Nintendo's Splatoon Raiders has landed seventh on Metacritic's all-time best games ranked by user score, with a 9.3 from players that puts it ahead of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The same game sits at an 81 from professional critics — good for 64th among 2026 releases, but hardly the historic tier its user reception suggests. (VGC)

The gap between those two numbers is the story. Metacritic, the review-aggregation site owned by Fandom, weights its critic scores and user scores separately, and they rarely diverge this sharply for a game that is not already a cultural flashpoint.

Splatoon Raiders is a single-player spin-off from Nintendo's ink-splattering shooter series, released on Nintendo Switch 2. Players take the role of "the Mechanic," exploring the Spirhalite Islands alongside Deep Cut, a recurring faction from the series. According to a Gfinity review dated July 21, 2026 and listed on Metacritic's game page, the core loop involves raiding Salmonid hordes — a recurring enemy type in Splatoon — for loot and upgrades. The review also praises overhauled movement that adds verticality, and describes the soundtrack as "more atmospheric than catchy."

The all-time user-score top 10, as captured by VGC on July 29, reads like a mix of critical darlings, fan-favourite classics, and at least one joke. The list runs: 1. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, 2. Silent Hill 2, 3. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood and Wine, 4. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, 5. Cory in the House, 6. Resident Evil Requiem, 7. Splatoon Raiders, 8. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, 9. Metal Gear Solid, 10. Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne. (VGC)

Cory in the House, a 2007 Nintendo DS game based on a Disney Channel sitcom, sits fifth on that list almost certainly because of meme-driven joke reviews — a long-running internet bit that has inflated its user score for years.

Metacritic introduced a 36-hour delay before users can post reviews in 2020, a measure aimed at curbing review bombing — the practice of coordinated negative or positive campaigns that skew user scores before players have had time with a game. That delay did not prevent Splatoon Raiders from reaching its current position.

What makes Splatoon Raiders' placement stand out is the sheer distance between critical and fan reception. An 81 from critics is a strong score, but it does not typically place a game in all-time-best conversations. A 9.3 user score, sustained enough to rank seventh across every title Metacritic has ever tracked, tells a different story — one of a spin-off that clearly resonated with its audience in a way the professional review sample did not fully capture.

Whether that user score holds as more players weigh in is the open question. For now, Splatoon Raiders sits among games that have had years, sometimes decades, to accumulate their ratings.