Salmon Run meets loot shooter in super fresh Splatoon Raiders | Review Jason Hidalgo, Reno Gazette JournalFri, August 7, 2026 at 1:30 PM UTC 0 Sometimes, you just gotta have a squid day. A fresh big batch of Filipino squid adobo. Check. A copy of the new Splatoon Raiders spinoff game on Switch 2. Double check. Thus began a fun day of unbridled gaming as I spent a bunch of time — eight hours, according to my nephew, who was apparently keeping count — splatting “Salmonid” monsters. And it was glorious.
Salmon Run meets loot shooter in super fresh Splatoon Raiders | Review
Jason Hidalgo, Reno Gazette JournalFri, August 7, 2026 at 1:30 PM UTC
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Sometimes, you just gotta have a squid day.
A fresh big batch of Filipino squid adobo. Check.
A copy of the new Splatoon Raiders spinoff game on Switch 2. Double check.
Thus began a fun day of unbridled gaming as I spent a bunch of time — eight hours, according to my nephew, who was apparently keeping count — splatting “Salmonid” monsters. And it was glorious.
So much so that I Zelled my niece $50 across state lines the next day so she could get Splatoon Raiders and join me in cooking up some fishy baddies.
Two squids are better than one, after all.
Actually, make that one squid and one octopus. See, you can pick between being a squid-like Inkling or an octopus-like Octoling character when you first start the game. For folks who have never played Splatoon, those are the humanoid protagonists for every Splatoon game.
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I picked an Octoling while my niece happened to pick an Inkling. I guess you can say we achieved balance with our force.
Therein also lies one of the best things about Splatoon Raiders, which is cooperative gameplay. It’s one of the ways where this spinoff shooting game differs from the mainline Splatoon games.
While the Splatoon games featured player-versus-player or PVP modes among its offerings, Splatoon Raiders is strictly about co-op, at least when you decide to call backup instead of playing solo. That’s great news for folks who enjoy cooperative Splatoon modes such as Salmon Run but shrink like violets when it comes to going toe-to-toe against other players.
Another distinguishing factor for Splatoon Raiders is its heavy emphasis on loot mechanics. In the first three Splatoon games, weapons were typically unlocked during the normal course of finishing stages, making them available in the in-game shop.
In Splatoon Raiders, weapons are obtained through loot drops that you pick up while you go through stages with your ink guns ablazing. Or your paint brush. Or your pain roller. Or your pail. Well, you get the message.
Add a quirky story and you’ve got a fresh Splatoon experience that tries to swim its own path from three main Splatoon games.
Three weirdos and a mechanic enter a sand bar…
Splatoon Raiders starts out with the three members of the idol trio Deep Cut from Splatoon 3 — Shiver, Frye and Big Man — flying above foggy seas in a helicopter.
All three happen to be desperate to score some loot by raiding the Spirhalite Islands, which literally experienced a major tectonic shift. Shiver, the brains of the operation, believes that the change in the landscape might reveal some previously hidden treasure, which they need to help improve conditions in their impoverished town of Splatsville.
You can’t fight nature, however, and the trio and their pilot crash in a nearby island after getting buffeted by strong winds.
I don’t know why but I found myself laughing hard after seeing Frye yell, “Pilot! Nooooooo!” in a cute, high-pitched voice in Splatoon language while running toward their pilot’s seemingly lifeless, rag-dolled body.
Such goofy moments abound in Splatoon Raiders.
The Deep Cut trio are just naturally funny and their humorous quirkiness shines even more thanks to the game’s hilarious dialogue. Seeing my niece laughing at the same lines I did as I helped her catch up via co-op mode made replaying stages fun, too.
After shaking off the impact of the crash, you finally get to pick your character.
In addition to choosing between an Inkling and Octoling, you also get to customize things such as your hair and eye color. You get your choice of six hairstyles each for your Inkling and Octoling plus one more you can unlock later. One other thing my niece and I agreed on is how we wished there were more hairstyles to pick from.
From there, you spread out across the Spirhalite Islands to dig up all sorts of booty. If hearing that made you chuckle, well, all I can say is, I’m happy for you. Along the way, you’re met by a rogues’ gallery of Salmonid lackeys, elites and bosses determined to put the kibosh on your treasure-raiding days.
The enemy designs, which include a mix of old and new foes, are one of the highlights of the game. The designs feature creative touches that are visually amusing. The monsters’ mechanics are also obviously designed to inflict maximum inconvenience on players, especially when different ones gather into one scaly mob.
These include a serpentine mechanical machine that rains a stream of ink while hiding its weak point — a tiny Salmonid driver — at the very back. Then there’s a large UFO-like flying metal disc that places its pilot at the very top to make it hard to hit. Take it out, however, and the disc comes crashing down, flattening any enemies underneath.
I recommend taking the time to read the in-game notes about each enemy. In addition to providing tips, they also include fun factoids such as the cast iron frying pans wielded by the little lackeys being much more painful than they look. As someone who’s been splatted many times by frying pans after getting ganged up on, I can certainly attest to that.
One new mechanic is the addition of a robot mech that can be piloted by any of the three Deep Cut members. Besides being able to crack large crystals, you can also use it to boost you with a high jump. This allows you to reach high places that might be hiding secret scrolls or take out elevated foes like the aforementioned Salmonid piloting a giant metal disc.
Your Deep Cut allies can also be used to summon super moves that can help turn the tide of battle.
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Shiver summons a large Great White Shark called Mega who wears giant aviator glasses on his head and can clear a long line of foes. Frye summons a school of large electric eels that are excellent at taking out enemy hordes around you. Big Man is a certifiable boss killer, granting you invincibility as you ride him while firing rays — literally — and then ending with a big explosive finish.
You’ll certainly need to use every trick in the book as the game’s difficulty can ramp up at times. Speaking of tricks…
How's the Splatoon Raiders gameplay loop
Splatoon Raiders boasts a large number of weapons, many of which will be familiar to veterans of the three mainline games.
You have your choice of ink guns and rifles, paint brushes and rollers, sloshing pails, bows and even a “Splatana” sword. Unlike the mainline games where you unlock a weapon once, Splatoon Raiders’ loot-based weapon system means you can pick up the same weapon multiple times from the battlefield. Sometimes, you’ll pick the exact same one with similar levels. Other times, you’ll pick a higher-level version or a version that has a higher rarity.
The loot system encourages you to clear stages and even replay them for a chance to get better drops. Later on you can also unlock the ability to scrap weapons and turn them into resources after leveling up your base to a certain point.
I do wish it was possible to also fuse similar weapons to create stronger or higher rarity versions as opposed to just scrapping them. I think it would make the looting system more fun as it feels like you’re giving your weapons new life instead of just scrapping them.
You can also upgrade your ink tanks, which determines what type of special gear or subweapons you can bring with you. Some are great for clearing mobs. Others are excellent for mobility and survival. Such choices add an extra element of strategy to the game. Splatoon Raiders actually encourages you to switch tanks frequently as doing so helps unlock more gear, including options unique to each tank.
Thanks to its bevy of options, you can spend a lot of time tinkering and tweaking your loadout. A big part of the fun in Splatoon Raiders involves mixing and matching different weapons with various tank and gear combinations to find a loadout that works best for you.
The stages themselves offer various objectives. Some require collecting Salmonid eggs to power up your drill so you can break a gigantic crystal. Others play like a classic horde mode where you need to defeat a large wave of enemies. There are also stages that require you to speed through an obstacle course and defeat an enemy at the end.
Other stages require clearing out a certain amount of enemies within a time limit so you can dig down to the next level and reach the boss.
Boss fights serve up some pretty intense fights, with each big baddie serving up its own set of challenging mechanics. These include a large fish boss that likes to dive underground and pop up where you’re standing. Another looks like a giant fish train that circles around you while peppering you with attacks.
You can play the stages solo if you want. In fact, I find soloing the game to be much easier most of the time compared to multiplayer.
Co-op, however, makes for a fun experience, especially when playing with friends or family members. You unlock co-op pretty early in the game by clearing a few stages until you get the radio in your base. Once you do, you can create your own room and invite others or join other people’s sessions. You can also respond to SOS calls and get rewarded with a large amount of crystals, though this comes with a cooldown period so you can’t just keep doing it nonstop.
While the host always gets to pick the room, lower level players get priority as far as what stages you can do. You can’t bring a lower level player, for example, to a stage they haven’t unlocked or cleared yet.
The game also normalizes enemy levels and scaling player damage when two players of different levels play together. Well, at least it tries to. Most of the time, it does a good job but there are also times when it seems to make enemies much tougher.
I also wish non-hosts got a bit more control over certain things. Non-hosts, for example, can’t summon the robot suit piloted by the Deep Cut trio for jump boosts. Instead, you have to signal the host to come to you and have them summon the bot suit.
Sometimes, I’ll be covering a different part of the map for better efficiency and I get automatically summoned to the host’s location.
I also wish the game had a splitscreen co-op mode. Not every family can buy multiple Switch 2 systems, for example. And for families that do have a couple of Switches but only one copy of the game, Splatoon Raiders does not support game sharing. It would have been great to have another option to play co-op for folks with more limited means given how great the multiplayer is for families.
Visually, while the game looks great, the art style and color palette tends to lean on the murky side. There are also times when the stages start to look a bit too similar and just seem to blend into each other. The audio, which I liked in the previous games, is a bit hit and miss in Splatoon Raiders.
I like the sound effects as well as the Deep Cut characters’ special songs. The stage music, however, can leave a lot to be desired.
While I appreciate sonic experimentation, there are times when the music sounds like background noise. Eventually, I found myself just tuning them out. I just didn’t have the same attachment to the soundtrack for stages as I did with the first three games, which had iconic tunes that I still remember even now.
The game also needs a quick restart option for stages. You can’t restart stages without going back to base first, which can get especially annoying during stages like the obstacle course one.
Overall, though, Splatoon Raiders is a refreshing take on the Splatoon formula.
As someone who especially loved the first two Splatoon games, I felt that the map design and campaign for Splatoon 3 was less cohesive — even though its actual movement and shooting mechanics were arguably the best in the series. I feel that the level design in Splatoon Raiders is a step in the right direction. Hopefully, this also bodes well for Splatoon 4.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I gotta finish my squid adobo.
Final thoughts on Splatoon Raiders
Splatoon Raiders is a refreshing take on the Splatoon formula, stripping out the PVP from the mainline games while adding replayable stages with loot shooter mechanics. This Splatoon spinoff is definitely geared toward co-op, which is great news for folks who want more cooperative gameplay and a multiplayer campaign. The music can be polarizing but production values are solid overall and the writing also remains hilarious and cheeky. I also wish the co-op had more options to make it more accessible to families such as split-screen and game sharing. If an extended Salmon Run with loot shooter mechanics sounds like a swimmingly good idea to you, Splatoon Raiders will float your boat.
Final rating: 8.5 out of 10
Cost: $49.99, Switch 2
More details: Official Splatoon Raiders website
Jason Hidalgo covers business and technology for the Reno Gazette Journal. He also reviews the latest video games and writes about pop culture trends in his Technobubble features. Like this content? Support local journalism with an RGJ digital subscription.
This article originally appeared on Reno Gazette Journal: Salmon Run meets loot shooter in super fresh Splatoon Raiders | Review
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Published: August 7, 2026 at 04:45PM on Source: RED MAG
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Salmon Run meets loot shooter in super fresh Splatoon Raiders | Review Jason Hidalgo, Reno Gazette JournalFri, August 7, 2026 a...
