Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Wrath of the Mutants
It’s fair to say that if you’re a fan of the Heroes in a Halfshell, you’ve been treated to some fantastic video games in the last couple of years. Released in 2022, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge was a love letter to previous Turtles games, featuring superb graphics, excellent gameplay, and truly brilliant music. The soundtrack was released on vinyl and the theme tune was sung by Faith No More frontman, Mike Patton. That alone has to be a good enough reason for picking up the game, right!?
Also released in 2022, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection was a compilation of 13 previous games from different systems including Arcade, NES, Gameboy, SNES, and Sega Megadrive. It was a wonderful trip down memory lane and gave fans of the series a chance to experience the history of a series that has endured for 35 years.
That all being said, a new Turtles video game has a lot to live up to, so how does the latest release, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Wrath of the Mutants fare? The first thing I discovered is that this is a port of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which was released in the arcade in 2017. This was based on Turtles in Time, so if you’ve played that, the levels will seem familiar.
Graphically, Wrath of the Mutants is based on the 2012 cartoon. I grew up with the 90’s TV show and being honest I prefer this interpretation of the characters to the one featured in this game. The gameplay is the same as most of the others with up to four people being able to play together and fight against various enemies. It’s simple enough with only three buttons being used to attack, jump, and unleash a special Turtle Power attack. There is no online play, and the game can only be played in couch co-op.
I enjoy side-scrolling beat-‘em ups, and I don’t expect deep gameplay, but there are lots of things wrong with Wrath of the Mutants that make it hard to enjoy. Firstly, I don’t like the overall style of the game. The graphics and characters may be based on the 2012 cartoon, but it doesn’t work for me at all. The game plays ok, but it’s very bland and quite honestly gets a bit boring. There is a lack of feedback when fighting the enemies which contributes to my lack of interest. The sound effects, voice work, and music are also lacklustre and repetitive.
However, the biggest crime is how quickly the game can be completed. There are six levels which can be played in any order, except for the last one which is a face-off against Shredder. The whole game can be completed in about 90 minutes. I don’t expect huge depth or length with side-scrolling beat ‘em ups, but for the reasons I gave above, there is very little to recommend Wrath of the Mutants.
If you’re reading this thinking, ‘you’re just a jaded old man who likes to rant at the sky saying how things aren’t as good as they used to be’, then this isn’t just my opinion. I played with my 7-year-old daughter and halfway through a level, she asked if we could play something else. Again, you may be thinking, ‘she probably doesn’t enjoy these types of games and you’re forcing her to play with you.’ That isn’t the case either, as we played Shredder’s Revenge together from start to finish. I can still remember her humming along to the music in Shredder’s Revenge and loving every minute of it.
I always try to find the positives when I’m reviewing a game, but because we’ve recently been spoilt with two fantastic Turtles games, any new games have to at least match their quality to stand a chance. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Wrath of the Mutants is a poor Turtles game, especially when there are far better alternatives available for a similar or less expensive price.
Review by Chris.
