octo expansion came out 4 years ago? christ, time really passes; my life has changed significantly between when this initially came out and now. now, a sequel is upon us, and i thought it was time to give this little campaign a try again, and it still holds up!
octo expansion comprises 80 challenge stages that test your knowledge of game mechanics in a way that is surprisingly not seen in nintendo games (excluding new super luigi u). at the time, these challenges greatly improved my skill in the multiplayer (the bulk of the game), and since this was the dev team's goal; it's sincerely appreciated.
however, octo expansion strives to be more than a simple guiding hand to the game's mechanics, it also seeks to break the mold in what was seeming to be splatoon's typical aesthetic after 2's initial release. splatoon is characterized by the loud splashes of color it paints across the screen, often screaming lyrics that don't make much sense as you rush an objective to a goal in 15 seconds. this dlc decides to go for a much different approach to how this series typically characterizes itself, going for a vaporwave-inspired aesthetic.
this aesthetic works extremely well for what this expansion is attempting to achieve, being able to keep splatoon's loud striking neon colors, but applying them to a much different context where the developers were able to mix it with various things that you’d often not see in the game’s other scenarios (like floating gamecubes, those rock.) vaporwave is able to encapsulate the aesthetic and how the levels were designed, often being chopped samples of assets from the base-game, which may just be some of the smartest asset-reuse i’ve seen in a game of this kind.
all in all, octo expansion is able to do everything it sets out to do with flying colors. even with the impending release of splatoon 3, and its significant overhauls to splatoon’s game-flow, this will always be a special experiment in nintendo’s lineup.
((this didn’t get a perfect score though, because octolings only had two hairstyles, seriously; what is up with that))
octo expansion comprises 80 challenge stages that test your knowledge of game mechanics in a way that is surprisingly not seen in nintendo games (excluding new super luigi u). at the time, these challenges greatly improved my skill in the multiplayer (the bulk of the game), and since this was the dev team's goal; it's sincerely appreciated.
however, octo expansion strives to be more than a simple guiding hand to the game's mechanics, it also seeks to break the mold in what was seeming to be splatoon's typical aesthetic after 2's initial release. splatoon is characterized by the loud splashes of color it paints across the screen, often screaming lyrics that don't make much sense as you rush an objective to a goal in 15 seconds. this dlc decides to go for a much different approach to how this series typically characterizes itself, going for a vaporwave-inspired aesthetic.
this aesthetic works extremely well for what this expansion is attempting to achieve, being able to keep splatoon's loud striking neon colors, but applying them to a much different context where the developers were able to mix it with various things that you’d often not see in the game’s other scenarios (like floating gamecubes, those rock.) vaporwave is able to encapsulate the aesthetic and how the levels were designed, often being chopped samples of assets from the base-game, which may just be some of the smartest asset-reuse i’ve seen in a game of this kind.
all in all, octo expansion is able to do everything it sets out to do with flying colors. even with the impending release of splatoon 3, and its significant overhauls to splatoon’s game-flow, this will always be a special experiment in nintendo’s lineup.
((this didn’t get a perfect score though, because octolings only had two hairstyles, seriously; what is up with that))