Dotemu and Nickelodeon have teamed up to deliver an experience any fan of the early 90’s arcade game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game and its follow ups Turtles in Time, Hyperstone Heist and The Manhattan Project would remember. The new offering, titled TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge, completely picks up where those games left off in feel, play, and sound. The game finally released to acclaim this morning, so let’s get into it.
Shredder’s Revenge is exactly what I hoped for out of this title. The game immediately starts with a slightly updated version of the cartoon theme song, complete with a new intro and everything. While the older games primarily focused on picking one of the four turtles, these games have upped the ante a little by including Splinter and April O’Neil to the cast of playable characters. Having spent time with each of them, I can tell you that they are welcome additions to the cast and people will probably really enjoy using one or the other in addition to the four turtles.
The levels look almost exactly like you’d remember, but they are updated graphics and are a bit more polished than the older games. You’d expect this since they can deliver those sharp and clear images, but Dotemu really did go out of their way as a publisher to make sure that fans of the original games wouldn’t notice much, if any, difference in the visual department. You can even still fling a Foot Soldier into the screen like you could in the old arcade games. When I say this game is a sequel to the childhood games you remember, I mean that literally.
But Beat ‘Em Ups require more than just fun action. Another aspect of the genre is the pulse-pounding tunes that keep your mind focused on the action and once again, Shredder’s Revenge delivers in spades. The individual characters are voiced by the original actors and they sound as perfect as ever. You can taunt in game and hearing those old voices is just as nurturing to my soul as it was back then. I found myself hitting taunts just to hear those voices again. Nostalgia is a trip, isn’t it?
While the whole game will probably not take you and some friends more than three hours to beat, Shredder’s Revenge combats this in two ways. The first way they’ve chosen to combat the shortness of the game is to sell it for cheaper than you’d normally see. I appreciate when developers do this. Even with the extras that they’ve tried to include, the true replay value here is probably somewhere between nostalgia and playing co-op with friends who have come over for a little while to hang out. Given the shortness of this game, you could easily fire it up after a day of watching NFL football, crack a couple of beers, and kick some Foot from A-Z without needing 500 hours extra in your life.
As far as the extras go, they’ve included a story mode and an arcade mode. The story mode is very similar to the arcade but it offers some variety in gameplay by giving the player target goals to hit. My target goals for the first mission were to not take any damage (lol), defeat four Foot with a trap, and to use some chain combo finishers on a set number of Foot, as well. The rewards vary from extra health points to a larger super meter and much more. It’s not a lot, but it certainly gives you new challenges to achieve while you’re playing.
As far as multiplayer goes, you can play any way you want. You can play with friends locally. You can jump online and play with friends or complete strangers or you can do a mix of local friends and online friends. There is even some limited crossplay, however it only works with PC and Xbox right now. PlayStation and Switch players will eventually be getting the cross play format, but for now they’re stuck playing with other players on those respective platforms. Either way, the idea is there and the game offers a variety of different ways to play with friends or others.
Shredder’s Revenge is a short but memorable playthrough. Fans of the characters, comics, or TV shows of any era will love this game. It hits all the right notes, brings up all the old memories, and integrates all the things we loved about these characters. With all that’s going on in the world right now, having a fun and nostalgic piece of entertainment that we can enjoy is just the thing we need. If you’re a fan of the characters, the genre, or nostalgia in general, Shredder’s Revenge is a must-buy for me.
I give it 4.5 out of 5 Shells.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge is available on PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC as of today. .
Kane Webb covers video games, comics, and film/tv for BSO and The Marvel Report. He also covers the USC Trojans for Athlon Sports. He is an entertainment journalist and you can follow him for more on Twitter: @FightOnTwist.