Review: CASEY JONES & THE JUNKYARD JAM is More of a Fun Game

Last year, Super Evil Megacorp released Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate on Nintendo Switch and eventually PC. Then, this last week or so, they dropped new DLC for the rogue-like: Casey Jones & The Junkyard Jam.

The DLC is available now with an MSRP of $6.99 and includes a few fun additions. The team was kind enough to supply me with a review code of the DLC for PC, but all thoughts below are my own. First, we’ll discuss what the DLC is and then I’ll delve into my thoughts.

Casey Jones is set to join the fight in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate’s first DLC, Casey Jones & The Junkyard Jam. Battle through the Junkyard, face new enemies and bosses, and collect new powerful artifacts. Master Casey’s hard-hitting moves and team up with the Turtles in co-op to take on the Punk Frogs!

First, Casey Jones is now a playable character utilizing his trusty hockey stick to bludgeon up ninja, rats, MOUSERs, and more. In addition, there’s a new side story revolving around Casey and his car that takes you to a new area, the Junkyard, where you’ll have to deal with the Punk Frogs which also means new enemies and bosses to beat up. Also, with a new character, that means that there are some new artifacts, upgrades, and abilities to learn and master.

Before I get much farther, I do want to clarify a couple of things. My initial review for Splintered Fate was on the Nintendo Switch. The Super Evil Megacorp team was kind enough to supply me with a DLC code and base game code on PC so that I could start playing before the official release.

However, this meant that I was starting from scratch and therefore was unable to explore the DLC as much as I had hoped in time. In addition, it’s worth noting that all my gameplay has been on the Steam Deck OLED and it has run perfectly at 90 frames per second in single player.

All of this brings me to my first positive point for Casey Jones & The Junkyard Jam. You don’t have to have played the game very much in order to access the DLC content. From my experience, it looks like you immediately gain access to Casey Jones from the start and you can start going to the Junkyard on your first or second run.

All you have to do is defeat Karai and then you can choose to go to the Streets or the Junkyard. That said, I did feel like the Junkyard was more difficult than the Streets for what it’s worth. It is fun because you’ll run into MOUSERs that have purple mohawks and stuff like that.

Another plus is that when you play online, your group can all enjoy the DLC content as long as the host has access to it. This can effectively let friends try out the content before they buy it for themselves which isn’t a terrible idea.

Now let’s talk about Casey’s playstyle. As you might assume correctly, he is very aggressive. His hockey stick gives him good range and he has decent power from the start. Then, his starting Tool gives him a temporary boost to damage and recharges your Special more quickly.

Of course, the biggest thing that sets him apart is his first Inspiration which applies Guard Break when he uses his Special and therefore enemies take more damage for a short time after being hit with that. Also, his Special is a ranged attack where he hits enemies with a hockey puck which is fun.

At the end of the day, I think that Casey Jones & The Junkyard Jam is really a near perfect DLC for Splintered Fate. It adds a new character, new location, new enemies, etc. and makes them accessible quickly. Plus, it’s all optional.

Don’t want to use Casey? Great, pick your favorite turtle. Don’t want to visit the Junkyard? Fantastic news, you can go to the Streets instead. This is all highlighted by a reasonable (in my opinion) price tag of about $7. If you like the game, I would recommend the DLC because it’s just more of the game.