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TMNT fans were eating well back in 2023. Shredder's Revenge landed a totally tubular DLC, Mutant Mayhem was one of the franchise's best films in decades, and completely out of the blue Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate popped out of its shell on Apple Arcade.
This roguelike from developer Super Evil Megacorp took the combat-first focus of the Turtles video games that we all knew so well and shaped it into a gameplay loop that the franchise had rarely touched. It bore all the hallmarks of Hades with its difficulty curve, approach to action, and progression system, but with the heroes in a half-shell standing in the place of Supergiant's Greek gods.
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It all looked rather peachy. But, appearing solely on Apple Arcade, the game was never going to pull in console gamers like Shredder's Revenge or Konami's Cowabunga Collection. That is until it appeared at the April 2024 Indie World Showcase. After a year of mobile exclusivity, Splintered Fate is finally making the jump over to Switch on 17th July.
To find out a little more about the project, we recently sat down with Super Evil Megacorp's Director of Product Management, Tom Westall, to talk about all things Turtles. During our chat, we covered the team's roguelike inspirations, what it was like working with TMNT legend Tom Waltz, and (the most important question of all) who's the best Turtle...
Nintendo Life: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have starred in many games over the years, but never a roguelike. Why did you decide to move the Turtles into this genre?
Tom Westall, Super Evil Megacorp: Our mission at Super Evil Megacorp is to build the best shared gaming moments in the world. We were playing other successful roguelike titles and thinking to ourselves how great they would be if we could play together in co-op. We locked onto the idea of a four-player co-op top-down roguelike pretty quickly and then started throwing around new concepts. Once someone mentioned TMNT, we knew that was the game we wanted to make. We have grown up loving TMNT with games like Turtles in Time and, more recently, Shredder’s Revenge, but they mostly have a similar flow and focus to the Brawler genre. The thought of bringing the Turtles to a new genre really excited and energised the whole team as an opportunity to pioneer something new with the IP.
As we explored systems and design ideas, it became clear to us how perfectly suited TMNT was to a roguelike game. It really allowed us to bring out the unique personalities of each Turtle through the narrative and their in-game fighting styles brought a great variety of play.
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We can see a lot of Hades inspiration in Splintered Fate. Was this a specific touchstone during development and are there any other roguelikes you looked at in the process?
Any comparison to a game as incredible as Hades is a wonderful compliment, thank you! Hades in particular further opened our eyes to how roguelikes can tell epic stories that evolve over time and is considered a masterpiece by many for this reason. In particular, we felt we could bring our background in social gaming to see how we could innovate in this space.
prepare to be surprised with each run and be sure to play as all the Turtles
There are lots of huge roguelike fans at the company and we were definitely inspired by playing them. Games like Dead Cells and Slay the Spire changed the way many of us think about how many years and hours a roguelike can remain engaging.
Another title that really inspired us was Children of Morta. This was a game all about family, something the TMNT franchise has always prioritised above all else. We think Splintered Fate is a great addition to the genre, with many familiar systems but also innovations in the co-op space that fans are going to really enjoy.
The roguelike genre has grown so much on Switch, how does Splintered Fate stand out from the crowd?
Co-op! And of course the IP and being able to play the first TMNT roguelike. This game is so much fun when played with others. It became very obvious to us when we announced this game for Switch that players wanted one thing above all else - playing together. There is definitely something extraordinary about playing games together, our studio goal is to build the best-shared gaming moments, so our mission was clear to ensure Splintered Fate was an amazing co-op experience. The team worked incredibly hard to deliver an experience we are really proud of (with a surprise still to be announced)! Having tested it with a few of our friends and family, we are really excited to share the co-op experience with the world.
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A run-based game like this naturally requires a lot of repetition. How have you ensured that the gameplay loop doesn’t become tiresome?
Lots of content, random encounters and a few surprises! It really helped us that the TMNT universe is great source filled with tons of material that let us add lots of little surprises throughout the game.
We made over 100 Turtle Powers, and players will only be able to collect a few on each run as they create their builds. It was important to us that we designed several ways to combine these powers into interesting builds for players to discover and we’re sure they will find ones we’ve not even thought of.
We also have a system of progression that encourages you to play each Turtle but that benefits all characters. This incentivises players to play all four brothers to unlock everything and become the ultimate ninja Turtle.
Every Turtle brings a different style and toolkit to the battle
It’s not just progression, though, where there is lots of choice and variety. We also built multiple variants of each boss fight and loads of mini-boss encounters so you really don’t know what you’ll be up against each run. As you progress through the game, we also added the option for players to take on hard versions of the boss and mini-boss fights called 'Gauntlet Challenges' and take special portals that increase your rewards but add a new challenge to the run, like halving all healing you receive!
If that’s not enough, we have thousands of lines of narrative that tell the story or just add fun and flavour as you play. In short, prepare to be surprised with each run and be sure to play as all the Turtles!
How did you approach the game’s difficulty curve?
We played a lot! We wanted to make a challenging experience for players to enjoy while supporting a deep progression system. If you are finding a particular challenge too difficult, levelling up some of your skills should help get past it. Equally, if you are finding the game a bit easy, there are many ways to increase the difficulty as you progress. Only one person in the team has completed the game on the hardest setting that I am aware of.
We knew that some players love challenges while others want to enjoy the narrative. With this in mind, we also built a 'Story Mode'. In this mode, the difficulty is significantly reduced to let you enjoy the game at a more relaxed pace. Everyone has different skill levels and time available, so giving players this choice felt like the best solution.
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Many of the most renowned TMNT games have given each Turtle a different play style. How important was it for you to make each character feel unique?
Essential. The Turtles have very diverse personalities and combat styles, which is part of what makes the franchise loved by so many. We leaned into this to create a mix of playstyles, both for variety and to be faithful to the source material.
For example, Raph is a powerful brawler. He can hookshot a group of enemies to pull them in close and then unleash his rage to hit them with a barrage of critical hits. Mikey, meanwhile, is the opposite. With his relaxed personality, his focus is on hitting multiple enemies in a wide area.
Every Turtle brings a different style and toolkit to the battle, as well as their own affinities with Turtle Powers, altering the odds of which power type you’ll see each run.
Can you talk a bit about the Splintered Fate character design? What TMNT media were you looking at when designing the character models and environments?
It’s TMNT’s 40th anniversary this year so there was a lot of source material available. Lots of us had grown up watching various iterations of the cartoon, from the 1987 original to the latest shows. As you play through the game you’ll certainly see little easter eggs referencing some of our favorite moments. We also drew heavily from the comics and loved reading the more recent releases, including those written by Tom Waltz who co-wrote the story of Splintered Fate. TMNT Splintered Fate is ultimately Super Evil Megacorp’s take on the franchise and we hope our passion comes through in the character design.
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What was it like working with Tom Waltz on an original Turtles story?
The best collaborations are always the ones where you get excited about each other's ideas and build on top of them. That's exactly what working with Tom has been like. He is a legend and we have been privileged to be able to work with him throughout our Splintered Fate journey both on the game and the tie-in comics. Tom has such a deep knowledge of TMNT and has helped us craft an original story that is authentic to the IP while also offering a new adventure for fans. We have also worked closely with Tom to ensure TMNT is littered with great easter eggs and secrets which we hope fans will have a lot of fun finding.
Were there any challenges you found with bringing the game to Switch?
I’m really attached to all four brothers now and love each of them as individuals
We have our own proprietary game engine (the EVIL Engine) at SEMC. This allows us to create truly unique experiences for all devices. One of our most exciting challenges for Splintered Fate on Switch was making sure we played to the console’s strengths. We hadn’t originally planned on building a certain feature for launch, but once we saw the demand we knew we had to (stay tuned for more info coming soon!). This did bring a whole load of challenges, both technical and design..
Making this game shine was also important to us, so we carried out a full lighting and audio pass and reworked the UI to make it sing on the Switch. We are super proud of the result and believe Switch fans will love the experience.
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Finally, the biggest question of all: Who is your favourite Turtle, and did it change while working on Splintered Fate?
A few years ago I would have said Donnie, but now this is like asking me to choose between my children! I’m really attached to all four brothers now and love each of them as individuals, but, of course, together they are always at their most powerful. If I really had to pick, I think Mikey’s innocence and ability to find joy when all hope seems lost probably draws me most to him. That said, Raph is my most played.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Thanks to Tom at Super Evil Megacorp for taking the time to answer our questions, and to Barzeli and Monique at fortyseven for helping to set it up. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate will launch on the Switch eShop on 17th July.
Comments 28
Cowabunga! Excited for this. Hope it's good.
Hades was probably the best inspiration they could've chosen.
Hades but with Ninja Turtles. I'm so in.
It's fine to copy someone's homework if it's the smart kid's and you change enough to make it look like your own.
Is there newer content for Switch thats not in mobile version?
Great interview as always, combining roguelike with co-op and TMNT is a quite interesting and novel idea so as long as it's well executed in general and also on Switch - certainly sounds like that's the case based on this (and also appreciate all the options mentioned including difficulty ones) - I'm definitely interested in eventually playing it and even more so if at some point my friends want to give it a try, too!
Really wish this game supported local wireless play!
Looking into this! Looks good!
Yeah this looks great but I also wish it had local multiplayer. I hope it's good for solo play at least because I'm not really a big fan of online multiplayer (...especially on the Switch).
I bet that "certain feature" they're talking about is some sort of local multiplayer although I'm not sure how that would work, this seems like the kind of game where you'd want everyone to have their own screen so sharing the screen wouldn't work, I also don't see split-screen working all that well either but I guess since everyone is so hung-up on "co-op in TMNT games needs to be local" they figured they have to do something
anyway I hope the game is good, it looks pretty fun
I was totally bummed out by this game not having local multiplayer. As soon as that's in, I'm gonna get it.
I’m gonna keep saying this.
They should have added local co op for the Switch version. I hope they do because that is the only reason I’ll buy it. Other than that, I’ll probably get it later at a deep discount.
I’m in a weird bucket. I don’t like roguelikes (except Shiren…is Shiren considered a roguelike? It doesn’t play like western roguelike games so I am never sure. ), but Hades had enough of a plot that kept me playing (dropped it as soon as I hit end credits though so I am sure I have tons left to unlock) but it wasn’t fun if that makes sense. Yet I am wondering if this game has a nice enough story that I will slog through it as well. I mean a sale is a sale but it’s silly I put myself through this. As such I won’t buy it at launch but after a steep discount, I will pick this up.
Is there a physical announcement for this one? Would love it to sit next to my other TMNT games!
I hoooope this ends up being good
Every Single-A game is just Hades, Stardew Valley, or Postal now.
@Patendo that’s my hope. This game is great on iPhone using a backbone controller but it seems light on content. Admittedly I haven’t finished it, but it seemed like I got really close on one of my runs. If I was as close to the end as I believe I was then I really hope for more content, especially with that $30 price tag
What Eyes? They don't Have Pupils! XD
@Zeebor15 and some metroidvania type.
No local wireless play? No physical release? Sigh.
I really wanna play this with a friend of mine who loves TMNT more than I do.
But I'll probably hold off for a sale or see if a physical version comes out.
That or hope it comes to Steam to play on my Steam Deck OLED instead.
@Ryu_Niiyama most search-actions tend to have AA budgets now from what I see. It's the same thing that happened to these genres. Eventually the genres will reach max saturation, all the suspect "indie" investment money will dry up and the only studios left will be the ones that are REALLY good at the genres. Same as what is happening with Hero Shooters, same as what happened with fighting games and Belt-actions (and will happen again if all these 80's nostalgia properties don't slow down).
Time is a flat circle and we are all slaves to the endless now.
Co-op this, co-op that. Better hope that's not the only thing you focus on...
Very excited for this one, hope it is priced accordingly
"certain feature" = joy-cons as nunchucks?
Will there be a physical release?
@nintendolife couch co-op confirmed.
@Patendo @Pillowpants @_Figo_
Couch Co-Op confirmed!!!!
@anoyonmus great! Pizza time!
SuperEvil Megacoro? god, I spent so much time playing Vainglory
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