Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate – A Comprehensive Review
Home » Action Games » Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate – A Comprehensive Review
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) have captured the hearts of fans for decades, from their humble beginnings as comic book characters to becoming cultural icons through animated series, movies, and merchandise. Among the many adaptations, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate emerges as an exciting video game that brings the turtles back into action. This detailed review explores every aspect of the game, from gameplay mechanics and narrative to graphics and replayability, ensuring you get a complete understanding of what this title offers.
Gameplay: A Masterclass in Cooperative Action
One of the standout features of Splintered Fate is its cooperative gameplay. Players can embody Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, or Raphael, each bringing unique abilities and fighting styles to the battlefield. Whether you prefer Leonardo’s balanced approach, Raphael’s raw power, Donatello’s technical finesse, or Michelangelo’s agility, there is a character to suit every playstyle.
Core Mechanics
Combat: The game features a fluid combat system that blends button-mashing with tactical maneuvers. Players can chain combos, dodge incoming attacks, and execute powerful special moves unique to each turtle. The responsive controls ensure that every move feels impactful, with combat animations adding a sense of weight and intensity to every punch, kick, and special move.
Exploration: Levels are designed with a mix of linear progression and open areas for exploration. Hidden secrets, collectibles, and bonus missions encourage players to thoroughly search each environment. Environmental puzzles add a layer of complexity, requiring players to think strategically to unlock certain areas or gain extra rewards.
Co-op Multiplayer: The game truly shines in its cooperative multiplayer mode, allowing up to four players to team up. The synergy between turtles creates dynamic combat scenarios, making every battle feel fresh and engaging. Cooperative mechanics, like assisting a downed ally or combining special moves for devastating effects, add depth to the multiplayer experience.
Character Progression
As players progress, they can unlock upgrades and abilities, enhancing the turtles’ effectiveness in battle. The skill tree system allows for customization, ensuring no two playthroughs feel identical. Each turtle’s progression path offers a mix of passive buffs, such as increased health or attack power, and active abilities, like area-of-effect attacks or defensive shields.
Story: A Rescue Mission with High Stakes
The narrative of Splintered Fate centers on the abduction of Master Splinter. The turtles must navigate the seedy underbelly of New York City, facing off against the Foot Clan, mutants, and other iconic villains like Bebop and Rocksteady. The stakes are high, and the storytelling delivers a balance of humor, heart, and action that fans of the series have come to expect.
Key Highlights
Cinematic Cutscenes: The game incorporates beautifully animated cutscenes that advance the story while immersing players in the TMNT universe. These scenes are filled with dynamic camera angles, expressive character animations, and intense action sequences.
Engaging Dialogue: The witty banter between the turtles keeps the tone light-hearted, even during intense moments. The humor feels authentic, capturing the essence of the characters while balancing the darker aspects of the narrative.
Twists and Turns: The narrative includes unexpected plot twists that keep players engaged and eager to see how the story unfolds. The emotional stakes are heightened by moments of vulnerability, as the turtles grapple with their sense of duty and personal fears.
Visuals and Sound Design: A Feast for the Senses
Graphics
The art style of Splintered Fate pays homage to the TMNT’s comic book roots while incorporating modern visual effects. Vibrant colors, detailed character models, and dynamic environments make the game visually stunning. Each turtle’s design is faithful to their iconic look, with subtle updates that enhance their individuality. Enemies and bosses are equally well-designed, showcasing creative interpretations of classic characters.
Level Design
From the dark alleys of New York to underground lairs and high-tech facilities, the game’s environments are diverse and packed with detail. Each level feels alive, with interactive elements and background animations that add depth. Dynamic lighting effects and weather conditions, such as rain-soaked streets or dimly lit corridors, heighten the immersion.
Soundtrack and Voice Acting
Soundtrack: The soundtrack perfectly complements the action, blending upbeat tracks with intense battle music. Each level features a unique musical theme, reflecting its tone and setting.
Voice Acting: Voice acting deserves special mention, with each turtle’s personality shining through their dialogue. The voice actors deliver energetic and heartfelt performances, bringing the characters to life. Even the villains have memorable voice work, adding gravitas to their roles.
Features and Replayability
Core Features
Customizable Difficulty Levels: Players can choose difficulty settings that match their skill level, from casual gamers to hardcore action enthusiasts. Each difficulty level adjusts enemy behavior and resource availability, ensuring a tailored experience.
Unlockable Skins and Easter Eggs: Dedicated fans will appreciate the numerous nods to TMNT lore, including unlockable costumes and hidden references. These rewards incentivize exploration and replayability.
Boss Fights: Each boss encounter is uniquely designed, requiring players to adapt their strategies and use the turtles’ abilities to their fullest. Boss battles often incorporate environmental hazards, making them more challenging and dynamic.
Replayability
The game’s replay value is bolstered by:
Multiple Difficulty Settings: Replay the game on harder difficulties for a greater challenge.
Hidden Collectibles and Achievements: Completionists will enjoy tracking down every secret and earning all achievements.
Experimenting with Different Turtles: Each turtle offers a distinct playstyle, encouraging multiple playthroughs to fully appreciate their abilities.
Post-Game Content: Additional challenges, such as time trials and survival modes, extend the game’s lifespan.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Engaging Cooperative Gameplay: Perfect for friends or family looking for a fun gaming session.
Authentic TMNT Experience: Captures the spirit of the franchise with its humor, action, and storytelling.
High-Quality Visuals and Sound: Immersive environments and stellar voice acting enhance the experience.
Replayability: Offers plenty of content to keep players coming back.
Diverse Boss Battles: Unique and challenging encounters keep players on their toes.
Cons
Limited Solo Appeal: While the game can be played solo, it’s clearly designed with multiplayer in mind.
Repetitive Combat: Despite the fluid mechanics, combat can feel repetitive during extended play sessions. A wider variety of enemy types or more complex AI could alleviate this issue.
Short Campaign: The main story might feel too brief for players expecting a longer adventure. However, the additional content helps mitigate this concern.
Why Splintered Fate Deserves Your Attention
As a new installment in the TMNT video game lineup, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate has generated significant buzz. Here are some SEO-driven keywords and phrases worth noting:
TMNT cooperative action game
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video game review
Splintered Fate gameplay features
Best multiplayer games for families
TMNT Splintered Fate pros and cons
By incorporating these keywords, fans searching for insights on this title can easily find relevant information.
Final Verdict
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate is a must-play for TMNT fans and cooperative game enthusiasts. Its engaging gameplay, charming story, and polished presentation make it a standout title. While it has a few minor drawbacks, such as its short campaign and repetitive combat, the overall experience more than compensates. Whether you’re a long-time fan or a newcomer to the TMNT universe, this game offers an enjoyable journey that’s worth your time.
Customer reviews for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate
I was never really into the whole roguelite genre, but Splintered Fate convinced me to try it. It's best playing this game in co-op though as solo playthroughs will see you dropping like a fly very often. Despite the difficulty I saw myself coming back to this game pretty often. A must buy if you're a serious TMNT fan.
Al casi completar todos los logros, me siento en la necesidad de recomendar este juego a cualquiera que les guste los tipo Hades, en cuanto a mecánicas de jefe quizás no sea tan complicado, pero que te llenen de enemigos y que parezca al final un bullet hell lo hace divertido, sin mencionar los portales que te dan debuff por más recompensas de la run.
This is more of a sideways thumb, but my game crashed about 4 times in a single run and I tried verifying my files and reinstalling the game. It will also randomly crash during online co-op sessions. Hopefully they fix it, I do enjoy the game.
Overall, a decent game. You never feel strong (can be viewed bad or good). There are definitely balance issues. Raphael felt by far the strongest pick/best option by a mile. Worth when on sale.
This game is fun right from the get go. Its action the whole way through with your favorite characters and their banter in toe. Once you start to develop their permanent traits it kicks into overdrive allow you to experiment with different builds to see which play style and which turtle builds best for you. If you are an old school turtles fan and want to see your favorite turtles in action I 100% Recommend this game to you.
Had a bit of fun playing this with my game group, but it's really just Mediocre Hades With Ninja Turtles. You're paying for the license, and while there's some novelty in that, Splintered Fate just doesn't feel good in the hands. I guess it's possible to play this for a VERY long time to make the most of its roguelike features, but I was fine tapping out after my first successful Shredder encounter about six hours in.
Online coop Hades clone that was more fun to me than Hades
Got 60 hours out of it and had a blastIt's worth full price, but on sale is a no brainer.PLAY WITH FRIENDS!
This game is a ton of fun! The movement and attacks feel super smooth—almost as polished as Hades, which is saying a lot. The skill system is great, with each turtle having unique traits that mix with the main elements in cool ways, making every run feel different. There’s a lot of build variety, and finding crazy combos with the turtle abilities keeps things exciting.Visually, the game looks great, and the design really pulls you in. The animations, especially for skills and boss fights, are top-notch—everything feels fluid and powerful, making battles even more satisfying.One thing I’d love to see is an option to activate modifiers before the run starts instead of picking them up along the way. It would make the challenge ramp up faster instead of feeling too easy after upgrading everything. Right now, once you power up enough, enemies don’t really keep up, so the difficulty takes a hit.But overall, this game is a blast, with tons of variety, fun mechanics, and great execution. Definitely worth checking out if you’re into roguelikes!
Hades in a Turtle skin basically. Loved the TMNT as a kid in the 80s and played a lot of the games over the years.I have to admit it's the first TMNT game where there is no jumping and back which feels little strange to me. Combat can feel clunky at times and little bit of lack luster with just 3-4 abilities to rotate but how you create your build as you go makes up for it some what.Can recommend for sure.
First time playing a rouge-like, and I'm in love! I unlocked every skill and leveled it to it's max level. The game play is really fun. I reminds me of playing TMNT 4 on the SNES, but just isometric. The art style is fun and cartoon like. Reminding me of the TMNT TV show from the 90's. Each Turtle has a unique play style that rewards changing how you play and gives tons reasons to reply the game.If you have any nostalgia from TMNT, you will love this game. Highly recommend!!!
I didn't like how grindy this game was, it still kinda is, that being said, after some initial grind, the roguelike mechanics are dope, and can get really nutty, this is coming from someone who has played a bunch of roguelikes. Highly recommend, starts slow but ramps up quickly, fights can be pretty difficult and at times feel unfair, but its sooo good, the loop is too dang good.Devs seem to really care about the game with a slew of regular updates.
Played many Tmnt games but this is a rogue-like game.
I never played hades but tried dead cells and this is definitely better.
I might give hades a try since ppl say this is similar.
I've never taken the time to leave a negative comment, but this game has potential and I'd love to see it get an overhaul.The voice acting is fine. The art style is poppy and fun. The mechanics are there, but desperately need ironing out.The biggest sin - the game is too easy by a mile. I played on the higher of two difficulties and swept through the first two bosses with hardly a hit taken. This is the reason I'm requesting a refund and will happily be back if the game continues to develop.* A simple patch that I think would help tremendously with the pacing of the gameplay loop
Move the reward screen to be a decision on leaving the room rather than on defeating the last enemy. As is it's jarring and requires a stop in action followed immediately by leaving the room / load screen. Combine the breaks in action.
[h2]Still needs polish[/h2][i]Disclaimer: I have at least +50 hours of playtime as I played the hell out of this when it was first released on Apple Arcade. I'm also a UX and UI designer with 15+ years of experience in the industry.I held off on getting this game as it was going to be a schlep to replay everything. I stopped playing on AA as I ran out of content. This review may harp on a few things that I already had issues on its "mobile" release, but it is coming from a good place.[/i]TMNT Splintered Fate is a tricky one. It's an isometric, action-roguelike. It is much lighter in mechanics when often compared to Hades. For the uninitiated, roguelikes often expect you to fail runs (playthrough) in the beginning until you gain enough knowledge and/or upgrades to further progress your future runs. Even when completing a run, difficulty will ramp up the challenge. It is a very rinse and repeat gameplay, with the selling point that each run is different and build diversity can make or break the game. That's the general formula, obviously creating a spin will create variants or uniqueness.[b]If that sounds tedious to you, you can skip this game. For others like me, keep reading.[/b]I'm disappointed to say this but at the time of writing (May 2025), I would not recommend this game until there's more polish. This game was first released on Apple Arcade, it has "directly ported from app" vibes. It has been out on Steam since November 2024. The visuals and UI are a bit of a dead giveaway. Poor upscaling UI and visuals makes the game pretty uneasy to look at. UI scale and zoom level are gargantuous. I can't imagine what this view looks like on local co-op.I understand that this game is meant to be played on a controller, and I'd say it strictly should be [b]controller only.[/b] Keyboard and mouse controls is just not there. Clicking on selections just doesn't work, if you move your mouse while selecting options with a keyboard it will freeze the controls until you stop moving the mouse and move the WASD keys again.The newly implemented aim assist has three levels. Low being tailored that your character will attack in the direction of your mouse cursor. Your mouse cursor is hardware coded (Operating System cursor, usually small, white and a thin black outline) so it's easy to miss when in a fight. The worst offender is that when casting skills, your character will perform it in the direction that they are facing, defeating the purpose of the aim assist.Some builds or elements can cause runs to be an absolute cakewalk. I'm surprised to see that Ooze (basically poison) remains just as broken as it was at first release. [spoiler]You can clear out rooms without attacking and just using the Ooze dash skill.[/spoiler] There have been balance changes but I honestly didn't read them. I wanted to experience the game myself, with AA and Steam versions still fresh.Audio design, simply put, your character still responds with being hit when evading. Changing the registration that when they have taken damage makes more sense. It's a small detail but players will learn better knowing if they evaded it or not instead of guessing it.Last thing with audio, the new DLC featuring Casey Jones is fantastic. However, no extra dialogue lines has were recorded to respond to his presence. At least in the base game. All or most responses are pointed towards the turtles. The argument is that perhaps it's for when you play in a group. Maybe, but it would have been nice to still hear dialogue unique to him. It's a bit too universal and feels hollow.Overall, I'm still going to continue playing, I just wish they had put in more effort for the PC release. If it ever gets to a nice polish, I would recommend the game but as of now, it's a no.
Splintered Fate knows exactly what it is, what it's doing, and how to appeal to the target audience.
On top of Shredder's Revenge, TMNT games like Splintered Fate are turning into some of the best couch co-op games on the market.
This game is pretty fun if you enjoy this style of game.
I got it for nostalgia's sake and have had fun playing with my brother.
There are a few bugs here and there, but nothing that has really broke the game and made it unplayable.
I was having fun but the performance is so bad, my laptop gets really hot and shuts down. Other games with better graphics run fine, I guess it's really poorly optimised.
Perhaps the rogue like genre isn't my thing.
But I didn't know that prior to buying the game. I never played rogue like game before though I can see the appeal.
while I didn't like it in this game, I can see myself liking the genre in another game.
unfortunately I didn't like it in this game, I didn't like the game because there's no game to be played here.all you do is clear rooms aka stages and you get rewarded with skills/perks when you clear a room.
this is defiantly not what I would expect from a TMNT game. there's no depth in game play. no fun moves, no fun combos.
just NOTHING. I understand the idea of shaking up the formula. I just thought the game was dull and lifeless.
This is the very first time i refund a product on steam
This game is super fun! As a big fan of both Hades/roguelikes and TMNT this really hit the spot. It's got a few glitches in multiplayer but otherwise a very solid gaming experience. I hope the devs make more DLC/levels/characters in the future, would be happy to support more
Its a good game, despite of me getting stucked in loading screen and never been able to play on online cause of getting stucked...couch-play is awesome :3
