A new Splatoon game is coming to Switch 2, but it isn’t Splatoon 4

Well, a Splatoon spin-off game sure wasn’t on my Tuesday afternoon bingo card – Splatoon Raiders got an announcement in a video today, shocking squids the world over. Especially those who don’t regularly check the Nintendo Today app, as Nintendo shared the upcoming game there first.

While I wasn’t expecting Splatoon 4 any time soon, I also didn’t see a spin-off coming. Specifically, I wasn’t expecting Nintendo to shadow-drop a fourth entry to a huge franchise on the Today app, where you can’t share videos or screenshots from it.

Details are thin on the ground right now, but Splatoon Raiders sees you take on the role of mechanic and head out alongside Splatoon 3’s idol trio, Deep Cut, to the Spirhalite Islands. Here, you see a glowing column of light surrounded by clouds, which surely won’t be anything bad, right?

I’m excited. You can hang around with Big Man and no doubt take part in single-player missions like the campaign of the mainline games, and maybe there’ll even be some multiplayer aspects. I’m intrigued to learn more about the robotic critter in the trailer and the mystery figure that Frye holds up while looking at the aforementioned column of light.

The one catch (haha, like fishing) is that Raiders is a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive title. While many of us have our shiny new Switches in hand, some perhaps weren’t planning on getting one. We don’t know a release date for Raiders yet, so it may be a while off, but you might want to think about getting your squiddy hands on a Switch 2 to play it. Maybe we’ll get a Splatoon Raiders-themed console…

On top of this huge news, there’s also a wave of updates coming to Splatoon 3, adding new weapons from Barazushi and Emberz, the iconic Urchin Underpass stage, and new badges to earn. You can see full details here.

So, this has shot right to the top of my upcoming Switch games wishlist. You can find the best Switch 2 accessories here, if you have the console and need to kit it out ahead of the new Splatoon game, too.