Review: TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: SPLINTERED FATE is a fun multiplayer roguelike game

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Fans have a new couch co-op game for fans to enjoy on the console. Originally released on Apple Arcade, fans can enjoy Super Evil Megacorp TMNT: Broken Fate on Nintendo Switch now with a PC release planned for later this year. The team provided me with a digital copy for review, but all thoughts below are my own. If this sounds like a fun game, you can pick it up from the eShop or the Humble Store (affiliate link) for around $30.

The pizza-loving, crime-fighting Turtle brothers are back and better than ever in this co-op action roguelike where players travel through reality-bending portals to rescue their kidnapped master, Splinter.

Over the past few years I’ve become a huge fan of roguelike titles and my family is a bit obsessed with them. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and so this title seemed like a perfect game to us. I think that Fragmented Destiny It mostly met my expectations so if you want something quick and dirty I would recommend it to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans who like roguelikes, but I hope Super Evil Megacorp cleans up a few things. Let’s start with the areas that need improvement and then I’ll sing the game’s praises.

I’ll start with a weird glitch/bug where sometimes (rarely) my turtle will suddenly freeze and appear to be moving in one direction when it’s actually moving in the opposite direction. This usually fixes itself when I move to the next room, but it’s annoying sometimes. Also, there are times at the end of a room where there’s an arrow telling you to keep scrolling down, but then you can’t scroll any further down. Seems like a simple enough fix.

Also, I know the health bar is on top of each turtle, but I think I’d personally prefer to have it with my character’s other info in the corner and have the numbers displayed as well. Maybe put a toggle in the options for that?

Also, when playing a rogue-like like Fragmented Destinyyou always want to be able to see your character. Unfortunately, there are times when you can’t and it feels like bad design. This could be because the environment just has assets that completely obscure you and/or enemies or because the camera is focused on a different turtle in multiplayer and you’re quite far away. Sure, the team has arrow/icon indicators to show where you and your enemies are, but I personally would prefer my character to be visible at all times.

Another aspect that I imagine would be easy (I’m not a game developer so I can’t say for sure if it is or not) is how easy it is to miss the initial beats of the story. My son was very excited to play Fragmented Destiny with me after downloading it and so I loaded it up for the first time and went to Multiplayer and it immediately took us into the game. This isn’t inherently bad, but the characters were talking about events that should happen the first time you play, like Splinter disappearing and Leonardo getting beaten up by Shredder and The Foot. I then loaded up a new game with Single Player and was able to play through the Tutorial that introduces these very important story beats! I wish this was addressed so that even if the first thing you do is Multiplayer, you don’t miss out on key story information.

Other areas that I feel need improvement include the control feel and overall performance. Overall, the game isn’t horrible, but the controls feel a little sluggish and could probably use some love to liven it up. Also, I know the Switch is seven years old and I often try my best not to hate on the specs, but in Fragmented DestinyThere seems to be occasional performance drops, especially in multiplayer. The performance drops are never that drastic and often go unnoticed, if at all, but I hope the team can find a way to improve performance. Whatever you do, I would never recommend the cinematic mode in the options. The 30fps is so poor that I had to turn it off after about five seconds. However, keep that option off and you’ll probably be fine.

But enough about being a wet blanket. What’s great about this game? Quite a bit. Each turtle is different to play, which is always a relief. You’ll want to experiment with each one to see which one works best for you. I’m usually a Leonardo fan, but in Fragmented Destiny I think Raphael is my favorite, followed by Michelangelo. Each turtle has abilities called Inspirations that affect their playstyle. For example, Raphael’s Inspirations increase his critical hit chance and critical damage, while Leonardo’s give him an extra use of his Special before recharging. What’s really cool is that as you play there will be times where you can select another turtle’s inspiration to use during your run. It’s a fun mechanic, in my opinion.

Another thing I’m grateful for is that special currency like Karai’s armor isn’t spent when purchasing upgrades. Instead, you can simply accumulate them to unlock new levels of upgrades. It helps make a grindy genre less grindy and more engaging. By the way, the grindy game doesn’t seem bad at first with the ease with which you can obtain various currencies.

I haven’t gotten very far into the story, so it’s hard to gauge how good it actually is. It’s natural for this type of game where you get a little piece of story for each run. It seems to be pretty good from what I’ve experienced so far. In short, the turtles are trying to save Splinter, but things get weird when magical portals start appearing that serve as a narrative excuse for the turtles not to die when they lose a fight. It works well.

The artistic style for Fragmented Destiny It’s also really cool. The character designs for almost all the characters look great. I especially like Shredder and Splinter. The models used look very cartoony, which is great. The characters really pop against the background, too, which adds to the effect.

A game mechanic that seems a bit unique Fragmented Destiny this is how Tools and Specials work. In other roguelikes I’ve played, their equivalents to these two attacks tend to be either a fixed number with a cooldown timer or unlimited. However in Fragmented DestinyThey recharge based on the enemies you hit. Each hit you land restores a percentage of each of these stronger attacks, encouraging you to get aggressive.

At the end of the day, Fragmented Destiny It is funny Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game on Nintendo Switch. I think it needs some tweaking, but it’s still worth picking up. Being able to play with up to three friends on my couch is a huge win, and I had a lot of fun playing with my family. If you’ve played the game, what’s your favorite turtle to play as?