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Details
Publisher Nintendo
Developer Nintendo EPD
Release date 23 July 2026
Format Switch 2
Platform In-house Proprietary
Splatoon may be over a decade old now, but it remains one of Nintendo’s freshest IPs, or any publisher’s, when you consider an industry content with rehashing its back catalogue for decades. That said, the series has also been largely iterative, as is often the case with a multiplayer shooter where you don’t really want to fix what’s not broken. Ironically then, its more innovative moments have actually been through its single-player offerings, which brings us to its first standalone spin-off, Splatoon Raiders.
Despite the plural in the title, this is a single-player-focused affair where your new protagonist, known only as the Mechanic, explores a mysterious archipelago called the Spirhalite Islands, while accompanied by a member of Splatoon 3’s three-piece band Deep Cut piloting an exploration bot. There’s a snappiness to many of the missions, from linear levels to ones in a concentrated space with a strict time limit, but it will feel familiar if you’ve ever played the co-op wave-based horde mode Salmon Run, since it features Salmonids as your foe.
These enemies have a wide variety, especially the Boss Salmonids, from the long-stretching Steel Eels, whose weakness is the pilot at the rear, to the towering Stingers, which require each of its layers to be shot out. But they’ll also be familiar if you’ve already played Salmon Run in the past, with the few new types being little more than ink sponges. Even several existing Boss Salmonids have been adapted due to your character not having a bomb weapon available.
Pick and mix Switch 2 shooter
If it sounds like Splatoon Raiders is made up of a lot of recycled parts, while on the surface it looks like it could also have been a cross-gen title rather than a Switch 2 exclusive, in practice it works wonderfully, repurposing existing elements into an essentially looter shooter. Although there are no new weapon types, and sub-weapons like the aforementioned bombs are absent, it’s more than made up for by your ability to equip ink tanks that give you three sets of playstyles: speed, power or tactical.
Depending on the tank you choose, you can develop and equip a wide variety of gadgets. These are basically cooldown-based abilities that replace sub-weapons but with the added bonus that you can eventually equip up to three of them. There are incentives to switch between tanks for each mission too, but I really took to the speed tank, where I can leap away from danger and land with an explosion of ink around me or shoot out a zipwire to reach higher ground, including airborne Salmonids.
You also shouldn’t forget your bot buddy, who, besides offering supporting firepower, can also be used to bounce high up, very handy when you want to reach higher ground or just get away from a horde of Salmonids coming for you. While the bot itself looks quite bland, the personality comes from one of the members of Deep Cut – Shiver, Frye, and Big Man – who dish out ultimate-style showstoppers after you’ve filled up the gauge. Once you’re dealing with loads of Salmonids while firing off gadgets and showstoppers, the action quickly builds up to screen-spilling chaos that would probably tank the Switch 1 before you’re left with the satisfaction of making off with all sorts of shiny loot.
(Image credit: Nintendo)
While you’re hoovering up lots of riches and relics (in a nice touch, some trinkets you discover turn out to be something more once you later find another treasure that’s actually another part of it) there’s substance to it, because it’s all feeding back into a light RPG loop where you’re gradually improving your base with more workshops and means to make yourself more powerful. The most compelling part is how you can endlessly tinker with your gadgets, which have slots where you can add all sorts of modifier parts to change or enhance their properties.
It’s a shame these kinds of buffs aren’t tied to your clothing like in the mainline series, with unlockable outfits here purely cosmetic (and arguably less colourful fashions in a game that also has a more washed-out palette), but the upside is more room for tinkering with the numbers as you optimise your build to better get you through each mission. That numbers-go-up approach does, however, mean if you struggle in later missions, it’s only because the enemies are too spongy. Even with the difficulty turned down to Tourist, you’ll still find yourself underlevelled unless you rinse and repeat missions, though the fact most can be done in several minutes makes it less of a grind than other looter shooters, while the option to play spicier versions of earlier missions also helps to keep things from getting too repetitive.
Ironically, what would liven things up is playing in co-op, where you can play alongside other mechanics with wildly different builds, and then have them all collide onscreen. Yet Splatoon Raiders has some peculiar limitations, with no built-in online matchmaking apart from an option to call for help, which you’re then restricted from using in successive missions. It also doesn’t take advantage of GameShare, and while the nature of custom builds might make this less of a casual affair, I could also envision a local GameShare version where other players just cobble together something from all the other loot and gadgets you’ve accrued. There’s room for more tinkering then, assuming this spin-off is successful enough to justify a Splatoon Raiders 2.
(Image credit: Nintendo)
