Following their successful launch of Streets of Rage 4, Dotemu teamed up with Tribute Games to revive another classic beat ‘em up series. Giving a series continuation title to the Nickelodeon classic TMNT games is easily the best route they could have taken and after playing through Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, I can confidently say this game lived up to the hype! With a new storyline to follow and a unique way to bring back this nostalgic experience while providing a new playthrough at the same time, this title is simply entertaining.

Story

Shredder has set out an attack on New York City and is trying to weaponize the Statue of Liberty! It’s up to our heroes in a half-shell to stop him before the whole city becomes a victim of corrupt justice!

Gameplay

After taking a moment to look through the direct menu and deciding if you want to play through Story Mode, which will allow saves, retry’s, and continues after reaching a game over, or rather through Arcade Mode, which has no saves or continues and will have to be beaten in one sitting with only the lives you are given, the game jumps right into level one. Here you will have a chance to pause the game and look through the move list only to find it is rather simple, although more complicated than it was in 1986.

Regardless of which character you choose to fight as you have your attack button which can be pressed multiple times to pull off a combo attack, a jump button which will lead to attacks, evades, and super attacks from the air while a double jump is simply for height, a dodge button which turns into a slide kick attack when sprinting, and your super attack which requires one full bar of ‘Ninja Power’ to use. These are the buttons you will have throughout the game and it is honestly all you need.

Of course, there are some intricacies such as the back attack and team attack options. If you are playing this game co-op, attacking the same enemy in specific ways will give you a team attack, doing double damage. There is also a taunt button, which can be pressed with a full ‘Ninja Power’ gauge to make yourself stronger momentarily. But best of all, in a true motion of co-op-focused controls, they have a ‘Cheer Up’ button which will have your characters high-five each other. This action will send two bars of your health bar to your partner.

If you go down in single-player, you simply lose a life and get dropped back in - which has no invincibility frames, so be ready immediately. However, if you are playing multiplayer, a fellow fighter can get you back up with the same button they would use to do the ‘Cheer Up’ action. When you go down a countdown from 9 will start, giving your partner 9 seconds to get you back up. Fun fact: 0 seconds left counts and you can still be picked up. If your partner is hit by an attack while trying to revive you, they will let go and have to start over, given that the hit doesn’t cause the time to run out.

Aside from the actual combat, there will be plenty of breakables throughout the levels. Behind some of the breakables will be collectibles, including characters from the series. Freeing the characters will lead them to open a spot on the level select map where you can see them and if you collect all of the items they are asking you to find, they will give you points. These points, which are earned by fighting well, being the top player in a level, and various other actions, are used to level up the fighter themselves. Leveling up a fighter opens up more attack options, increases their life bar, and gives them more lives for the playthrough. Honestly, the collectibles are super easy to find - just break everything you can.

Speaking of collectibles, there are also plenty of pizzas to pick up along your journey! A regular pizzle will provide one player with full health, a double-wide pizza will provide all players with full health, a red-box pizza will provide a power attack that lasts for a short amount of time, and a pizza box with the infinite sign on it will give 10 seconds of unlimited ‘Ninja Power’ for whichever fighter that picked it up to start spamming their super attack!

Audio and Visual

When you plug in an actually retro game into today’s TVs, they end up looking a bit weird and some of the nostalgia is replaced with the question, “did it always look like this? I thought I remembered it looking so much better?” This is because the pixel style of the early days worked well with the CRT TVs we used back then. This game was designed to look exactly how we would have remembered the classics looking when we played them back in the day! Sure, it’s a bit pixelated, but it is done in a way that makes it look clean, colorful, clear, and badass! I truly enjoyed the art style and overall design they used for this game.

Unfortunately, the same can not be said about the music. Throughout most of the game, the music was great and modernized retrofitting. I thought it was all mostly really nice match until I reached the final boss… when you face off against Shredder in the end, a form of TMNT-themed hip-hop music is played, which is simply not what I was expecting to hear. This surprise was doubled by another remixed version of their theme played over the ending credits. If the music was so well fit throughout the game, why would you change it up? There were no cool points added for this… it was actually a bit of a pull away.

Replayability

I’m not sure how they happen and will be replaying this game myself, but the Story Mode alone has seven different endings to unlock! If that isn’t enough to get you to replay a brand new arcade-style classic, it has the 6 players’ co-op mode, in which the multiplayer can be played local and online with crossplay options. There is also the Arcade Mode which is a bit of a challenge mode if you are up for it.

What It Could Have Done Better

My literal only complaint was the sudden change in music style at the end of the game. They really should just update the game and replace it with similar music that the rest of the game featured. Those two tracks I mentioned before just pull the whole nostalgic experience away.

Verdict

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge is an instant arcade-style classic that our half-shelled heroes would be sure to say is Cowabunga approved! My first playthrough, I easily managed to do in a single sitting as it isn’t too long of a game, but it was so much fun that I didn’t want it to end. Playing with different fighters, although they have similar controls, gives a different experience. My current favorite is actually Master Splinter, but I still have a few more to try out. If you’re looking for a new beat ‘em up title or simply just a nostalgic trip with a new gameplay experience, this new TMNT game is an easy pick to scratch that itch.

TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge will be available on PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One and Game Pass on June 16th.