---
title: 'Splatoon Raiders Looks Weird (And We Have Questions) - NVC Clips'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=j_WZRa5O12c'
video_id: 'j_WZRa5O12c'
date: 2026-06-18
duration_sec: 0
---

# Splatoon Raiders Looks Weird (And We Have Questions) - NVC Clips

> Source: [Splatoon Raiders Looks Weird (And We Have Questions) - NVC Clips](https://youtube.com/watch?v=j_WZRa5O12c)

## Summary

In a Nintendo Voice Chat clip, the hosts discuss their initial impressions of the upcoming single-player Splatoon game, "Splatoon Raiders," which was previewed during a Treehouse event. While they acknowledge its potential as a standalone Splatoon adventure, they express significant concerns about its visual direction and overall appeal compared to past titles in the series.

### Key Points

- **Gameplay Preview** [[0:02]] — The game was featured in a Treehouse segment with 25 minutes of gameplay, hosted by Jose Otero.
- **First Level Objective** [[0:28]] — The player fights Salmonids to collect three treasures marked by beams of light in the sky.
- **Skepticism About Scope** [[0:51]] — The host notes that the game feels like a single-player expansion rather than a large standalone title.
- **Art Direction Concerns** [[1:29]] — The game's art direction is criticized as 'drab' and 'desaturated' compared to Splatoon's usual vibrant chaos.
- **Visual Comparison to Old Shooters** [[3:39]] — One host compares the visual style to a brown-and-gray PS3/360 shooter from 2008, which is weird for Splatoon.
- **Hope for Future Details** [[2:36]] — The hosts remain hopeful that the June 30th Direct will reveal more engaging content, such as 'dungeons' hinted at in trailers.
- **Praise for Previous Splatoon Content** [[5:05]] — The hosts praise Splatoon 3's Side Order DLC and final Splatfest for having their own identities.

## Transcript

I want to talk about Splatoon Raiders a
little more. This was featured in the
Treehouse, which we hadn't had a chance
to watch last week. It got about 25
minutes of gameplay hosted by former NBC
host Jose Otero, which was cool to see.
But this is getting its own direct on
June 30th, and on the Treehouse they
basically showed off the tutorial, which
is they taught us how to play Splatoon.
So if you're new, you can go learn, but
I've been playing Splatoon for 10 years.
And then they showed off kind of the
first level where you're going through
this area fighting off waves of
Salmonids to get three treasures that
are denoted by these beams of light in
the sky. And then once you get the the
last one, which has like a spiral beam,
so you know it's kind of the big
mission, then the the level is over. You
go back to base and you use all the
resources you found to upgrade your gear
and go out again. And I know we're
getting a direct on June 30th, so
there's still time, but I got to say as
someone who has like 400 hours across
the Splatoon series, I'm still not all
the way sold on this one. I still I'm
looking at this and I'm like it looks
fun, but it just looks like a kind of a
single-player expansion to me, not kind
of oh, this is a big standalone
single-player thing on on Switch, too.
>> Yeah, I well-said. I'm I think I'm in
the same boat.
I I'll I'll definitely play this when it
comes out because I like the idea of
like getting a standalone single-player
Splatoon game, but it doesn't it's it's
just not there just yet for me. And I've
said this before on the show. I think
part of it for me is the art direction.
It's just kind of drab and it's not I I
feel like they took one of the most
unique-looking franchises in Nintendo
history. Like that was revelatory when
it first came out, right? This was it
was very clearly like hey, this is not
your grandpa's Nintendo or whatever,
right? Like this this was a bunch of
this is a young scrappier team of
developers. And I've said this in the
past on the show, but so much of
Nintendo games were about cleaning
things up, right? It was about
collecting everything and find like
Super Mario Sunshine is like, "Hey, get
that graffiti out of here." And then
here they were like, "Let's make a huge
mess. Let's make an absolute disaster
everywhere. That's the aesthetic, right?
It is not It is not rigid and conformed.
It is chaos and there's still a bit of
that here, but I feel like the
level-wise everything just feels a
little desaturated.
>> Yeah.
>> And I want I want some more Yeah, I just
want a little more sort of vibrant pop
from this game. And it's not happening,
obviously, right? So, I can just have to
deal with it. Um or suck it up as they
do in these games.
Uh but I I just don't I I I wish it was
a little bit had a little more sort of
oomph to it.
>> Yeah. Yeah, and and maybe they're still
hiding lots of stuff from us. They do
have our own its own show dedicated to
it that's coming up. And I'm still
waiting to see in the first trailer for
this game or something. They had a
little icon in the top left that said
like dungeon list or something like
that. I'm like, "Dungeons?" There's
going to be little probably underground
shrine-like areas in this game. We
haven't seen that at all. So, I'm still
holding out hope there's going to be
something that's going to really hook me
in on this one.
>> Did you guys play De Blob?
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> Okay, so that this reminds me of that
before all the color comes in. And like
that was the whole thing with that game
was like you went in and you're this
blob and you you painted uh textures and
and buildings and environments and stuff
like that and turn them from black and
white into like full color. And here it
feels like Yeah, like look, there's a
there's a lot of there's a lot of
similarities here. Here it feels like um
the the the part where the color kicks
in just doesn't really happen. And so,
yeah, I I
I don't know. I I'm I'm optimistic, but
I I wish it was a little more so far.
>> Yeah, based just off of what we've seen,
it looks very like 2008 PS3 Xbox 360
shooter. Like every when everything was
just brown and gray. Which is so it's so
weird for this series specifically.
>> Yeah, for this series, yeah.
>> Yeah, most stylish like video game
series Nintendo has ever made. One of
the most stylish video game series
probably ever. Where everything just
works so well together from the sound
design to the to the colors to the
design of like just the fonts of their
made up language. It all looks so great
and then it's like here you go.
>> Somebody remade
a mountain in Unreal Engine 4 and now
it's uh
>> You like even you go to like you know
the one of the Nintendo stores and
there's like the merchandise section for
Splatoon. It is so drastically different
than everything else in there, right?
Like there was just this corner with
this these psychedelic neon alien
languages and big color splats and
everything like that and they're they're
selling these like keychains and these
like funky huge, you know, bootleg Air
Jordans and it's yeah, it's they've got
their whole own thing and then now I'm
I'm just I feel like they they lost a
beat there, but I don't
>> Look, I haven't played it yet and I
don't want to I don't want to just hone
in on the negative for it cuz I have a
feeling that it's gameplay-wise it's
going to be really fun.
>> I think that they consistently struggle
to show Splatoon off in a good light. I
felt that with Splatoon 3 also like
leading up to that game's launch a few
years ago. It took them a long time to
convince us of why we needed another
Splatoon sequel on Switch instead of
Splatoon 2 just getting more updates.
That game turned out fantastic and
totally justified that it exists and did
some of the coolest things Nintendo's
ever done like the the final Splatfest
where it was basically like a Splatoon
rave that that you attended and did this
final huge battle with. That was great.
And then the the side order DLC
did take out all the color. It was this
monochrome black and white world, but it
was so starkly different than Splatoon
that it really worked and it had its own
kind of dystopian vibe and the music was
really electronica and cool. And so that
had its own identity as well. But then
this, yeah, we just don't see it yet.
We'll talk in 2 weeks after we watch the
direct and hopefully we're all a little
more on board.
Anything else from the direct you guys
want to shout out or should we move on?
>> Thanks for watching this clip from
Nintendo Voice Chat. Be sure to catch
the full episode over at
youtube.com/igngames.
New episodes of NBC drop every Friday on
igngames, ign.com, and your favorite
podcast platforms. With the Nintendo
Switch 2 finally here, there is so much
to dive into. We appreciate you tuning
in, and don't forget NBC is the only
place you can get the thing.