Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge Review

Ah, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Heroes with hard shells but soft and squishy guts. Have you ever had turtle soup? I own. I didn’t like it very much. I still eat/inspire/drink a lot, because I paid for it and needed to fill my stomach, but it wasn’t the great dining experience I was promised. Now I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking “Chris, this weird introduction is going to be changed so you can say Shredder’s Revenge is gaming turtle soup; it fills you up but it doesn’t taste great.”

rent boo. I won’t be very clear.

No, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge is a certified benefactor, and unlike the questionable turtle food bowl, I’m happy to take a second helping.

Ok, bare food similes down the esophagus, let’s move on to the nitty gritty and gritty details.

If you’re old enough to remember begging Mum and Dad for coins so you can dump them in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade locker (well done for making it so far, old chap), you’ll get pangs of nostalgia before ‘They’ve been thrown out. Your first soldier through the Channel Six newsroom. The game starts with the cartoonish theme song GOAT, which instantly fell back on years past and made me forget for a moment that the world isn’t doing a great job. For those sixty seconds of the ’80s, the world didn’t matter. I was six again, ready to hunker down with a bag of opal fruits (it’s called a Starburst these days) and a worn VHS filled with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon.

Sadly, there aren’t any actual episode packages (which would have been a nice extra treat) but the game is designed to feel like a season of the show. I say that because that’s what the developers said before the release, but really, it doesn’t feel like it’s playing during a season at all. Sure, the levels are split into 16 “episodes” and there’s a loose storyline that sees the awesome quartet (plus Master Splinter, April and an additional unlockable character) smash their way through familiar locations as they hunt Krang and his body-scattering robot. But that’s about it. There is very little dialogue between levels, only static animation with part of the view. I didn’t find them very interesting, so my co-op friend and I were grateful for the option to skip them.

Speaking of co-op, you can either roll solo or play co-op with up to six players on one screen. I played through the entire story mode with my co-op friend: my six-year-old son Charlie. He is a strong player. A real shot at Warzone. Don’t tell his mother. Or social services…

For me, the two players were active enough, regardless of having six heroes advancing their way around the screen. It can get really busy and I lost myself a lot when the two of us were playing, so I can’t imagine the visual chaos that would come with six players. However, it would be better if I had the choice or not, but I wouldn’t do it myself.

Since the game is a modern arcade game without the predatory tendencies of sucking coins into an actual arcade game, it is fairly easy to play. And unlike those punch tanks, Shredder’s Revenge has three difficulty options: Chill, Okay, and Gnarly, which is great news for those of us who like to just sit back, hit a few buttons and feel good for a while. For the sake of this review, Charlie and I played Easy mode until the end. Once we beat the match, we did another round on the medium difficulty level and that was a much bigger challenge. I don’t think my consoles will survive the toughest situations.

I was surprised to see that the menu had more than 20 commands. I wasn’t surprised when I found out that I had forgotten most of them by the time I paused the game.

While it is accessible to everyone with just two attack buttons, a jump button, and a lifesaving dodge move, it is not without depth or challenge. If you really want to feel a cold sweat from running in your last life, you can beat the difficulty or try out the Arcade mode where Game Over actually means game over, not just starting the level over and over until you imbibe your way to the end. There is depth to the fight too, if you look for it. Fortunately, it is not difficult to find. Just jump to the menus and you will find a transfer menu. I was surprised to see that the menu had more than 20 commands. I wasn’t surprised when I found out that I had forgotten most of them by the time I paused the game. For me, simple button presses and energy movement abuse is enough, or at least enough to meander until the end of the game after a couple of Game Overs. Yes, even in easy mode we got our asses, especially in some later levels with environmental hazards and enemies that are hard to beat. I got out though: It was all Charlie’s fault…

There is a tendency among developers these days to cram into RPG-lite systems where they are not really needed in order to populate their games. Sometimes it works, and more often I see through it what it is: a cheap way to give a sense of progress. Shredder’s Revenge takes revenge on the trend by obtaining upgrades that are automatically distributed through gameplay. You have no say in the promotions you get. Just play the game and over time your character’s power level increases, with each new level giving you a boost of HP or a new form of power move. This worked for me because the time spent on the game’s menus meant more time in the game’s beautifully drawn levels. They are really well done.

Charlie didn’t have the same appreciation, calling the graphics “bad” but that’s because he never lived in the times when flaws were features and the third dimension was a dirty fantasy. I have to admit I’m a little underpowered by my love of the “good old days” when it comes to vintage graphics, but I still managed to pick up on what Shredder’s Revenge was. Each level was filled with details, little jokes, and enough nostalgia to make an old man shout “Cowabunga dude!” After every successful boss fight.

The game’s music stood out too, and I usually don’t care much about music in games unless it’s, well, a game based on music. But the familiar theme variations were done well enough to catch my eye and an earworm infested the theme song nearly everywhere, annoying all who don’t like fun.

As a fan of the original coin vampire games, I can say that Shredder’s Revenge hits the right notes in all sections. However, modern gamers who haven’t grown up with cartridges that needed a good hit and bang for the buck may find the simple, one-way gameplay too simple. Basically, if you use a VHS player in real life, you get what Shredder’s Revenge is all about. If you’ve never touched a floppy disk, you might get bored of hitting the buttons in Ring 6.