Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge Review

After doing Streets of Rage 4, Dotemu takes on the daunting task of making Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. Did they score another home run with the turtles, or should you play something else?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge Review

Shredders Revenge begins with the gang watching the news and eating pizza. The Foot Clan is doing something to the Statue of Liberty, and Bebop has taken over the news studio. Shredder is back, and it is up to you all to stop him. You travel through New York fighting the various turtle villains and Foot Clan elites until you figure out what they are doing with the Statue. The game is short – you will beat it in two to three hours – but it is a fun time.

Shredder’s Revenge is a beat-’em-up through and through. There is one attack button, and that is used for basically everything. You can hold it, combo it with jumps and dives, or spam it for multiple attacks. You do this to charge up your special attack, which can easily clear the screen. You can also taunt, which charges the special meter but leaves you open to attack. If you play online, expect tons of taunting and a bunch of special attacks.

One can play with six people in this game, which means things get crazy on screen. You can be the turtles, as well as Splinter and April. Despite how chaotic it can get with that many players, it is 10x more fun playing with others. With enough players, you all become whirlwinds of destruction, and the Foot Clan soldiers drop like flies. Bosses are a bit more tricky, but you can revive each other if you go down. Just be sure not to all die, because that means you need to reset the level.

All the characters have three stats: speed, strength, and range. Mikey is a fast guy with no range and can build combos quickly. On the other hand, Donatello keeps enemies back easily with his staff but is slow. Leo is an all-rounder and doesn’t excel anywhere. That being said, every character gets the job done and then some. You can always find someone else to enjoy, even if you don’t like a particular character.

While the game is level-based, there is a map you get to go to between levels. Here you can redo other missions, check out your dojo (which shows all the challenges), and drop collectibles off at NPCs you rescue in the stages. You get more points for this, which levels up your character. The levels are an excellent addition to show your progress. You get more lives, extra special attacks, and more special bars. Not groundbreaking, but welcome nonetheless.

The levels themselves only run on average six to ten minutes. That number is perfect, as you never feel like you are overstaying your welcome. As you progress, the bosses become more challenging as well. Bebop rams himself into a wall, making him an easy target early on. Later, a robot boss jumps off the screen and sends Foot Ninjas at you. Instead of beating down the Foot Clan guys, you need to grab them and toss them at the screen. This makes the boss come back down so you can hit him. Again, nothing groundbreaking, but enough to make you think.

I think the biggest problem I had was that I’d lose my turtle sometimes when we had six players. This could just be a me problem, but the bandannas weren’t enough to make Mikey stand out. I realized at the end of the game, you can make it so your player number is over your character, which made it much more manageable.

I did have a couple of bugs online. For example, sometimes, an enemy would be caught in a grapple and nothing could be done. In addition, some of us would be invisible when the level started and couldn’t move. I didn’t have any frame drops or crashes, though; those bugs were rare.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge is an excellent callback to the Turtles beat-’em-ups of old. The game is an easy purchase – if you can handle the chaos happening on screen.

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