Splatoon Raiders hands-on impressions: The treasure lies in the hooks, not the looks

When a group of journalists gathered the other day to play Splatoon Raiders on the Nintendo Switch 2 for the first time, there was confusion and a mixed bag of expectations. What is this really about? Can single-player (or co-op multiplayer) maintain the trademark frenzy of the mainline competitive experience? And, is the franchise's core mechanic good enough to sustain a different kind of gameplay?

Well, I don't have full answers to all these. Those will come with the full review, when we'll have had explored the full map of the Spirhalite Islands and played cooperatively, something unavailable to us for this first look. But I do have a much clearer idea, and so far what Splatoon Raiders felt to me is... rather addictive.

And welcoming, too. Pitched as "perfect for newcomers", it's good to see a Splatoon game where you can take your time and take it easy at first, even if it hides both the twitch-based fancy moves and, as we discovered during our preview time, a surprising depth. It's been after all more than a decade and three main entries where the PvP got more technical, more 'hardcore' if you will. And the 35 minute tutorial here helps.

Splatoon Raiders' premise is admittedly based on Splatoon 3's Salmon Run co-op mode, but in an expanded fashion. You are "the mechanic", a heavily customisable Inkling joining that game's returning Deep Cut band (Octoling Shiver, Inkling Frye, and manta ray Big Man), but instead of playing music, as the name literally implies, this is all about raids.

Once you arrive at the newly surfaced archipelago and establish your activity-filled headquarters at the Hideout Ship, where you'll upgrade your weapons and equip your latest gear, you just need to select your next destination on one of the islands and go on a treasure hunt.

The experience on the levels itself combines an interesting blend of systems and genres. First and foremost, there's your well-known Splatoon mechanics, as you use the accurate motion controls to cover your surroundings with your ink by shooting around. You avoid the water and also turn the enemy's ink into our own colour to be able to swiftly squid-swim on it. Then there's some added platforming with hovering plants, and other than surfing around on a board, we cannot say yet if traversal will evolve much, but for now it's nothing you haven't seen before in the previous games, leaking through grids and jumping between crates and the likes.

There's also an exploration side to your raids. At first, it's pretty clear where to find the treasure chests, as your mechanical buddy the Exploration Bot marks them with easy-to-spot beacons. But shortly after, you'll need to dig more, or tackle the different drilling spots in order.

In-between the platforming exploration and the drilling there's, of course, combat. Raids in the first few missions were pretty standard, with waves of zombie-like Salmonids coming our way for us to put everything to the test: quick ink navigation, precise shooting, and above all the weapons and gadgets equipped for the occasion. On this last point:

• There are 100 weapon varieties whether you prefer something faster like a machine gun or to make a big splash with a shotgun, and you can level them up.


• Then you find buy gadgets with Spirhalite Shards. These are sub weapons you attach to one of three types of tactical ink tanks according to your playstyle: power, tactics, speed. These allow you to equip two specific attacks a, such a spinning attack wheel or an assist turret.


• Then you can upgrade the Exploration Bot for additional actions by collecting red caviar from the beaten Salmonids.


• Then one treasure type are the Salmonid Relics you can equip in one of five unlockable slots as additional moves, such as double jump.


• And if it's not enough, you can unleash your Deep Cut companion's secret, caviar-filled technique for more devastating power, as a special attack.

See where we're going? Besides the satisfying nature of the core mechanics, the whole collect, unlock, equip loop is central here, and it'll make or break the success of the full game.

Although the similarities with the previous Splatoons are easy to draw, there are two other Nintendo games that came to mind while playing this. One was Masahiro Sakurai's Kid Icarus: Uprising (or Kirby Air Raiders for that matter), given how the whole hook of the game relies on the huge collection of more and better weapons, items, and gadgets you find on the map to further upgrade your gear, so far a quite addictive gameplay loop. The other one, in a weirder comparison, was Pikmin, as you get sent to a specific area to collect all the treasures, the clock is ticking, and some of the destinations are layered as several-level underground caves (where you have to take down a number of enemies to proceed).

Finally, even if my first impressions remain positive as I had fun, one thing I was expecting more from though was the presentation. I always loved how the series was created by a new generation of young Japanese artists and devs, establishing its own stylish identity and spawning a cult following. However, while, again, customisation will seemingly be amazing, I think it's a missed opportunity not to add voice acting for such quirky characters with this so focused on the single-player. Besides, the environments look rough in long shots, while close shots unveil low-res textures in both characters and grounds. Perhaps it gets more complex and pleasing to the eye after a while, but for now only the ink itself and the characters (good or bad guys) convince.

However, gameplay is king here, and the very engaging, mechanically deep treasure hunting loop Splatoon Raiders offers could very well catch me and hook me for the whole summer and beyond. We'll see in a few weeks, as it releases on July 23 already.