DEVELOPER/PUBLISHER: Super Evil Megacorp
REVIEWED ON: Nintendo Switch from a copy purchased by the author.
For a while, it looked like the best days of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the video game space was disappearing in the rearview mirror. Publishers like Activision, Ubisoft and development partners like PlatinumGames tried to capture the lightning in a bottle of their early 90s hits in the arcade and on 8 and 6-bit platforms but couldn’t quite recreate the same pizza recipe. Heck, even Konami tried again in the early 00s and didn’t match the same level of cultural zeitgeist.
Today it’s a different story as it looks like the Turtles takeover of the video game industry has only just begun. Between the exceptional Cowabunga Collection, the beloved Shredder’s Revenge and the in-development The Last Ronin game, there’s no shortage of ways to enjoy playing as your favorite hero in a half shell in the interactive space. This year alone fans are getting not one, or two, but three unique TMNT games from different companies coming to home consoles.
The second among them following Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate. A once Apple Arcade original that has now found its way to the Nintendo Switch as a timed exclusive, Splintered Fate can easily be considered one of the best TMNT games ever crafted. Blending the anthropomorphic reptiles roots in the arcade with the roguelike space, developer Super Evil Megacorp has modernized the halcyon days of the TMNT into something that simply cannot be missed.
Splinter, the father figure of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, has been taken. His sons plan a daring rescue to bring their beloved sensei home, but standing in their way is Shredder and his deadly Foot Clan, out of control mutants, hungry Mouser robots and mysterious portals controlled by an unknown force. It’s up to the Turtles, their trusted allies and mystical helpers to navigate their way through the enemies that stand in the path and the portals before them to make their family whole again.
Splintered Fate is not a game that wants to bog you down with overly long cinematics, and wisely keeps story sequences brief to get you back into the action. It’s also largely saved between runs when you settle in to take a breather. There’s but a few pauses between biomes where you stop and chat to supporting characters like Casey Jones. Narrative is rolled out through still images – featuring beautifully produced art of the characters that inhabit the TMNT universe – accompanied by voice over from talented voice actors including Yuri Lowenthal, Roger Craig Smith and Fred Tatasciore.
For anyone who has been following this franchise over its 40 years of existence, little explanation is needed when characters like Leatherhead, Karai, Bebop and Rocksteady, Slash and Metalhead pop up, but some knowledge of the recent IDW comics help to fill in some of the blanks. During runs, the Turtles will talk about how Baxter Stockman has become mayor which is not a development in many iterations of the TMNT. Regardless, players both young and old shouldn’t have much trouble following the tale that Splintered Fate is trying to tell. This is mostly kept to banter between the brothers during play too and largely used to organically build out this specific take on the Turtles.
This game marks the first time a developer has blended the TMNT property with the roguelike genre, and the combination works as perfectly as four baby turtles and ooze from TCRI. Starting out in the sewer home of the Turtles before moving to the streets and rooftops of New York, Splintered Fate has players running through procedurally generated rooms populated with randomized fodder like Foot ninjas, Mousers and Punk Frogs before battling bigger boss enemies. Upon death, you begin a new run back at the start to try your luck again making it to Shredder.
Played from the isometric, three-quarter perspective, Splintered Fate‘s camera is positioned such that it’s easy to read the environment whether playing on your own or with friends both locally or online. A game like this comes down to intelligently managing crowds, which never becomes a problem here as the camera is zoomed out just far enough that you can read a room with few obscurations to your view. About the only difficulty you’ll run into is when hacked Mousers get mistaken as enemies as you zone in on clearing out a chaotic room.
