Splatoon Raiders is the newest title in Nintendo’s ever-popular Splatoon franchise. Announced very suddenly through the publisher’s Nintendo today app, Splatoon Raiders is set to be the first spin-off title in the franchise following its very successful trilogy across the Wii U and the Nintendo Switch. Between this new title and a noteworthy Switch 2 update to the franchise’s latest entry, Splatoon 3, Nintendo is clearly continuing to keep Splatoon fever going strong on its new console even without a new mainline title.
Splatoon Raiders is one of a number of spin-off titles that Nintendo has already announced for release on the Nintendo Switch 2, between the already released Mario Kart World (a spin-off of the larger Mario series) and the upcoming Kirby Air Riders and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment. It speaks to Nintendo’s confidence in its game development and the success of the Nintendo Switch line that the publisher has created excitement for the system even without new mainline entries in its big franchises. The arrival of a Splatoon spin-off feels comparable to another Nintendo series, one that it has some surprising crossover with, despite being vastly different games.
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With the Switch 2 on the way very soon, Nintendo has the chance to grow Splatoon in a major way with the franchise’s next title.
Splatoon Raiders Goes Where Animal Crossing Went Before
Splatoon Takes A Spin-off Direction At A Peak Time, Like Animal Crossing Did Before
Splatoon Raiders feels like it’s beginning to pull from the same well as the Animal Crossing franchise, which shouldn’t be too surprising given that there is a sense of developer overlap between the two at the Nintendo EPD team. These two franchises have also become major stars in Nintendo’s lineage, especially on the Nintendo Switch, which gives them a sense of togetherness despite being massively different games.
It speaks to the overall success of the series that Splatoon is now getting its first spin-off to hold fans over while Splatoon 4 takes its time to cook.
Animal Crossing has had a variety of spin-offs in the past, with two notably released in the same year in the form of Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer and Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival in 2015. The franchise also received a third spin-off in the form of the mobile game Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, which released on mobile devices in 2017 before reaching the end of it service in November of last year and receiving an offline version shortly after. It looks like Splatoon is now the next Nintendo franchise to finally jump in on the spin-off boat.
Animal Crossing’s Mixed History With Spinoffs Begs Questions For Splatoon Raiders
Interestingly, Splatoon making its debut on the Switch 2 with a spin-off is not unlike what Animal Crossing has done in the past. Notably, Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival was the franchise’s debut on the Wii U and, inevitably, it was the only Animal Crossing game released on the system in the wake of the Wii U’s struggles. Considering that the Switch 2 has already been breaking sales records and looks to continue to be popular, it doesn’t look like the same fate will befall the Splatoon franchise, and the existence of Splatoon Raiders should not deny the existence of Splatoon 4.
Still, it’s anyone’s guess how good Splatoon Raiders is going to end up being, as the quality of the Animal Crossing spin-offs can vary a bit. While Happy Home Designer and Pocket Camp were both received fairly decently, Amiibo Festival received a much more negative reception, not just for the Animal Crossing franchise but for Nintendo games as a whole. Given the wildly varying level of quality between these Animal Crossing spin-offs, it’s hard to tell what will happen when the Nintendo EPD devs take the Splatoon franchise in the spin-off direction.
It speaks to the overall success of the series that Splatoon is now getting its first spin-off to hold fans over while Splatoon 4 takes its time to cook.
Splatoon Raiders Was Announced Without Much Fanfare
After all, little has been revealed about Splatoon Raiders, as the game received a rather ho-hum announcement through the Nintendo Today app that revealed no details of the game or gameplay footage of the title in action. Nintendo has also not offered any potential release window for when the game will be ready to go, which makes it hard to tell how early on in development it is.
Thus, it’s hard to tell how good this Splatoon spin-off will be when fans and players don’t even know what kind of game it will be. The arrival of a Splatoon spin-off on the Switch 2, plus this game’s standing as the first major first-party Switch 2 announcement since the system’s release, does beg the question of what Animal Crossing’s approach will be on the upcoming console.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ success and popularity mean that the game could live on a little bit longer on the Switch 2, but Nintendo’s lack of support for the title over the last two years may indicate that the next game will be announced for the system fairly soon. No matter what happens, here’s hoping Splatoon and Animal Crossing continue to take big swings with great titles, mainline or otherwise, on the Nintendo Switch 2.