Aldric
Member
I don't know if it's because it was a DLC released a year after the base game but despite the impressive success of Splatoon 2 few people cite Octo Expansion as one of the best exclusives on Switch, yet it's legitimately one of the best games ever made by Nintendo. Let me tell you why (obvious, huge spoilers ahead).
The Majora's Mask of cephalopodic TPS platformers
The game's colder aesthetics evoke a strange industrial underbelly
The first noticeable thing about the game is its atmosphere. Splatoon is a bizarre franchise in the first place but Octo Expansion cranks the weirdness up and adds a large amount of unsettling subtext to the universe. The main setting is immediately reminiscent of the Matrix with its subway, leather suits and crustacean Morpheus but it also borrows elements from movies like Battle Royale with bombs strapped to your back that explode and kill you if you fail to clear the obstacles laid in front of you. The narrative background is about Octolings being test subjects, brainwashed and manipulated by an insane sentient telephone (yes really). Your character essentially collects parts of a device throughout the game under the premise it's a teleporter that'll send you to the "promised land" except it's actually a giant blender and you're seconds away from being turned into octo smoothie. There's an absurd, subtly nightmarish undertone that permeates the adventure that's really unlike anything else and strongly contributes to its memorable identity.
What could possibly go wrong
Nintendo EAD's design masterclass
Octo Expansion is also Nintendo perfecting the level design philosophy introduced in games like Mario Galaxy, levels centered around unique mechanics explored fully and then tossed aside. The amount of creativity in the game is staggering. There's levels where you play life sized pool with a sniper rifle. Levels where you use the special abilities of the multiplayer without limit in modern versions of Space Harrier or Super Monkey Ball. Enemy gauntlets, survival missions, classic platforming stages, puzzles and sometimes everything thrown together into a single challenge. The game often asks you to multitask which is another of its characteristics: it's probably the most challenging game developped by Nintendo's core teams since... Well since The Lost Levels really. If you're not an experienced Splatoon player with a decent grasp on the core mechanics you're going to struggle, don't even think about playing it without gyro aiming.
Following on this point another interesting aspect of the game is how it makes difficulty options diegetic. Before most missions you can choose between different weapons to use. Because of the way shooting is tied to movement in Splatoon this fundamentally changes the way players interact with the levels. A good example is the level Can't touch this Station. Like its name indicates, the challenge here is to get to the end without getting touched once by enemy ink. The recommended weapon is the Tenta Brella, which deploys a slow moving, sturdy shield protecting the player from harm and painting a path he can use to move forward. The narrow, corridor like structure of the map makes this the safest option for a first playthrough, but there's also the possibility to select a sniper rifle that sacrifices defensive options but allows precise players to kill enemies quicker and take shortcuts inaccessible to the Brella. This of course ensures massive replayability.
This section is extremely tricky without a shield
The Grand Finale
Despite the remarkable quality of its 80 regular challenges Octo Expansion wouldn't quite be such a masterpiece if it didn't stick its landing so brilliantly. The final portion of the game builds up a perfect crescendo, starting with a stealth section making you feel powerless and gradually arming you until you're ready to face a unique mix of pixel perfect platforming, jetpack based environmental puzzles and a brilliantly recontextualized escort mission.
That's what's called precision platforming
All of this culminating in one of the most original final bosses ever, a genius take on the game's main multiplayer mode where you're tasked to entirely cover a weaponized Statue of Liberty in ink to prevent it from destroying squid civilization. It's the kind of over the top Japanese spectacle one expects from Platinum Games, and the perfect send off for one of the most unique adventures in Nintendo's catalog...
This is normal
Except of course things don't REALLY end here. If you've beaten all of the game's levels you get the option to fight a secret boss, the infamous Inner Agent 3. This is without a doubt the toughest challenge in any Nintendo game bar Kid Icarus Uprising's intensity 9.0 boss rush and even in the industry at large there's very few bosses in recent memory as tough as this one. Despite its obvious cheapness the fight is remarkable in the way it acts as a tutorial for high level play. Because the boss is essentially an overpowered version of the player character it evokes the feeling of facing off against top level Japanese players in online matches. You quickly realize that if you want a chance to win you'll have to apply tactics that'll be useful against good players, such as painting the floor everytime your enemies respawn giving you a few seconds of respite, using every little prop in the environment for cover, making robot bombs explode without sitting still or interrupting your shots with swim strafing and predicting where your opponent will attempt to dodge. Beating the boss isn't simply for bragging rights, it makes you a better Splatoon player.
The DaRk SoULs of kids games (unironically harder than anything in Dark Souls)
So that's Octo Expansion. A unique blend of 3D platforming and third person shooter gameplay with fantastic art direction and level design, exceptional creativity, huge replay value and surprisingly high levels of challenge. It's the best Switch exclusive and deserves to be remembered as one of Nintendo's greatest creations.
Also Agent 8 a cute
The Majora's Mask of cephalopodic TPS platformers
The game's colder aesthetics evoke a strange industrial underbelly
The first noticeable thing about the game is its atmosphere. Splatoon is a bizarre franchise in the first place but Octo Expansion cranks the weirdness up and adds a large amount of unsettling subtext to the universe. The main setting is immediately reminiscent of the Matrix with its subway, leather suits and crustacean Morpheus but it also borrows elements from movies like Battle Royale with bombs strapped to your back that explode and kill you if you fail to clear the obstacles laid in front of you. The narrative background is about Octolings being test subjects, brainwashed and manipulated by an insane sentient telephone (yes really). Your character essentially collects parts of a device throughout the game under the premise it's a teleporter that'll send you to the "promised land" except it's actually a giant blender and you're seconds away from being turned into octo smoothie. There's an absurd, subtly nightmarish undertone that permeates the adventure that's really unlike anything else and strongly contributes to its memorable identity.
What could possibly go wrong
Nintendo EAD's design masterclass
Octo Expansion is also Nintendo perfecting the level design philosophy introduced in games like Mario Galaxy, levels centered around unique mechanics explored fully and then tossed aside. The amount of creativity in the game is staggering. There's levels where you play life sized pool with a sniper rifle. Levels where you use the special abilities of the multiplayer without limit in modern versions of Space Harrier or Super Monkey Ball. Enemy gauntlets, survival missions, classic platforming stages, puzzles and sometimes everything thrown together into a single challenge. The game often asks you to multitask which is another of its characteristics: it's probably the most challenging game developped by Nintendo's core teams since... Well since The Lost Levels really. If you're not an experienced Splatoon player with a decent grasp on the core mechanics you're going to struggle, don't even think about playing it without gyro aiming.
Following on this point another interesting aspect of the game is how it makes difficulty options diegetic. Before most missions you can choose between different weapons to use. Because of the way shooting is tied to movement in Splatoon this fundamentally changes the way players interact with the levels. A good example is the level Can't touch this Station. Like its name indicates, the challenge here is to get to the end without getting touched once by enemy ink. The recommended weapon is the Tenta Brella, which deploys a slow moving, sturdy shield protecting the player from harm and painting a path he can use to move forward. The narrow, corridor like structure of the map makes this the safest option for a first playthrough, but there's also the possibility to select a sniper rifle that sacrifices defensive options but allows precise players to kill enemies quicker and take shortcuts inaccessible to the Brella. This of course ensures massive replayability.
This section is extremely tricky without a shield
The Grand Finale
Despite the remarkable quality of its 80 regular challenges Octo Expansion wouldn't quite be such a masterpiece if it didn't stick its landing so brilliantly. The final portion of the game builds up a perfect crescendo, starting with a stealth section making you feel powerless and gradually arming you until you're ready to face a unique mix of pixel perfect platforming, jetpack based environmental puzzles and a brilliantly recontextualized escort mission.
That's what's called precision platforming
All of this culminating in one of the most original final bosses ever, a genius take on the game's main multiplayer mode where you're tasked to entirely cover a weaponized Statue of Liberty in ink to prevent it from destroying squid civilization. It's the kind of over the top Japanese spectacle one expects from Platinum Games, and the perfect send off for one of the most unique adventures in Nintendo's catalog...
This is normal
Except of course things don't REALLY end here. If you've beaten all of the game's levels you get the option to fight a secret boss, the infamous Inner Agent 3. This is without a doubt the toughest challenge in any Nintendo game bar Kid Icarus Uprising's intensity 9.0 boss rush and even in the industry at large there's very few bosses in recent memory as tough as this one. Despite its obvious cheapness the fight is remarkable in the way it acts as a tutorial for high level play. Because the boss is essentially an overpowered version of the player character it evokes the feeling of facing off against top level Japanese players in online matches. You quickly realize that if you want a chance to win you'll have to apply tactics that'll be useful against good players, such as painting the floor everytime your enemies respawn giving you a few seconds of respite, using every little prop in the environment for cover, making robot bombs explode without sitting still or interrupting your shots with swim strafing and predicting where your opponent will attempt to dodge. Beating the boss isn't simply for bragging rights, it makes you a better Splatoon player.
The DaRk SoULs of kids games (unironically harder than anything in Dark Souls)
So that's Octo Expansion. A unique blend of 3D platforming and third person shooter gameplay with fantastic art direction and level design, exceptional creativity, huge replay value and surprisingly high levels of challenge. It's the best Switch exclusive and deserves to be remembered as one of Nintendo's greatest creations.
Also Agent 8 a cute
