Splatoon Raiders

Дата публикации: 21-07-2026 13:00:00

Ever since the first Splatoon launched in 2015 on the Wii U, we dreamed about what a single-player focused Splatoon would look like. It took eleven years, and Splatoon Raiders answers our questions... not in the way we had imagined. That isn't to say this is a bad game, and we have to admit that despite some early reservations, this game really won us over, even if we wished it was a little more ambitious in some aspects.
While Splatoon Raiders, a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive, is being presented as Splatoon's first game focused on a single-player story, this is neither the first single-player campaign made for Splatoon nor a single-player only game, with multiplayer being part of the core experience. All three mainline Splatoon games had single-player campaigns that grew in size, variety and complexity, offering a mix of action, platforms (many compared it to Super Mario Galaxy) and puzzles.
The Splatoon 2 DLC, the Octo-Expansion in 2018, showed what a fully-fledged Splatoon single-player game could look like, with a massive 80-level campaign, tons of replayability, a huge variety of mechanics and a shockingly demanding difficulty. Splatoon 3's DLC Side Order, released in 2024, took a different route and turned it into a roguelite, putting much bigger emphasis on action.
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Splatoon Raiders, while not a roguelite, is much more similar to the Side Order DLC than the level-based campaigns of the base games or the Octo-Expansion, and puts the focus on the action, that gets increasingly more chaotic and frantic as you level up. Essentially, it is the Salmon Run co-op mode from Splatoon 2 and 3 extended to a full game. Albeit it's not a full-price title for Nintendo: at €49.90, £41.99 in digital, it's the same price as Star Fox and cheaper than most other "main" Nintendo games such as Donkey Kong Bananza, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, Pokémon Pokopia, Mario Tennis, Kirby Air Riders or the future Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave.
The main characters are Shiver, Frye and Big Man from Deep Cut, the popular trio of artists introduced in Splatoon 3, who also happen to be treasure hunters. However, you play with the nameless mechanic, a customisable character that helps them rebuild their marine base with the materials found on expeditions. The goal is to explore the Spirhalite Islands, which are not open spaces, but a collection of linear levels in which you face hordes of Salmonids, most of them from the same types already seen in previous games.
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There is some exploration (finding some not too hidden collectibles like scrolls that expand the story and lore) and some jumping, surfing or sliding, but without any challenge, just to bridge one battle section with the next. Most of the time spent will be shooting enemies and farming materials and weapons. After each expedition, you return to your base and with the materials to level up your character, your weapons and gadgets. Think of it as Nintendo's take on the looter-shooter genre like Borderlands.
It even has something akin to character classes in the form of the Ink Tank. There are three types: Power, Speed and Tactical, and each one defines what types of gadgets you can equip. At the beginning, it doesn't feel like they make a big difference, but when you level up your gadgets and can add more and more upgrades that increase damage, range or recovery time, you realise what a huge difference makes having a good build. Initially this is not a challenging game, as it is clearly aimed at a younger demographic than most other shooters in the market, but if you don't tactically improve your character and gadgets along the way, you will be completely obliterated by the stronger enemies that appear in later levels and especially in the post-game.
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While we wished the game was more ambitious with the types of levels, there is some variety at least. Some are closer to the levels in the original Splatoon campaigns, with wider spaces and a little more emphasis on exploration and platforms; and there are also a lot of hidden levels that act as challenges you can only solve with a particular gadget, some feeling like mini-puzzles (just not to the extent of the Octo-Expansion).
However, in the end, the most fun by far are those that require you to collect enough eggs from defeated salmonids in a limited time, similar to Salmon Run, which force you to be moving non-stop and using all your weapons and gadgets in the most efficient way.
In later levels (or the same levels with harder difficulty levels that appear later) the game can become intoxicatingly addictive, and as the screen turns into an incomprehensible mix of colours and shapes (without any stuttering at all), you start moving by instinct, predicting the attacks of the enemies, feeling like an unstoppable killing machine, a god of ink. And with the three different "classes" and different combinations of gadgets (although we wished there were more), there is good incentive to replay the same levels over and over trying different strategies.
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If you loved Salmon Run or the Side Order DLC (which also became similarly wild in the later stages of the tower, when you were overpowered with all the upgrades), you will likely love Splatoon Raiders. And like Salmon Run, you can easily join multiplayer parties with friends, join random parties or call for help at any moment.
However, this isn't quite the definitive Splatoon single player experience we were hoping. A lot in this game is recycled (the main game mechanic, all returning characters, all weapon types, most of the enemies and the general feel of the game feels like an extended version of a game mode you have probably already played by now). What are new are the environments in the Spirhalite Islands, and are very repetitive and pale in comparison of the abstract levels designs from the Octo Expansion or the Alterna base from Splatoon 3.
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The game's main story may take 10-15 hours to complete, depending on how much you entertain yourself trying different weapon combinations and finding secret levels. It is too not hard to reach the finish line, but there is plenty of post-game content after the credits that encourage trying the different weapon, gadget and upgrade combinations.
Splatoon Raiders is a lot of fun. The gameplay loop is addictive and it becomes more fun the harder it gets and the more powerful you become; with very deep customization options, from the character, the weapons, the gadgets and upgrades that truly make you feel that your decisions mattered; it looks good and runs super smoothly; and is equally fun even if you play solo or with friends. If this was a full-price game for Nintendo, we may feel a little different for the lack of variety in levels, but as it stands, this is a very recommendable, if not completely revolutionary, purchase for all Splatoon fans.
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