One of my favourite surprises of 2024 was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate, a pretty unassuming licensed roguelike that turned out to be really good fun. It's basically Hades with turtles and four-player co-op, but as I said in my review, it's "a clever take on the formula with lots of ideas and personality of its own".
Before the PC launch, developer Super Evil Megacorp promised plenty of ongoing support, and it's staying true to its word with a new DLC expansion, due February 5th. Casey Jones & The Junkyard Jam introduces everyone's favourite hockey-themed vigilante as a playable character, with a fighting style that, uniquely for the roster, features ranged attacks (that is, whacking hockey pucks at people).
It also adds a new zone to the base game's four: the Junkyard. This area acts as an alternative to the Streets—after the Docks, you'll be able to divert into the Junkyard to beat up new frog enemies, giant mutant mini-bosses, punk variants of existing foes, and what looks like a towering mech final boss.
A bit of extra variety is always very welcome in a game like this—a new character and zone is enough added spice to get me coming back for another few runs. That should make February a great time for new players to jump in, too, because this is just going to add more options to every run rather than artificially extending them or being some kind of hardcore endgame challenge.
Of course, the most important thing is that it's given me another excuse to bang on about this overlooked gem of 2024. It won't be the last time, dudes.
