Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, also known as TMNT, is one series I’ve occasionally obsessed over. Growing up with the NES game, comics, and cartoon network show, my love for it dwindled over the years. Somehow, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge managed to bring back my love for the series in a good way.
The game, developed by Tribute Games alongside Dotemu, is a classic beat-em-up in the veins of the old arcade TMNT games, and it is a near-flawless experience in what it wants to do.
Cowabunga!
Shredder’s Revenge follows a group of four vigilante turtles 80s and 90s kid has grown to love and adore trying to save the city from the villainous Shredder, but it doesn’t end there. The game also features fan favourite April O’Neal, turtle’s Master Splinter, and Casey Jones.
The storyline plays like an episode of an 80’s cartoon show, each of which spans a variety of levels. Players will begin at April’s TV9 station, which Shredder’s goon takes over to broadcast their illicit activity and proceed to levels like a zoo, a highway, and much more.
Almost every character and bosses in the game are voice-acted, with the original 80s cast reprising their roles. Even though the voice lines are not plentiful, they give each character personality. The developers ensured that people who grew up with the old cartoon and arcade games would feel homely here.
Turtles Together Save The City In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge
The gameplay of Shredder’s Revenge provides two experiences. The story mode follows the events of the game through sixteen levels and the arcade mode. Arcade mode allows players to clear levels one after the other, removing the secrets and collectables and making it an old-school arcade experience.
In both the game mode, the gameplay revolves around players selecting their favourite characters and clearing levels in classic beat-em-up style. Players have an option to create combo moves against the enemies, and doing so is recommended for a better score. Additionally, at each level, players can find characters they can rescue. Saving these characters will unlock additional collection quests.
The game roughly takes 2-4 hours to complete, depending on the difficulty. However, from a beat-em-up standard, this is a lot. Furthermore, there are movesets to unlock for each character and challenges to complete, adding to the replay value.
On top of all this, the game is playable in a six-player co-op in either couch play, remote-play on steam or online. There is also crossplay between Steam, Epic Games Store, and Xbox Game Pass for PC. That is where my only concern about the game lies.
The implementation of the cross-play is pretty awkward, where Gamepass players cannot invite Steam players to their lobby, but vice-versa is possible. Similarly, I experienced a few crashes while playing with my friend on Gamepass. This issue didn’t happen during the Steam co-op. Given the track record of Dotemu, hopefully, this should get addressed quickly. For now, Steam to Steam co-op works flawlessly.
The developers knew that instead of making a flashy, 3D game, they should go back to the roots and go for a 2D beat-em-up, which works in favour of the game.
Graphics and Soundtrack
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge embraces the retro roots and features beautiful sprites for characters and environments. The game during my playtime ran on my RTX 3060 system, paired with a Ryzen 2600 and 16 gigabytes of RAM. At 1080p, framerates were an afterthought, as the game had no problems running flawlessly. There aren’t any graphic settings, apart from setting the resolution and toggling the v-sync. The game should not struggle running on entry to mid-level hardware, judging the art style.
Much of the credit for the game to be fun also goes to the killer soundtrack composition by Tee Lopes. Lopes brings in his musical prowess from Streets of Rage 4 and goes all in. There’s the vocal soundtrack alongside nostalgic chiptunes, and each piece of stage music sets the tone of the level, making them even more fun.
Final Thoughts
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge tries to resurrect the legacy of the Turtles and friends in the current year and succeed gloriously. The developers ensured they respected the past and embraced it completely, doing so in the most beautiful way possible.
Consisting of a brilliant soundtrack, fun beat-em-up gameplay, secrets and achievements to complete, and fun co-op options, the game proves that sometimes, games do not have to be flashy and over the top, and embracing what was successful in the past with modern features help.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge embraces the past and brings modern features like co-op and fun gameplay to the table. Featuring a brilliant soundtrack and beautiful sprites, the co-op beat-em-up brings the glory back to the favourite Turtles in the current year.
