Fans of Splatoon have come out in full force to support Splatoon Raiders on Metacritic, with an unexpecte
After the somewhat disappointing Splatoon 3, you’d think the series’ Nintendo Switch 2 debut would be Splatoon 4, but instead Nintendo opted for a more single-player focused spin-off, Splatoon Raiders, which we found to be a fun but unambitious, and quickly forgettable, diversion.
Yet it seems the Splatoon community is not only far more enamoured with Splatoon Raiders but loves it enough to make it one of the highest user rated games of all time on Metacritic.
At the time of writing, Splatoon Raiders has a Metacritic user score of 9.3 (out of 10) and while it’s listed at number seven overall, it shares the score with other highly rated games such as the original Silent Hill 2 and Resident Evil Requiem.
This means it’s outdone every other Nintendo game ever made, overtaking The Legend Of Zelda: Majora’s Mask for the Nintendo 64 and every Mario title.
Granted, user scores on Metacritic can be easy to manipulate. We’ve seen it before with instances of review bombing, which is usually done to lower a game’s user score – although the opposite can happen too, as was the case with a Nintendo DS tie-in to Disney sitcom Cory In The House.
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That game also has a user score of 9.2, but that’s thanks to a shared internet joke about how it’s secretly a masterpiece and not because people sincerely think it’s that good.
There’s no evidence to suggest there’s any manipulation happening with Splatoon Raiders, though; it appears to be just natural enthusiasm for the game, despite how unremarkable it might otherwise seem.
By comparison, Splatoon 1 has a user score of 8.7 and Splatoon 2 has a user score of 8.4, but both games have over 1,500 user reviews whereas Splatoon Raiders only has 802 user reviews. But obviously it has only just come out and 800+ is still a lot compared to many games on Metacritic.
Splatoon 3, meanwhile, has the lowest user score out of all of them at 7.3, which makes sense given how disappointingly low effort it was, with almost no new ideas. Splatoon Raiders is barely any better in that regard though and it seems very odd that it’s being given a free pass for the same faults. But maybe people are just that hungry for more Splatoon.
We’d be interested to see if this enthusiasm is reflected in the sales figures and if Splatoon Raiders manages to match or even surpass Splatoon 2’s lifetime sales of 13.6 million, which made it the best selling entry in the franchise.
Japanese weekly sales (where the franchise is most popular) should be out soon but Splatoon Raider was the UK’s top selling game last week… not that it had much competition thanks to the usual summer drought.
If you’re curious, as far as critic reviews go, Splatoon Raiders hasn’t even cracked the top 60 on Metacritic and currently has an average score of 81 (out of 100), coincidentally sharing a spot with the Star Fox remake.
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