Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants Review

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants is a port of the 2017 arcade game and is centered around the 2012 Nickelodeon. The game lacks a proper story; it’s the typical, generic experience where Shredder and his army of cronies and Foot Soldiers are back causing chaos various areas of the city and it’s up to Leo, Raph, Mike and Donatello to stop this threat and put Shred-Head back into his place.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants is a 3D action beat’em up game where up to 4 players can team up to take on the evil forces of the Foot Soldier clan lead by Shredder. Each level is composed of fixed areas where you need to beat up a fix amount of enemies before being able to proceed further in the level. Half way through the level, you’ll have to beat up a mid-boss. Once defeated, you’ll be able to resume your path to the end level boss. The game lets you choose in which order to tackle the levels.

Each Turtle has a selection of attacks. There’s the default weapon attack, jump kick, jump “punch” (by pressing jump twice) and the strong attack by pressing attack and jump at the same time. Each Turtle also has a Turtle Power attack that can be triggered by pressing Y once the meter is full. For example, Michaelangelo throws pizza at enemies whereas Leonardo turns into a Tornardo. Each level you’ll find a few things to help you. You’ll be able to pick up power ups such as summoning Leatherhead or Metal Head for a screen clearing attack. You’ll also pick up shurikens or a Shell Icon power up that flings you across the screen, killing every one you touch. You can also pick various items to throw such as garbage cans or teddy bears(!).

The game looks fair. Given its budget price, don’t expect this game to push the limits of the Xbox Series S/X consoles. While I was never a fan of the Nickelodeon-ified stylings of the TMNT characters, kids will easily recognize their favorite heroes and villains. I’m still disturbed at how they massacred Bebop in this take on the Green shell heroes. On the audio side of things, the constant one-liners from the playable characters get annoying real fast; they repeat the same thing and sound annoying. The score is fair and is just… there. It doesn’t add anything to the atmosphere.

The game does has a few faults. Given how many buttons we have on controllers now, I’m disappointed they couldn’t have a slightly deeper combat mechanic and also avoid having to resort to pressing two buttons simultaneously to perform certain attack such as the “strong” attack. It’s also incredibly short; it can be completed in a single sitting. The constant one-liners are completely unnecessary and annoying; especially, the quirp they make when getting hurt. Enemies with ranged weapons also have an auto-targetting meaning you’ll constantly get your attacks/combos interrupted. This would also feel more at home during the sixth generation of consoles. While I understand this is a port of an arcade game, efforts goes a long way and it would’ve been highly beneficial to add a bit of extra for a deeper home experience.

Overall, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants is a fun and enjoyable, albeit very short experience. Its budget price appeal makes it very tempting; given the length of it, it feels right. Kids and Nickelodeon fans will enjoy the hell out of this and it’s even better with friends. However, while it’s fun, it is very limited in appeal and repetitive in combat. In a world where we already have the excellent Shredder’s Revenge, it’s hard recommending this one as for a few bucks more, you get a longer experience and more playable characters. Unless you’re a die hard TMNT fan who needs to play everything or have kids at home, you can’t go wrong with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants. But if you’re looking for something more substantial, this ain’t it chief.