Steam Curator

Despite its name, TMNT Splintered Fate presents as a game with a singular focus: to emulate PC and switches indie roguelites for the Apple Arcade with a ninja turtles theme.

And that is a thesis that is well realized: for better or worse, Splintered Fate makes no attempt to slow down its action gameplay to accommodate the default control scheme of its platform; make no mistake, you’ll want to use a controller for this one.

But there is more too it once you really get beyond the surface level: The disproportionate focus it places on its meta progression systems has it feeling as much like a long term RPG as it does a roguelite; genre purists looking for a more conventional rogue will likely be better served by the games it’s apingg…but if you’re in the market for a good turtles game or the satisfaction closing out skill treess…then you’ll find what you’re looking for here, even if it takes a bit to come out of its shell.

The action combat at the center of Splintered Fate is as fun as it is dangerous. Enemies are both lethal and abundant, entering a room will usually demand killing over a dozen of them to earn the honor of leaving; and it won’t take long for the screen to fill with targeting indicators that threaten more of your healthbar than you expect.

There are tools to deal with that though, not the least of which is a low cooldown dash move intrinsic to each turtles kit that doubles as a good way to break out of your current attack animation. Couple that with a unique active, passive, and item slot and you’ll find a game rich with moment to moment choice, and flexibile building paths that allows you to tailor these in meaningful ways run to run.

Synergies can be found among the elemental properties you can imbue your weapons with, extra projectiles you can add to your swings and dashes, or even entirely new actives to replace your given turtles default.

Rather than using a conventional cooldown system to govern your active abilities, they instead operate as spenders to your basic attacks builderss…creating a snappy, fast paced combat style across all turtles that will have you staying in beat down range and keeping your foot on “The Foot”.

You’ll see a lot of reviews call this one “console-like”, it’s an accurate descriptor if not one that calls into question why it isn’t on consoles as welll…I’m not one to review the platform more than the game that’s on it, but it’s hard to ignore that it’s tentpole co-op capabilities are contingent on you having friends with Apple Arcade too.

But if you are willing to meet it halfway, and take advantage of your Apple devices Bluetooth-controller capabilities, then you’ll be rewarded with a roguelite with fast, readable action, build variety, and meaningful end game run modifiers.

it can take a little while to feel that way, though… and probably one of the biggest callouts for roguelite enthusiasts is just how LITE this one is.

Because TMNT Splintered Fate is far from the first roguelite to utilize cross-run stat increases as a progression system, but it’s front and center here for a few subtle reasons: not the least of which is the games upfront difficulty.

You’re not likely to win your first run in splintered fate or maybe even your first dozen, and for me it was raw numerical increases that moved the needle in my success rather than any acquisition of skill. Because the base strength of the turtles is low, and straight increases to health, damage, and cooldowns acquired by “Dragon Coins” are all but an outright necessity if you want to beat shredderr…rather than just being a sort of complimentary bonus for struggling players.

Your stats can easily double or more by fully tapping into these systems, and such increases will become a near requirement far before you get to the ultimate late game modifiers.

I found myself enjoying the game a whole lot more when I embraced this fact up front: if you concede that skill is of equal if not secondary importance to stats, it allows you to alter your play to accommodatee…and that’s vital here for a one major reason: your cross run currency of “dragon coins” are not only a common passive drop but frequently an active decision you must make.

Because whether it’s in the shop or in your post room rewards, you’ll constantly be asked to make a choice between power in your current run and power in your future runs.

Importantly you don’t need to “win” to bring your accumulated coins back to home base for spending; so you can have your build and items prioritize coin acquisition, lose a run, then funnel these resources towards a more deliberate Shredder push.

Far from a classic way to chew through a roguelite if you’re a genre purist, but satisfying in its own wayy…using a rogue skeleton to deliver something a bit closer to a long term progression RPG.

Practically one with crafting too if not by name, because the peaks of your skill trees will demand specific boss dropped resources and even tokens acquired by playing as specific turtles.

And that’s the payoff for being so weak at the start: I found myself groaning at how little pizza was healing me, did pizza potency really need to be it’s own stat?

But the Yang to that Yin is the satisfaction that comes with maxed out turtles crushing rooms with ease and opening up a whole new slew of optional-imposed challenge modifiers to progress some more.

And I ended up liking how that felt. It’s easy to dismiss TMNT Splintered fate as a turtles-facsimile of the roguelite greats and, in the moment to moment, it is. But in addition to that emulation being competent, its balance and systems lean heavily on cross run progression and importantly they let you take an active role within them.

It tickled the part of my brain in the same spots something like a diablo would, albeit with gear power shifted into talent trees instead of rare drops. That’s a formula thats bound to be divisive, there’s not a lot of immediacy to Splintered Fate and its first few runs play more like an on-ramp to get you moving towards the good stuff.

But if you can buy in to it being as much its meta-systems as it is the runs themselves, then it will give back what you put in. Just don’t forget that it’s pacing and structure are much more likely to reward playing like a tortoise than a hare.