Splatoon Raiders review: Gamerant calls it the best action-RPG formula in the series

If you own a Switch 2 and are looking for a game to play in co-op, the answer is simple: buy Splatoon Raiders, ideally in two copies so you can play with a friend. The title drops the series' historical PvP in favor of an action-RPG that seemingly delivers on its promises from start to finish.

Gone are the competitive arenas: Splatoon Raiders lets you choose a tank from several archetypes (mobility, pure tank, gadgets/turrets), level it up, upgrade its weapons and your floating HQ, then take on mission after mission against hordes of AI-controlled Salmonids. The game loop keeps the series' paint-and-mobility DNA, but transposes it entirely into PvE. Let's take a closer look at Gamerant's analysis.

What works

According to the outlet, progression is the real engine of the game. Every mission yields resources and XP that unlock new weapons, tank upgrades, and HQ amenities, all the way up to an arcade room with genuinely fun 8-bit minigames. It's the classic carrot-and-stick approach, but here it works because every milestone is felt immediately in missions.

The difficulty is also surprising. The early levels raise fears of a game that's too easy, but the pace ramps up quickly: relentless enemy waves, tight timers that force aggressive play. Some missions end with just one or two seconds to spare, and it's precisely those tense moments that stick in memory once the controller is set down.

The variety of missions also deserves praise: obstacle courses, platforming, puzzles, on top of pure combat encounters. No format feels like it's running on empty, and the short missions make it easy to keep playing without getting tired of it.

What falls short

The co-op mode, playable with up to four players, is a real selling point, but according to the Gamerant journalist, its implementation has blind spots. It's impossible to visit a friend's HQ, only the host can pilot the robot needed for certain platforming or drilling sections, and puzzles can't really be solved together. There's no GameShare either: playing co-op requires owning two copies of the game and two consoles, which remains a hassle. Recurring disconnections over local wireless in the hub, while easy to fix, add to the list.

The dialogue, meanwhile, seems to drag down the pacing more than it adds to it: long conversations with little comedic value, which most players end up wanting to skip through as quickly as possible.

Expect a bit over 10 hours to reach the credits, with a solid amount of post-game content to keep farming and climbing tank levels. For Gamerant, that still earns it a 9/10!