Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate Review

If I were to ask you what genre of game the traditionally kid-friendly Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles should tackle next, I'm not sure many people would say a roguelike adventure like Hades. Fortunately for us, this is exactly what developer Super Evil Megacorp has done, with amazing results. Originally a mobile title, the transition to the Nintendo Switch for up to four players at a time may make this game one of the most popular games of the year. The gameplay of Splintered Fate resembles a roguelike title, with each run introducing random elements such as enemies, powerups, and minibosses. This is part of the reason why Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate feels fresh and compelling to play; no two runs are ever the same.

As usual, the turtle's father, Splinter, has been kidnapped, and it is up to the turtles to save him from the evil Shredder. You start your run in the sewers and move from room to room, defeating all the enemies that appear and collecting power-ups and items as you progress. The types of currency vary and are used to power up your turtles in different ways. Scrap is spent at the Chairman’s Shop, which offers merchandise like pizza to recover health, temporary attacks, or boosts like different elemental attacks. Dragon Coins will be spent at your Home Lair to purchase permanent upgrades for your turtles that you will retain when your run is over, and Dreamer Coins are used to improve your fortune, giving you more Dragon Coins along with a boost in scrap that can be spent during your run.

When you see that Splintered Fate was originally a mobile game, you may be expecting this title to look just like that, but there are noticeable improvements to the graphics making this title more crisp and detailed than it was originally. The characters have great lighting and shadows that make them pop from the comic book-style backgrounds of the stages. If you have ever watched the TMNT cartoon or have played the earlier beat-em-up style games, the enemies that you encounter, ranging from multiple types of foot clan ninjas to robotic mousers, will all feel very familiar to you. The best part is the large boss in each stage that you have to battle. Leatherhead, Shredder's daughter Karai, and even Bebop and Rocksteady are here to face off against on your journey to take down Shredder.

As you play, you will become very familiar with the attack pattern of your foes, as you will be battling against them over and over again. Every time you start a new run, you return to the turtle's Home Lair. It does get easier with every attempt as you will be powering up your turtle's abilities making not only your regular attack and special attack stronger, but also your tools and dash move. Taking advantage of your dash makes a world of difference during your run. You will not only be avoiding attacks from the enemy, but you won’t take damage when you smash into your foe, so it is worth taking advantage of, especially when you learn water and fire attacks that will be attached to it, so crashing into an enemy can add additional damage. Once all the enemies in the room are cleared, follow the arrows to the next location you will visit. When you defeat the stage boss, jump into the purple portal to get taken to the next stage you need to clear on your quest to save Master Splinter.

The four ninja turtles are available to play in both solo and co-op modes. Leonardo, with great speed and low cooldowns; Donatello, who has more health than the others and special attacks using gadgets; Raphael, who specialises in critical hit combos; and Michelangelo, who uses area-of-effect attacks. All four turtles have their own unique skills, masteries, and attacks, so it never feels like you are playing the same character with just a different skin. I've been enjoying the experience of experimenting with all the turtles to determine which one is my favourite. Growing up, I consistently chose Donatello from the previous TMNT games because, in addition to being purple, his bo staff provided additional distance to hit the enemy, eliminating the need for close-quarters combat.

Trying out the available characters in Splintered Fate, I was pleased to see that using Raphael and Michaelangelo with their limited range and unique skills, I was still able to inflict a tonne of damage and avoid getting hurt by the enemy by using my dash and the tools available to my character. It made all the turtles feel useful in battle; no matter who you selected, it never felt like one was a crappy choice compared to the others, which is really good when you are playing co-op with other gamers and someone else takes your favourite. It’s fine, as all the other options are still good.

There was rarely a time playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate where I was bored with nothing to do. It's always full of crazy, fast-paced action where you have to make snap decisions about which of the smaller enemies to attack first, the ones closest to you or the foes that fire projectiles at you. And do you use your charged attack or rely on your tools like the shurikens to hit the enemies before they can damage you? The game is full of energy, and the soundtrack does a great job of capturing this with high-tempo songs that are super catchy and never feel repetitive. The other great addition was the exceptional voice acting that brought the personalities of each character to life as they tried to figure out what was going on here and how to save Master Splinter while defeating the swarms of enemies getting in your way.

As enjoyable as solo mode is, there is a pretty awesome co-op mode available, both locally and online, where you can play with up to four players. Having the full team of turtles was pretty cool, but it was a bit tricky to keep track of where you were on the screen with so many different attacks going on at once, especially when you are trying to use your dash to avoid the incoming assault of foes and explosions! The nice thing is, when you start playing on the main menu, even if you decide to play with multiple players, you can use your solo save file and have access to the abilities that you had previously unlocked before, which helps make your run a bit easier. I did notice that with so much action happening with the four characters, there was a bit of a fps drop as the Switch just couldn’t keep up with all the craziness happening at the same time. It didn’t detract from the experience, but it was noticeable. The biggest downside to playing multiplayer is the time spent waiting for all the players to select their upgrades and perks, especially when the game itself is chaotically fast-paced. This really slows it down.

I am having so much fun with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate. I never would have guessed taking a roguelike game like Hades and mixing it with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles would work so well! This isn’t an easy button-smash-type game geared towards kids; this is a challenging title that will take some patience and some perseverance to get through, but it never felt frustrating. Every time I had to start over and begin a new run, I felt stronger, and it became easier because of all the new abilities and perks I had unlocked on previous attempts. There are four stages and four bosses to face off against to get to the end, so playtime will probably be around 40 minutes once you have your character upgraded, but even if you complete the game, there is still more that you can do. Other paths will open in the stages that weren’t accessible before, with Shimmering Portals and Gauntlet Challenges waiting for you. I'm hoping this might lead to extra content in the future, which would be awesome.

This game is incredibly addictive and makes you want to keep playing. It's great for fans of roguelike games, especially if you are familiar with the Ninja Turtles, though even if you aren’t, it is still a great title with unique characters, fun gameplay if you are challenging it on your own or with others. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate is a must-play game in my books, it’s just so good, and I would consider it one of the best TMNT games ever!