Praise for something new can often come at the expense of what came before it. One aspect of art and media criticism that I find irksome is that to uplift new works, older ones from the same lineage are often undersold at best, or completely thrown under the bus at worst. It’s a trend I’ve seen most recently with Splatoon Raiders, the first spin-off title in one of my favorite Nintendo franchises.
Splatoon Raiders may very well be the best single-player-focused experience in the series, but let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that the campaigns in Splatoons 1, 2, or 3 were significantly inferior, from either a gameplay or story aspect. In fact, they were pretty damn fresh.
The wacky campaign of the first Splatoon isn’t to be scoffed at.
Conventional wisdom is that the older Splatoon campaigns are the least memorable aspect of their respective games–in short, they’re extended tutorials that are light on story, and Splatoon Raiders is the most successful story campaign in the series. Each of these points might be true to some degree, but that doesn’t stop the story modes of the original three games from being fun in their own respect.
Splatoon’s single-player stories are short and sweet, infused with Nintendo’s signature charm. Despite their length, these campaigns greatly expand on the franchise’s world and are dripping with fascinating lore (as well as ink, of course). Many of the levels are amusing ways to learn about a range of Splatoon weapons, with clever level-specific gimmicks for players to wrap their heads around in a way that invokes other Nintendo games. And the structure of these story modes are always changing from game to game, experimenting with the very format of how players move between levels. Unpredictability is the format of Splatoon, and each of these older campaigns fed into the foundation that Splatoon Raiders is built on.
The first Splatoon’s Octo Valley campaign did some heavy lifting when it came to fleshing out the Splatoon universe. Establishing Octarians as the antagonistic force and detailing the extensive history between them and the Inklings, with hidden Sunken Scroll collectibles describing an ancient war between the factions with colorful and comprehensive visuals. These scrolls even go the extra mile to answer the sickest questions from players about Inkling evolution and biology.
The levels themselves were like quick bites, carrying the same spirit that other Nintendo titles like Super Mario Galaxy and 3D World have, centering entire levels on mechanics like inkrails and propeller-powered platforms. In short, variety is of no short supply in classic Splatoon campaigns. And through music, Splatoon campaigns differentiated themselves with energetic, quirky, and straight-up disorienting tunes that reflect the contrasts between Inkling and Octarian culture.
Splatoon 2’s Octo Expansion took the series to new heights in narrative and progression.
Splatoon 2’s Octo Canyon was a solid continuation, keeping the same level structure as Octo Valley while gradually giving players more weapon options to experiment with, letting them take different approaches to the same levels. While the story has an inherently similar premise to the first game, it adds a novel narrative layer by taking the results of the final Splatfest of Splatoon 1 into account, meaning that players’ actions from the previous game actually affected this story.
The Octo Expansion DLC took Splatoon story modes to a completely new height, shifting to a challenge-room-based structure and allowing players to tackle levels in different orders based on a subway map. A favorite of Splatoon fans, Octo Expansion might be the most influential campaign within the series. And as a bonus, it contains one of the hardest gaming bosses of all time–Inner Agent 3–who I think deserves to be named alongside any of the grueling opponents seen in a From Software game.
Splatoon 3’s Return of the Mammalians begins with what seems to be a retread of Octo Valley and Octo Canyon, even throwing the final boss from the first two games at you very early on. But it then switches to a level structure similar to Octo Expansion, with non-linear progression and a ton of unique levels testing your skills with the multiplayer’s special abilities. And Splatoon 3’s Side Order DLC successfully took elements from Octo Expansion, throwing players into intricate challenge rooms and allowing for numerous upgrade and loadout possibilities. What resulted was a uniquely Nintendo roguelite, and a very strong entry in the larger genre.
Splatoon Raiders has hints of all of the series’s single-player campaigns before it.
Although these campaigns weren’t the main focus for their respective games, they were far from throwaways, and Raiders draws from all of these games in one way or another. On the surface, I’ve noticed the focus of lore and history disseminated through hidden scrolls coming from Splatoon 1, while Raiders allows for the weapon versatility and experimentation seen in Splatoon 2. Octo Expansion’s non-linear nature of level progression echoes in Raiders, while Splatoon 3’s ability tutorials show through Raiders’ Sampler Dungeons. Even the spec-building systems in Raiders certainly resemble the permanent upgrade system seen in Side Order.
You can view Splatoon Raiders as a culmination of ideas from the franchise’s decade-plus history: a refinement of the elements from campaigns past into a solid standalone experience. But that isn’t to diminish any titles in the series compared to the others, because they all brought something of their own. Heck, Raiders is my least favorite one, since PvP is why I go to Splatoon–but it’s still a damn good game.
Everyone will have their preference and favor one over the rest, but if there’s one takeaway from Raiders, it’s not that what preceded it was worse, but that Splatoon as a whole is something truly special.
