By Zhya Colon

Shiver, the Octoling, Frye, the Inkling, and Big Man, the Manta ray, are on a mission in Splatoon Raiders, and I was hoping they would keep me happily entertained. 

This was my first attempt at playing a Splatoon game. I was aware of the franchise for a long time but was never able to truly play one for myself – and think about it. I’ve heard from so many people that these games were so worth it, but I truly never understood the hype.

I was a little nervous going into this Nintendo offering. I thought I would just end up being confused about every little thing, but the gameplay and story was overall pretty straight forward. There were, of course, moments where a character would reference past games/events and I wouldn’t understand, but Splatoon Raiders has its own very unique story, different from other games. So I was able to become attached to the characters and the world around them.

The story opens up on a plane with the main trio, and before I was even able to process this tale, I was so starstruck by the designs. Shiver stuck out immediately. I was obsessed with her look. She seemed to be inspired by Asian culture, which I always find gorgeous. Her little hair swoop, very flowy movements, and dark red eyes move me. I was so utterly in love at first sight that I was already excited to know more about her. 

I also did take a liking to the other two characters. Frye was such uniquely crafted as well. I loved her giant yellow eyes, and very outgoing personality right from the start. Big Man being a Manta ray was such a good choice. He’s very different from the other two girls in a good way. It was obvious that the girls were much more willing to do anything while he was the more wary one – which I loved seeing. The beginning cutscene gave so much of their personalities right off the bat that I craved seeing more. 

The trio gets to talking and I was able to find out that the reason they’re on this mission is to find treasure.  They’ve been seeing a giant yellow beam shooting up from the sky, which piques their interest. Then, a storm starts up and the group is then stranded on Spirhalite Island. 

A small timeskip happens and this is where my character comes into play. The Mechanic, was the person driving the plane, and so now I’m stuck here on this island with them as well. It’s clear from the start that they don’t trust me. But since I’m able to use resources to build them, they keep me, anyway. 

Here comes my favorite part of the game! I was able to pick and design my character. I know the point of this game isn’t the dressup part. But I’m such a sucker for dressing up that I was just amazed by the possibilities. After my character is done being made, I’m thrown into the first real level. 

Splatoon is a third person shooter game. The characters are able to use ink to shoot enemies as well as cover the land around us. I had so much fun just shooting ink everywhere. The character I play is able to change forms and swim around in the ink – and it is such a blast. 

I didn’t have to shoot the ground and yet I still did just because it was so fun to see and mess around with. The enemies here are called Salmonids. Salmonids are just weird fish creatures. They riff on designs of real fish such as trout and salmon. But imagine those fish went into a lab and were mutated 20 times and then started reproducing, creating even stranger versions of themselves. When fighting Salmonids, you get their droppings that are called power eggs.

One, it’s used to power up so I can use special abilities, and two, it’s used in special levels where the goal is to get a certain amount of power eggs in a specific amount of time. This game wasn’t too hard at first. I’m not used to shooting games but the controls were easy enough to understand that I got the hang of movement really easily. 

The movement is so uniquely different from anything I’ve ever played. Since ink is the biggest game mechanic, Raiders want us to use it in different ways. There are even certain levels where I have to use movement skills in order to get to the end within a certain amount of time. I really loved how this game used ink as a way to get players to be really unique with their moves and gameplay. It makes for really cool individuality among players. 

Raiders had me go through different levels in order to level up and fight even more difficult enemies. Later on, these were always just bigger, stronger and different versions of Salmonids, such as an enemy called Slammin’ Lid, which is a tiny Salmonid with a cover to protect it. Enemies like these had me finding new ways to defeat them which was always fun. With Slammin’ lid, I figured out that I just had to jump and shoot to get them or use bombs. 

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There were five different types of levels I could discover. Treasure levels, which are the basic ones. I had to get to the end by defeating enemies and getting to the treasure. In crystal levels, I had to assemble a certain amount of power eggs to get enough strength to break a giant crystal that gave me resources. In raids, I had to get a certain amount of power eggs within a level in order to defeat it. The mini boss levels were similar to raids, but instead, once I got the number of power eggs, there are harder and more challenging levels beneath the island’s surface. 

The boss levels were always enemies I’ve seen before, just bigger and stronger. Big-Stack Stinger was comprised of layers of pots that I had to knock down in order to kill it. This boss was generally the same as its smaller counterpart. Finally, the big boss levels were story related, so I got a new boss I had never seen. My favorite was a Salmonid. But he was shaped like a train, and was one of the most fun bosses I fought. After I defeated it I would get insight on the story, which included how to get to the final boss to leave the island. 

The characters were the entire highlights. Unlike many Nintendo games, these characters don’t exactly have good morals. They don’t do things with a true virtuous purpose in mind. Their entire reasoning for staying on this island instead of leaving (which they could have done) was so they could steal every last bit of resources left! 

Really, they are just like money hungry popstars and influencers, and I love them for that. They were so fun to interact with and  I felt part of such an amazing experience going along the story with them. The story begins with them obviously not trusting me. But later, as the story progressed and I got to know each of them more, we started forming a bond. I even got emotional towards the end where, during the final battle, they use the moment to begin telling the boss who they are. And they accepted me into their group as well. It was such a touching little scene and gave so much depth to these characters.

I finished the main story in around 15 hours. At the end, I thought the game would have a situation as in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. There, even after you defeat the final boss, it doesn’t “count.” You go back to your last save, so you can continue to 100 percent completion. 

But here, the Raiders have a post game portion. Even after fighting the last boss, it offers up a reason why the characters have not gone home. Frye mentions how there’s still more treasure that can be found and once that’s done then the game is actually completed. I loved this. I love when games make more content even after you complete the main story. It’s similar to Super Mario Odyssey, where even after defeating Bowser, you’re able to proceed with a story including Peach and you can collect more moons. It doesn’t  happen too often, but I would never complain about more excellent content. 

This game was such a rollercoaster of emotion for me. Everything from the story, characters and gameplay was so amazing to witness. I really have no complaints about anything, and I might just have to get more Splatoon offerings. If you’re already a fan or looking into getting into the franchise, I would so recommend Splatoon Raiders! It was such a blast! 

Zhya Colon, our newest intern, recently graduated from The Lab School for Finance and Technology, where Zhya was the editor of the school newspaper.

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