Splatoon Raidersis the newest title in Nintendo’s ever-popularSplatoonfranchise. Announced very suddenly through the publisher’s Nintendo today app,Splatoon Raidersis 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 keepSplatoonfever going strong on its new console even without a new mainline title.
Splatoon Raidersis one of a number of spin-off titlesthat Nintendo has already announced for release on the Nintendo Switch 2, between the already releasedMario Kart World(a spin-off of the largerMarioseries) and the upcomingKirby Air RidersandHyrule 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 aSplatoonspin-off feels comparable to another Nintendo series, one that it has some surprising crossover with, despite being vastly different games.
Splatoon Raiders Goes Where Animal Crossing Went Before
Splatoon Takes A Spin-off Direction At A Peak Time, Like Animal Crossing Did Before
Splatoon Raidersfeels like it’s beginning to pull from the same well as theAnimal Crossingfranchise, 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 thatSplatoonis now getting its first spin-off to hold fans over whileSplatoon 4takes its time to cook.
Animal Crossinghas had a variety of spin-offsin the past, with two notably released in the same year in the form ofAnimal Crossing: Happy Home DesignerandAnimal Crossing: Amiibo Festivalin 2015. The franchise also received a third spin-off in the form of the mobile gameAnimal 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 likeSplatoonis 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,Splatoonmaking its debut on the Switch 2with a spin-off is not unlike whatAnimal Crossinghas done in the past. Notably,Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festivalwas the franchise’s debut on the Wii U and, inevitably, it was the onlyAnimal Crossinggame 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 theSplatoonfranchise, and the existence ofSplatoon Raidersshould not deny the existence ofSplatoon 4.
Still, it’s anyone’s guess how goodSplatoon Raidersis going to end up being, as the quality of theAnimal Crossingspin-offscan vary a bit. WhileHappy Home DesignerandPocket Campwere both received fairly decently,Amiibo Festivalreceived a much more negative reception, not just for theAnimal Crossingfranchise but for Nintendo games as a whole. Given the wildly varying level of quality between theseAnimal Crossingspin-offs, it’s hard to tell what will happen when the Nintendo EPD devs take theSplatoonfranchise in the spin-off direction.
Splatoon Raiders Was Announced Without Much Fanfare
After all,little has been revealed aboutSplatoon 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 thisSplatoonspin-off will be when fans and players don’t even know what kind of game it will be. The arrival of aSplatoonspin-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 whatAnimal Crossing’s approach will be on the upcoming console.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ success and popularitymean 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 hopingSplatoonandAnimal Crossingcontinue to take big swings with great titles, mainline or otherwise, on the Nintendo Switch 2.
