Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate Review – Hades in a Half-Shell

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate Review

‘Ninja Turtles + Roguelike’ isn’t the formula I expected when I started this game. But I’m happy that’s what I found. TMNT: Splintered Fate feels like a perfectly natural mashup of two disparate flavors. It makes sense, is what I’m saying. The execution isn’t perfect. Voice lines repeat a lot, for example. But the core experience is a pretty compelling one. Combat feels great, the progression system is fluid, and the challenge level is well-balanced. Having four characters to switch between right from the start is also awesome.

You’ve got four turtles to choose from on your quest to rescue Splinter. Each one feels distinct, and in significant ways. Mikey has faster but weaker strikes. Raph is a pure power fighter. Don and Leo have some excellent bonuses to start with. I switched characters frequently. I couldn’t help it! Especially after losing a run. What if Donatello would have done better? You’re encouraged to switch things up. Ultimately it comes down to playstyle, though. Skills and upgrades are the real game changers, and those are fully interchangeable.

Tons of Turtle Powers

The powers system in Splintered Fate really blows the doors open. Suddenly you’re spitting fire and ooze with every strike, or dropping meteors everywhere. You can upgrade your dashes, specials, and tool attacks. New moves arrive and change your entire strategy. If you’re lucky enough, you can stack up several upgrades to make every hit incredibly poisonous. There are tons of bonuses you can sweep up, and stacks of currency to earn. Plus, you’ve got three different permanent upgrade trees to max out. There’s also multiplayer!

Look, I’ll be honest. Multiplayer isn’t my thing. But Splintered Fate is an important exception. Specifically, the couch co-op. Ninja Turtles games don’t feel right unless they can be played with your buddies jammed around a single TV. You’ve got online multiplayer as well, sure. But this game cries out for couch co-op. Really, having both varieties is an excellent decision. This is the kind of on-screen chaos that only gets better with more players involved.

Glorious Couch Co-op

One area where more is not better? The voice lines. Not the ones in the cutscenes, those are great. I mean the ones your character utters at random times throughout your run. They’re fine bits of dialogue in isolation. But any clever one-liner wears pretty thin once you’ve heard it fifteen times or so. This is just one more reason to routinely change your character. That way, you can avoid overexposure to certain teenage mutant witticisms.

While I love the progression system, the Dreamer coins are a mixed bag. Spending said coins on a 2% increase in anything feels like a waste. Most of the Dreamer upgrade tree feels equally silly. On the other hand, you can spend the same coins to upgrade your artifacts. So they’re not a total wash. The Dragon upgrade system feels a lot more impactful. Even a 10% bump in attack strength adds up pretty quickly. Both major upgrade trees are big enough that what you choose seems to actually matter. Although in the Dreamer upgrade tree’s case, it’s more important that you spend those coins elsewhere. Which you actually can!

I can’t recall much of the story in Splintered Fate. I know Splinter has been kidnapped, and the Turtles are very sad about it. Also, there’s a mix of old and newer villains involved in the plot. But that’s kind of it? Games like this one keep their story on the edges, but this has consequences. In this case, I glossed over the narrative altogether. Not to say there is no story. It’s just got somewhat limited power to draw you in. At least compared to the gameplay.

The Hades of It All

There’s significant Hades DNA in Splintered Fate. I don’t like reviewing games through comparison, but the lineage must be acknowledged. The thread between the two games pops up in so many little ways. The portals, the disembodied gifts, and the repetition baked in the narrative all feel familiar. It’s tempting to draw disparaging conclusions from this familiarity. After all, what game can compare to Hades? But I discourage this. To me, it’s less about imitation and more about connection. If you loved Hades, you’ll likely enjoy this game as well.

I’ve played a lot of Ninja Turtles games recently. Though I’ve got a strong nostalgic connection to the franchise, the games don’t usually hook me. This one was a little different. The mechanics, along with the smooth challenge build-up and robust progression systems, snagged me immediately. I bounced off the story pretty hard, but I kept coming back anyway. You just want one more run, until it’s something like one in the morning. Between that and the multiplayer, TMNT: Splintered Fate is a worthy addition to an exclusive list of roguelike gems.

***A Nintendo Switch code was provided by the publisher***