Splatoon Raiders review: how the spin-off holds up for players

Nintendo's new Splatoon spin-off embraces overwhelming chaos, and it works beautifully. Splatoon Raiders, now available on Nintendo Switch 2 (review code provided by Nintendo), takes the beloved Salmon Run PvE mode and blows it up into a full standalone adventure — one so packed with enemies, explosions, and flying ink that the camera occasionally struggles to keep pace. Somehow, that's part of its charm.

The Joy of Too Much

There's a pattern emerging at Nintendo that might best be described as "apocalyptic simplicity." Donkey Kong Bananza did it first: a game about punching through the earth itself, reducing meticulously crafted levels to gravel simply because you could. Splatoon Raiders follows the same philosophy. You drop into a level, blast nearly everything that spawns, then scoop up the loot left behind. It's unapologetically bloodthirsty, and it would rather hurl more enemies at you than ever slow down.

Both games trust their action so completely that not seeing every detail doesn't matter. In Raiders, your ears fill in the gaps — enemies are taut and chunky, so every hit lands with a rapid snare-drum rattle that tells you you're on target. You can trust the game. You can trust Nintendo.

From Salmon Run to Standalone

The DNA here comes straight from Splatoon's PvE mode. Salmon Run pitted your squad of ink-flinging squids against waves of monstrous fish creatures in loot-grab survival missions. Raiders spins that concept into its own game: you explore strange islands hunting treasure, using a makeshift raft as your base to upgrade weapons and powers. Solo play or three-friend co-op works both online and via local wireless.

The core Splatoon systems carry over brilliantly. Ink is both your ammo and your mobility tool — coat a surface in your color and you can dive into squid form to hide, reload, climb walls, and zip through grates. Enemy ink slows you down. There's no territory control here, but painting everything in sight is still usually the smart move.

Weapon variety runs from machine guns to giant paint rollers to the elegant paint brush — the rapier of the series, but genuinely difficult to master. This reviewer leaned on twin pistols and machine gun variants through most of the campaign and had a blast regardless.

Enemies, Gadgets, and Grimy Islands

Enemy designs pull heavily from Salmon Run: wobbling horrors, pan-throwing small fry, mechanical eels that barrel in like toxin-spewing freight trains, and tower enemies perched on teetering piles of saucepans. The world itself is wonderfully grim — somewhere between post-industrial wasteland and the inside of an ashtray, continuing Salmon Run's gloriously grimy aesthetic.

Combat stays thrilling because enemies spawn in mixed waves requiring different tactics: some need whittling down, some demand specific angles, some explode dangerously on death. Damage rarely interrupts your actions, which creates constant forward momentum — and makes every death a genuine shock. It feels oddly reminiscent of the recent Doom games.

Your loadout includes an ink tank, relics granting perks, and gadgets enabling special moves, all upgradeable back at base. There's plenty to tinker with, but it's built for playful experimentation rather than convoluted systems. A CPU-controlled companion mech provides a double-jump and a chargeable special attack fueled by the orange eggs enemies drop — picking Frye, who summons a storm of morays, comes recommended for newcomers.

Mission types mostly boil down to clearing nodes so your mech can drill for treasure, or descending through timed underground chambers. It sounds complex on paper, but in practice you're always blasting something and trying to stay alive. Wonderfully direct.

Verdict

What lingers after the credits is astonishment at how carefree the mayhem feels. Spinning Salmon Run into its own game reeks of youthful confidence — don't worry whether players can follow every second of the chaos; just let the chaos happen. That eternal design youthfulness is Nintendo's real trick, and right now it's chasing apocalyptic simplicity. Not bad at all.

Source: Eurogamer