The Tactical Tank Turns Splatoon Raiders Into Vampire Survivors - Kotaku

What the report says

Kotaku’s Zack Kotzer wrote July 25 that Nintendo’s newly released Splatoon Raiders has kept pulling him back despite feeling lighter, so far, than the mainline Splatoon games. The piece describes Raiders as a compact extraction-shooter spin on the series, moving the action away from city arenas and onto isolated beaches and junk-strewn reefs where players face waves of Salmonids. Kotzer notes that the game can be played with friends but often feels built around solo runs.

The article’s main focus is the Tactical Tank, one of three backpack-style kits that shape the “Gadgets” players can equip. Kotaku says the Speed Tank emphasizes mobility, the Power Tank delivers heavy offense, and the Tactical Tank stands out because of drones and deployable tools that steadily damage enemies. Its gadgets include a sentry, a tether-like attack, laser arrays and Bombloons, which link explosive balloons with damaging strands.

Kotaku argues that this Tactical Tank setup changes the feel of Raiders by encouraging players to build dangerous zones on the map rather than simply pick off priority targets, making the experience resemble the escalating swarm-control appeal of Vampire Survivors. The comparison matters because it frames Raiders not only as an extraction shooter, but as a game whose equipment choices can push it into a different action subgenre.

The piece is an impressions-style article rather than a scored review. Its broader context is that Splatoon’s cooperative Salmon Run mode has long been a popular part of the franchise, and Raiders appears to expand that PvE idea with more emphasis on survival, terrain control and kit experimentation.