‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge’ is a glorious beat-’em-up revival

In the event you visited arcades within the late ‘80s or early ‘90s, you absolutely bear in mind the golden age of beat-em-up video games. Cupboards like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Simpsons, X-Males and extra adopted a reasonably easy formulation: take a preferred franchise and have its characters lower by swaths of unhealthy guys, throw in some environmental challenges to maintain the degrees from getting too repetitive, and high it off with an enormous boss battle on the finish. However the actual draw was multiplayer — these video games let 4 and even six pals (or strangers) play concurrently, a completely chaotic however thrilling shared expertise.

Given the recognition of the TMNT franchise, it’s no shock that each the unique arcade sport and its sequel Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time have been each ported to the NES and SNES, respectively. As a pre-teen, my finest pal and I spent untold hours taking part in these ports, in addition to the arcade video games on the too-rare events that we might get to the mall.

I clearly have a number of nostalgia for these video games, and I’m not alone. Final 12 months, developer Tribute Video games introduced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, a brand-new beat-em-up title impressed by the arcade video games of yesteryear. The sport options retro pixel-art, two completely different sport modes, on-line and native multiplayer (as much as six gamers on-line), and 7 playable characters, together with the 4 turtles, Grasp Splinter, April O’Neil and Casey Jones. On the floor, it appears to have every part you would ask for in a contemporary model of an arcade traditional, and Tribute’s feedback previous to the sport’s launch confirmed a deep love for the supply materials.

After per week taking part in Shredder’s Revenge on the Xbox Sequence S, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Swap, I can verify that Tribute completely nailed its mission of bringing the traditional TMNT expertise into the fashionable period. All of it begins with the artwork model and music, each of that are spot-on for this franchise; it appears like a pure evolution of the unique two arcade video games, each of which have been largely based mostly on the 1987 cartoon (relatively than the comedian books, live-action movies, or newer animated reveals). The music instantly units the tone – the rating by Tee Lopes instantly brings to thoughts traditional 16-bit tunes, Mike Patton performs the opening theme, and Raekwon and Ghostface Killah contribute as nicely. Whereas the music isn’t fairly as compelling because the soundtrack from Turtles in Time (which is ), it evokes the important temper of taking part in in an arcade with your folks within the early ‘90s.

The gameplay necessities from earlier video games are all intact right here — every playable character has completely different strengths and weaknesses like vary and velocity, however they’re not so completely different that you simply’ll really feel thrown by switching gamers. The core gameplay remains to be largely achieved with two buttons: assault and bounce.

However, there are much more strikes than in earlier video games, together with a wide range of throws, slides, aerial assaults and dodges. Dashing enables you to pull off completely different slide and cost assaults, you’ll be able to seize enemies and throw them proper in the direction of the TV display screen (similar to you do in Turtles in Time), there’s a dodge button that permits you to dance out of hassle and there are a bunch of various aerial strikes. And in contrast to older video games, Shredder’s Revenge has distinctive animations for each transfer every character within the sport can pull off. Regardless that gameplay between every character isn’t radically completely different, the distinct visuals for all 4 turtles and their pals retains issues wanting contemporary.

As with every good beat-‘em-up, every character has their very own particular transfer, too. In contrast to in outdated arcade video games, the place utilizing a particular would often take a piece out of your well being, these strikes are tied to an influence bar that fills up as you string collectively longer and longer hit combos. When it’s full, you’ll be able to unleash a particular transfer or put it aside for later use. It’s a great way to make it so gamers can’t simply use particular assaults always and provides a little bit of technique to the in any other case chaotic melee.

One other manner Tribute makes Shredder’s Revenge really feel extra fashionable is the sport’s story mode. You’ll have the ability to stage up your character over time, which unlocks extra well being, additional lives and new particular assaults. You’ll additionally ultimately get the power to stack a number of particular strikes — while you replenish your bar and financial institution one transfer, you’ll be able to maintain filling it up and maintain two and ultimately three in reserve — or you’ll be able to blow all three directly in a frenzied super-attack. Story mode additionally enables you to re-enter ranges to seek out hidden gadgets or meet the achievement targets for every stage (issues like take out 10 enemies with a particular assault, or make it by with out taking harm). And you’ll change your character between ranges, relatively than keep locked to at least one turtle for all the sport.

Arcade mode, however, is for old-school followers who need a harder problem. The sport is straightforward: decide a personality, and combat by the entire sport’s dozen-plus ranges earlier than you run out of lives and continues. You get the benefit of getting your well being bar prolonged to its max capability and all of your particular strikes are unlocked — however given the variety of levels on this sport, it gained’t be simple, particularly on the extreme “gnarly” issue stage.

This all makes for a enjoyable single-player expertise, however — similar to the arcade video games from the ‘90s — Shredder’s Revenge actually shines in multiplayer mode. You may have as much as 4 participant on native co-op, or an insane six-players on-line. It’s an excellent quantity of chaos, but it surely’s managed surprisingly nicely. The sport scales up in issue relying on how many individuals you’re taking part in with; that often simply quantities to extra enemies and managers that may take extra harm.

Sadly, cross-play isn’t supported for now — Xbox and PC gamers can crew up, however PlayStation and Swap gamers might want to play the identical model as their pals in the event that they need to work collectively. The excellent news is that it’s additionally not arduous to get a sport going with strangers. It’s not fairly as a lot enjoyable as taking part in with folks you recognize, however the sport positively feels extra alive when you’ve got a minimum of a pair taking up Shredder and the Foot clan.

This all provides as much as a sport that’s much more enjoyable to play than even I anticipated. Nostalgia goes a great distance, however Shredder’s Revenge manages to work as a love letter to video games of the previous whereas nonetheless feeling contemporary. There’s simply one thing extremely satisfying about teaming up with a number of pals and mowing down a endless swarm of enemies; that was true within the ‘90s, and it’s nonetheless true at the moment.

In fact, it helps when you’ve got some affection for the TMNT franchise, however even if you happen to don’t, the tight gameplay, addictive soundtrack and nice co-op options needs to be sufficient to get pleasure from Shredder’s Revenge. And if you happen to grew up taking part in the arcade video games or their house console counterparts, this new journey is a must-play. That’s very true when you’ve got pals to play it with, both IRL or on-line.