatoon 3 Expansion Pass. The first wave released on February 28, reintroducing the Inkopolis hub area from 2015's Splatoon alongside returning characters, but as of this writing there is no confirmed date to expect the second half (an Australian listing suggests it will arrive sometime before December 31, 2024). Few details are available about what the DLC campaign will include, but the series' move toward more bombastic stories leaves Side Order open to really impress with a yet-confirmed antagonist.
Splatoon's Antagonists Have Gradually Become More Impactful
In the original Splatoon, fans learned the series' namesake was Cap'n Cuttlefish's New Squidbeak Splatoon: a James Bond-esque organization of Inkling agents (comprised of his granddaughters Callie and Marie) that carries forth secret operations to stop the Octarian army from taking over the surface world using a living power source, the Great Zapfish. This mission is an extension of Cuttlefish's military experience from the original Great Turf War, and DJ Octavio has been in charge of the Octarians since well before that conflict.
DJ Octavio tries to steal the Great Zapfish a second time following his defeat in Octo Valley, and brainwashes Callie to act as a secondary antagonist in Splatoon 2's story mode. However, this by-the-numbers plot pales in comparison to Splatoon 2's Octo Expansion DLC, which shifts perspective to an Octoling freed from DJ Octavio's control via the Squid Sisters' iconic performance of "Calamari Inkantation" in the original game. This protagonist, Agent 8, comes into conflict with Commander Tartar, an old-world AI that hopes to wipe out this new marine life culture using a superweapon built into a submearged human monument.
Splatoon 3's Return of the Mammalians begins with a call-back to the simple conflicts between Cap'n Cuttlefish and DJ Octavio before dropping players into the domed, underground settlement of Alterna. Here players learn how Inklings and Octolings evolved as a result of humanity's self-destructive follies. It is then revealed that Grizzco Industries' CEO Mr. Grizz is a sapient grizzly bear - one of the last mammals on Earth - who has been using the Salmon Run game mode to have unsuspecting workers gather the Golden Eggs he needed to bring back mammalians worldwide.
This plot culminates in a battle where new Agent 3 has to work with DJ Octavio and a kaiju-sized Salmonid to defeat the massive grizzly bear in outer space, with the Squid Sisters and Deep Cut providing background vocals. As a conclusion to the Splatoon trilogy, it's a suitably epic encounter, but one that leaves Side Order in a tough spot. Nintendo teases that this single-player DLC campaign will let players see how Inkopolis Square from Splatoon 2 has changed, and somehow explore an alternate reality where Marina's Team Order beat Pearl's Team Chaos in the final Splatoon 2 Splatfest.
How any of this will happen remains to be seen, and the first trailer points to more of a psychological horror vibe in which an Octoling (perhaps Agent 8) explores a bleached coral mindscape flooded with traumatic memories surrounding the members of Off the Hook. Flashes of imagery depict a mosasaur-esque skeleton with glowing red eyes that may be the series' next antagonist. Regardless of how things shake out, Splatoon 3's upcoming DLC has an impressive legacy of creative, genocidal maniacs to content with, and hopefully its villainous presence lives up to that potential.
Splatoon 3 is available now on Nintendo Switch.