It was the Shot Pot that sealed it. Plant this automatic turret on the ground, let it rattle away at Salmonids, and use the cover to rush in with a Splatana swinging. That single loop hooked me — and every previous Splatoon had lost me within weeks.
Raiders marks Nintendo's first entry in the series to put single-player front and center, in a franchise otherwise built on multiplayer, and the pivot lands. Cast as the mechanic, you travel the Spirhalite Islands alongside a three-piece band called Deep Cut, digging for treasure and cutting through Salmonid waves with whatever mix of weapons and gadgets you’ve assembled.
Some background on where I’m coming from: every new Splatoon got a week or two of my time before I dropped it for good. That was never a quality problem. It’s that multiplayer isn’t my thing. Raiders is the first entry that didn’t ask me to change that.
The story is set dressing and that’s fine
Spending time with Deep Cut — Shiver, Frye and The Big Man, a talking sting ray — gives you a sense of who they are, and not much beyond that. Nobody should arrive expecting a profound lesson. Gameplay is the draw, and the game appears fully aware of it.
Under the hood it plays like the Splatoon you already know. Ink your enemies, paint the floor as a byproduct, then submerge in that ink, since swimming is far quicker than your sluggish run speed. Getting around an enemy’s flank comes down to reading the paint underfoot.
The missions keep a good pace. A few stretch into longer linear runs blending gunplay with platforming. Others start a clock and task you with gathering orbs before it expires. There’s enough variety across the map that the campaign never fell into a single rhythm for me.
Buildcrafting is where this thing separates itself
Because multiplayer Splatoon must weigh loadouts against player skill, its customization stays pretty thin. That constraint doesn’t apply here. Your opponents are NPCs, which leaves you free to get as powerful as you like, and fiddling with gadgets and weapons until a build feels distinctly yours is the highlight of the whole package.
Gadgets accept augment parts that add attacking properties. Working inside a fixed number of slots, you push parameters such as attacking range, fire rate and damage.
Finish off an island and you unlock Relics, which hand out character powers. Lifesaver boosts how fast your HP recovers. Ink Pro reduces the ink your weapons burn through with each shot. Layer Relics on top of weapons and gadgets and you’ll always find an excuse to dismantle a build and start over.
It’s not strictly solo
For the tougher campaign stages and the post-game, two more players can drop in online. On top of that, every level comes in “Spicy” and “Super Spicy” flavors with meaner enemies — more replay value than I’d anticipated. Connection trouble knocked my teammates out mid-level once. Beyond that single hiccup, co-op linked up quickly and cleanly.
The wardrobe took a hit
And now the genuine letdown. Choosing your shirt, pants and headwear as separate pieces is gone. Costumes unlock as complete sets and get equipped that way. Raiders swapped cosmetic customization for build personalization, and nothing about the design justifies dropping one to get the other.
Flaws and all, it’s my favorite Splatoon, though I’ll admit the genre change accounts for most of that. Folding in co-op was a clever way to preserve the series’ teamwork identity without shoving me into a lobby. The customization was the ink that got my signature on a long-term commitment to this series.
On the plus side: gameplay and customization that hold your attention, plus co-op as a welcome addition. On the minus side: a story that barely clears the bar, and the missing individual cosmetic choices sting.