Nintendo’s Splatoon franchise has always offered a unique twist on the shooter genre, blending vibrant aesthetics with innovative ink-based gameplay mechanics. While the series has cultivated a dedicated competitive multiplayer following since its debut in 2015, many players have found their engagement with the games to be somewhat short-lived despite the solid shooting mechanics and creative traversal systems. Now, with the release of Splatoon Raiders, Nintendo has taken a bold step in an entirely new direction—and the results suggest this may have been the path the series was meant to follow all along. Unlike previous entries that included brief single-player campaigns as secondary content, Raiders commits fully to the solo experience with a looter shooter framework that feels remarkably natural for the franchise.
The looter shooter genre has seen tremendous growth over the past decade, with titles like Destiny, Borderlands, and The Division establishing the format as a major force in gaming. These games combine the satisfaction of shooting mechanics with the addictive loop of acquiring progressively better gear, creating experiences that can keep players engaged for hundreds of hours. Nintendo has historically stayed away from this genre, preferring to focus on more family-friendly gameplay experiences. However, Splatoon’s existing weapon variety and upgrade systems made it a surprisingly perfect candidate for the looter shooter treatment, and Nintendo appears to have recognized this opportunity with Raiders.
Familiar Elements Remixed Into Something Fresh
What makes Splatoon Raiders particularly clever is how it repurposes existing franchise elements into this new structure. The varied weapon types that players have come to know—shooters, splatanas, dualies, and more—all return in this new context. The Salmonid enemies, which previously appeared in the cooperative Salmon Run mode, now serve as the primary antagonists. Even the main characters, the members of the musical group Deep Cut from Splatoon 3, take center stage as your companions on this adventure. Yet despite all these familiar components, Raiders rearranges them into something that feels genuinely new. The game’s philosophy is perhaps best captured by a quote found early in the adventure: “All that matters now is the loot!”
The shift from competitive multiplayer to PvE challenges fundamentally changes how players interact with the game’s systems. Instead of frantically covering territory with ink while competing against other players, Raiders presents a variety of mission types that all revolve around defeating Salmonids and collecting rewards. Some stages challenge players to gather Power Eggs under strict time limits, while others task them with collecting crystals to power drilling machines. The simplicity of these objectives belies the depth of the combat, which becomes increasingly complex as new enemy types and environmental challenges are introduced. Interestingly, while traditional Splatoon games have players competing with their ink colors, Raiders assigns players different colors on each stage while enemies consistently spray their signature sickly yellow-green goo.
Gadgets Transform The Combat Experience
While returning weapons provide a foundation of familiarity, the true innovation in Splatoon Raiders comes from its Gadget system. Players choose from three Tank types—Speed, Power, and Tactical—each offering unique Gadget selections that dramatically alter gameplay approaches. The Speed tank provides access to the Booyarang, a spinning weapon that disperses ink in a small radius. The Power tank grants Splatellites that orbit around the player, providing both offensive and defensive capabilities. The Tactical tank offers the Shot Pot auto-turret for players who prefer a more strategic approach. Each Gadget feels distinct, and the game encourages experimentation through cleverly designed Sampler Dungeons that reward players with bonus Skill Points for trying new equipment.
The customization deepens further through the Gadget modification system. Players can equip parts that enhance their chosen Gadgets in various ways, from simple power increases to special effects like scorch damage. These modifications enable creative applications that players continue discovering late into the game. For instance, reducing Splatellite cooldowns to near-zero creates an almost permanent area of effect that lays down swimmable ink paths, enabling rapid battlefield traversal without pausing to shoot. This kind of emergent gameplay, where systems interact in unexpected ways, represents the best of what looter shooters can offer. The Showstopper abilities, tied to Deep Cut members, provide powerful emergency options that recharge through combat rather than time, adding another layer of strategic depth to encounters.
Challenging Content That Rewards Mastery
The Salmonid enemies, while recognizable from previous Splatoon games, receive new life through creative redesigns and challenging variations. Many enemies appear in “Seasoned” forms, covered in thick salt that makes them significantly tougher to defeat. The game extracts remarkable variety from rearranging these enemies across different compositions and battlefields, creating encounters that become increasingly hectic as players progress. Managing battlefield priorities and threat assessment becomes crucial, especially in later stages where enemies swarm from multiple directions. The ten-minute stage length hits a sweet spot for casual engagement, providing enough time to experience satisfying combat loops without demanding excessive time commitments.
However, the progression system does show some friction points that could benefit from refinement. Once players max out their preferred Tank type and Showstopper ability, they continue earning experience that serves no purpose unless they switch to underdeveloped options. Given that stages continually ramp up in difficulty, switching to underleveled equipment feels punishing rather than rewarding. A system allowing spillover experience to benefit lesser-used equipment would smooth this progression curve considerably. Despite this issue, the core gameplay loop remains compelling enough that players often find themselves lingering in completed stages just to enjoy more combat—a telling sign of genuinely satisfying game design.
A New Future For The Splatoon Franchise
While Splatoon Raiders does include multiplayer functionality through cooperative raids with scaling difficulty, the single-player experience clearly takes priority. This represents a significant departure for a franchise built on competitive multiplayer foundations, yet it works remarkably well. The main Splatoon series has undeniably found its audience—the games have sold millions of copies and cultivated passionate competitive communities. However, Raiders demonstrates that the franchise possesses flexibility that previous story campaigns merely hinted at. Those earlier single-player offerings often felt like afterthoughts, brief diversions before the main multiplayer event. Raiders inverts this relationship entirely, creating a fully realized single-player experience that stands on its own merits.
The success of Splatoon Raiders suggests exciting possibilities for the franchise’s future. Rather than replacing the competitive multiplayer games that fans love, this looter shooter approach could exist as a parallel sub-series, offering something for players who prefer solo experiences or find competitive multiplayer less appealing. Nintendo has shown increasing willingness to experiment with established franchises in recent years, and Raiders represents one of their most successful experiments. The concept has room to grow further—deeper customization systems, more varied mission types, and expanded cooperative features could all enhance future installments. For now, Splatoon Raiders stands as proof that sometimes the best direction for a franchise isn’t obvious until someone tries something different, and the results speak for themselves.
Expert Opinion: Splatoon Raiders represents a strategic pivot that could significantly expand Nintendo’s shooter audience beyond the competitive multiplayer demographic. The looter shooter framework addresses a persistent criticism of the main series—that engagement tends to be short-lived—by providing the long-term progression hooks that keep players invested for months rather than weeks. If Nintendo continues developing this sub-series alongside traditional Splatoon titles, they could establish dual revenue streams while demonstrating that their IP can thrive across multiple gaming formats.
