Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shredder’s Revenge – from now on abbreviated to TMNT Shredder’s Revenge is a trip down memory lane. Bringing the Turtles back to their late 80s/early 90s iteration and putting them in a beat ’em up was all it took to get me excited. Add the original theme song but this time with Mike Patton – of Faith No More fame – singing and I instantly became the Futurama/take my money meme. Pulling on nostalgia is a great marketing trick but doesn’t always make for a good game…
16-bit Continuity
TMNT has quite the history. The characters originally started in a comic created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. To expand on the franchise a cartoon series was pitched and after agreeing to make the characters less violent and more humoristic the first series aired back in 1987. The show was an international hit and spawned a whole bunch of different merchandising. Games were bound to follow and sure enough in 1989, the first game based on the characters was released on NES. Soon after an arcade game followed which was the first beat ’em up style game in the franchise. When the 16-bit era of game consoles started, TMNT got featured on both the Super Nintendo and the Megadrive/Genesis with iconic beat ’em ups. Although other games (mostly 3D) were made after the 16-bit era none reached the success/popularity of the older beat’ em ups. This is where TMNT Shredder’s Revenge fits in.
Tribute Games decided to go back and use the beat ’em up-blueprint of Turtles in Time / The Hyperstone Heist and make a classic with today’s capabilities. Over time the Turtles’ characters have evolved throughout the many reboots they went through. Tribute Games opted to take the classic original cartoon look to set this game firmly in that 16-bit continuity. Throwing in many callbacks to iconic levels from the original games further cemented this trip down memory lane. Playing this game has been a blast for me personally. I was (and still am) a huge TMNT fan growing up so this hits me right in the nostalgia “feels” to the point I’m longing to pull out my original series DVDs again and binge-watch all seasons.
The gang’s all here
TMNT Shredder’s revenge starts out with Shredder up to no good. He’s out for revenge – as if you hadn’t figured that out from the title already – and plans to wreak havoc on Manhattan again with the help of many iconic baddies from the TMNT world. At the start of the game, you pick your character. In addition to Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael, you can also pick Master Splinter and April O’Neill. They threw in one of my favorite characters from the franchise, Casey Jones, as an unlockable character. Right from the start, you’ll notice up to 6 players can join the party showcasing one of the current era futures no early 90s system could pull off. I don’t have 6 friends to join me but through online (crossplay) matchmaking I tested out this mode and found out it was pure mayhem. The fact that 6 players are possible doesn’t make it necessary… 6 is way too crowded making it almost impossible to see what your own character is doing.
The number of enemies and the toughness of the bosses scale with every extra player added to the party. Because of this, playing the game with 2 to 4 players makes the game the most enjoyable in my opinion. Opting to play solo will give you a nice experience getting through the roughly 2 hours it’ll take you to get through the game but just like the older games, you’ll want to share the experience with other people. A nice addition is the “rewards” handed out at the end of each level. Depending on how you played you could get the MVP reward or maybe the Zen award is more you’re thing. For instance, to get the Zen award you need to take the “taunt-rest” action the most times.
Leveling and special attacks
As you play the game you’ll be awarded points based on how you played. After earning enough you’ll start to gain character levels making you stronger. At some levels, you’ll be granted extra special moves. These special moves can be triggered when you’ve hit enough enemies and the special bar is charged. You can bank up to 3 charges. Some special moves use up more charges but all of them are a way to deal some serious damage. When ganged up by multiple enemies is when these special attacks will be most effective. Although you could also use them to deal big chunks of damage to each level’s boss.
Story vs Arcade
TMNT Shredder’s revenge features 2 modes: Story mode and Arcade mode. The story mode is made for those who want to progress through the story and enjoy it without too much stress. Dying in this mode is only a bit annoying but doesn’t mean you’ve reached the end of the line. With continues, you can hop back in just like that and almost not lose a beat. Arcade mode on the other hand is less forgiving and makes you go back to the start of the game when you lose all your lives. Those wanting to relive the stress of the Arcade version will most likely choose this version of the game. I found this “extra mode” more novelty which could easily be implemented with a simple checkbox in the options as opposed to adding a whole new mode.
Conclusion
Tribute Games made a great hommage to the arcade/16-bit days of the Turtles games. Using no-nonsense controls and no special gimmicks was the right choice in my opinion. I only hoped this would have some more content other than the ability to replay it in arcade mode or with even more people you could ever imagine fit on the screen.
