Splatoon Raiders review: colourful combat takes centre stage

Splatoon Raiders is the perfect game for those who’ve always admired Splatoon from afar, but lamented its lack of single-player campaign. As multiplayer experiences go, the Splatoon games can be an absolute (and literal) blast. They’re bright and colourful and their combat is very moreish, with an array of creative weapons and gadgets available for crafty players to dominate battlegrounds and splatter them with paint.

Nintendo has essentially lifted this combat system for Splatoon Raiders, translating it to a multi-stage adventure where players chart various stages searching for treasure, fighting against hordes of enemies, and uncovering hidden secrets.

The game also introduces new facets of lore for the Splatoon universe, and for its idol pop group and treasure hunter trio Deep Cut, with each new level revealing mysterious artefacts and history about this world (as well as its long-theorised ties to human history).

A nifty combat system drives the action

You enter Splatoon Raiders as a mechanic and treasure hunter working alongside Deep Cut to explore and mine the newly-discovered Spirhalite Islands, a cluster that surfaced after a shift in tectonic plates. These islands are filled with artefacts of human civilisation, along with powerful orbs and evil Salmonids in all forms.

To fight for your rights to the treasure on each individual island, you must come to grips with an array of weapons, all of which have their own paint spread and impact. (As with the other Splatoon games, paint is your weapon, and dousing your enemy will defeat them.)

You can pick from various loadouts, including a paint-splatting bow-and-arrow (a ScreenHub favourite), a rapid-fire paint gun, an umbrella that spins out paint, a paint-roller with a wide splat range, and plenty of others besides. There are various collectable gadgets available too, each with their own benefit – floor-slamming abilities and a boomerang-like splatter among them.

Picking the right combination is key, as Splatoon Raiders will frequently present you with rapid-fire combat challenges, many of which require you to defeat a certain amount of enemies within a time limit. You must think on your feet and combine all your skills in combat, ensuring you’re throwing out gadgets as soon as they refresh, and that you’re constantly firing or splatting your weapons for maximum damage.

When you’re facing down endless hordes of Salmonid warriors, which can crowd you into dark corners of maps or create barriers that are difficult to overcome (particularly the Salmonids with cage traps around them), you’ll find your weapon choices define your fate.

But even in defeat, when you’re thoroughly squished by some great hulking fish or grotesque underwater beastie, you’ll want to return again.

Splatoon Raiders is not technically a rogue-like by design, but it features a similar moreish encouragement to return to battles. You’ll quickly gain levels to power up your Octoling, and each victory means you can eventually strengthen your weapon or gadget damage, improve your health, or continue levelling up your weapons.

Maintaining this ‘carrot at the end of the stick’ approach means that rounds are consistently rewarding. And with the game’s bright, happy approach to exploration and battles, there’s no real friction in starting over and trying again.

Simple gameplay is elevated by moreish stages

Experimenting with your loadout is part of the fun of Splatoon Raiders, as is discovering new realms, each with their own hidden secrets and unique Salmonid enemies. The basis of gameplay remains relatively simple throughout its many quests. You enter a new island, temple or open area, and must discover its hidden treasure, all while a loose story guides new developments.

Treasure can be hard-won with waves of enemies crashing your shoreline or, in more measured battles, the arrival of higher-powered beasts and bosses.

It’s particularly novel wandering into an open area to discover one of the many bosses, with each defined by their own special mechanics that require you to change up your approach, or even your preferred loadout.

There are bosses that attack from the air, requiring patience and jumping through hoops for a good vantage point. There are others that attack from the ground, with great swipes of their fishy fins.

While there is some measure of repetition in these stages, in terms of the kinds of activities you’ll need to perform to put away growing hordes of Salmonids, each location is unique and lends a needed flavour to battles.

It’s all nautical theming here, so you’re charting sandy beaches, muddy lagoons, realms of rusted machinery, volcanic and rocky lands, and beyond. Levels are cartoony and beautiful, and are rendered well on the Nintendo Switch 2.

When Splatoon Raiders is at its best

When it’s at its best, Splatoon Raiders uses this terrain for some really buoyant and exploration-driven platforming, tasking players with using their squid abilities to cross caverns and mountains, puzzling as they go.

Not every stage makes use of this game’s full potential though, and there are plenty that just require mindless running and gunning through approaching enemies.

Entering yet another area to find it’s a time-limited battle against a wave of roaming Salmonids can be a disappointment, particularly when you’re hot off a treasure run through a vast and glittering oceanside world.

There are bright flashes of creative ideas throughout this game, and moments where it really makes the most of Splatoon‘s familiar combat system and flashy, cool style for a creative experience. Equally, there are moments that will feel fairly rote, as grinding for levels is an essential part of the adventure.

The game’s more creative ideas do shine very brightly, and they can be enough to distract away from some of its duller parts. But you will need some patience if you’re heading into Splatoon Raiders hoping for a more diverse and ground-breaking experience, or perhaps one with a more robust story.

As it stands, this is a solid and mechanically fun adventure game with some really clever, joyous battles to find across its layered map. A love for Splatoon will elevate the action significantly, with its light delivery of lore tidbits creating a string to pull yourself along.

For those new to the Splatoon series, there might be more friction in its introduction, but the game’s best ideas are charming regardless, and its Octolings are quick to cement a spot in your heart.

A code for Splatoon Raiders on Nintendo Switch 2 was provided by the publisher.

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