Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge

July 2nd, 2022.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge brings me back to a simpler time when my only objective in gaming was to smash as many enemies as I could while tearing up my fingers from pressing the buttons so fast and hard in the process. The only difference is this time, I get to do it with way more players, which is way more fun.

Shredder’s Revenge isn’t a complicated or long game. There are two modes to play, Arcade and Story, and the same 16 levels across either of them. The entire adventure can be cleared in just about two hours, which is pretty refreshing given the grand scope and scale of most modern games that often require 20 to 40 hours beat.

For those of us with busy schedules, it can be hard to find the time to dive into any game outside of a few rounds of whatever comfort-food-like multiplayer title we’re currently playing. Right when things start to get good, it’s time to shut the game down and head to bed or move onto the next productive task requiring our attention. This game helps remedy that problem by giving us a short and chaotic experience filled with a variety of enemies to defeat – who, yes, have their power levels directly correlate to their color palette.

Beating the crap out of hordes of enemies while dodging oncoming attacks, trying to eat pizza to regain health, meditating or taunting to charge up for a special move is never dull – and it’s even better with friends (or strangers)!

Shredder’s Revenge allows up to six players to group up and fight their way through either mode. I played on an Xbox Series X which has cross-play enabled with Windows PC players, so I was able to group up with all of my friends who decided to try the game on Xbox Game Pass. The drop-in/drop-out functionality meant that we could start on level one, play together until someone had to go grab dinner, and then invite another friend to fill their spot without missing a beat.

The six-player multiplayer is where this game truly shines. The chaos that unfolds onscreen as six unique characters jump around using all kinds of drop kicks, uppercuts, grabs, throws, slides, and ultimate attacks is unlike anything I’ve ever seen in a co-op multiplayer title. I was laughing from the moment we started the first level and absolutely destroyed three Foot Clan members by juggling them against the side of the screen until we finally gave enough mercy to finally let them die.

If you don’t have any friends with a copy of the game to join you, don’t sweat it. You can freely join other players in either Arcade or Story Mode by selecting the “Find Players” option and picking a lobby from the list that pops up. The list shows you what percentage of the game is completed by the party in arcade mode, or what percentage of the level is completed in story mode. It also displays the avatars of each character currently selected, so you know if your favorite is available to pick before you join.

As you can see in the screenshot below, it can be difficult to keep up with where you are on screen with so many people. Thankfully the developer included the ability to hold LT to display an indicator above your character model making it easier to regain your sense of direction – but don’t be surprised when you see yourself walking into a wall at the end of a fight because you thought you were someone else the entire time.

After spending just over 10 hours with the game, I found myself enjoying the arcade mode the most.

Story mode includes additional functionality like leveling your favorite character from 1 to 10 by defeating enemies, clearing levels, and completing side objectives. This unlocks new abilities and attacks for your character as you go. There’s also a unique “RADICAL” power-up state you can enter by charging up your special meter three times and then holding the special activation button once you’ve unlocked it – though I found it to be a bit underwhelming compared to just using my special attack three times in a row.

Arcade mode gives you all of your abilities up front and you only get one special charge at a time. There aren’t any side objectives or an overworld map. The game just plays out from level 1 to level 16 in order with only static cutscenes breaking up the action. Despite there being less content in this mode, I found it to be a lot more challenging, especially on the “Gnarly” difficulty where you lose double the amount of health per hit and only spawn with three lives and I enjoyed pushing myself to survive until the end.

Ultimately, I don’t really think it’s a ‘this’ or ‘that’ scenario though. Shredder’s Revenge is enjoyable no matter how you decide to play – even if you just run the entire thing yourself. The enemies have enough variety to keep you engaged and learning the patterns of each attack is super satisfying. Do it enough and you’ll be able to go from being knocked down several times in a single level to completing the game with hardly a scratch, even after the boss fights!

There’s also a lot of humor hidden in plain sight like enemies having their clothes painted in the background to become stronger, or this scene of hard-working Foot Clan members trying to blend into their environment with their completely normal and functioning office computers – each one missing a mouse, keyboard, or in one case, the entire monitor… that I was being hit with as I took this.

I found each of the characters to be entertaining to play. There are mild differences between each of them – my favorites being Donnie’s long-reach, Mikey’s goofy sprint animation, Leo’s katana spin double-jump attack, and Casey Jones just being an absolute monster no matter the circumstance.

The soundtrack is simply wonderful. Three levels have vocal tracks, the first of which is an 80’s rock ballad that feels very reminiscent of Stan Bush’s “The Touch” from the 1986 The Transformers movie. But I will admit that one of my only complaints about the game also has to do with the audio – the dreadful repetition of voice lines. I can hear Raph’s laughing taunt, Leo’s “Deep breath” line, and Splinter’s “Teamwork is the answer!” lines in my sleep at this point.

My other more-genuine complaint is the bugs. I haven’t played a ton of the game solo and when I did, I didn’t have any issues so these could strictly be network bugs for all I know. But unfortunately, there are plenty of them present. The main one occurring at the start of a new level where one or more players would suddenly see nothing but the blank stage. They can’t move or anything else which leaves the party trapped on the non-scrolling screen as we wait for something to happen. The only fix we found was for the bugged player to leave and rejoin before someone else did, but this unfortunately wipes their score from the session leaving them to start over.

Another bug included bosses getting stuck in their death animations which left us stuck at the victory screen as random players were able to join and leave as we were stuck in place. Admittedly, this one was beneficial for a few folks unlocking the achievement for beating the last boss without being hit.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge is a fun game. It’s easy to pick up and you’re not required to stick around for an entire run if you have limited time. The variety of playable characters and enemies along with the short length give it much more replay value than most titles for me. After multiple clears across both modes, I’m still finding myself eager to jump back in and slap up some bad guys – even right now as I’m writing this!

Simply put, I love this game and I hope we get more like it in the future.