Anyone returning from any of the previous, stellar Splatoon games will be familiar with how Splatoon Raiders looks and feels, and there was even a teaser that things could be heading this way with Splatoon 3’s Side Order DLC, but Raiders is meticulous in its design, surprising and delighting at every turn, and it’s coming from a team that feels like it’s always one step ahead of the player.
Everything in Splatoon Raiders is about progression. Like many dungeon crawlers, there is no run that feels wasted. Whether you succeed or fail, you’ll end up with new weapons, buffs, or just a load of new currency in the form of Spirhalite Shards. At no point will you ever feel like you’re banging your head against the wall, either, because there’s always something to do, even after the credits have rolled.
Your quest as the mechanic, is to find treasure. There’s more to it, of course, as you’ve landed with Shiver, Frye, and Big Man (also known as the idol group, Deep Cut). The trio are heading to the Spirhalite Islands in search of goodies and valuables, before quickly becoming embroiled in a battle against the Salmonids, because of course they do.
As the mechanic, you are the muscle. You will go out on the titular raids to discover treasure while battling a huge variety of Salmonid enemies, bring it back, and then spend your time generally upgrading your hideout, improving your strength via various means, and generally looking the part by switching into newly acquired outfits. As you’d expect from any Splatoon title, there’s loads more here under the hood than you’d imagine, and some genuinely lovely surprises, so I’ll be treading carefully spoiler-wise.
If you’re new to the series, fundamentally Splatoon Raiders is a third-person shooter with a difference. You shoot ink and therefore you will cover the ground. When your ink tank runs dry you’ll need to jump into squid form, submerse into the ink, which slowly replenishes your ammo. Enemies will have opposing ink which damages you, and there are a silly amount of enemy types, as well as weapons and gadgets to combat them.
If you’ve an existing fan, boy are there a lot of weapons to choose from. I’ve always been a roller guy, but Raiders turned me into a Splattershot player. From buckets of paint you splash at enemies, to brushes you slap them silly with, there’s the bows, umbrellas that are shields, sniper rifle style weapons; it’s all here, and at times it can almost be too much, simply due to the volume of new items you’ll find on any given run.
Being run-based means there are a variety of missions. One will see you face a time limit in an enclosed space and have to grab a set number of Power Eggs to progress further into the dungeon. Another type will require you explore a much larger set of islands finding treasure from Spirhalite Clusters before breaking into a giant one, and finishing the level. There are challenge courses that reward you with skill point books, there’s also bosses galore. You won’t be getting bored and you’ll find a favourite raid type pretty quickly. Every enemy drops “parts”, which are used in building things as you go, so nothing is ever pointless here.
Despite being a single player game, you’re not actually alone. As part of the story you find a large robot which can be piloted by one of Deep Cut. This bot will shoot targets and, because it has a drill on the bottom of it, is the way you progress onto the next layer, or drill into the Spirhalite Cluster to get the gems inside. You can call the bot to you at any time with a tap of the “X” button, and you can double jump off the top for extra height, which is a huge advantage against some enemies you encounter later on. Each of the members of Deep Cut even has a unique special ability when piloting the bot.
Your loadout is based upon which of the three tanks you choose. Speed, Power, or Tactical are your options, and each of these has specific gadgets tied to that particular tank. Tactical lets you equip gadgets that are more like tools: you’ll start with a turret, for example. The Speed and Power tanks are perhaps obvious in what they offer, but the gadgets are cleverly designed and while I started out as a Technical Tank user, I ended up using Power more, thanks to the gadgets associated with it.
On that note, every gadget has a number of slots you can fill with buffs. These are numerous and can be found just by playing and shooting Salmonids, but also created back at the hideout. Weapons themselves are on a star-based tiering, and the gadget add-ons also have starred tiers which will affect either how many of the slots you have for each gadget are used, or just how effective they are in what they do.
The sense of progression is fantastic, because every single run will end in you back at your hideout, tinkering with loadouts and changing, or testing things. Even post-credits, I was still messing about with what worked for me. I had been able to make a Splattershot weapon feel so essential that I was afraid to do a run without it, instead changing gadgets to work better for the particular raid I was about to embark on. If you find a compass mid-level, you’ll be able to use the map to find a skill-based level, which will net you a quick skill book to upgrade your weapon strength, gadget slots, gadget power, or health. It’s forever evolving, and is immensely satisfying for it.
I mentioned this is a single player experience, and that’s true, but there is a multiplayer component. While on the treasure map you can “call for help”. The system feels very much akin to the one Monster Hunter used to employ. Here you can call for help on a level every thirty minutes, but you can also offer your help up (and this isn’t gated behind a timer). If you do play co-op with friends, all limits are removed. You get loot and goodies for succeeding in a run, and the levels themselves are adjusted based on how many players there are. It’s a huge amount of fun, and I can see myself jumping in to help others when I’ve a spare ten minutes here and there.
Splatoon Raiders is far deeper than it first appears. Every time you think “it’d be nice if they added this feature”, it seems to happen shortly afterwards. Nintendo has studied the genre and left no stone unturned here. While I won’t go into specifics, the main campaign isn’t too taxing, difficulty wise, but the addition of harder takes on previously player levels means there’s a huge amount of replayability here. The fact it’s so easy to play a few runs within a short time, too, make it an absolutely brilliant pick up and play adventure.
With an enormous variety of enemies, weapons, and ways to play, Splatoon Raiders is a brilliant adventure to experience. Full of character, silly humour, gorgeous visuals (and a rock solid frame rate), I couldn’t put it down. Whenever I had a free moment, I’d be either handheld or docked playing a few quick runs. It may not change the minds of people who don’t like the series, but as a fan since the start, this is a brilliant spin-off that I hope Nintendo supports for a long while to come. An exceptionally entertaining single player adventure, Splatoon Raiders is expertly designed, full of content, and just a fantastic time.
