Splatoon Raiders Reviews Are In, and the Looter-Shooter Spinoff Is a Hit

Splatoon Raiders, Nintendo's cooperative looter-shooter spinoff built around the beloved Salmon Run mode, has officially launched to critical acclaim. Early review scores are tracking right alongside the three mainline Splatoon titles, a strong signal that the franchise's first major pivot is landing exactly as Nintendo hoped. Outlets like Eurogamer, Destructoid, and Siliconera have all praised the game, with descriptions ranging from "a hectic, often overwhelming delight" to a clever expansion of Salmon Run's cooperative DNA into a full-blown loot-driven experience with varying objectives.

The game represents a meaningful departure from the series' competitive PvP roots, leaning instead into cooperative play and loot progression. Yet the shift doesn't appear to have alienated critics. Destructoid summed up the core loop with a simple but telling line: "Splatting has never felt so good." Meanwhile, a Splatoon series producer addressed the elephant in the room directly, confirming that traditional PvP gameplay is not being abandoned, and that a mainline Splatoon 4 is effectively on the horizon. Raiders, it seems, is a side adventure rather than a replacement.

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