TMNT: Splintered Fate Review
Beat’em up rougelike action on the Nintendo Switch.
A surprising game low-key hit the eshop — Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate.
The Apple Arcade exclusive is now on Nintendo Switch. Currently a timed console exclusive (PC release later this year), the roguelike beat’em up combines these two genres beautifully while mixing in the Ninja Turtles.
As someone who doesn’t play many roguelikes, I love what Super Evil MegaCorp cooked up here.
I wanted to check out Splintered Fate last December. I had an Apple Arcade trial for Sonic Dream Team but this game slipped my mind.
When it was featured on an Indie World Showcase, it appeared on my radar again. Coming to consoles for the first time, I was pretty excited.
Battle against the Foot Clan, Mousers, Sewer Rats, and the Punk Frogs in a mission to save Master Splinter. As you progress through the story, more roguelike elements will be introduced seemingly out of nowhere thanks to the portals.
The overall narrative is basic to get the Turtles into action. It’s always fun to see new versions of them, even if they are similar to previous ones.
Lore and story elements are subtly dropped through dialogue, so listen carefully if you wish to learn more. The portals and roguelike elements fuse its way into the story which is quite funny at times. Like when the Turtles are defeated, they believe it’s Master Splinter saving them by shooting them through a portal.
It’s not out of the ordinary for walking and talking Ninja Turtles to encounter mysterious portals. So, I didn’t mind how it all blended together.
TMNT Splintered Fate mixes beat’em up action with roguelike mechanics. You will never finish this game on your first attempt and have to continuously play through runs to collect more currency to grow stronger. You need to defeat all the enemies in a room before advancing forward.
You have your basic attacks alongside a tool, special ability, and a dash. The tool is like your sub weapon, it helps you clear a room of enemies but won’t insta-kill them. That would be the special ability, dealing a ton of damage in a single shot. The dash negates any damage headed your way and re-positions yourself.
The tools, special abilities, and passive abilities called Inspirations are unique for each Turtle. Other Turtles can learn each other’s moves if you find them during the run.
Just like the personalities in the story, how each Turtle functions in-game is what you would expect. Donnie is the long range attacker while Ralph likes to get up-close to deal damage. I personally gravitated toward Leonardo at first because he’s my favorite Turtle but quickly moved to Ralph and Mikey because of their close range combat offering a ton of damage.
Inspiration is a type of Turtle Power upgrade to find during your run. The main types are flame, water, ooze, utrom, ninja, and astral. Flame and water are pretty self explanatory. Ooze is like poison where enemies affected by it will have tick damage going. Utrom does lightning damage to enemies. Ninja is all about shurikens and gaining more dashes. Lastly, astral are subtle upgrades like a boost in damage depending on max HP or granting a shield for a short duration.
I personally stuck with Ninja because watching all the shurikens fly everywhere was satisfying to see. Ooze is pretty good too as you can wipe out groups of enemies instantly.
After clearing a room, you choose an upgrade. Randomized every single time and they can be stat bonuses, elemental abilities, or currency.
All stat upgrades and abilities only last during the run. Once you return back to the lair, you have to collect the upgrades and abilities once more. You can unlock permanent upgrades by using the Dragon Coins, the main currency for Splintered Fate. It can be as simple as increasing your health or increasing your damage. Some of these upgrades might need a secondary item which are usually found through boss fights.
Another currency is Dream Coins. They also unlock permanent upgrades but are more directed at how much control you have in the run such as increasing your chance at a specific upgrade or giving you an extra dice roll to reroll items at The Chairman’s shop. Roguelikes always have a certain amount of randomness but the Dream Coins allow you to control it a tiny bit.
The last type of currency is scrap which can be exchanged with The Chairman. He’s the shop room you’ll find during your run. The options are randomized but will usually have a Turtle Power, health pick up, currency, or a temporary upgrade.
Whatever scrap you get, try to use it as soon as possible because you only keep the scrap during the run. Pizza drops are iconic in TMNT games but are very infrequent here because this is a roguelike. They want you to live with your mistakes if you take too much damage. Use the scrap or save it for bigger rewards later in the run.
At the end of each major area, there’s a boss fight. From Leatherhead to Bebop and Rocksteady, all the fan favorite villains are here to stop your run. They’re definitely going to eat away at your health bar. Try your best to dodge and dash incoming attacks as much as possible. It feels very satisfying to take them all down with each boss fight getting progressively harder. Even the mini bosses are tough opponents as well.
After you finish your first run, you’re only one eighth there to the true ending. Master Splinter still needs your help which means you have to defeat Shredder seven more times to truly be done with the game.
For context, it took me about 10 hours to finish the game once and the second run is still kicking my butt. New portals open that are called Portal of Power. These add new conditions to the run with additional rewards in return.
I really wanted to unlock the true ending but for seven more runs, I’m going to need like 50 more hours to get everything done. I mean, Leatherhead was kicking my butt on this second run because of the amount of extra enemies on screen. Even if you never touch the new portals, I can only imagine each consecutive run getting much harder and harder.
Local multiplayer is a key feature for the Nintendo Switch version. Online multiplayer is still here where you and three friends can join up together to complete runs. Couch co-op is up to four players as well. It ran beautifully as each player as their own scrap currency while everyone shares the Dragon Coins and Dream Coins.
I had a ton of fun playing this game. The different builds you can make alongside four different Turtles allow combinations of abilities and powers feel endless. There’s obviously an optimal strategy like the Ninja build but I’ve seen other players gravitate to water or fire abilities too.
It all depends on your playstyle and the game really accommodates that. Multiplayer is a fantastic feature and makes completing runs more satisfying. If you know anyone who would love to play a rougelike beat’em up together, TMNT: Splintered Fate is your game.
The idea of having to replay levels over and over again might sound dumb but I personally really got into it. With each consecutive run, you’re only going to get stronger and stronger. And if you know what upgrades to get or abilities you want, it’ll make defeating Shredder that much faster.
I would first try to find the Turtle you like to play the most then go from there. When upgrades appear on screen, take a moment to read everything they do because there’s a ton of stuff to keep track of. Especially with the Turtle Power upgrades, make sure all your upgrades synergize with each other because it’ll make choosing upgrades later on that much easier.
The performance on Nintendo Switch is about what you would expect. A consistent frame rate with choppiness and slow down occurring when too much is on screen. This especially happens during the second run where boss fights have more enemies and projectiles on screen.
Across 14 hours, the game crashed on me three times. They happened when I opened menus too fast and I guess the game just killed itself. Thankfully, the autosave in Splintered Fate is pretty good.
The game prompts you to use the X & A buttons for the Special Ability and Tool. However, I learned by pressing the L & R triggers, you can activate these same buttons which makes chaotic moments feel more comfortable. I’m already mashing the Y button for basic hits and hitting B when I need to dodge. It gets messy when I also have to reach for the X & A buttons to deal additional damage.
The voice cast is fantastic and really brings these JPEGs to life. I mean seriously, Yuri Lowenthal as Michelangelo and Roger Craig Smith as Ralphael?!! Spider-Man and Sonic the Hedgehog as Ninja Turtles…that’s pretty dope.
The rest of the cast nail their roles too; from Casey Jones to April O’Neil to good ol’ Shredder and Karai, I really love the voice direction these characters were given.
The developers didn’t have to make every text box contain voice acting but it does. It made me want to watch and listen in on the lore drops and story progression. The Turtles and NPC characters do run out of unique lines to say, so that gets tiring.
I know I called them JPEGs but the art style nails the comic book look. It kind of blends the 2003 Turtles and the 2012 Turtles (2003 being my favorite btw). For an indie game on the Nintendo Switch, performance is passable.
If you’re like me and don’t really play roguelikes that often, I would say give Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate a shot.
Especially if you love the Ninja Turtles, the writing and story does a fantastic job fleshing out this version of the characters. Replaying the same levels over and over again but trying new builds with different Turtles never got boring.
The performance isn’t the best but this is an indie game running on the Nintendo Switch. The game is coming to Steam later this year which would be perfect for anyone who owns a Steam Deck and should hopefully fix the frame rate and crashing issues.
It took me over 10 hours to finish the game once and it appears some players might finish it in half that time. But if you’re a completionist and would love to see the true ending, you’re definitely getting your $30 worth here.
Even if you only finish the game once, I still believe this is worth the price tag. It has really solid mechanics and a gameplay loop that can get addicting after a few runs. Though this game is often called bootleg Hades, I had a pleasant time checking TMNT: Splintered Fate.
Travis “tvsonic” Vuong
Business e-mail: travisvuong56@gmail.com
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