Splatoon Raiders takes the award-winning kid’n’squid gameplay of the mainline franchise and drops it into a solo-minded looter shooter adventure. Stepping away from Splatsville for a quick jaunt to the Spirhalite Islands, an archipelago smothered in storms, you take control of the Mechanic, an Inkling or Octoling (your choice) who’s burdened with the task of getting themselves and the members of Deep Cut home while also nabbing a bit of treasure along the way.

Across the 15-hour or so adventure, you’ll uncover the truth of these hidden isles, fight an increasingly eclectic collection of bizarre Salmonids, and tackle the biggest enemy of them all: a creeping sense of repetition.

MY OCTOLING TEACHER

Splatoon Raiders can best be described as “Salmon Run: The Game.” Each mission type, save for the Sampler Dungeons which I’ll touch on later, pushes you from one Salmonid swarm to the next, either in a linear fashion or in small open areas that’ll intentionally have you running in circles. The goal of these stages is to mine Spirhalite, a resource that feeds the various upgrades to your weapons, tools, and hub area. Some dungeons forgo Spirhalite mining in favor of an all out assault you have to win in a certain amount of time. In these stages, collecting Power Eggs is your primary goal.

The challenge can be overwhelming, but you can opt for a lower difficulty without penalty or ask for assistance from friends and strangers. While the game is solidly marketed as a single-player experience, there are multiplayer options, including co-op and getting help from randos on missions you can’t complete. The system works well—even if most of the distress calls I answered were for foot-race stages—but chances are players won’t need a helping hand as the Mechanic is well-armed right out the gate. Not only will a member of Deep Cut accompany them on each raid in a quadrupedal attack bot, but the Mechanic has more than just guns and paint brushes at their disposal. They got gadgets.

GADGETS, GIZMOS, AND OTHER ASSORTED DOO-DADS

In Raiders, there are three ink tank types: speed, power, and tactical. Each tank has its own collection of gadgets that can be equipped. These can change how the Mechanic moves—such as enacting a lunge that does splash damage or a bomb that explodes into a dash—or give the Mechanic a tool to get the upper hand—like a turret that auto-fires at enemies or a boomerang that hits ‘em coming and going. The gadgets are put to the test in Sampler Dungeons, where players face quick challenges and puzzles designed around whatever gadgets and weapons they’re assigned. I love the intent of these quick challenges, but it would have been nice to see some of these puzzles pop up in the standard levels to give them more variety.

The brilliance of this gadget system is you can tinker with them extensively as you unlock more parts. Parts can do anything from increase the power of the gadget, reduce the cooldown time, and even launch it automatically when you take damage. These options and more allow you to embrace individuality and play the game your way, something the mainline series has always done well.

TOO SQUARE TO BE HIP

What Raiders lacks that the rest of the franchise has in spades is style. One of the best things about Splatoon is its embrace of modern street culture. Each iteration of the hub area has been a celebration of skateboard aesthetics, street art, and fashion. The multiplayer stages of the series are an extension of that character.

The stages in Raiders, on the other hand, are all just blah. So bland, so forgettable, with no interesting set pieces or designs to make them stand out from the rest, no distinct identity other than barren. At their worst, the stages look like straight palette swaps. There were more than a few times when I did a double take thinking I’d inadvertently selected the level I just beat. When you combine that with the fact that level progression is just running from Salmonid rush to Salmonid rush, the familiarity of it all can quickly set in. I’m not sure if this is the result of Raiders being a “budget” title or simply a conscious choice made by the developers, but the drabness of the setting didn’t really say “Splatoon” to me.

WHAT MATTERS IS ON THE INSIDE, BUT A PRETTY OUTSIDE HELPS

Still, there are highlights worth celebrating. The core gameplay is effervescent, the boss battles are once again a high note, the variety of Salmonids is outstanding, and finding the right combination of weapon, tank, gadget, relic, and Deep Cut helper, each of whom come with their own devastating Showstopper attack, make for a game where half the fun is found in refinement.

Had the level design and island art direction been at all interesting, I’d be ready to sing this game’s praises from the fire escapes of Splatsville. Because the shooting mechanics are unbeatable, legitimately the best Splatoon has ever played. But Splatoon is more than just its mechanics. This series has an aesthetic and vibe all its own. Without that, or even an attempt at a substitute fit to the sub-tropical setting, Splatoon Raiders ends up as all substance, no style.

7/10

This review was conducted using a physical copy of the game. It was paid for by the author.