Nintendo isn’t exactly known for its shooters, so when it releases one, I pay close attention. It isn’t even as if I’m the genre’s biggest fan, although I am partial to a particularly good one. Rather, I enjoy it when Nintendo steps a little out of its comfort zone and dares to do something a tad risky, at least comparatively to its typical output. We’ve seen this before with its push into the JRPG space, the introduction of more mature titles on its consoles, and even the development of numerous indie games that often go criminally overlooked (who here remembers the Nintendo-produced legendarily good co-op indieย The Stretchers?)
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A short while ago, when detailing the Switch 2’s initial line-up, Nintendo teased an upcoming shooter that it has recently begun delving a little deeper into. While details are still somewhat scarce, this new shooter is shaping up to be exactly what the Nintendo Switch 2 needs. This type of experience could help undo the perception that the Switch 2 has been disappointing thus far and begin earning it a reputation of being a little more experimental than its predecessor. I desperately hope thatย Splatoon Raiders at least gets the ball rolling with that initiative, as, from what Nintendo has showcased of it so far, it looks like the weird, experimental game the Switch 2 has been in dire need of.
Splatoon Raiders Continues The Switch 2’s Streak Of Experimental Games
Splatoon Raiders is the single-player (yet still a little bit multiplayer) spin-off of Nintendo’s bizarre and incredibly successful competitive shooter series, Splatoon. Ostensibly expanding the popular mode Salmon Run from Splatoon 3, Raiders aims to bring the series’ surrealist, apocalyptic world to a whole new audience while, presumably, fleshing out its lore through a very Nintendo-esque narrative. As someone who has a passing interest in Splatoon’s vibrantly grungy aesthetic but has an aversion to anything remotely online, Raiders feels like the perfect spin-off.
Crucially, Raiders also seems to be continuing Nintendo’s streak of weird and experimental titles on the Switch 2. Donkey Kong Bananza was a distinctly un-DK-esque game, which is to say that it abandoned many of the tropes one would expect from the series in favor of a new interpretation of everyone’s favorite tie-wearing gorilla. That shift, which worked so well forย Breath of the Wild nearly a decade prior, has proven rather successful, as Donkey Kong Bananza is easily one of the best Switch 2 games available, and I suspect it will remain that way throughout the console’s lifespan.
Similarly, Nintendo has continued its efforts to deliver smaller experimental titles. Where the original Switch got the underappreciated fighting game, ARMS, the Switch 2 got Drag X Drive, a game I’m certain almost no one played, but felt distinctly Nintendo. As aforementioned, Splatoon Raiders, which largely appears to defy expectations of the series and expands on mechanics that its core audience may not even be interested in, is continuing this initiative, something I’m rather pleased to see, considering Nintendo is veering dangerously close to undoing the excitement garnered from these games with its boring, easy cash grabs.
Nintendo Needs To Move Away From Boring Easy Cash Grabs
While Nintendo has peppered the Switch 2’s launch lineup with a handful of unexpected releases, the console’s legacy, thus far, has largely been defined by pointless, low-effort Switch 2 editions and safe sequels. Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition’s Switch 2 version rendered the game definitively un-definitive, its technical issues ruining an otherwise perfect experience. Similarly, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, for all its strengths, proved divisive even among fans, garnering a 78 on Metacritic, a score significantly lower than the remaster of the very first game in the series, or even the more experimental Metroid Dread.
These games, while certainly necessary to an extent, shouldn’t be the predominant or defining experience on Nintendo’s handy handheld. Instead, they should supplement the more experimental experiences that Nintendo is so beloved for, the kind that have led us to getting some of the studio’s most iconic titles. However, especially considering the Switch 2’s first-party offerings are looking a tad barren save for a few select titles, it appears as if Nintendo has no such plans. Rather, it is banking on the obscene backlog of phenomenal titles from the previous generation to sustain fans until its next wave of titles is ready.
Perhaps this will change over time, after all, one cannot expect Nintendo to release as legendary a line-up for each console as it did with the original Switch back in 2017. Yet, in order for that to happen, Nintendo needs to stop playing it safe and instead produce more games like Splatoon Raiders, games that take established formulas and experiences and turn them on their heads. Indeed, the best vehicle for that would be radically different spin-offs of popular first-party games or, as has worked in the past, reinventions of existing IP.
Nintendo Should Experiment With More Radically Different Spin-Offs
Pokรฉmon Pokopia became the highest-rated Pokรฉmon game of all time, not simply because it played it safe and delivered an experience everyone was expecting. Rather, it innovated, took the series in a bold new direction, and offered players an experience that toyed with series conventions in interesting and unique ways. That’s a lot of waffle to simply state that Pokรฉmon Pokopia didn’t just deliver what every other game in the series, spin-off or otherwise, has done on the Nintendo Switch. It dared to be a bit different, and, in doing so, surprised players in a way that was ultimately delightful and, as it happens, extremely commercially successful. Pokopia went from being a niche game no one really knew anything about to a potential system seller for many.
When Nintendo takes its existing IP and reevaluates not only what makes it so special but how it can be approached on a mechanical and technical level, it often ends up creating something genre-defining, or, at the very least, series-defining. The aforementioned Metroid Prime, for example, was originally a twist on the original Metroidvania model that ended up being a huge success. Splatoon Raiders very much continues this tradition in a way that doesn’t denigrate the core experience, and that is why, I suspect, it will prove to be at least a moderate success.
Even if it should flop like the criminally underrated ARMS or Drag X Drive, Splatoon Raiders will still be illustrative of Nintendo’s creative expression and willingness to push the boundaries of what has become expected of its first-party releases. In my opinion, that is the kind of attitude that should define this generation. Of course, Nintendo will always default to the experience that makes the most money; it is the formula that has led it to become one of the biggest gaming brands in the world, after all. Still, I hope that across the Switch 2’s lifespan, we get to see more games like Donkey Kong Bananza, Pokรฉmon Pokopia, Drag X Drive, and, of course, Splatoon Raiders, as they are ultimately why I, and I’d wager many others, fell in love with Nintendo and the Switch in the first place.
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