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Splatoon Raiders is out today, and the reviews cannot agree on it. Pocket Tactics gave it a perfect 10. The Guardian gave it two stars out of five. Almost everyone else landed somewhere in the middle, and for wildly different reasons.
The aggregate sits around 80 on Metacritic and just under that on OpenCritic, which puts the series' first spin-off within a few points of the mainline trilogy, if slightly below Splatoon 3's 83. For a game that throws out the competitive structure the franchise was built on, that is a solid landing. The spread underneath it is the more useful thing to understand.
The Quick Version
- Release Date: July 23, 2026, exclusive to Nintendo Switch 2
- Price: $49.99 digital, $59.99 physical
- Developer: Nintendo EPD
- Publisher: Nintendo
Coinciding with the release of the game are three Deep Cut amiibo, plus a Shiver and Frye Joy-Con 2 pair at $99.99
What Splatoon Raiders Actually Is
This is the first spin-off in the series, and it abandons the competitive Turf War structure that has defined Splatoon since 2015.
You play as a mechanic, an Inkling or Octoling of your choosing, who crash-lands on the Spirhalite Islands alongside Deep Cut, the trio introduced in Splatoon 3. From a base called the Hideout Ship, you run raids on Salmonid territory, hauling back equipment, relics, and Spirhalite Shards to upgrade your abilities and expand the base.
Raids are essentially levels, and they come in types. Some are linear runs that end in a dig for treasure; others are timed challenges built around collecting enough power eggs before the clock expires. Co-op supports up to four players locally or online, with difficulty scaling to the party size. We covered the full gameplay breakdown when Nintendo dated the game back in April.
The Case For It
The high scores are a bit emphatic.
IGN's 9 out of 10 called it an expertly executed action RPG, singling out upgrades worth chasing, fights that force you to think about your build, and a difficulty curve that never tipped into padding. Nintendo Life matched that 9, arguing this is the best single-player Splatoon content to date, and adding that the multiplayer Nintendo spent months downplaying is genuinely strong.
Game Informer's Brian Shea scored it 8.75 and described a game he struggled to put down, crediting raids that run only a few minutes and an upgrade drip that kept tempting him into one more run. He framed it as long-overdue attention for the side of Splatoon that has always been underappreciated.
CGMagazine came away arguing the series can credibly evolve past its competitive roots, and Pocket Tactics went furthest with a perfect score, praising the sheer volume of weapons and gadgets and the simple pleasure of spending the game alongside Deep Cut.
The Case Against It
The critical reviews are not complaining about polish. They are complaining about purpose.
ComicBook.com makes the sharpest version of the argument: that the loop never builds toward anything substantial, that the satisfaction comes mostly from watching numbers rise, and that Raiders lacks the narrative or characters that would offset a repeating structure. Their review also raises a hardware point worth noting, that where Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, and Star Fox all felt impossible on original Switch hardware, Raiders does not make a comparable visual leap.
Giant Bomb's 3.5 out of 5 is the most instructive score in the set, because the reviewer plainly enjoyed playing it and still finished without much desire to continue. The review credits a meaty campaign and substantial post-game content, then lands on the observation that having had fun, they had also simply had enough. Their specific gripe is that boss fights lean on damage sponges rather than puzzles.
Metro Game Central's 6 out of 10 called it slight and unnecessary, a diversion that makes the wait for a mainline sequel harder rather than easier.
Gamereactor found it addictive but stopped short of calling it the definitive single-player Splatoon.
The Guardian's two stars sit at the far end, describing a game it found pedestrian.
The Dividing Line
What is striking about a 10-to-2 spread is that the reviews largely describe the same game. Nobody says it is broken. Nobody says the shooting feels bad. The disagreement is entirely about whether the loop carries you.
So the question worth asking yourself is narrow: how much repetition can you absorb before a good loop stops being enough?
If you are the kind of player who will happily run the same satisfying encounter thirty times to watch a damage number climb, the 9s and the 10 are describing your experience accurately. If you need a story, an escalating structure, or a reason beyond the numbers, the 6s and the 2 were written for you. Giant Bomb's review is the one to read if you are unsure which camp you fall into, because it sits precisely on the line.
One Piece Of Timing To Factor In
If you do not already own the hardware, there is a clock running. The Switch 2 currently sits at $449.99, and Nintendo has confirmed a US price increase to $499.99 on September 1. That leaves roughly six weeks before the cost of entry rises by 50 dollars.
Splatoon Raiders is available now, exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2, at $49.99 digital and $59.99 physical. It joins a Switch 2 exclusive slate that keeps filling out, with FromSoftware's The Duskbloods running its network test next month.
