Innovation

If anyone had told me that my favourite release since the launch of the Switch 2 a year ago would be a Splatoon game, I would have laughed out loud. But this quirky looter shooter, an all-new entry into the Splatoon world, is addictive and unputdownable. Splatoon Raiders is the sort of underdog release you may accidentally skip because it looks like a childish spin-off to a series many wrote off years ago. It’s cutesy, colourful and definitely not PvP, which is what one would expect, because all the other Splatoon titles are built around four-on-four turf wars. Instead, Splatoon Raiders is an action RPG looter shooter that somehow manages to pull off the impossible. It turns Salmon Run, Splatoon’s beloved horde mode, into a new kind of game that is easily comparable to big names like Destiny, Helldivers or The Division, which is PEGI 18+.

In Splatoon Raiders, your crew is a trio of pop stars, moonlighting as thieves, that are sent to a remote island chain to find treasure and pay off their city's debts, but something knocks them out of the sky on the way in. Your enemies, the Salmonids, are a species of amphibious fish that come at you in waves. The loot you are after is the golden eggs they drop. You start off in your base where you can equip your team with weapons, gadgets and skills. You’ll then do a solo raid (or with friends, via online multiplayer or local co-op). There are five different missions, from time limited underground labyrinths to linear raids and Zelda-ish dungeons. My favourite option, by far, is the open battlefields where the goal is to simply steal as much loot as you can.