TMNT Splintered Fate Review (Apple Arcade Exclusive)
TMNT Splintered Fate REview
(Hades plus Ninja Turtles)
TMNT: Splintered Fate is the game that made me finally give Apple Arcade a try and you should too. Let me tell you why!
Splintered Fate is what you would get if you mashed Hades and Ninja Turtles together. The true strength of Hades was that it had an amazing story that drew you in and was accented with a very solid gameplay loop even if you hated roguelites. Dying was actually a reward instead of just having to do everything over again slightly stronger. Learning new bits of plot, kept you engaged and drove you to always do just one more run.
Come in a little closer, Surprisingly, Splintered Fate kind of nails this aspect as the dying rewards you with new plot details that are interesting and well executed.
Come in even closer. Splintered Fate gets a lot more right too!
First, you have the ability to choose from any of the four turtles, but unlike most TMNT games where it’s just a color difference, they all behave differently, as they should based on their personality that we have grown to love over the past 30 years.
Donatello is intellect based with high health and quicker utilities. Michelangelo can deal more area damage and taunts enemies to inflict more damage. Leo damages enemies as he dashes due to him carrying a katana with his high mobility and damage class. Finally, Raphael is just much stronger than the rest of the group and does more critical damage. If you’re wondering about the ranking of the turtles I would say it goes Mike, Don, Leo and Raph
Combat is not on the level of Hades in terms of responsiveness, but it’s very solid as it requires skill and attention. Dashing is essential to avoid damage and then you also have three different forms of attack on different cool downs, which constantly has you monitoring the battlefield for best plan of attack.
Similar to the Supergiant smash hit, Splintered Fate is room based and you get an upgrade after each combat room. There is currency to find and spend at the shop during each run along with plenty of temporary upgrades and permanent unlocks that seem varied, fair and are drastic enough that each run can feel different.
Background check: I was part of Turtlemania back in the late 80’s, owning all the action figures including the party wagon, the movie poster was on my wall and the ninja rap cassette being glued in my boom box. I don’t claim to be the biggest fan of TMNT these days and after Turtlemania, I didn’t keep up with the franchise like I once did. However, the older I get the more nostalgic I get for good old days of being a kid. This makes a lot of the appearances in the game less of a wow moment for me, but it’s easy to see that this game is loaded with fan service and clearly made by fans for fans.
You shouldn’t write this game off just because it's an Apple Arcade exclusive. If you’re playing using Apple TV and your DualSense, you wouldn’t know it was an Apple exclusive. It does lack local co-op which would have been a great addition, but there is online co-op. However, I played the game completely solo and loved the experience.
Will it come to other platforms? Without a doubt it will just like many other great Apple Arcade exclusives like Grindstone and Mini Motorways and I can’t wait for more people to experience this sublime implementation of the rogue genre into the TMNT universe.
In 2022, Shredders Revenge played it too safe by not incorporating modern touches. Splintered Fate, on the other hand, takes the popular rogue-lite genre and infuses that into TMNT with great success thanks to solid voice acting, nice visuals, challenging combat with depth, and a story that draws you in.
Superevil Megacorp not only created a love letter to Ninja Turtles but also created the best TMNT game to release in years and if you aren’t on Apple Arcade to experience it, I urge you to at least go for the one month trial for this game.