Hours played: 30
PLATFORM: Nintendo switch 2
Most would argue that Monster Hunter is the gear-grinding franchise to rule them all, and while Splatoon Raiders isn't making a run for Capcom's crown, it shares some noteworthy common ground with it. There's glory to be found in ascending the Monster Hunter mountain, but if you aren’t looking to devote your entire gaming life to a grueling gear grind, Splatoon Raiders splashes like a fresh batch of ink. The mountain Splatoon Raiders asks you to climb isn't quite as high, and it doesn't need to be, because its progression systems, moment-to-moment gameplay, and distinctly squishy art style deliver a total package of easily attainable fun. In Splatoon Raiders, you play as the mechanic — a silent character roped into a treasure-hunting adventure by returning Splatoon 3 icons Shiver, Frye, and Big Man. The trio, otherwise known by their band name "Deep Cut", task the mechanic with raiding the Spirhalite Islands for treasure to help them dig their homeland of Splatsville out of seemingly insurmountable debt. Soon after the story setup, you're thrown onto your first island to go toe-to-toe with the game's main enemy, the Salmonids. This unruly group of fish will stop at nothing, including smacking you in the head with frying pans, to keep you from raiding their treasures. Nevertheless, you've got treasure to find, and you'll ink down whoever you have to to find it.
Raiders is my first Splatoon game, so I wasn't sure what to expect of its story depth. It has an interesting setup that felt easy to sink into, even with no connection to the prior games, and even features a handful of interesting character moments that add flavor to the experience. Ultimately, however, the story feels like it exists to give purpose to your raiding activities, which isn’t a bad thing for a game whose main focus is to keep gameplay center stage. By the time I rolled credits, I felt the story-to-gameplay ratio was tuned perfectly, leaving me curious about the stories that lead up to Raiders.
"... the story feels as though it exists to give purpose to your raiding activities, which isn’t a bad thing for a game whose main focus is to keep gameplay center stage."
One Inkling's Treasure is Another Inkling's Upgrade Material
Deep Cut may have debts to pay, but you've got weapons to upgrade! In Splatoon Raiders, you'll spend your time taking your cut of the island raid spoils to upgrade your weapons and gadgets. It's a fairly simple gameplay loop on the surface, but the upgrade systems get more complicated the deeper you go. Thankfully, Raiders is designed with player freedom in mind, so experimentation will take you where you need to go. You'll start by choosing from one of three ink tanks -- one for power, one for speed, and one for tactical gameplay. You'll equip your chosen tank's gadgets, equip your shooter, and head out into the islands. As you earn more treasure and materials, you'll unlock gadgets and other upgrade paths like tinkering and base upgrades to experiment with, and you'll repeat this process until you become a walking disaster of ink that the salmonids would hate to see coming.
My Ah-ha moment came after experimenting with the ink tanks. After a few hours of trial and error, a process the game heavily encourages through its endless replay-ability, I discovered that I'd have the most fun out in the field punching through hordes of salmonids like a semi-truck barreling through a brick wall. In other words, the power tank and its AOE-focused gadgets became my go-to load out for the majority of my play through. This is an important moment for any players to arrive at, as this is when the gameplay loop, progression systems, and moment-to-moment combat start to come together in a cohesive experience full of thrilling upward momentum. The best part is that there are no wrong answers when crafting your build. Sure, I love pairing the shotgun-like slosher buckets with the power tank because of the heavy-hitting one-two punch they deliver together; however, if you decided to throw a rapid-fire splattershot into that build, you'd have just as much of a chance at a successful raid, so as long as it's the combination of gear that feels the most fun to you as the player.
"I discovered that I'd have the most fun out in the field by punching through hoards of salmonids like a semi-truck barreling through a brick wall."
One Inkling Vs. A World of Salmonids
The raids are where the real magic happens, and where the fruits of your tinkering labors come to fruition. Each of the game's handful of level types, from straightforward linear to sandbox-style and more, forces you to adapt to environmental puzzles and hazards by using your chosen tools to their fullest capabilities. With each raid taking 5 to 10 minutes, you'll find plenty of room to run them over and over. Your first run will typically be where you get a feel for the level’s layout. Once you get comfortable, you could return to search for hidden areas loaded with treasure. Subsequent runs can serve as test rounds for the game's huge suite of weapons, or act as a farming session for power eggs and Spirhalite shards. Challenge levels offer a completely different experience by sticking you with a pre-determined load-out and tasking you with finding the correct way to the finish line.
Even after 30 hours of gameplay, raids never felt stale or repetitive. As it turns out, just like with food, when you add a bit of spice, you change the whole experience. Spicy and super spicy modes remix each raid with difficulty spikes that make them feel like whole new levels. I'm not ashamed to admit that even after beating the game's final boss, going back to the first raid on spicy difficulty gave me more trouble than I was expecting. Thanks to these modes, my frustration turned into excitement, knowing a whole new game stood in front of me. As a result, I added another 10-15 hours to my play through, and even as I write this, I'm still clamoring to take on the spiciest of Salmonid hoards. It helps that the moment-to-moment gameplay is just plain fun thanks to each weapon and gadget having its own unique, satisfying feel. Splatoon Raiders nailed the basic tactility of taking down a Salmonid, making the chaotic horde battles a fun, welcome challenge rather than an intimidating slog.
A Style Brought to Life With Ink
Splatoon Raiders quickly became my "turn the brain off and just have fun" game. A large part of that is because of its gameplay, but also because of its presentation. This is a wonderful game to look at thanks to the clever way it uses its ink mechanics to take advantage of its wide, vibrant color palette. The variety of biomes makes moving through the Spirhalite Islands feel consistently fresh, and the character designs are distinct, fun, and stand tall in Nintendo's pantheon of iconic mascots. The Salmonids? Well, they're unique too, even if off-putting, but that's the point of their design, and Nintendo has nailed it.
"Splatoon Raiders quickly became my "turn the brain off and just have fun" game."
Whatever music you might expect to fit the fun, cartoonish chaos that fills every moment of every raid is likely not what you imagined. It certainly wasn't what I imagined. In Nintendo's Ask the Developer Volume 22, developer Shu Tamura explains: "We created the music while imagining it to be something the Salmonids of the Spirhalite Islands are familiar with, as if it were recorded locally." The result is a sonic experience that perfectly matches the Salmonid's unsettling presence. It mixes harsh, clanky instrumentation with dissonant tones, giving each raid a uniquely unsettling atmosphere. It's a bit jarring at first, but that's the point. As you progress through the game, you'll eventually get used to the music, and it begins to feel more immersive than immersion-breaking.
The Verdict
I could spend forever waxing poetic about Splatoon Raider's cleverly stacked progression systems, satisfying weapon feel, and streamlined gameplay loop. But when I inevitably come back to it at whatever point in time feels right to start a fresh playthrough, I won't be thinking about any of those things. At the forefront of my mind will be how fun this game was the first time around. How easy it was to pick up for quick 15-minute sessions and have a blast with, and how equally fun it was to spend hours grinding the next five-star weapon. Splatoon Raiders is one of those games that's easy to recommend to any gamer and is a must-play on the Nintendo Switch 2.