Rating of
4/5
Nineties Nostalgia Bomb
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 08/02/24
The ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ (‘TMNT’) IP has been around for a LOOOOONG time, blazing onto the comic book, cartoon, and (of course) toy scenes in the late ‘80s and becoming something of a de-facto shared experience for everyone who was a tween in the ‘90s. Sadly, ‘TMNT’ has a rough start getting into the world of videogaming, with a truly deplorable first entry by Konami on the NES. The Konami of the time, however, was a small developer that relied on outside publishers, and thus really put in the work to make their games better and more enjoyable. The first ‘good’ ‘TMNT’ title was their second effort, resulting in a popular, gorgeous, and fun-even-when-completely-unfair Arcade game, crafted in the image of other popular Beat ‘em Ups of the era… to which they gave something of a hatched-job port. This standardized Beat ‘em Up format followed ‘TMNT’ games all through Konami’s rule over the videogame rights for the IP, which finally came to an end in 2005.
With its popularity and relevance fading, the owners of the ‘TMNT’ IP shopped around the videogame rights to a variety of Western studios, including both Ubisoft and Activision, missing only Electronic Arts on its Triumvirate of Evil BINGO card. Over the subsequent decades, ‘TMNT’ faded from the hearts and minds of the public, and everyone on the MeltedJoystick Crew – even the hardcore Turtle Collector, Chris – stopped buying and playing the games after the SNES era.
In 2017, ‘TMNT’ broke free of Industrial Gaming “AAA” publishers, and was given to small-potatoes development studio, Raw Thrills, for another stab at an arcade game. However, even that wasn’t enough to resuscitate the IP within the world of videogaming. Rather, that would fall upon the shoulders of an Indie developer, Tribute Games, previously known primarily for the excellent run-and-gun ‘Metal Slug’ knock-off, “Mercenary Kings.” However, with Tribute’s obsessive attention to detail and incredible skill at sprite-work, their little Indie game – “TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge” – made the biggest splash in Turtle World in well over a decade. The Turtle Fans on the MJ Crew were desperate to get a nostalgia hit of classic ‘TMNT’ gameplay from the Console Golden Age… and that’s exactly what “Shredder’s Revenge” delivers, along with a heaping helping of modern features that keep it from feeling archaic or stale.
Presentation
By far the best aspects of “Shredder’s Revenge” all fall under the umbrella of its audio-visual prowess. This game looks and feels exactly like how all of us jaded ‘90s Kids remember the NES and SNES games. The sprite-work is large, colorful, well-animated, and painstakingly detailed. All of the characters and environments look like they did in the original version of the ‘TMNT’ IP. There are no warped reimaginings, and – amazingly – there isn’t a hint of Woke-washing in this game. Do you want the fat, Black April from the most recent ‘TMNT’ movie? EFF you, you’re getting the curvy redheaded version of the character we all fell in love with back in the day. Period.
Audio is also an incredible bit of nostalgia warfare, remixing a number of classic ‘TMNT’ soundtrack tunes into slight variations. Even better, many of the original voice-actors from the ‘90s cartoon reprise their roles. I was never even that big of a Turtle Fan back in the day, but the combination of the visuals and the voice-acting in the opening cinematic sequence (why aren’t there more of THOSE anymore?) sent tingles down my spine.
Technically, “Shredder’s Revenge” is just as solid as every other facet of its presentation. It’s got native Xinput support that “just works,” the matchmaking system for teaming up with friends either locally (what?!) or online is seamless and supports a whopping 6 simultaneous players (which might actually make the action too hectic and the screen too busy), and performance is smooth, flawless, and glitch-free.
Story
“Shredder’s Revenge” is certainly a treat for the senses, but is significantly less of a treat for the part of the human brain that loves storytelling. Through the game’s 16 missions, the players will guide the four Turtles, their sensei Master Splinter, and/or April through a variety of missions that are definitely designed to induce nostalgic utterances of “I remember that!” The game begins with the Foot Clan reappearing and stealing Krang’s head… well, not really Krang’s head, but his surrogate body’s head, from a secure location, while a whole slew of the Turtles’ classic nemeses try to get in the way.
We start off dealing with the classic duo of Rocksteady and Bebob before moving on to less-well-known villains from all throughout the cartoon’s full run. Some of the villains (and allies) were fairly late introductions in the cartoon, and thus induced head-scratching and memory combing rather than the desired nostalgia, but overall, there’s enough familiar fun that anyone who watched the cartoon after school will have a good idea of what’s going on.
Players who did NOT watch the ‘90s cartoon after school – and were, in fact, not even sperm or eggs yet in the ‘90s – will definitely get less out of it. Character relationships aren’t particularly well-explained, and anyone who is completely unfamiliar with ‘TMNT’ will likely be left dumbfounded by the lack of narrative.
While it may be vague and lean a bit too heavily on nostalgia, there is definitely a plot, though, with a beginning, middle, and end, which mostly makes sense. However, this plot is so incredibly short and overly streamlined that we were able to blaze through the game’s Story Mode in two sittings, totally roughly 3 hours of runtime. Story Mode isn’t the only mode, but Arcade Mode is literally just Story Mode with all the modern QoL features and what little narrative there is stripped away completely.
Gameplay
Tribute Games built their reputation on their mastery of classic side-scrolling gameplay, and their expertise really shows in “Shredder’s Revenge.” This game plays exactly like an amped-up version of one of the classic 16-bit titles. You’ve got your quasi-3D environments with the ability to move freely between the foreground and background. You’ve got your basic attacks, jump attacks, sliding attacks, throws, and super attacks, the latter of which can be executed by filling a meter. Said meter fills by landing punches, but getting hit before it’s full resets it to empty.
While walking from Left to Right, punching countless robotic Foot Soldiers and other iconic baddies from the cartoon, players will also run into a handful of power-ups, typically in the form of pizza. Normal pizza heals the player who eats it, party pizza heals the entire team, while two other spicier varieties allow for infinite super meter or temporary invincibility. After walking Left to Right and punching, kicking, and otherwise murdering their way through a specific number of discreet screens, the player(s) will come to a boss arena, where a big bad awaits with memorizable attack patterns, and a bit fat health bar at the bottom of the screen.
In general, “Shredder’s Revenge” does not try to reinvent the wheel, sticking closely to established Beat ‘em Up standards… and sometimes that’s exactly what players want. However, though “Shredder’s Revenge” may not endeavor to reinvent the wheel, it isn’t afraid to add some embellishments to the wheel… which didn’t really feel all that exciting. While the man Story Mode of the game allows for infinite continues and even allows the player(s) to travel around a “Super Mario Bros. 3”-style world map and replay stages, the primary reasons to do so are finding hidden collectables or fulfilling optional mission parameters. We did enjoy finding all the hidden things, but too many of the optional parameters were massive pains in the butt, made even more painful by the fact that in a cooperative game, any player biffing one of the requirements causes everyone to fail.
What do the optional objectives and collectables do? They provide experience! What does experience do? It unlocks additional passive power-ups for each character… and each character needs to be leveled up individually. While I am definitely glad to see Tribute Games trying to add some depth to a traditionally-shallow genre, the way they did with the gun crafting in “Mercenary Kings,” I feel like the leveling system in “Shredder’s Revenge” ultimately missed the mark, coming off an unexciting and incredibly basic.
Overall
If you were a ‘90s Kid who grew up watching the original ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ cartoon after school… GO BUY THIS GAME RIGHT NOW! If you were only a passive Turtle Fan, wait for a sale and make sure to coop it with friends who loved Turtle Stuff more than you. If you weren’t even a glimmer in your parents’ eyes in the ‘90s or you’re triggered by the fact that April O’Neil is not fat, ugly, and Black in this game, then you should probably skip it.
Ultimately, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge” is a solid Beat ‘em Up that doesn’t really try to do anything new, both to its benefit and to its detriment. The main sell is easily Tribute Game’s incredible presentation, while the game itself feels way too short and a bit too basic to really stand up as an Indie classic.
Presentation: 5/5
Story: 3/5
Gameplay: 4/5
Overall (not an average): 4/5
