Nintendo's major IPs cover a breadth of genres from platformers to RPGs and real-time strategy games. The Splatoon franchise is its family friendly answer to third-person shooters. First debuting on Wii U in 2015, Splatoon's success quickly spawned a sequel in 2017, and was ultimately unmatched by the similarly multiplayer-focused Switch title ARMS. Now Splatoon 3 is set to release this summer, and the February 2022 Nintendo Direct revealed a returning fan-favorite mode: Salmon Run.
The main draw for Splatoon games is their four-versus-four "Turf Wars" that have players vying for the most ink coverage across various maps. There are other objective types in the competitive rotation, such as "Tower Control" and "Rainmaker" that each ask teams to move a platform or super-weapon into their opponents' base, as well as single-player campaigns. However, the co-op Salmon Run mode was a big success, so it's no wonder that will return as Salmon Run: Next Wave in Splatoon 3 with new mechanics and bosses.
Fish Stick
In Splatoon 2's Salmon Run, up to four players were given random weapons by Grizzco Industries so that they could defeat waves of Salmonids - an antagonistic race of semiaquatic beings. Lesser and Boss Salmonids would swarm the field together in order to overwhelm the players' Inklings, and Splatoon 3's co-op offerings will up the ante with bosses like Fish Stick.
Many of the Boss Salmonid are designed to test particular skills, for example Flyfish are airborne enemies that can only be defeated by lobbing bombs into their weak points, which are open for a limited time. Fish Stick appears similar to the Splatoon 2 boss Octo Oven in that players have to run lines of ink up their tower, ascend, and take out the Salmonids on top while they coat the area in ink.
Flipper-Flopper
The second new boss for Salmon Run: Next Wave introduced during the February 2022 Nintendo Direct is Flipper-Flopper; a salmon clearly mimicking a dolphin. The official description of this boss provided by the Splatoon North America Twitter account says it's "magnificent" at diving through rings of ink, which both cover an area to impede movement and mark where it will splash down for a powerful area-of-effect attack.
Though its technique is "beautiful," players can work together to hit the boss before it dives in order to knock off its helmet and leave the Salmonid defenseless. Much like other returning bosses who will appear in new stages like the Salmonid base Stockeye Station, Fish Stick and Flipper-Flopper drop Golden Eggs that players must deposit in a central cage. The new "Egg Throw" mechanic introduced with this iteration will help players efficiently get eggs to their teammates or goal for "a portion of ink."
King Salmonid
The Splatoon 3 Salmon Run trailer also teased what appears to be one of Next Wave's overarching threats. Named King Salmonid by the Splatoon Twitter account, these chained, Godzilla-esque behemoths are described as "unfathomably terrifying" - though more details on their roles and abilities will be released in the future.
There should be even more to learn about Salmon Run: Next Wave to come, but this initial reveal does give fans insight into a few additional details like Inklings (and Octolings) having new ink-resistant suit designs and resources like helicopters at their disposal. This implies Grizzco Industries has more money to work with after the events of Splatoon 2, though it's unclear if Splatoon 3 will reverse course on one of Salmon Run's most controversial features.
Despite being the token co-op mode in a multiplayer shooter, Splatoon 2 restricted online Salmon Run games to only be available on set rotations. Local parties could play Salmon Run whenever they wanted, but this would not affect players' rankings like online games that could only be played on certain days. Hopefully Next Wave learns from this and makes accessibility another area to expand alongside bosses and gameplay mechanics.
Splatoon 3 is scheduled to release in summer 2022 for Nintendo Switch.