Every fact on this page applies to update v65536, the one version tested. Other versions may behave differently.
No emulator needed: Splatoon Raiders runs natively on the Apple chip. How nxnative compares with emulators
Running through nxnative
How Splatoon Raiders runs
Splatoon Raiders plays on the Mac at 60 fps, tested on an M4 Pro Mac through the opening, character creation and the first level's beach, inking, grates and first Salmonids, about 4.5 minutes in the last session with no crash. No iPhone or iPad app has been built yet.
How it runs
On the M4 Pro the still beach runs at 60 fps with about 15 ms of GPU time a frame. Over the last play session the median frame took 16.6 to 16.9 ms, but the heavier moments reached up to 22 ms, so 60 fps does not hold everywhere. A few single frames take between 130 and 535 ms. Inked stages have not been measured on that Mac.
The first boss fight's third stage, which once ran at 1 to 2 fps, was played on a 16 GB M2 MacBook Air and now holds a median of 17.7 to 19.9 ms a frame. A later stretch of the same run sat at 32 to 34 ms; where in the game that was is not known.
On an M5 Mac, one player saw a GPU fault after 4 to 6 minutes of the tutorial, then a frozen picture while the game ran on. It has not happened on the M4 Pro, played as far as the ramp and moat wall near the first fort.
A full shader build takes about 34 minutes from scratch, 13 with the Metal cache.
Bring update v65536
Tested with update v65536 over the base game. It was packed from a folder of the game's files. Other versions have not been tested.
Controls
The Packed app starts in the 3D touch layout, because the game asks for most of the controller at once.
Good to know
- The game stops drawing its 3D scene when its window loses focus, so a frame rate read then means nothing.
- The game's own upscaler can be swapped for MetalFX, which cost a little less GPU time on the beach with the same picture; the frame rate stays at 60 either way.
- An iPhone or iPad app needs more memory than iOS allows, until nxnative changes how the game's memory is laid out.
Known issues
- Only the opening, character creation, the first level's beach and its first Salmonids have been played on the main test Mac.
- No iPhone or iPad app has been built yet; the game's memory layout is over iOS's limit for now.
- 60 fps does not hold everywhere; heavier moments take up to 22 ms a frame, and a few single frames take up to half a second.
- On an M5 Mac, one player saw a GPU fault after 4 to 6 minutes of the tutorial, after which the picture froze while the game ran on. The cause is unknown.
Packing command
Run this in your nxnative folder on the Build Mac. Replace the game path with your .nup file or the folder of the game's files. It builds a Mac app, the only kind tested so far; leave out --platform mac-app for an iPhone and iPad app, which is untested.
python3 scripts/build_ipa_from_nsp.py ~/Games/splatoon-raiders --platform mac-appFAQ
Does Splatoon Raiders work with nxnative?
Yes. Splatoon Raiders is tested with nxnative on update v65536 and runs at 60 fps.
Which iPhone, iPad or Mac do I need to play Splatoon Raiders?
Splatoon Raiders is a Nintendo Switch 2 Game. So far it has been tested on the Mac only, which needs Apple silicon; an iPhone and iPad app can be packed but is untested. Packing needs a Mac with macOS 26.6 or later and Xcode 27.2.
Is Splatoon Raiders included?
No. Neither this site nor nxnative includes any game. You Pack Splatoon Raiders from your own copy of the game.
Does online play work in Splatoon Raiders?
Online play in Splatoon Raiders is not confirmed to work, so do not count on it.
