If you had a local Pizza Hut or movie theater growing up in the late ‘80s or ‘90s, chances are, you tested your luck and honed your skills on various arcade beat ‘em ups, like The Simpsons, X-Men, Streets of Rage, or even the obscure Dinosaurs and Cadillacs. Along with those staples came Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game and, soon after, Turtles in Time. Now, the ’80s and ‘90s have long since passed, and arcades and their TMNT brawlers are few and far between anymore. However, Tribute Games and Dotemu have teamed up to bring gamers the next best thing with TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge.
The new 16-level beat ‘em up encompasses everything the old games offered and more. This time though, six players can team up and face off against familiar TMNT foes. Not only can you play as your favorite turtle, but Splinter, April O’Neil, and Casey Jones are all playable as well. Each character has specific stats, not only offering a strategy for players when they choose a character but a way for teammates to capitalize on the best ways to take down the baddies. For example, while someone may want to have speed on the team, they may pick Michelangelo. To improve on that with power, another teammate may want to choose a stronger character, like Raphael.
The levels themselves are a lot of fun, with many of them playing off the old games. In fact, one of the first levels is called “Big Apple: 3 pm”, a direct reference to a level in Turtles in Time. Shredder’s Revenge takes players from news studios to the zoo and even to alternate dimensions, giving them exciting backgrounds and distractions while piling on loads of foot soldiers.
The game’s bosses offer some surprising deep-cut villains, too. Of course, some staples like Bebop, Rocksteady, Rat King, and Krang all show up, but players will find themselves fighting against lesser-seen villains, including Wingnut, Groundchuck, Dirtbag, and Captain Zorax.
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The gameplay is smooth as butter, allowing players to combo one move into another with ease. Though I had a single crashing issue during online play, I never had any lag, and the same can be said with local same-system online play. Each character levels up individually, so while the game is a co-op, you’ll be battling for points to make your character as strong as possible.
Even more, points can be had by completing side missions and finding hidden collectibles throughout the game. The game also brings back classic move sets to go along with new combos, like throwing foot soldiers into the camera.
The music and the animation are awesome. Cut scenes are a stylistic throwback to the old arcade games, which look like they are pulled straight out of comics or cartoons. The new TMNT theme song, performed by Faith No More’s Mike Patton, is catchy and cool. The rest of the score, composed by Tee Lopes (Sonic Mania, Streets of Rage 4), is a perfect accompaniment to kicking butt.
Like most beat ‘em ups, the game does feel a little short. For someone that absolutely loves these types of games and the source material, a campaign mode of 16 levels just doesn’t completely satisfy me. Granted, once you beat it on normal, you can always go back and play it in a harder mode.
This is just the way of the beat ‘em up, and it was certainly expected, after playing the companies’ other games, Scott Pilgrim and Streets of Rage 4. The most people I played with was four, which was pretty hectic. It’s hard for me to imagine being able to focus on my own character with six players all fighting on the screen.
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I think the $30 USD price tag is fair, especially with the sales that consoles continuously run. I do hope that some DLC will be offered in the future with more characters, levels, or modes. If paying that much for a downloadable game seems unreasonable, Limited Run has some amazing collector’s editions that include steel-book cases, stickers, Pizza Hut coupons, and more.
All in all, Shredder’s Revenge is an almost perfect beat ‘em up and a glorious vessel that transports players back to the late ‘80s and early ‘90s for some shell-kicking fun. I totally recommend picking this one up and having a blast with some friends. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge is now available for PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, and XBOX One.
