Review: TMNT: SHREDDER'S REVENGE is Tubular Turtle Fun
Earlier this month, developer Tribute Games and publisher Dotemu released Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. The game is a tribute to the classic side-scrolling arcade brawlers of the ‘80s and ‘90s, but is a brand new game and not just a remake or remaster. The game released on Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, and Xbox One with a retail price of $24.99. The team was kind enough to provide me with a copy of the game on Nintendo Switch, but all the thoughts below are my own.
I remember as a kid, on the rare occasions that I was somewhere with an arcade cabinet, I would always look for the TMNT game and try to play. I never got very far, but it was a blast. Shredder’s Revenge feels like how I remember those games being. The game feels like those classic arcade games and is very well done in a lot of areas. Many of the original voice cast from the cartoon reprise their roles, the music is stellar, and the graphics look spot on. If you like side-scrolling beat ‘em up games, I really recommend this one. If you like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, grab it! This is great!
One of the aspects that works really well is the multiplayer. One of the great things about the game is that you can have up to six people playing at a time either on the same console or online (or a mix). Couch co-op is really easy to do and then if you want to play with others, it’s also really easy to join random groups. I don’t have any friends that have it on Switch at the moment so I wasn’t able to test how easy it was to join a friend’s group, but I imagine it’s not difficult. The multiplayer is drop-in and drop-out so you can join a group that’s 90% of the way done with a level, help defeat the boss, and not have had to do any of the hard stuff leading up to them. It’s done very smoothly and playing with 5 other people is chaotic in the most fun way possible.
There’s a story mode and although I haven’t completed it, I understand it’s really short at under 4 hours. That being said, there are collectibles and challenges to get you to continue playing. If the story mode isn’t challenging enough, there is an arcade mode that simulates playing at the arcade. You get fewer lives, can’t save your progress, etc.
Really, my only complaint is that the game doesn’t currently support cross-play/cross-progression with the exception of cross-play between PC and Xbox. That being said, I have heard that the team is hoping to include console cross-play down the road.
At the end of the day, Shredder’s Revenge is near perfect for what it wanted to be. Sure, there are a couple levels that drive me a little batty (the ones where you automatically progress on hoverboards), but the game is a delight. I highly recommend it and feel like it definitely is worth the $25 that is asked.
