I enjoyed Splatoon Raiders a lot more than I expected

 About a month ago Splatoon Raiders released on Switch 2. And it has been one of the most fun releases of the year for me this far. I knew I wanted to try it because I haven't played a Splatoon game ever since the first one back on Wii U and I don't particularly care much for online multiplayer anymore. So this single player spinoff seemed like the perfect place to get back into the series.
It's safe to say I had a really good time with this game. But before I go into more detail on that I want to mention that like usual with posts like this, I'm going to try and avoid story spoilers and such as much as I possibly can. So with that disclaimer out of the way, let's have a look!

The general gameplay isn't much different from what I remember Splatoon being like. You play as a kid that shoots ink and can swim through said ink. You get a lot of special abilities you can use depending on which class you're using and this type of gameplay definitely falls under the "easy to learn, hard to master" category.
Once you get the hang of how the movement works it feels great to dart across the different levels using these mechanics. The way this single player adaptation works is that you go into different levels where you have to search for treasure by various means. Sometimes you just have to get to the end of the stage, sometimes you have to eliminate an x amount of enemies within a limited time period, sometimes you have to go through a little challenge map meant to teach you about the different gadgets you can use in this game.
There are a lot of different weapon types in this game. I personally used the basic splattershot most of the time though because that felt the most natural to use for me. But when you combine this with the different tank types and different gadgets you'll be experimenting a lot with your setup trying to find whatever build you like the most. 
There is an option to play this game in co-op mode, though I didn't use it much myself. I did help random players online out a couple of times when I felt like I was short on XP, but that was kinda it. I do appreciate that they still kept some form of multiplayer in the game though given the entire series basically runs on the multiplayer. 
The story isn't anything special. Again I won't say anything in depth about it to avoid spoilers but you're really playing this game for the gameplay loop itself. To me the story didn't really add too much of interest here. I saw a lot of people praising the boss design in this game. While I agree that the designs themselves were cool, the actual boss fights were way too easy if you ask me. With a few exceptions you can pretty much kill every boss in the game in mere seconds by simply using your ultimate attack.
The level design itself isn't super interesting either, this game really rides the gameplay itself out as its main selling point. To be fair the gameplay is a LOT of fun. But if you really want to see an interesting story or see super impressive graphics and level design, you're not going to find that here. 

All in all I had a great time with this game though. This type of gameplay will last you a long time before you get bored with it. And the game itself doesn't take super long to finish either. Though there is plenty of post game content to keep you going if you want to. This game makes a great addition to the Switch 2 library. And I'm sure this isn't the last time I'm going to play through it.

With that I'm going to call it a post. Maybe once Splatoon 4 hits the scene I'll try to get into the multiplayer side of this series again because the gameplay is a great time.

Bring 'em to the pit!