I’m a huge Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan and have been ever since I can remember. I’ve kept up with most of the comic books, shows, games and movies, and even played the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants when it was released back in 2017, so I had an idea of what to expect going in.
While Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants is certainly functional in terms of its gameplay, it ultimately lacks any sort of depth. The original might have been made to chew through credits in short bursts, but even with the 3 additional stages and 6 additional boss battles in this version, leaves much more to be desired.
Turtle Power
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants hits the ground running, and will feel relatively familiar to anyone who has ever played an arcade-style Turtles game like Turtles in Time. You’ll walk from left to right, progressing through one of six stages as you beat the life out of countless foot soldiers and accompanying enemies. You’ll come across a few minor bosses throughout before reaching a final boss in each stage, capping off the impressive amount of enemies the four turtles have encountered over the years.
The general premise is that Shredder has kidnapped April and united these several mutants to take the turtles down once and for all. There’s not really much of an attempt at storytelling here, but I’ll give it a pass as that’s not really the intention. You’ll be able to play as each of the four turtles, each with their own attacks and special abilities, even if they all feel the same after an hour or so.
Each of the turtles can utilise a regular attack, jump attack and spin attack to take enemies out, in addition to being able to grab objects in the environment to throw about. You can also pick up and throw enemies, even going as far as to throw them right at the screen, a nice touch for the sake of nostalgia.
The turtles can then attack to build up a special Turtle Power meter, which can be used to clear out most regular enemies in view and doing massive damage to tougher bosses. While each of the Turtle Power abilities looks different, they essentially all do the same thing. You can activate other special abilities by grabbing tokens throughout the level, which call upon an ally like Metalhead or Leatherhead, to clear the path ahead, even if these assists also yield the same results as a standard Turtle Power move.
The basic attack feels responsive and weighty, but the lack of any real variety means you’ll end up spamming one or two buttons for the majority of your playthrough, before activating your Turtle Power. While I feel like the simplistic nature helps it remain straightforward and functional, but there’s not really much else to unpack. The enemies, while varied, have no sense of strategy or weakness as you bash and throw them about.
Stopping Shredder
Each of the six levels presents variety through new environments, with the sewer level giving you a chance to ride a surfboard about as you fight on water. But it all just blends in to one big blur as none of these levels feels like a challenge to navigate. They instead present you with new things to look at while you simply walk to the right.
What hurts even more than all this, is the actual runtime of the experience. While players can choose from easy, medium and hard difficulty settings, I smashed through an entire playthrough on medium difficulty in just over an hour. I mean it. One hour and ten minutes to be exact. And there’s really little else to do apart from having another go on a higher difficulty setting. No hidden levels, and no additional characters to play as. Just a brief final cutscene comprised fo static shots and speech bubbles in place of voice performances, and you’re back at the main menu.
While you can go again to achieve a high score in each of the levels, I don’t really think the experience warrants much in the way of replayability. You can band together with up to four friends for a local cooperative play, but it’s really only as good as its first playthrough. Harder difficulties will chew through lives at a quicker pace, which I would personally recommend to older players. But even so, you’ll be hard-pressed to squeeze any more juice out.
Look the Part
Thankfully, Wrath of the Mutants looks and runs well. Adapting the style of the 2012 Nickelodeon TV series is a welcome choice, and environments are bustling with colour. On next-gen consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, you’ll get an even 60fps pretty much the entire time. While it’s not a particularly demanding game, the performance did not skip a beat, which is always a plus in my book.
On the downside, the audio design feels a little washed at times due to repetitive sound effects and lines of dialogue. Each turtle churns through two or three lines every thirty seconds like it’s nobody’s business.
Final Thoughts
I don’t mean to bash Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants to this degree. It certainly plays fine and runs super well. But I feel as though its lack of variety and depth would be better aimed at younger audiences.
While it takes inspiration from some fantastic games of the past, it doesn’t really stick the landing for good intentions alone and warrants a longer, deeper experience to justify a purchase for older fans to sink their teeth into. The 2017 original version might have been forgiven for its arcade approach, but its refreshed console version only highlights its flaws.
TWO AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Highlights: Solid performance; Faithful recreation of the 2012 show’s design and aesthetic; Functional combat
Lowlights: Super short; Lacks replayability; Turtles all feel the same
Developer: Raw Thrills, Cradle Games
Publisher: GameMill Entertainment
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows PC
Available: Now
Review conducted on PlayStation 5 with a code provided by the publisher.
