We may have not gotten an exact release date for Splatoon 3 in today's Nintendo Direct presentation, but it was confirmed that Salmon Run, Splatoon 2's popular horde-like co-op multiplayer mode, will be returning for the third installment.
The new version of this mode will officially be called Salmon Run: Next Wave, and Splatoon 3 will be released this summer. Nintendo also released a brief teaser of all the colorful chaos, and while this Salmon Run looks very similar to Splatoon 2's, a large new enemy boss Salmonid was also teased.
Salmon Run was Splatoon 2's only dedicated co-op mode, and saw up to four players attempting to fend off three waves of Salmonids while also collecting their eggs.
Nintendo revealed Splatoon 3 almost exactly a year ago, and revealed more gameplay details a few months later. The sequel will feature a single-player campaign called "Return of the Mammalians," as well as the return of its classic Turf War multiplayer mode.
Splatoon 2, released for the Nintendo Switch in 2017, was well received; our review awarded it a score of 8.3, and it has a secure place on our best Nintendo Switch games list. In his review for IGN, Brendan Graeber specifically praised its Salmon Run mode, calling it "an excellent cooperative foil." "With an addicting new Salmon Run co-op mode and the promise of free updates like the ones that helped the original Splatoon come into its own, I expect Splatoon 2 to keep me hooked," he wrote at the time.