When your editor asks you if you want to review a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game the answer is ALWAYS “yes.” Having recently reignited my love affair with my PlayStation 5 via the timely arrival of a PlayStation Portal I was totally down to play whatever.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants certainly falls into the “whatever” category. The game is a side scrolling arcade style beat ’em up originally released in 2017, and as long as you go into playing this game with that in mind you’ll have a semi-ok time.
For a franchise that’s all about mutation, the TMNT video games have never evolved much beyond the original arcade outing…and that’s okay. The games are fun and are best played with (up to) three of your pals while devouring pizza. But if you’re like me and gaming is a solitary endeavour this game leaves much to be desired.
I absolutely screamed through this game in about an hour. For the record, I played on standard difficulty and switched between each of the Turtles from level to level and then that was it. True, I could go back and replay it on the higher difficulty level, but why? With the way the PlayStation trophies popped when I completed a level I thought I was on my way to an easy platinum trophy, but all the remaining achievements relied heavily on replaying the game and one particularly spiteful trophy requires you to complete a level on 4 player co-op…which will never happen for me.
The game is based on the 2012 TMNT cartoon and looks as good as that series did. Almost all of the original cast returns to voice their characters but there’s nothing much beyond the occasional exclamation. It’s also worth remarking that this iteration of the Turtles is from TWO reboots ago, which makes this release feel a little like a cash grab the was shoved out there if only to wring a few more dollars out of unsuspecting fans.
A physical copy will run you about $30 bucks which feels offensive considering the playtime I got out of the game. I’m totally dating myself here but it felt more than a bit like renting a NES game from the local video store, getting it home, and having it be not exactly what you were hoping it would be.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants isn’t a bad game but I can’t recommend paying full price for it.
