i was pleasantly surprised with how much i enjoyed side order! nintendo’s not one to stray into new genres too often, so i was expecting some more growing pains for their first roguelite, but i felt it was really well executed.

obviously, it helps when you’re building off the rock-solid foundation that is splatoon 3, with its great movement, fun shooting and excellent weapon diversity. there was already plenty of variety in the game even before side order’s release, with hundreds of weapons and over a dozen different weapon types.

placing you in a set of isolated rooms to test your skills provides a lot of the improvisation that playing traditional splatoon battles gives, without the stress or stakes of playing with others. there’s a ton of different kits and modifiers to play around with, and i had a blast with all of them!

it’s pretty easy as roguelites go, but that’s kind of to be expected from nintendo. if this gets some kid to play enter the gungeon, i am here for it.