[Let’s Talk] Splatoon Raiders impressions

[Let’s Talk] Splatoon Raiders impressions

Posted on July 25, 2026 by Brian(@NE_Brian)
in Let’s Talk, Switch 2

Nintendo isn’t showing any signs of slowing down with new releases. Just a couple of days ago, the company shipped Splatoon Raiders.

Splatoon Raiders is the first entry in the franchise exclusive to Nintendo Switch 2. Additionally, it’s notable since the game focuses on single-player rather than multiplayer. The action shooter has you playing as a mechanic working with Deep Cut as you raid the Spirhalite Islands for undiscovered spoils while fending off hordes of Salmonids.

If you picked up Splatoon Raiders this week, what are your thoughts thus far? If not, what’s holding you back? Let us know in the comments.

Highlights from last week’s topic: Do you prefer Mario Kart World or Mario Kart 8 Deluxe?

Mmm, I suppose World. 8 has better tracks and an excessive amount of content, but there’s an elegance and confidence to World’s presentation that makes 8 seem archaic in comparison.

World also has deeper mechanic depth. And I haven’t been playing it for a decade. Plus, I actually love the open world. Not since San Andreas have I enjoyed just driving about so much.

A little of both, but I do find myself playing MKW more and MKW has so much more room to grow and improve. Still waiting and hoping for some DKC/Bananza dlc and WarioWare/Land dlc.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, definitely, especially with the Booster Course Pass DLC. On top of having plenty of content (despite being a Wii U game bundled with its DLC) and a few more alongside that, it was a consistently-designed game with a lot of the series’ charm retained and the Kart Parts system (since Mario Kart 7 on Nintendo 3DS) is still one of my favorite things to happen to the series by the truckton.

Mario Kart World, I still had some enjoyment with at the end of the day and I’m glad to see more Mario Kart games in my lifetime, but this one was a tad too tough of a pill for me to get down after its predecessors and I feel like a lot of its new ideas could’ve been better expanded upon (especially Free-Roam mode). On top of that, a lot of the returning features felt too scaled-back here, to the point that you can’t save non-Time Trial replays of races and I do wish the game still retained the option for me to play as a Mii. Also, where’s 200cc mode?

If I had to say, I prefer 8 Deluxe. I have to say, though, I find it amusing that 8 Deluxe is now the gold standard for the series and World is now the lazy cash-in that’s going to ruin things.

I still remember when 8 vanilla came out for the Wii U. They heavily nerfed snaking; even more heavily nerfed bikes; widened the tracks to accommodate 12 instead of 8 people and thus made it next-to-impossible to fall off; gutted the Battle Mode, front-loaded the roster with Koopalings, babies, and whatever Pink Gold Peach was, etc. It was going to be the death of Mario Kart as a

Now I hear putting Mario Kart 8 on a pedestal and saying World will never be as good.

World is the better game, I haven’t got back to 8D, since I got my Switch 2, over a year ago. They changed the balance and the mechanic of the game, to a whole new degree. For series veterans, it’s a new challenge, and for newbies, it’s the best experience possible, to enjoy MK. I laugh, when people say “8 Deluxe is better, because it has more track”. Yeah, of course it can have more content, since it’s a game that came out on Wii U initially, and got DLC support over the years, and MK World is barely a year old game.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and the original set of tracks at that! The add on tracks removed the sheen and made the graphics look flat. MK8 really wowed with its original tracks, gameplay and graphics and I think it went downhill from then. Mario Kart World just didn’t really cut it for me, and the open world seriously needs some padding out with other things to do, plus the fact that its just been left an entire year without any DLC. If you are doing a Mario Kart game, you really should be planning on adding a cup (4 tracks) at least every few months. I wouldn’t even mind paying for tracks, but they should have been included in that hefty $80 price!

I actually prefer World, not (necessarily) because of the open-world or Knockout Tour, but because of the mechanical improvements. Going to be hard to return to a Mario Kart game without rail-grinding or wall-riding.

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