Splatoon Raiders’ Cloud-Swirl Loading Screen Can Crash the Switch 2 Game
Splatoon Raiders, Nintendo’s brand-new single-player-focused spinoff for Switch 2, has a hidden interactive flourish on its boot-up screen — and players have discovered that pushing it too far can crash the game entirely. The quirk, first surfaced by fans on the game’s dedicated subreddit, has now been verified independently by Nintendo Life, Kotaku and GoNintendo.
Splatoon Raiders launched exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2 on July 23, 2026, sending players to the Spirhalite Islands as a mechanic accompanied by the Deep Cut trio of Shiver, Frye and Big Man.
Swirling Clouds Turn Into a Crash Trigger
According to GoNintendo, when you first fire up Splatoon Raiders you’re treated to a loading screen that shows a swirling mass of clouds, and if you’re playing docked you have to stare at the clouds until they dissipate once the game is loaded, but if you’re playing handheld, you can actually use the touchscreen to swirl the clouds around. It’s a small, playful touch designed purely for portable players waiting for the game to boot.
The problem emerged when a Redditor pushed the interaction further than intended. As Kotaku reported, a Reddit user found the loading screen easter egg, but apparently you can really mess up your game if you get a little too exuberant with the swirling, putting their entire hand on the screen while stirring the clouds during startup. Nintendo Life corroborated the same discovery, noting a user on the Splatoon Raiders subreddit demonstrated finding a new bug if you put your entire hand on the screen as you stir the clouds at the start of the game.
Nintendo Life Confirms the Crash Is Repeatable
Rather than treating it as a one-off fluke, Nintendo Life put the bug to the test itself. The outlet said it was able to replicate this crash multiple times, and when it happens, players are presented with the message “The software was closed because an error occured” before having to restart the game. That confirms the glitch isn’t isolated to a single Switch 2 unit or a fluke of one player’s touchscreen.
The good news is that the crash appears to be harmless beyond the inconvenience of a restart. Kotaku noted the good news is this isn’t really a big deal, since it’s just the game’s start-up load screen, so players can very easily reload and hop back in, and it doesn’t seem to have done any serious damage to the game itself. The original Reddit poster who triggered the crash even confirmed as much, saying, according to Kotaku, “btw nothing bad happens tho.”
How to Avoid It
For players who’d rather not risk the reboot, the fix is straightforward. Nintendo Life advised that if you don’t apply your whole hand to the touch screen, or simply don’t touch the screen during this loading screen, you shouldn’t have any issues. Light, one- or two-finger swirls seem to be the intended way to interact with the effect, and it’s the heavier full-palm gesture that overwhelms whatever is tracking the touch input.
Nintendo Life added that a proper fix could still be on the way, noting with crashes like this, Nintendo normally rolls out a patch, so if updates emerge, the outlet said it would provide an update. Given the studio’s track record of quickly patching first-party Switch 2 titles, a future update addressing the touch sensitivity wouldn’t be a surprise.
Part of a Bumpy Launch Week for Splatoon Raiders
The loading-screen crash isn’t the only launch-week hiccup Splatoon Raiders players have run into. Nintendo Life reported separately that Nintendo flagged that a bunch of people seem to be having trouble with the level-up system, and no, it’s not a bug — Nintendo’s Community Support account explained that multiple players were struggling to release the game’s Tank Limiter, the level cap that stops Skill Points being poured into a single ability at once. The actual cause turned out to be a control mix-up rather than a glitch: Nintendo clarified that it’s likely because players are pressing ‘A’ on the menu instead of holding it, the required input for expanding the limiter.
Splatoon Raiders arrived alongside a day-one patch and has already scored strongly with critics; Nintendo Life’s own review awarded it 9/10. For Australian and New Zealand players who picked up the Switch 2 exclusive on its worldwide July 23 release date via the eShop, the loading-screen quirk is a harmless bit of launch-week trivia rather than a genuine cause for concern — provided you keep your palms off the clouds.
Read also: Splatoon Raiders Beginner Tips: Picking a Tank, Gadgets and Difficulty Explained
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