TEST Ninja Turtles Splinter’s Fate: a good Hades-like?

With the Ninja Turtles, Nickelodeon obviously has gold in its hands. The company is well aware of this and continues to modernize the license with various recent projects (films, series, games, etc.). The goal is to broaden the audience, while inevitably addressing the old thirty-somethings We’re almost forty-somethings. In 2022, we got the retro game compilation TMNT The Cowabunga Collection, and the very good TMNT Shredder’s Revenge from the French company Dotemu. So where does Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Splintered Fate fit in?

A refreshing new Ninja Turtles adventure

It all begins when the leader of the Ninja Turtles, Splinter, is kidnapped by the sworn enemies of our dear mutants: Shredder and the Foot Clan. The master is then expelled into another dimension, and very quickly, strange purple portals appear in New York. The hour is serious for Michelangelo, Raphael, Donatello and Leonardo who must put aside their occupations to save their sensei. A story in the purest tradition of the license which is written by Tom Waltz. One of the historical scriptwriters of IDW Publishing, the comic book publishing company, who co-wrote for example The Last Ronin with Kevin Eastman – one of the fathers of the Ninja Turtles. Even before launching the game, we are already reassured. But what is it really? The story, simple, can be followed with interest and even surprises with its narration.

Splinter’s disappearance is at the heart of the plot, discussions between the characters, but the title integrates reflections on what happens in terms of gameplay for example. As a result, the tutorials aimed at explaining the mechanisms are inserted very smoothly, and the fourth wall is broken several times which reminds us of the best of Hades. There is a real effort to bring a breath of narrative freshness compared to the Ninja Turtles games released for decades.

The developers of Super Evil Megacorp have also studied their subject to respect the lore in terms of characters and environments. The television journalist April O’Neil is necessarily alongside the mutants, but the gallery of characters is much richer than that with Shredder, Bebop & Rocksteady, Karai, Leatherhead, the Mousers (the small robots with sharp jaws) and many others. The fans are therefore clearly brushed the grain, but we are not going to complain and it is impossible to be picky. In terms of landscapes, we can count here again on great classics like the sewers, the roofs of the immense buildings of New York, the docks, the streets under high police surveillance etc. Everything is done to make us feel at home, and the contract is therefore well fulfilled. A treat.

The Mutant’s Important Choice

To get Splinter out of the clutches of the Foot Clan, you will have to rely on all the experience and knowledge of the Ninja Turtles in the field of martial arts. In TMNT Splintered Fate, each mutant has its own characteristics that greatly differentiate them. The gameplay is thus identical in broad outline, but in essence, it changes since the way of approaching the encounters will not be the same. Leonardo, the leader of the siblings, focuses on high damage and mobility; Michelangelo, the youngest and most endearing of the group, causes area damage and generates more damage per hit; Raphael, the eldest after Leo, is a very aggressive character who is capable of performing important critical hits; As for Donatello, the one who thinks a little more than the others, is more in the role of support with his high health.

The choice of the turtle is absolutely not to be taken lightly, and a change in case of failure is even recommended. Donatello with his long stick, which can hit enemies from further away and make them move back slightly, as well as his Carapace skill which grants a temporary shield, helped us a lot to defeat the first boss. This is where we were able to really judge the differences between the characters, and it is clearly a good point. Once the decision has been made on the hero to favor, it is time to get to work. The levels of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Splinter’s Destiny that we go through are divided into random rooms, like Hades or other roguelites, with systematically at the end of the path, a boss.

You must therefore liquidate the opponents of the various tables by using the normal attack, an ability (e.g.: spinning Donatello’s staff in the air), one of the tools (e.g.: Raphael’s grappling hook which allows you to bring enemies back to you), and the rush. A movement that must be abused because the fights are essentially based on the timing of the attack and dodging. For a mobile game at the base, let’s remember, the gameplay is really nervous and obviously adapts wonderfully to the controller. We quickly cross the screen from one end to the other to thwart the attacks of the opponents. But be careful, you must not do anything or you will lose almost everything.

Yes, we are in a roguelite, and as the genre dictates, each failure means returning to square one: the Ninja Turtles’ HQ which serves as a HUB. A house located, drum roll, in the sewers! The place, very cool by the way, provides everything necessary for mutants to relax with a skatepark, a meditation room, a TV with a game console for Michelangelo, a gym corner and even wooden mannequins to practice typing. Too bad, however, that this only element is interactive.

Improvements galore

During each level, the game offers us the opportunity to choose from different types of modifiers (e.g. 100% damage for four rooms) or upgrades such as a turtle power (e.g. to reduce the cooldown of abilities), a slice of pizza to get back on your feet or a critical damage boost. The draw is always random, but after unlocking a specific skill, it is possible to roll a die to renew the range of offers.

Roughly in the middle of each room, there is also a vendor, the President, who is reminiscent of the one from Resident Evil 4, to acquire other improvements. As you might expect, you can therefore build separate builds with sometimes additional elemental attack effects (fire, water, etc.). In the event of death, and therefore a return to the Ninja Turtles’ HQ, all these things are lost. Only resources such as Dragon or Dreamer coins, to name a few, are kept. This time, they allow you to permanently boost, and for all characters at once, maximum health, add a rush charge, etc.

We won’t list everything, but the concept wasn’t taken lightly by the developers. And for those who might be worried, no, there are no microtransactions or excessive grinding, even if TMNT Splintered Fate is originally a mobile game. All this is surprising in a good way, especially since the experience is not easy either. Even in normal mode. Failures, especially at the beginning, are legion as in any roguelite. You have to know how to break your teeth to come back stronger, but the game knows how to be lenient. On the one hand, each run can be suspended and resumed at will. If the title crashes, which happened to us, the progress is also preserved. This time, no controversy “à la Returnal” can arise.

On the other hand, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splinter’s Fate has local and online multiplayer. Not having enough friends on hand with the game, multiplayer on the same couch was not an option… but neither was online… Why? Because at the time of this review, there is still no matchmaking like for the mobile version. You can only create or join a game via a code. A lock that we absolutely do not understand in the state, and which is clearly one of the big flaws of TMNT Splintered Fate.

The other point that prevents us from being more enthusiastic is the finish. So yes, an official comparison shows many differences between the mobile version (Apple Arcade) and the Nintendo Switch version, but it remains very insufficient. Technically, it is not the panacea and the framerate is unstable even though we are talking about a mobile game. The resolution is weak, the aliasing is significant in docked mode on a 65-inch TV, and the models of our turtles are not very flattering. After Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shredder’s Revenge, which is a multi-level model, it hurts. If you play the software in portable mode, it is therefore less shocking, but also be careful of the loss of readability. Unfortunately, everything is quite small and when the screen is overloaded, it can quickly become a chore and you can easily take free hits. This is already the case on a large TV, so imagine on the Nintendo Switch, and with four players…