A Check-In With the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate Demo

During this year’s Steam Next Fest, our master streamer Gorz and I had a look at what kind of co-op games we could get our hands on before either we melted or our computers did. While blindly trying out demos can be a mixed bag, this year’s crop seemed to be a cut above the usual fare, with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate demo being no exception! Though we did a review on it already, enough time has passed without a release that we were interested to see if the upcoming title had anything to show!

In this isometric roguelite beat 'em up, Master Splinter has been kidnapped by the Foot Clan and strange portals have been opening up all over New York City, leaving the four Ninja Turtles and their allies to clean up the mess and save their master. Playing by yourself or with up to three other players, you can pick your favourite Turtle and set off exploring the gang's hideout.

I haven’t watched TMNT for an age and a half, so I am not very familiar with the current status quo of the world, but regardless, it was pretty easy to get into the swing of things. While in the brothers’ hideout, you can run around practising your moves, unlock permanent upgrades with points earned in runs, and simply look around at the delightfully detailed lair. Each character has their own little corner where they hang out when not played, with each doing a good job at representing their personalities.

Once you begin a run, you will be faced with multiple rooms with set encounters against the many different types of enemies the TMNT have faced before, ranging from Foot ninjas to robots and other creatures and familiar faces. The combat mechanics are fun and fast, with each character having a dash, two special skills that charge up as you fight, and their own unique moveset. For example, playing as Michelangelo, I noticed that he focused a lot on hitting a large area with his attacks as well as taunting enemies to draw them in, whereas Donatello had great reach and defensive abilities.

The fights themselves were entertaining, with good enemy variety and some great boss battles. While some enemies do feel a bit spongy in terms of health, the levels seemed to progress relatively quickly without becoming stale. After each battle and in some key locations, players can choose upgrades for their character, though they’re only available for the current run as is tradition in roguelites. These upgrades could add new elemental effects to attacks, improve or replace your current skills or simply heal you up to be able to go on longer.

Once a run is over — for us, it was cut short as we got to the end of the demo — you will gain some resources to use to unlock the aforementioned permanent upgrades to make yourself even stronger and help you make it further into each consecutive run. Though it’s mainly in the background, the story of the game does seem to progress at an even pace, with boss battles especially adding some much-needed context and new goals to fulfil.

Though our time with Splintered Fate was brief, it was a fun time. The multiplayer seemed to be geared toward a drop-in drop-out style which makes this an excellent game to play with your friends and by yourself, as you can easily hop into each other's sessions or go at it alone without messing up the others’ progress. Our original review was positive and I’m pretty much on the same page! I hope to see more fun characters and upgrades in the future, as well as possibly some fun easter eggs or alternate costumes for the four brothers. To be honest, I kinda want to play as Casey Jones too.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate is set to release on 6th November 2024.