Nintendo keeps making shooters more friendly and approachable
Nintendo is expanding its Splatoon franchise with a new looter-shooter title called Splatoon Raiders. The game maintains the series' signature ink-based mechanics while shifting the focus toward mission-based dungeon exploration and gear progression.
Why it matters
It highlights Nintendo's strategy of making complex gaming genres more accessible to casual audiences through unique art styles and simplified mechanics.
Nintendo does a lot of weird things, but Splatoon might just be one of the strangest — or at least the boldest. The series started as an attempt to muscle into the ultra-competitive online shooter space, but in a way that feels a world away from the violence and bombast of Call of Duty or Battlefield. Splatoon is essentially candy-coated paintball starring a race of skate punk squid creatures, and across three entries Nintendo has just about perfected the formula. The series introduced the idea of competitive shooters to whole new audiences, and now it’s expanding: Splatoon Raiders takes it in a different direction, but with the same focus on making shooters more approachable.
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