Splatoon 3 v. 4.0.0 & the Sizzle Season 2023

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I think it's overall underwhelming, but we'll see what Challenges are like.

Three months ago, Splatoon 3 entered version 3.0.0 and the Fresh Season 2023. It's now time for a new version and a new season:

Between now and the end of August, there's a new season!

Up-front, the best update are the three songs from Yoko and the Gold Bazookas: Ska-Blam!, Three-Horn Circus, and Rockagilly Blues.

I think my favourite is Rockagilly Blues, but it's hard to say. I really like the genre! Anyway, the highlights in the 4.0.0 patch notes is that there is a new catalog, a new stage (Barnacle & Dime—which is awful and suffers from the problems that most of the new Splatoon 3 maps do about linearity and lack of flanking), a returning stage (Humpback Pump Track, which I've always liked), new weapons (including alternate versions and two totally new weapons, the S-Blast '92 and the Painbrush; the Painbrush is a pain to fight against), a new Salmon Run stage (Jammin' Salmon Junction), and new Tableturf Battle cards to go along with the new weapons.

I've tried to use the Tenta Sorella Brella which I'm thinking should be an upgrade from the normal Tenta Brella (Ink Mine over Squid Beakon and Trizooka over Ink Vac), but I haven't won a single match with it.

Humpback Pump Track is difficult to type out. But at least it's way better than Barnacle & Dime as a stage.

Because I haven't actually won matches so far before writing this article, I haven't been able to experience this myself, but it looks like “when certain conditions are met, two players on the winning team who made great efforts will celebrate each other’s brave fighting after performing their victory emotes.” And this pleases me greatly because the celebration is a FIST-BUMP. I feel like someone at Nintendo read my article about how fist bumps are better than high-fives, which are better than handshakes. (Handshakers should be exiled.)

SRL here with yet more discoveries on the cusp of Sizzle Season. Did you know that when two players on the winning team perform exceptionally well, they'll do a fist bump after their victory emotes? We do the same at SRL every time we publish findings! pic.twitter.com/iEypvCJBpm

— Splatoon North America (@SplatoonNA) May 30, 2023

It could've been a high-five, but it's not. It's very good that those kids in Splatsville are at least doing something right.

There is a new mode called Challenges, and they will only appear at certain times in two-hour increments under specific rulesets, which is new for Splatoon but reminiscent of those themed tourney mode events Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has. The first one happens this weekend.

There isn't a new King Salmonid this season (though that could change?), and there also aren't new clothes to buy in the shops outside of the Catalog, unlike the start of the Fresh Season 2023. I guess that means there isn't much to spend cash on, though if you just bought Splatoon 3 you'll constantly be draining money. I suppose that's fine to give me a season to stockpile money. There were some weapon buffs to normal play as well as to Salmon Run (including to Dynamo Roller [less ink used] and the Tenta Brella [more damage] in Salmon Run, while the Snipewriter 5H got buffed everywhere in damage output and ink consumed). Whenever you'll be able to do Eggstra Work next, you'll be able to play in a solo queue, though you'll probably be significantly less effective than if you played in a group like before.

They also did a large number of bug fixes, but I very quickly encountered this bug I've never seen before which made it a 4 vs. 3 match for a while:

See Replay RKPK-01DC-A7BJ-SJLQ for Piñataguy being an out-of-bounds menace in Wahoo World.
He also has 7,720 hours or more of Fortnite play, so he's probably an awful person.

The first big Splatoon 3 tournament post-patch will be the Splatoon 3 Championship 2023 Qualifier Event #1 this weekend. Maybe you should join or at least tune into it to get an idea of how the metagame will shake up as a result of the new changes!

Update for June 1, 2023: I finally encountered another, but undocumented addition: Possibly as a consequence of making the Anarchy Splatcast news skippable, the developers did not put effort into making Deep Cut say anything special or interesting in their stage announcement commentary. Starting with this update, Deep Cut will sometimes now provide unique commentary based on which stage they are introducing, just like the idols in the first two Splatoon titles. This should help us get to know Deep Cut even better with more flavour text opportunities.

Unfortunately for the new dialogue, it has at least one error. An unclosed parenthesis.

Maybe things that Ludwig didn't cover, like it being easier to share Private Rooms, will actually be sleeper hit new features that aren't getting attention now but ought to. And perhaps this will finally be the season that shakes the Splash-o-matic's meta dominance. Do you have your own thoughts on the new season? Are you excited?


Here is what Challenges are like.