Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge Review
Played on Xbox One (base)
Developed by Tribute Games
Released 16th June 2022
Played Co-op
Tribute Games is a Montreal-based studio with much experience developing brawler-style games, with the team's developers dabbling in projects like 'Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game' or the 2007 TMNT game. After Dotemu expressed their interest in developing a TMNT game with the IP's owners, Nickelodeon, the two companies got to work with significant gameplay inspirations from the original 90s arcade TMNT games and design & story elements being incorporated from the 1987 animated show. The accumulation of all this influence created a fantastic retro game that made me contemplate if I should 100% it (I ended up not).
Story
The story was simple yet entertaining. As expected, it follows the 4 turtle brothers as they fight against their infamous adversaries while on the pursuit of Krang, who is planning to take over the Statue of Liberty - standard TMNT narrative. During my experience, there were small cutscenes that would occasionally play to progress the story, however, they never caught my attention too much, as I focused more on the fun factor behind this mutant mayhem rather than the significance of each event unfolding, and I'm sure that was its intention. The overall feeling of this whole game, from the atmosphere to the story, draws much on that nostalgic formula of the classic animated TMNT show that many people, myself included, watched during their childhoods. As a result, regardless of whether the story was ridiculous or bland, whether the pacing was rushed or too slow, most of the game's sins are washed away due to that pure joy that is brought out when seeing the classic show brought back to life. Thus, if this is your first time engaging in the TMNT world, then you'll walk away from the tale thinking of it as yet another retro package, otherwise, you'll find it to be another enjoyable story featuring the turtle brothers.
Gameplay
The gameplay is of an incredibly refined beat'em up. In my 4-hour playtime, I mostly compared the combat to that of Dotemu's other published project that I played not too long ago - Streets of Rage 4 - and it fairs quite well. The two are revitalisations of the classic 90s formula of beat'em ups and while SOR4 raised the bar in its combat, I feel like Shredder's Revenge was able to keep up with these increasing expectations. The combat is incredibly smooth and fairly punishing (at least on the hardest difficulty), requiring some better-focused inputs than just mindless button mashing. It does do little in terms of innovation, but its greater focus on style over substance proves to be a success.
You have the standard light and heavy attacks and special super moves that change depending on the directional input. In addition to this, the game offers an Arcade Mode and a Story Mode. The former provides the expected arcade service where you have 3 lives to complete the whole game in one sitting. The latter, which I spent most of my time on, offers additional side-objectives such as collectables hidden in the world, the ability to convert accumulated points for health, extra lives, additional combat moves, and a special ability known as Radical Mode which temporarily enhances the player character's combat abilities. As said before, it doesn't reinvent the wheel but does steer it into fine-tuning. All of these combat features, plus interacting with objects by throwing them and the taunt ability to fuel your super move charge, feel great to play with, especially when paired up in co-op.
The game offers up to 6-player co-op where each player can select an iconic character from the series, each with their own attributes. For example, Splinter may have 3 stars in power but conversely lacks speed, while Michalengo is the opposite, having 3 stars in speed. A co-op-specific mechanic that I thoroughly liked was the ability to transfer health to your teammates by performing a high-five animation, making each intense duel all the more thrilling. Each level also felt superb to traverse, whether it was due to the abundance of enemy variety and quantity feeling fair, the multitude of interactive environmental hazards or even just because they looked fantastic, retaining much of that retro charm in its artistic endeavours.
Bossfights
The bossfights for the most part complemented the polished combat. These small challenges would appear at the end of each level and consist of pre-existing characters from the wild TMNT universe. Every boss felt justifiably difficult with only a couple dipping into the "very easy" territory. However, this doesn't apply to the final boss - Shredder. And no, it's not a spoiler, he's literally in the title of the game. This final Shredder encounter was awesome and as entertaining as the challenge he posed until he reached a certain phase that included slightly frustrating moments of invulnerability, creating the biggest jump in difficulty in the whole game, feeling less like a test of skill and more of a blockade to the credits. Other than this, most bosses had some really cool transformations, designs and attacks, with the odd exception here and there.
Atmosphere
The atmosphere of the game is a charming nod to the TMNT IP. Visually, the game is excellent. Incredible pixelated re-imaginings of the 'Cowabunga' characters, with some highly detailed backgrounds that engage in versatile colour palettes that mimic the livelihood of the cartoons. Audibly, the game is also excellent. The soundtrack was composed by Tee Lopes, who is known for his work on other retro-style games such as the aforementioned Streets of Rage 4, and Sonic Mania. As a result, it is no surprise that the soundtrack emulates much of that energy that the visuals display, with an added kick. The sound effects do sound tame occasionally, but never to a degree that it felt game-breaking. As for voice acting, it's mostly forgettable as it is cast far away from the spotlight that is occupied by the gameplay and atmosphere. An extra point from the hip-hop head within me that was pleasantly surprised by the Ghostface Killah and Raekwon appearance in the track "We Ain't Come To Lose".
Story - 7/10
Gameplay - 7.5/10
Bossfights - 7.5/10
Atmosphere - 8/10
Good
Yet another retro revival done right.
