Video: Splatoon 3 DLC Wave 1 Is All Style And No Substance

When they announced this, I was really confused that this was all it was. I mean, I guess they were clear about what was included. It's just a strange piece of DLC to me. Next, we will get option menu cosmetic DLC. Jokes aside, it's cool it's there. Just a strange way to sell it in my opinion.

Yeah, it’s mainly just a novelty for fans of the first game. Definitely is kind of weird that it’s being promoted by itself as one whole wave, however, it’s theorized that we’re going to be getting a total of four DLC waves thanks to what the Direct trailer showed us. So if we end up getting three more waves after this one I think it’ll make more sense as to why this one’s been marketed so much

I mean, they said since the beginning it was the first city and never said more was included. Price will be the same now than when they release the second wave, so I prefer to wait for both waves this time.
Disappointing? Yeah. Expected? As well.

Here's the thing. Octo Xpac was $20USD on release. This one is $25USD. So the way I see it is Wave 1 is $5, and then Side Order (Wave 2) is $20. Nintendo can certainly be greedy as all hell but this ain't one of those times, chief.

Wait, you expected new stuff? This is just an alternate hub to give nostalgia for Splatoon 1 (Is anyone young enough to have nostalgia for that game yet?). It’s like buying a Fortnite skin.

Don’t worry everyone. They will knock it out in part 2. Give Nintendo your money now if you are a true fan and trust them.

Even if it wasn't much, I knew what I was buying. I'm happy to go back to the Splatoon 1 city. ^^

Yeah I could have waited on this one. I’m sure wave 2 will be worth the price tag alone, so I have no problem soending the $25 price for this but the pump I felt from beating the after alterna level yesterday, is what really swayed me.

Inkopolis Plaza should’ve just been part of the already big update. The shops should’ve had different gear. I guess Nintendo was too afraid that exclusive gear would give DLC buyers an advantage. It shouldn’t have been a problem since the main ability can be changed now. I would’ve liked the Squid Sisters to do the Splatcast for everything except maybe Splatfests with the third team. I even wondered if the lobby would be different. Nope.

I’m still happy we have it and I’ll always start the game there. It just should’ve been packaged better. Side Order is the real deal and I’m absolutely confident that will not disappoint.

They did state in the original reveal that the shops would have the same stock as the normal shops in Splatoon 3, so I don't know why anyone expected anything else on that front

Conceptually, I don't hate this as a $5 addition on top of Side Order, but we won't know for certain whether or not that's actually a fair price until SO launches. If it's on par with Octo Expansion in terms of substance and quality, then I'll pick it up when the time comes.

This seems like Nintendo just wanted an excuse to charge more for the dlc.

Odd offering. Seemed lame during the direct, and now that it's here, it is, indeed, lame.

Should have been NSO Expansion Pack content.

And this is why I’m waiting until part 2 to decide if this DLC is even worth it.

Even within the scope of the DLC: Pretty annoyed at small missed opportunities like the Hotlantis terminal and the laziness of stuff like the inside of Inkopolis grizzco showing the stair entrance of the Splatsville grizzco.

That being said, I have no doubt that Side Order will be amazing. Octo Expansion is one of my favourite things ever

Spot on in my opinion, would have been better as part of a seasonal update. Until more Side Order is shown, the DLC is just a $25 cosmetic.
(and yes, I played the original Splatoon and have lots of nostalgia towards it)

I was talking about this earlier on but this is definitely just a neat little novelty for those who either love Splatoon 1 and want to relive it or those who never got to experience Splatoon 1 (aka the 99 percentile XD). Side Order definitely has my full attention in terms of what's being offered DLC-wise but for (effectively) €5? Eh, I can't really be too mad about it.

@StarPoint Would you mind elaborating? First time I'm hearing about potential extra Waves 🤔

Charging to add back in old content. Kinda funny, in a sad way.

This is such a wasted opportunity to bring back the campaign from the first game which is stuck on a console no one had (except for me and 4 other people lol) I literally would’ve paid the full price of the DLC just for that.

The final wave is in December 2024, did I read that right on the eshop?

Get Alex a thesaurus. It says “absolutely” 3 times in those two paragraphs you’ve sampled.

Having actually explored everything wave 1 has to ''offer''- yeah, it does seem barebones.

• Callie and Marie don't present the news when you're there, even.
• There is no Inkopolis exclusive Grizzco or Lobby interior.
• The arcade machine didn't come back- the thing everyone thought was the arcade machine is just a phone-thing that allows you to shop at Hotlantis from Inkopolis.
• Heck, even using the Callie and Marie amiibo won't allow you to view their concerts as they allowed you to do in Splatoon 1.

I've seen this part of the DLC as a mere bonus right from the start, but I still can't help but be mildly disappointed. If at least one of the above points turned out differently, I'd be satisfied, but right now it really is just the barebones thing, with the only extra fluff being the shopkeepers.

A shame, but it's still just an extra anyway.

@IOI
Ditto that. The first campaign is my personal favorite anyhow I really liked the level design.

@Uncle_Franklin I think it will release by December 2024 so I expect summer 2024

If this was the main part of the expansion pass that would be a serious issue. I find it funny how many people will hype things like this up from the direct and it just completely flat upon release

@Fizza So on the Direct trailer that revealed these waves of content, there are four different colored splashes on ink in the background: Blue, pink, yellow, and one other color I think. This wave and the next take up the blue and pink colors I'm pretty sure, which have left some to speculate that there are going to be two additional waves in the future to correspond with the two final colors. It might be kind of a stretch but it seems somewhat likely, especially considering the relatively small size of this wave in total.

Editor in chief - WRITE A REVIEW OF THE WAVE ONE SPLATOON DLC!

Poor, poor writer, just trying to do their job - Isn't that like writing a review of the costumes from the first wave of Xenoblade DLC? Or the swimsuits from the first wave of a GUST season pass?

Editor in chief - YEAH BUT YOU CAN SAY IT'S BAD AND PEOPLE WILL CLICK, BABY!

Poor, poor writer - Sigh. I have a journalism degree ..

Editor in chief- WHAT'S THAT KIDDO?

Poor, poor writer - Nothing. I'll get it done.

@StarPoint Oh I'd love that myself. Maybe the latter two Waves give us access to Inkopolis Square from 2 as a hub and then an entirely new story separate from both OE and Side Order!

Clearly this DLC is going to the NSO

The real DLC would be getting back the minigame while waiting for the match to start

@Pres_Shinra Why is that clear lol. If it was included with nso they would've said so.

They always increase the value of content as the waves go on, but this definitely feels like barely a step above the "neat bonus on launch day", not the "pack of extra variety" that typically proceed the final "true substance expansion".

@yohn777 Did you see what happened with the Splatoon 2 DLC?

@Hero-of-WiiU
The problem is the way Nintendo seems to hype it up as a big thing. It takes way too much time in the direct for what it actually is.

@Pres_Shinra Yeah.. because nso didn't exist when octo expansion dropped. As soon as the Animal Crossing dlc & Mario Kart dlc were announced, it was as part of the nso expansion.

It's all about expectations. Let's say Nintendo decided to NOT call this release a 'Wave.' Instead they called it a 'DLC Bonus for those that purchase Side Order.' Everything else stays the same including content, price, and release date. Guess what? MORE people are happy! "OOooooh! I get Inkopolis FOR FREE while waiting for the real DLC?!?!?!" 10/10!!!! Nintendo has always sucked when it comes to advertising things (New Nintendo 3DS/Wii U). This Wave 1 was confusing upon release, just like the Wii U, especially when you consider that Consumers have already been conditioned by four Waves of MarioKart 8, each with substantial amounts of content.

"Nintendo - Where we do everything halfway."

@yohn777 we will see

@IOI You are exaggerating.....

It was 3 other people.

Yeah after the trailer I was questioning is that was it for wave 1? Seems completely pointless and should have maybe been free or come with wave 2?

Much higher hopes for wave 2 though.

They’re not even lying, there is literally no substance, it’s all for show, it’s all style! None of it has any use whatsoever.

They could have done more with it I feel but whatever, it’s the side order to the side order.

I really hope that we get splat 2’s Square back as well maybe when u beat side order 🙏

@conditionals @AlexOnley It’s minor, but I see there being disconnects of the visual kind if we had Splatoon 1 versions of the Grizz, Co. and main lobbies since we have to share those area with our squadmates or solo queue players who choose to “keep going” who may or may not have the Expansion. When you have 1 person in S1 and 3 in S3, or vice versa, or 2 and 2, you have to be able to see what the other players are doing. Sure, unique versions of the lobbies might be doable if the S1 versions keep the same dimensions and layout, and just remodel everything else. I don’t see it as laziness or missed opportunities. But from a game dev standpoint, since it’d be a whole new can of worms to troubleshoot and bugfix an entirely new room with new geometry and collision boxes that needs to be 95-ish% the same thing as an already existing asset for parity reasons, why not just reuse the same assets and save the time for the meatier parts if the DLC since they’re claiming it’ll be massive? With so many other tiny nods and details in place already, there’s no way they didn’t think about S1 unique versions of the shared lobbies in the planning stages of the DLC. And then, just speculating, what if the future DLC plans, post-Side Order, involves Inkopolis Square? If that’s the case, making and balancing out yet another unique version of the main lobby starts to become taxing. That’s the point where I start thinking that maybe the Jelly construction guys have figured out the concept of cookie-cutter construction.

As for Hotlantis there’s only one Harmony. If we’re to follow the established lore, some of the items we’re buying from there are one-of-a-kind designs (technically, I guess) that Harmony made herself. So it make sense that she’s still the only point of contact for them. Now maybe if she had another friend, maybe a bandmate, open up an Inkopolis branch that still sells Harmony’s merch. Having identical items in both locations (potentially 3) at the same time would break the lore. And adding flags for items that’s specifically handmade by Harmony versus manufactured items like the video games and magazines so they don’t show up at more than one location could be a logistical nightmare. So that’s pretty much that.

@Fizza That’s probably likely, going by the the final shot in the trailer was in a dreamlike version of the Square.

If it had the single player campaign of Splatoon 1 included, this would be much more well received.

I consider Inkopolis as just a bonus for the campaign dlc.

Easily one of the laziest dlc nintendos ever done.

@Uncle_Franklin The date on eshop is 31st of December 2024, which sounds distinctly like a placeholder for some time in 2024.

Hard pass for now. I have two copies of Splatoon 3 and I would rather buy almost anything else than a shopping map pack.

I'm not mad I'm just disappointed.

There were a lot of missed opportunities by bringing in the old world and it feels like it would've worked better as a free update. This is the type of paid skin I expect from Overwatch or Microsoft in general. At least the Side Order part will hit hard.

Splatoon and selling what should be free updates, name a more iconic duo

It does what it says in the tin. If you like the splatoon hub more than the splatoon 3 hub this is for you. Side Order is still on the way.

As fairly often seems the case with Nintendo, the issue seems to largely be one of presentation and framing.

I think they would do better to call it a bonus rather than a 'wave' in of itself.

I'd have been down if they'd somehow re-created the Splatoon 1 campaign, but with improved graphics. THIS is just pure laziness, though.

I mean they were fully up front about what we were buying.

@Kameken While I'm not impressed with this DLC, I wouldn't agree that Splatoon has a history of selling what should be free updates. The original game on Wii U didn't have any payed DLC, and the only thing you had to pay for was Octo Expansion. And I don't know too many games that give you a second single player campaign for free. And of course their was the core game where they added more arenas, weapons and gear in the normal updates.

Yea this aint worth it so far

@tonygruff I mean they are. Why not give people the option of buying them separately, like any other company would do? Because then nobody would buy this one, as it's simply not worth it. It's just pointless padding and fluff to attempt to justify a higher price for the DLC. I don't need this, so I see the second wave as $25, as that's the only one I'm interested in.

If you think of it as half the price of course its not worth it but if you think of Side Dish as the dlc (presuming its similiar to octo expansion) and this as a comestic preorder bonus than its fine.

@IOI Splatoon 1 campaign would be immense. It was the best campaign imo and the final boss is up there in Nintendo legend.

This type of extra content should just be free for online subscription ownership. An additional perk for the hardcore Nintendo fans that will probably buy the dlc packs on offer regardless. Let's face it, it's purely novelty fan service!

Why people can't understand that this is just a simple bonus and that it's called Wave 1 simply because it came out before the Wave 2 content which isn't ready unlike this?
I'm not even getting it myself, but I can't see why people who want Inkopolis now should've waited longer for the sake of those not interested in it.

Seems like they should have something to make this stand out, like it's cool, but I can't imagine people spending a lot of time there. It would have made a huge difference if it came with Splatoon 1's story mode, or maybe made the area into a battle mode that people could play on.

I can imagine the chain of events and decisions that led to this lukewarm release:

1. Idea for dlc campaign tying back to Octo-expansion, Off the Hook, and ultimately the setting of Splatoon 2.
2. Recreating Splatoon 2’s Inkopolis Square for the dlc campaign, it would be neat to also make it available as an alternative hub for the main game.
3. It would also be neat to be able to visit Splatoon 1’s hub, even if it’s not involved in the dlc campaign.
4. The dlc campaign won’t be ready for a while, so let’s release the Inkopolis hub first to whet fans’ appetites.
5. Call it “Wave One” to make it sound more substantial, move more potential buyers who might otherwise wait for the full campaign release to purchase.

That (hypothetical) last one was a misfire. I get it, and trust that the campaign will make the total cost worth it. It’s also neat to walk around the Splatoon 1 setting (esp since I missed out the first time), but “Wave One” carries expectations that this release was never going to satisfy.

Does anyone else remember how in the original Splatoon there was a glitch so you could get out of the hub and explore where you weren't supposed to see? That would be really cool if they had incorporated that into this as well.