The Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive Splatoon Raiders is close to release and is sitting at mostly positive reviews. A spin-off title of the main Splatoon series, this entry offers a shift in focus from the typical multiplayer Splatfest-driven competitive shooting to a fully single-player experience with exploration. While this is an interesting twist that seems to have been well recieved, a lot of players are probably still wondering where a proper Splatoon 4 is, four years on from the previous entry.
Splatoon originally launched on the Wii U, which struggled during its period on the market, though it did lay some of the groundwork for Nintendo’s hugely successful Switch platform. Splatoon, even at the time, was a standout for the system, offering up a unique twist on the third-person shooter that was family-friendly as well. The franchise would manage to outlive the ill-fated Wii U, seeing two additional games on the Nintendo Switch, both managing to push the series into the top ten most successful Nintendo franchises with over 31 Million Units sold.
Splatoon Raiders is making a deliberate choice not to focus on the traditional features, instead emphasizing the mechanics and narrative. This choice was made largly in hopes of attracting newer players to the series, producer Seita Inoue stated. During a Nintendo Ask The Developer Interview, Inoue spoke at length about this new entry, as well as why Splatoon 4 isn’t releasing, at least not yet.
He Stated:
We’ve been going full speed ahead for over 11 years since the series’ launch, developing and updating three titles along the way. We thought it might be interesting to create something with a slightly different approach to gameplay, where you can really savor the action on your own. Splatoon isn’t just about competitive play; it also includes cooperative modes like Salmon Run and a single-player Story Mode.
So, one of our motivations for developing this game was our desire to create a new entry point into the series by releasing these non-competitive elements not just as a secondary feature, but as a standalone spinoff. That said, we will continue to develop competitive gameplay going forward. That’s why we developed this game as a spin-off and not as ‘Splatoon 4’.
Obviously, there is very little reason to be upset about this detour for the franchise, and maybe it will lead to a second series within the franchise should it perform well. Speaking about new competitive modes does suggest Splatoon 4 is in the works, though it will be interesting to see what kind of impact Splatoon Raiders has on the story features and co-op modes that the mainline franchise offers.
Splatoon Raiders splats its way exclusively onto the Nintendo Switch 2 on July 23, 2023
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