From the outside, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate looks a lot like Hades. The room-based gameplay, upgrade and power-up systems, approach to storytelling, and hack-and-slash combat will be no stranger to those who have played the award-winning god-like roguelike. But this is no bad thing. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, after all, and Splintered Fate throws it out like shuriken in this run-based romp out of the underworld sewers.

However, the comparisons to Supergiant's critical darling are a double-edged sword. On the one hand, Splintered Fate is Hades, and anyone who enjoyed evading the wrath of the God of the Underworld will find much to enjoy here; on the other, this is not Hades and the inevitable comparisons that it draws with combat, performance, and visuals may be its biggest shell kicking.

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Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)

Splintered Fate arrived fresh-faced and bushy-tailed (or the turtle equivalent of that) on Apple Arcade in May 2023. Launching on the mobile gaming service with very little fanfare, Super Evil Megacorp's roguelike didn't quite make the splash that we are used to seeing from the heroes in a half-shell, and its platform exclusivity kept it that way for the next 12 months.

Now on Switch, it feels like the game has finally found its home. This is the same run-based roguelike that you will find on mobile but with some added bells and whistles, such as revamped visuals, new controls, and a much-requested four-player couch co-op mode which make the Switch port feel that bit more appealing. These new features are all welcome additions, but they all rely on the strength of the base game. Fortunately, Splintered Fate is actually pretty good.

Master Splinter has been kidnapped (shock, horror!) and it's up to Leo, Raph, Donnie, and Mikey to get him back. To do so, the brothers must battle their way out of the sewers and to the rooftops, taking out rooms of fiendish Foot Soldiers and malicious MOUSERs while grabbing ability-altering power-ups along the way. On defeat, you are transported back to the underground lair where you can cash in your collectibles to level up before heading out to try again.

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Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)

As both a TMNT story and a roguelike, there's nothing too original here, but it works all the same. Each Turtle has a unique set of skills and you are encouraged to sample each of them if you want to unlock certain higher-level upgrades. These power-ups can make or break a run with a decent variety of effects benefiting those open to switching up their combat techniques. And, most importantly, it's a far more accessible way into roguelikes than many of its contemporaries, with a selectable 'Easy Mode' available in the pause menu to be toggled on or off at any point during the run.

Both the online and local co-op options help Splintered Fate stand apart from the roguelike crowd enough that it isn't entirely a copy-and-paste rundown of the genre's best bits. Roguelikes can often be a tough nut to crack, with a dense upgrade system and intimidating difficulty curve, and while Splintered Fate absolutely delivers on its upgrades and level of challenge, the option to let a friend lend a helping hand is welcome, particularly in later, enemy-filled encounters.

And boy, do those encounters become packed. The visual style gets the job done (it's a little mobile-y, but let's not forget its origins here), but it sometimes becomes difficult to keep an eye on your Turtle. Often, waves of mutants and ninjas will flood the screen and overwhelm with unique attack animations; a few swift dashes help separate the crowd, but at certain points, the number of enemies serves as a swift reminder that co-op is the way to go.

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Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)

In solo, things are tough. Initially, you are under-levelled and the game wants you to know it. You're going to die a lot, but lively voice acting (including Yuri Lowenthal as Michelangelo) and an original story from TMNT-legend Tom Waltz kept us coming back for more — even if some of the dialogue encounters lasted a little longer than we would have liked. Again, difficulty modifiers are there to make things a little easier/harder, but the base game already offers a healthy level of challenge.

After our first successful run, additional challenges helped spice up the gameplay, so even with a decent number of character upgrades under our belt, things continued to feel relatively fresh. The dialogue and story systems aren't as reactive as that found in Hades, and we found ourselves reeling off lines long before the characters had the chance to say them, but random mini-boss encounters, changing attack patterns, and fluctuating enemy density mean that runs can still feel unique even if you opt for a similar build every time.

We were still having fun during our repeated playthroughs, and we were happy to see things gradually open up, but after we got to grips with everything, some of Splintered Fates' flaws started creeping to the surface. Combat is fluid enough, but the Turtles' arsenal of Attack, Special, and Tool mean that most encounters become button-mashy in a way that the best hack-and-slashers tend to avoid. Enemy attacks are forecast by a visible 'damage zone' as they power up, so defeating them becomes a case of getting out of the way and spamming 'Y' until a better option is available.

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Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)

This isn't helped by the game's shaky performance on Switch. Splintered Fate is reasonably stable during busy screens, but the frame rate regularly drops when multiple enemies are spawning on screen or in sequences with large, detailed backgrounds. We also experienced a handful of hard crashes while carrying out simple tasks like visiting the in-game shop. Fortunately, an auto-save feature meant we could restart and hop back into our run without a hitch, but it hardly helps with the room-to-room flow. There is a 'Cinematic Mode' setting which caps the frame rate at 30fps to "increase image quality", though we found the visual improvements to be negligible and we actually preferred the higher-but-unstable frame rate.

These issues don't overshadow what is a perfectly enjoyable and approachable roguelike, but they do hammer home how this formula has been better in the past. The debt to Hades is too strong to ignore, and while the performance slip-ups and repeated dialogue scenarios are frustrating in isolation, they are all the more emphasised by a constant reminder that this radical roguelike isn't the award-winning odyssey that it mimics.

Conclusion

With a gameplay loop that effortlessly integrates the heroes in a half-shell into the world of roguelikes, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate is a fun and approachable 'Hades-like' that's best played with pals. However, despite the power of the IP and a co-op addition, it doesn't pack enough of a punch to avoid unfavourable comparisons to Supergiant's classic and constantly feels like it's on the back foot because of it. There is fun to be had here, but those who have spent time in the Underworld will find it hard to shake the feeling that this central loop has been done much better elsewhere.