Developed and Published By: Super Evil Megacorp
Category: Action
Release Date: 07.17.24
Price: $29.99
Over the past few weeks, I’ve really been getting into the Rougelike genre. Recently I got into Vampire Survivors, Extremely Powerful Capybara, Adrenaline Rampage, and Megabonk. Now the trend continues with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate. The game was originally released for mobile devices but has now been released on the Nintendo Switch. Is it worth being alongside greats like Vampire Survivors and Megabonk or should you avoid it?
The first thing you should know about Splintered Fate is that it’s a mix of classic TMNT lore and Hades gameplay. Master Splinter has been kidnapped and it’s up to Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo to rescue him. This is done by traversing rooftops in room based gameplay while you beat up all sorts of enemies and collect powerups. It’s exactly Hades, but with the TMNT flair.
I feel like the TMNT flair is the best aspect of the game. The gameplay is fun but has its shortcomings while the story and dialogue feel like they were ripped right out of a comic book. There’s a lot of clever writing and interesting dialogue, and there’s voice acting too. The game always feels fresh and entertaining because of the characters and the world.
But the other side of the game, the actual gameplay, didn’t do much for me. Combat can be fast paced and fun, but there really isn’t any true balance. Battles can be oversimplified to the point where you’re spamming the same button over and over or it can be overwhelming because of the number of enemies that you’re fighting at once. There’s no in-between, and descriptions of powerups can be confusing too.
When you’re defeated in battle, you’re teleported back to the sewers where you can change characters or work on improving your build. That’s really all there is to the gameplay, and the constant issues didn’t make it any better. I played with a Pro controller and it felt slow sometimes, especially in menus. There were frame rate drops here and there too.
If you’re just playing because you like rougelikes, you’re not going to like Splintered Fate. But if you’re a fan of TMNT, you’re going to look past all the shortcomings and the gameplay itself, and you’ll enjoy the TMNT flair. For $30, it’s not a bad purchase if you’re a fan of the franchise.
3.5/5
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