Splatoon is trying something it's never really done: a proper solo adventure. Splatoon Raiders lands July 23 as a Switch 2 exclusive, and instead of the usual online turf war it's a PvE looter, all loot, crafting and dungeon-style raids across a chain of islands.
What it actually is
You roll your own Inkling or Octoling and sign on as a mechanic for Deep Cut, Shiver, Frye and Big Man, poking around the Spirhalite Islands for salvage. Combat is the ink-splattering you'd expect, this time against waves of Salmonid enemies rather than other players. There's four-player co-op, local or online, if you'd rather not raid alone. It's the first Splatoon built around PvE first and multiplayer second, which is a genuinely new shape for the series.
The price and the platform
It's Switch 2 only, and it's 49.99 dollars digital or 59.99 physical. The exclusivity is the interesting part: Nintendo using a beloved series to give people a reason to actually own the new hardware, which is exactly what you'd do in its position. Whether a Splatoon without the competitive online hook holds people for more than a weekend is the open question. The idea's good. Now it has to be a good game, which isn't automatically the same thing.
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