Splatoon Raiders Launches on Switch 2 With 9/10 Scores From Nintendo Life, IGN
Nintendo’s first-ever single-player Splatoon spin-off is now in players’ hands, and the review verdicts are largely glowing. Splatoon Raiders launched exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2 on July 23, 2026, and has settled into an aggregate score in the low-to-mid 80s on Metacritic and OpenCritic, putting it within a few points of every numbered game in the series.
Nintendo Life’s Alex Olney handed the game a 9/10, writing that “Splatoon Raiders may be missing the series’ iconic Turf War, but what we have here is possibly the most variable and exciting game the series has ever offered.” The review also notes it “looks good, runs fantastically, and you can play practically the whole thing with friends if you wish.”
Ditching Turf War for a Solo Loot Chase on the Spirhalite Islands
Unlike every mainline entry since 2015, Splatoon Raiders is built around a single-player campaign rather than competitive PvP. According to Wikipedia’s entry on the game, sourced from Nintendo’s own announcements, the spinoff is primarily single-player and story-focused, with players choosing to be either an Inkling or Octoling who takes on the role of a mechanic, accompanied by the members of Deep Cut as they explore a region known as the Spirhalite Islands. It also carries a cooperative option, since the game features a cooperative mode that allows up to four players, either locally or online, with difficulty adjusted depending on how many players are present.
The concept traces back over a year. Nintendo first teased the project on the Nintendo Today! app in mid-2025, before confirming the July 23 release date in an April 2026 trailer, per the same Wikipedia sourcing. OpenCritic’s own recap of the launch window adds that players assume the role of a Mechanic and assist the Deep Cut trio from Splatoon 3 on a new adventure, arriving nearly four years after Splatoon 3, having first been revealed via the Nintendo Today app in June 2025.
Nintendo Life and IGN Both Land on 9/10, Pocket Tactics Goes Higher
Nintendo Life wasn’t alone in its enthusiasm. In its review round-up, the outlet quoted IGN’s take that “Splatoon Raiders is an amazing action RPG with an expertly executed loop. It has fantastic new powers with crazy upgrades that are worth chasing, tough battles” that also landed at 9/10. Pocket Tactics went a full point higher, awarding a 10/10 and writing that “Splatoon Raiders of-fish-ally earns our seal of approval as a fantastic game in the franchise,” praising the amount of weapons and gadgets available to “blast enemies out of existence” alongside time spent with Deep Cut.
Not every outlet was as taken with the format shift. Games industry site TheGamer, tracking the aggregate scores two days before launch, reported the game sitting at an 80 on OpenCritic and 81 on Metacritic, adding that Splatoon has some of the most consistent review scores out there, with the first Splatoon scoring an 81, its sequel an 83, and Splatoon 3 another 83, putting Raiders in that same ballpark. On the more critical end, Metro GameCentral and Stevivor both scored the game 6/10 over the loss of Turf War, while Giant Bomb landed at 3.5/5, and The Guardian gave it two stars out of five.
OpenCritic Tally: 89th Percentile Despite the Mixed Reception
Aggregator OpenCritic’s own critic-reviews page shows the split clearly. Alongside praise calling it “an addictive, looter-shooter loop packed with bite-sized raids, deep crafting, and thrilling co-op,” with “top-tier movement, gorgeous Switch 2 visuals, and rock-solid 60 fps performance,” and a “phenomenal spin-off that no Splatoon fan should miss”, other reviewers flagged fatigue by the end of the campaign. One review noted that after rolling credits there is still a good amount of post-game content to check out, but “I just don’t feel much of a drive to play more… I had fun drowning all of those salmonids in ink. But just like them, I’ve had my fill.”
Despite that split, OpenCritic’s tracking page places Splatoon Raiders in the 89th percentile of games scored on the platform, a strong showing for a franchise reinventing its core loop for the first time since 2015.
Pricing, Amiibo and the Ticking Switch 2 Price Clock
Splatoon Raiders is priced at $49.99 for the digital edition and $59.99 physical in the US, a touch cheaper than several other Switch 2 first-party releases. Launch day also brought three Deep Cut amiibo — Shiver, Frye and Big Man in Raiders-specific designs — plus a matching blue-and-yellow Joy-Con 2 controller pair priced at $99.99, according to Forbes contributor Brian Mazique’s coverage of the launch window.
Mazique’s report also flagged a hardware deadline for anyone still weighing up a console purchase: “One more number matters if you don’t own the console yet. The Switch 2 sits at $449.99 and Nintendo has confirmed a U.S. increase” to $499.99 that takes effect on September 1, giving newcomers roughly six weeks before the entry price rises by $50.
Read also: Splatoon Raiders Beginner Tips: Picking a Tank, Gadgets and Difficulty Explained
For a franchise that has built its identity almost entirely around competitive Turf War since 2015, landing a spin-off in the same review range as the numbered trilogy is no small feat. Whether Nintendo turns Raiders into an ongoing sub-series will likely hinge less on critic scores and more on how the sales figures stack up against Splatoon 2 and 3, both of which comfortably passed ten million units sold worldwide.
