The demo played pretty well and I was able to get to Karai (Chapter 2’s boss) in one attempt and anticipated getting my hands on the full title. Little did I know the game would become part of my morning routine until I completed enough runs to fully rescue Splinter from the grip of a mysterious entity who seemingly has teamed up with various foes of the Turtles. I would switch over to doing some achievement clean up, mostly attempting to beat bosses and mini-bosses on hard mode and attempt runs with various difficulty modifiers active. At some point, I hit a wall that I just couldn’t overcome and I figured the game would be eventually uninstalled and forgotten as part of my voluminous Steam Library…but Super Mega Evil Corp had other ideas. There had been talks about additional content being released for the game (The game’s ending was somewhat inconclusive…even though Splinter was rescued there was no climatic battle with the otherworldly entity who captured him) and late January we learned the first piece of content was revealed.
Casey Jones & the Junkyard Jam finally allowed one of the turtle’s greatest allies to enter the fray. Casey Jones makes a cameo at the beginning of the game’s 3rd chapter and with this DLC he is fully playable. Of the original roster, each turtle fulfilled a certain play style, Leo has faster skill cooldown, Mikey has the widest range (you would think it would be Donnie…but the designers made their choice), Ralph is the strongest and Donnie has the highest health. Casey allows you to debuff enemy defenses and his unique tool enables to buff his damage and enhances the charging speed of his special for a set period of time.
Casey’s insertion point in the story is also quite humorous. Aware that the turtles are looking for their master, he proposes a “shortcut” through the Junkyard which happens to be the home turf of the Punk Frogs…a group of mutant amphibians that have some animus with the Turtles. What he doesn’t reveal…which is discovered through various dialogues in game, is that the reason he proposes this shortcut was he actually needed the turtle’s help in getting his car back…which mysteriously ended up on the frog’s turf.
The Junkyard acts as the first branching path of the game, the base game has you going through 4 biomes, the sewers, the docks, the streets and if you are skilled enough, the rooftops where a showdown with the Shredder awaits. The junkyard adds a much needed fork in the path allowing you to slot it in place of the streets and much like the A plot of rescuing Splinter, it will require multiple trips to complete this B plot of recovering Casey’s car.
To be honest I somewhat hate fighting the punk frogs in the base game, the reason being they’re highly mobile and they are able to do area of effect damage which can make closing the distance tough. So a biome where they are the main foes would probably make the Junkyard a path less traveled. However to my surprise the Junkyard also features mutant rats, refurbished mousers and Stockgen robots. These enemies aren’t just copied and pasted to the stage, the variety found here seems to have assimilated to their surroundings and gotten themselves a punk makeover. I would be lying if I didn’t chuckle to myself then I first laid eyes on a mouser with a mohawk. We also encounter two new Boss enemy types in the form of Gigi the Ripper and the Junkinator, both original creations made specifically for this game. Gigi is an interesting case as she is a unique mid boss that doles out a health pick up post defeat, but she is the only mid-boss you can encounter in the region. The Junkinator is a mash-up mech which prioritizes projectiles, area of effect and long range attacks. With modifiers this Junkyard boss can be quite the handful.
In addition to the character and biome, this update also includes several new shimmering portals, artifacts and abilities. The shimmering portals include capping your scrap wallet to a capacity of 500 which renders a lot of good out of reach within the chairman’s scrap shop, another reduces your dash count to 1 nullifying any upgrades to the dash you’ve purchases for the run and unlike the shimmering portals of the base game they do not grant you achievements when you complete a run with them so it definitely diminishes my desire to take them on after an initial taste. Five new artifacts can be earned by completing several runs of the Junkyard, they either grant one time boons or grant bonuses after defeating bosses. Given how nebulous the wording is…if we’re going with the artifacts that grant bonuses after defeating a boss you’ll really have 3 opportunities to gain those bonuses (After you beat the fourth boss the run effectively ends) rendering these artifacts less useful.
At $6.99 USD (Apple Arcade players should technically get this for free), I would say it’s a fair price to pay for the content provided. For those who don’t want to pay you’re not exactly locked out, as any player who owns the content can host an online game giving you a taste of what you’re missing. Casey adds a new playstyle that mixes up gameplay and the junkyard gives you a reprieve from pummeling Bebop and Rocksteady. The B plot of retrieving Casey’s car also provides some fun dialogue. Here’s hoping that Super Evil Megacorp will be able to further expand this title. It sure would be nice for Slash, Nobody or Metalhead to escape NPC jail.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate and Casey Jones & The Junkyard Jam is available now on PC, Switch and Apple Arcade.
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