A solid pick for a quick gaming session.
Disclosure: Renaissance PR and Lurkit provided the game for review.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants brings the 2017 arcade game home with three additional stages and six additional bosses that weren’t in the arcade original. It’s not bad, and it’s not crazy good either. It’s a great way to take a trip down memory lane with the Turtles.
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Story
Nobody expects a huge narrative from an arcade game, and you won’t get one. It’s your typical Turtles affair: save April O’Neil. There’s just enough story to move you from place to place and give you an underlying purpose. It’s really about playing the game.
Gameplay
The simplicity is great. It’s basically two buttons, attack and jump, plus a special. It’s very button-mashy, which makes it perfect for playing with the kids. Young players can just mash away and get through it. But every time I played, I kept wishing I could dodge or roll away. I was missing that extra button to deflect something shot at me, anything to add a little more variety. From start to finish, you’re basically playing the same game.
The game isn’t long. We beat it in one sitting in about an hour and 14 minutes on normal difficulty. You unlock a hard difficulty when you finish, but it’s more of the same, just harder. The game also keeps score and tells you who won each round, which makes it a fun time when four people are playing.
Visuals
When you first see it, you get that “this is Ninja Turtles” feeling, like you’re entering the cartoon world. The graphics are middle of the road. Your jaw won’t drop, but it doesn’t look bad. The levels have decent variety, from gritty streets to neon skyscrapers, giving you a taste of the Turtles’ New York. The regular enemies repeat constantly, though, and once you get through the first couple of worlds you see it happening. Each place has a boss or two, and those look unique and have their own battles. On newer consoles, I’d have liked it to be a little more graphically intensive, but they did a great job for what they were aiming for.
Sound
The audio is nothing crazy. It’s serviceable and fits the retro vibe. The cool part is the voices: the Turtles are voiced by the cast of the 2012 Nickelodeon series, and that’s a dope, nostalgic touch. The soundtrack is upbeat with an action-packed vibe that keeps the energy high and keeps you progressing.
Verdict
Even with its downfalls, I had fun, and it isn’t a math equation. Wrath of the Mutants captures the essence and fun of the franchise. For me, it’s a solid pick for a quick gaming session, especially with somebody else, when you just want to pick it up and play a couple of levels.
Image: Cradle Games / GameMill Entertainment (official Steam screenshot)
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The verdict: Decent
A solid pick for a quick gaming session
Pros
- Simple, accessible beat 'em up action
- Great for playing with kids
- 2012 series voice cast
- Unique boss battles
- Upbeat soundtrack
Cons
- No dodge or block
- Regular enemies repeat constantly
- Middle-of-the-road graphics
- Gameplay never evolves
Platform played: Xbox Series X
Where to buy
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