In the event you visited arcades within the late ‘80s or early ‘90s, you certainly 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 minimize by swaths of dangerous 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 true draw was multiplayer — these video games let 4 and even six pals (or strangers) play concurrently, a very chaotic however thrilling shared expertise.
Given the recognition of the TMNT franchise, it’s no shock that each the unique arcade recreation and its sequel Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time had been each ported to the NES and SNES, respectively. As a pre-teen, my finest good friend 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 whole lot of nostalgia for these video games, and I’m not alone. Final yr, 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 recreation 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 little thing 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 every week taking part in Shredder’s Revenge on the Xbox Collection S, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Swap, I can affirm that Tribute completely nailed its mission of bringing the traditional TMNT expertise into the trendy period. All of it begins with the artwork type and music, each of that are spot-on for this franchise; it looks like a pure evolution of the unique two arcade video games, each of which had been largely primarily based 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 effectively. 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 pals 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 just’ll really feel thrown by switching gamers. The core gameplay continues to be principally achieved with two buttons: assault and leap.
However, there are much more strikes than in earlier video games, together with quite a lot of throws, slides, aerial assaults and dodges. Dashing allows you to pull off completely different slide and cost assaults, you may 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 bother and there are a number of various aerial strikes. And in contrast to older video games, Shredder’s Revenge has distinctive animations for each transfer every character within the recreation can pull off. Though gameplay between every character isn’t radically completely different, the distinct visuals for all 4 turtles and their pals retains issues trying 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 bit 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 may unleash a particular transfer or reserve it for later use. It’s a great way to make it so gamers can’t simply use particular assaults consistently 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 trendy is the sport’s story mode. You’ll be capable of degree up your character over time, which unlocks extra well being, additional lives and new particular assaults. You’ll additionally finally get the power to stack a number of particular strikes — while you replenish your bar and financial institution one transfer, you may preserve filling it up and maintain two and finally three in reserve — or you may blow all three without delay in a frenzied super-attack. Story mode additionally allows you to re-enter ranges to search out hidden objects or meet the achievement objectives for every stage (issues like take out 10 enemies with a particular assault, or make it by with out taking harm). And you may swap your character between ranges, relatively than keep locked to at least one turtle for your complete recreation.
Arcade mode, then again, is for old-school followers who need a harder problem. The sport is easy: decide a personality, and combat by all the recreation’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 phases on this recreation, it received’t be straightforward, particularly on the extreme “gnarly” problem degree.
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 possibly can have as much as 4 participant on native co-op, or an insane six-players on-line. It’s a wonderful quantity of chaos, nevertheless it’s managed surprisingly effectively. The sport scales up in problem relying on how many individuals you’re taking part in with; that often simply quantities to extra enemies and executives that may take extra harm.
Sadly, cross-play isn’t supported for now — Xbox and PC gamers can group 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 exhausting to get a recreation going with strangers. It’s not fairly as a lot enjoyable as taking part in with folks you already know, however the recreation positively feels extra alive when you will have no less than a pair taking up Shredder and the Foot clan.
This all provides as much as a recreation 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 as we speak.
In fact, it helps if in case you have some affection for the TMNT franchise, however even in case you don’t, the tight gameplay, addictive soundtrack and nice co-op options must be sufficient to take pleasure in Shredder’s Revenge. And in case you grew up taking part in the arcade video games or their residence console counterparts, this new journey is a must-play. That’s very true if in case you have pals to play it with, both IRL or on-line.