Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been everywhere the past few years. The resurgence began with Dot Emu releasing the amazing TMNT: Shredder's Revenge. Then Konami dug into their bag, and released all of their TMNT games with the Cowabunga Collection. Capcom then followed up with amazing, albeit expensive, TMNT avatar customizations, and this year alone, there will be three, count 'em, three NEW TMNT games. This one in particular is by a company called Super Evil Mega Corp, and it's a rogue-like called TMNT: Splintered Fate. It was a mobile game that was reviewed well, and now it's out for the Nintendo Switch, eventually coming to Steam. 

Yes. Everything you're seeing online is accurate. It is like Supergiant's Hades. Top down view, perks and permanent upgrades. It's a rogue-like, so if at first, you won't succeed, die, die again. As you are returned to Hell (headquarters), more of the story opens up, and you can go through and exchange the items you found while battling to make your character faster and stronger. Hades had multiple weapons you could choose from. This game, obviously has the four brothers. April is here, Splinter is captured. People you meet during the game will help you out later, but they're more glorified NPCs than anything else. You get the idea. It doesn't shy away from what it is. 

The story is a little barebones though. Someone has captured Master Splinter, and he can speak to you via satellite through the astral plain. He tells you of your predicament, and you control Leonardo out the gate to try to find him. The opening tutorial is also your first foray into this multi-shell-shocked adventure. Shredder is the guy you meet at the end of the opening levels. Of course, he wants to dine on Turtle Soup, and sends you back to the sewers, via a portal. At least I think that's what happened. Honestly, on my first playthrough, the dialogue was so long and drawn out, I skipped the majority of it. That's my first complaint. 

The second is that the sound is crazy jarring. It's unbalanced. The sound effects are crunchy and loud, and the music was an instant mute for me. I immediately went into the options, and turned the music off, and the sound effects to 50%. My ears thanked me. Graphically, the game is OK. You're not playing this game for that, but whatever you do, do NOT click the 30FPS cinematic mode. It looks way, way worse. You also have the option to display controls and turn your rumble on or off. You can also toggle your difficulty, and check the progress on your current run. And that's it. No more options. 

With that out the way, let's get into the game. After a very long introduction to the characters you can interact with in the lair, you pick your Turtle, and you venture out. You are greeted immediately with a power up. Note that all power ups or options you choose during the run are only good for that run. You have up to four choices, depending on how far you've progressed in the game. Then you go into the next room. Once you defeat all the enemies in a room, you get to choose another power up, or even receive currency. You can also choose a temporary perk that you get for a certain number of encounters, like 20% more physical damage for the next four encounters. You will also eventually get the opportunity to re-roll if you don't see something you like, and even get the chance to choose two attacks. 

Each turtle is different. Leonardo is your well rounded turtle. Donatello is more powerful with the most range, but slower. Raphael is more powerful than Donatello, with a higher chance of critical strikes, but lacks range, and Michelangelo lacks power, but gets multi hit and has more range than Raph. All the turtles have your regular melee attack, that you can either hold the button for, or mash it like a crazy person. You can cancel out of any strike for a dash, tool, or special, even though the last hit is the most powerful. Then they all have a different, and hard hitting special. There's also a "tool"  that you can change out depending on the power up you pick. These are your most powerful attacks, usually hitting all at once, and causing some sort of after effect.

There are tools that have shuriken, chains to bring the enemy closer, and even confuse the enemy. Everyone starts out with their own signature one, but my favorite is the meteor strike, which just seeks out and destroys enemies on the screen. Some of your moves can get an element added to them. Electricity, Water, Fire, Ooze, Ninja, Dark, and Light all pop up from time to time. You can even pick other turtles signature tools, or inspiration, which gives you the essence of the other turtles' fighting style. They all have a dash which gives you a little bit of invincibility and you can upgrade that with elemental effects too. For most of my runs, I used Raph, to get in, and get out. He kind of stinks when it comes to bosses though. 

As you progress, you will be rewarded with the first currency we'll talk about. Scrap can be found in boxes, on enemies, and even one of the completed room choices. During the run, you will stop at a shop. This shop will have upgrades you can buy with scrap, and even pizza (yes) to refill your life. If you're not full, always ALWAYS buy pizza if you can. The first option is always an upgrade for the run, so if you have enough scrap, go for that. If you're hurting, which on those first few runs, you will be, grab that pizza. Then use the remainder of the scraps to get other things. Build it up, until it's solid as the shell on your back. 

The enemies vary from mere rats, to foot soldiers, to punk frogs, and then some. All enemies indicate when and where they will attack, and when they will attack. If you get hit, the screen turns red, and you lose HP. There are mini bosses, who have a lot more HP, and sometimes shields, and then the end bosses for every level, the first one being Leatherhead. After another long and lengthy conversation, you get your first true test, and I have to say, it's pretty easy if you know anything about playing these kind of games. Dodge, use your specials, and tools, watch out for attacks, and win. Go in swords blazing, and it's back to the sewers. Don't be silly.

If it is back to the sewers, that's ok. It's what the game is built for. There are two other currencies, Dragon coins, and Dreamer coins. These are used to unlock permanent upgrades, like max life, and how much scrap is dropped. You can also top off physical damage, and heighten your defense. The Dreamer coins are used to upgrade things as well, but as you upgrade, the prices to upgrade get higher. They then become impossible to upgrade unless they are coupled with certain items, and those come with challenges. You will have to defeat one of the bosses with all four turtles to upgrade some of the things. You can even unlock an automatic revive, if you fall to the foot. This will give you back a smidgen of your life and make you invulnerable for a couple of seconds.

There are also artifacts, or perks that you can attach to yourself at the start of your run, and upgrade with dreamer coins. You can change these perks out at any shop, but you can only carry one. Make sure you do everything possible, for some upgrades aren't available unless you unlock an achievement or meet a threshold of some sort. Now here's where the game becomes even more divisive to me. After those first few runs, I feel overpowered, and I beat the game on my 10th. I make it all the way to the final boss, making sure I have the best upgrades. I defeat the final boss, and the game, without hesitation, sends me BACK to the lair. I get it. They really really want me to find Splinter, but why isn't Splinter just ready to go when I reach him? Well, because story, they want me to beat the game again, and again, and again. They also MAKE THE GAME HARDER, and they do this two ways. 

The first way is that the enemies and bosses get different variations. While the first time you meet Leatherhead, you save someone, and they help you through future runs. To make sure runs aren't as repetitive, they may throw punk frogs in with Leatherhead, or other random enemies. One of the bosses even changes forms mid battle, as if they weren't hard enough. This makes me never want to play it again. I did what I was supposed to. But then, I have this weird complex. I must keep playing. This is the only way. This game can't defeat me, and I can handle whatever it throws at me. Right? RIGHT?

WRONG! The second way, is that new portals pop up during your runs to make an already hard game, harder. They claim more rewards, but it seems lopsided for the 15% armor and attack buff the enemies get. You can keep adding these modifiers to the gain for a potential reward, but you never see the light of day, because every enemy is now turned up to 10, and you're now essentially playing the game from the beginning again. Even the gauntlet challenges are brutal. They just send droves of enemies, and sometimes takes away your revives. The deck seems to be stacked against you for no real rewards, mostly, because you'll never see them, no matter how many Dragon or Dreamer coins you get. 

Maybe I should get some friends to help out, and I would, but I don't, so couch co-op with my 3 year old it is, and though it was fun to watch her tear enemies in half, I'm not sure if it's enough. I need more friends, which is where the online mode comes in. Except, it doesn't. You can choose to start an online run from the title screen, but the only way people can join you is if you share with them the room code. It also works both ways, in the sense that the only way you can join a room is with a friend code. I wish Super Evil Mega Corp sent out more codes, but I'm stuck with Raph, sitting at 25% energy, after getting absolutely wrecked on a regular run.

Once all this is said and done, and you think you stand a chance, you can't advance any of your upgrades, because you need even MORE items in game, like masks, and pendants, and Shredder's gauntlets. If you have defeated Shredder 4 times, you can do the 6th level of upgrades for a certain permanent upgrade. If you want to upgrade each individual turtle, you have to be Karai 4 times with the turtle you're trying to upgrade. This means if you want to build all your turtles evenly, you have to beat Karai TWELVE TIMES. And that's where it came to a head for me. I will never even beat this game. This game will never be beaten. I'll never see the ending. I'll never see who actually kidnapped Splinter. I'll never have Raph powerful enough to take on the Bubble version of Leatherhead. now with additional rats, only to get an astral heart. 

I will address the ooze in the room. This isn't Hades. It is it's own game. There was a time, as stated before, that I couldn't stop playing it, but then I streamed it for the second time, after plenty of playthroughs. I grew extremely frustrated that even though you can completely skip the portals and never be offered them again during the run, the game still gets progressively harder. I don't know if it's even harder in a fair or self challenging way. I don't feel like the replay value should be New game ++++++, when I haven't even finished the game. I tried getting good. The game won't let me. That, combined with the disposable music, and over-used quips from the turtles among other audio problems, and the skating uphill difficulty, and I want to go back in my shell, and stay there.