While never quite as challenging as Splatoon 2’s excellent Octo Expansion, it nonetheless builds on those similar foundations with plenty of missions to unlock, collectables to find, and even its own skill tree, to become the series’ most substantial campaign. Suffice to say, we won’t spoil anything, but the story certainly goes places with some surprising adversaries. These missions are all connected to fairly large hubs that you gradually uncover more of by clearing ooze that’s also suspiciously covered in fuzzy hair, a hint to the campaign’s title, Return of the Mammalians. Nonetheless, some of the gimmicks, notably the new Zipcaster grappling ability, also work much better as the focus of a single-player level than as a special ability in Turf Wars. In some ways, missions feel like glorified obstacle courses, sometimes focusing on a mechanic or gimmick from the core game into levels almost on par with what Mario gets up to on his adventures. Single-player modes aren’t usually the main draw for multiplayer-based shooters (indeed, it’s a rarity to actually include one these days), but Splatoon 3 has largely improved from its predecessors, with a campaign also contains some surprisingly deep lore into the post-apocalyptic dystopia that’s just bubbling beneath all its trendy style. Overall, this is as much a case of iteration, with a few more new types of Boss Salmonids, which you even have the option to practise against beforehand, while those who make it to the end of the three waves also occasionally have the chance to go against a tougher boss as a bonus round. In any case, these matches are a blast for those looking to take on ever-mounting challenges against hordes of Salmonids as well as the tougher Boss Salmonids who drop the prized golden eggs you need to make quota for each of the three waves. But while the original mode was bizarrely only accessible at set times, this is now available all the time, which means players who prefer co-op to PvP can feasibly just focus on Salmon Run – terrific news, unless you start reading into it as a grim comment on the always-on gig economy, hmm. Of course, it’s not just about Turf Wars as, since Splatoon 2, there’s also been horde-style PvE mode Salmon Run, where you join a team of four players to farm golden eggs in perilous conditions for a mysterious and shady employer on a map that’s surely a commentary on environmental disaster capitalism. The only difference is at the beginning, where perhaps taking a leaf from battle royales, your squid (or now also octo) kids are launched onto the map, as well as the end where you earn medals that neatly summarise your individual performance, which also takes the sting out of any defeats.
That formula hasn’t changed in Splatoon 3, with every match a messy bit of chaos that’s also over in three minutes so that it’s over before you ever get too heated (unless you’re on the receiving end of an annoyingly skilled Splat Charger user anyway).
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