It’s time to find out if the Ninja Turtles of the past are still in the 21 (not a review). Nickelodeon has given Tribute Games and Dotemu the opportunity to rediscover the classic game where it was most glorious, in the fourth installment for arcades and 16-bit consoles. As such, the exchange is a resounding success, and that’s perhaps its biggest “but.”
Neither a sequel nor a reboot, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge is a brand new game that simply builds on this historical moment. It is understood from its classic looking graphics that it wins again a lot thanks to the greater level of detail that can be given to the characters in animations or content. However, it competes with some games that for the time were always very rich in this aspect and in this context it ends up looking too much. There is no doubt that everything is better now, but perhaps more could have been expected from the present, like in the interaction with scenarios or between characters.
The designers wanted to be so similar to the classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that they kept the same very narrow stages with a similar number of enemies at once. In this way it was and is achieved that the starting tempo is high and there are always confrontations, but the opportunity to stage and present more was missed. Also, you can’t expect anything more sophisticated than linear progression with a little rise or fall and a little jump from time to time because there isn’t one. The new double jump is completely wasted. We’re not surfing the sewers this time, but there are a few always-flying skating missions where reflexes are more important than actual combat.
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Mimicking (or repeating) the screen style of 30 years ago is just the beginning of everything this 2022 game has inherited from the previous ones. It is the harshest criticism that can be made of it, as it affects all elements: Shredder’s Revenge is too similar to Turtles in Time and the previous ones. The current soundtrack is the only thing that makes you jump back in time, even if it’s a small jump.
It’s not that it’s tongue-in-cheek as the whole TV riot starts again, it’s that they’ve brought practically everything with them. They copied the phase introduction screens by heart, with the main enemy cut out and anonymized on a black background, and a phrase to locate the player on the New York map. Also practically all the enemies: colored ninjas, some even with the same behavior or the same weapon as in the fourth part, the robots and the vast majority of the stage bosses. Or the objects on the stage like cones, fire hydrants and traps like sewers.
Perhaps most disappointingly, too many main enemies are not only repetitive, but behave similarly to Baxter. With an improved combat system and all the current capabilities, something more polished could have been done, even if the difficulty wasn’t increased so as not to exclude an audience.
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Complexity is an aspect that I’ve always had in mind while playing and I’m very happy with it. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge is light-hearted but not boring; active but not overbearing; laborious but not complicated. With its three entry difficulty levels, it opens up a wide spectrum for people of different ability levels, and it’s incredibly interesting how well they placed the filled life pizzas on the stage so that they hit at exactly the right time. With this arrangement, it’s a very shareable beat ’em up between adults and children.
As said, the double jump move adds little, although the vertical spin does a little more. The rest is as always, with mention of the launches where nothing was innovative. It is the special power bar that charges based on combos or meditation, giving it a more “relieved” touch, replacing the red pizzas that were previously with more parts.
If we can already imagine something in the impressions, it’s that the difference in skills between the characters is very limited. The three gauges they’re categorized into (range, power, and speed) will help you decide one way or the other, and something changes the effectiveness of your double jump with attack and some other special moves, but until then. A novelty is a simple system for unlocking extras based on earned points, which does not complicate or distort the game, but it invites you to search for collectibles, so it is well integrated.
Multiplayer has always been the hallmark of this arcade game and this time it’s not just there, but up to 6 characters on screen at the same time. I haven’t been able to gather that many people in my house and it hasn’t been online to test it yet, but I’ll say the more people the more enemies come out to compensate. And yes, it’s much more fun with someone by your side because stressful moments are well shared and because it’s very interesting to revive your partner or share life.
Finally, allow me to say something about the plot, although it carries even less weight than on previous occasions. It’s a hunt for Krang’s robot parts that takes you through various points in New York and a few others that I won’t reveal. The best part of all of this is the Super Mario Bros. 3 style game map that you can move around in, which is really cool and I already want it as a poster for my room if it were 1991.
With everything on your face and a spectacular ability to enchant on first contact, as you progress through Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, mixed feelings begin to surface between how much I like it, how well they’ve revived the classic, and how little that i like that it looks so much in everything. An incomplete victory.
