Typically, a online game surprises you by doing one thing you don’t anticipate: A plot twist, a novel recreation mechanic, or an thought you don’t actually see anyplace else. And generally, a recreation is exactly what it says it’s on the tin: What you see is what you get, for higher and for worse. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants is the latter. An enhanced port of the 2017 arcade recreation from developer Uncooked Thrills, Wrath of the Mutants is an excellent beat ‘em up that’s overwhelmed down by an absence of content material and options. It’s a tasty slice of New York pizza for those who like beat ‘em ups, however solely a single piece; you’ll in all probability be hungry once more an hour later.
Let’s get the apparent out of the approach first: Wrath of the Mutants’ visible type, story, and character designs are ripped straight from the 2012 Nickelodeon TV collection. That’s a neat, stylistically distinct interval in Turtles historical past, however its greatest inspiration is definitely the 1991 arcade traditional Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time. Should you’ve ever performed Turtles in Time, it’s best to have the ability to soar proper into Wrath of the Mutants as a result of, on a gameplay stage, they’re mainly the similar. You’ve obtained a regular assault which might double as a throw if you’re proper subsequent to enemies, a soar, a leaping assault, a dive kick, and a spin assault you carry out by urgent soar and assault at the similar time. The one distinction I can level to is that spin assaults don’t value well being in Wrath of the Mutants, which is a welcome change because you’ll want to make use of it typically to remain alive.
Turtles in Time stays one of the greatest beat ‘em ups ever made to today, so copying its programs isn’t a foul factor, however it does make Wrath of the Mutants really feel a little bit primary if you examine it to trendy beat ‘em ups like Streets of Rage 4 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. These used the template of video games like Turtles in Time as a base to construct motion with extra complexity, extra depth, and extra programs that each reward mastery and encourage replayability. That’s to not disparage Turtles in Time or say it doesn’t maintain up, as a result of it does, however it additionally doesn’t really feel as contemporary when in comparison with beat ‘em ups designed for present consoles, a sense that carries over to Wrath of the Mutants.
Contemplating Wrath of the Mutants is a seven-year-old arcade recreation that predates both of these trendy takes, that’s not notably stunning. Apart from, it was designed to be straightforward to select up and play and suck up as many of your quarters as doable with out making you hate it, so it’s in all probability unfair to anticipate it so as to add so much of nuance to the style. However for those who’re being launched to it for the first time in 2024, as this console and PC port is meant to do for lots of folks, it does really feel so much easier than what you may be used to. Simplicity isn’t essentially a foul factor, however for those who’re in search of extra, realize it’s not hiding someplace right here.
The Turtles’ kits are basically the similar as they’ve all the time been, however there are some things to enliven the moment-to-moment brawling. The primary is your Turtle Energy, a strong particular assault distinctive to every character. When you replenish your meter by whacking enemies along with your primary katana, nunchuck, sai, or bo employees assaults, you possibly can unleash your Turtle Energy to completely demolish common enemies or deal large harm to bosses. You’re even absolutely invincible the whole time you’re letting unfastened, which is cool.
Extra importantly, these strikes assist set up the Turtles’ personalities. Michelangelo makes use of his nunchucks to carve up a pizza from midair whereas yelling, “We obtained pizza! We obtained pizza!” I couldn’t let you know why the slices explode after they hit enemies, and it’s in all probability higher not to consider it too exhausting, however it’s an especially Mikey factor to do and my co-op associate and I laughed each time one of us did it. In the meantime Raphael (the angriest turtle in the historical past of the recognized universe) simply punches the floor actually exhausting a bunch of instances, Leonardo spins round so quick he makes a twister that sucks up his enemies, and Donatello turns into Raiden from Mortal Kombat and summons {an electrical} storm from his employees that zaps everybody round him. It’s good, goofy stuff.
And you then’ve obtained your merchandise pick-ups. There are customary pick-ups like issues that’ll fill your Turtle Energy meter and full bins of pizza that may refill your well being. However there are additionally shurikens that take out enemies in a single throw, a power-up that allows you to spin round in your shell to dish out the damage, and the ice cream kitty: an unholy terror who emerges from her cooler and zooms round like the Killer Rabbit from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. All glory to the ice cream kitty!
One of the best power-ups, although, are the help characters: Metalhead and Leatherhead, a turtle robotic and the world’s most traumatized mutant alligator, respectively. Metalhead launches missiles and Leatherhead deathrolls completely the whole lot in sight – and each clear the display, even when enemies in an space haven’t absolutely appeared if you summon them. That’s one of these good quality-of-life belongings you don’t discover till it’s not there.
You’ll want all these instruments as a result of, like the beat ‘em ups of outdated, there is no such thing as a dodge or block button (you’ll have to leap or stroll out of the approach manually), and Wrath of the Mutants throws a ton of enemies at you directly. There’s so much of selection right here: common Foot Clan ninjas, ninjas with spears, ninjas with lightning weapons, mousers, Krang robots with laser weapons, Legally Distinct Xenomorphs, the works. You must method every of them in numerous methods, too, so that you’re all the time in your toes.
Managing your Turtle Energy meter, well being, and gadgets in the setting provides a little bit bit of depth and rewards you for making sensible decisions about when to make use of what, which retains moment-to-moment decision-making enjoyable. While you use Turtle Energy at the incorrect time, you’ll really feel it, however its presence opens up fascinating questions. Do you spend that Turtle Energy now so you can begin constructing it up once more sooner, or put it aside for an enormous battle to get the most out of it? Do you seize that pizza now, when your well being is comparatively low and there’s a lull in the combating, or do you attempt to clutch this battle out and put it aside for you or a good friend, simply in case? Good beat ‘em ups drive you to handle your assets and make split-second decisions, and Wrath of the Mutants has that half down.
The boss fights, sadly, are much less fascinating as so much of them are too mechanically comparable. For instance, all of them have an area-of-effect assault you need to soar over, which is cool the first few instances, however when you understand each boss has it, it’s simply kinda there. Nevertheless, a number of bosses shine due to distinctive mechanics – Rocksteady’s flamethrower, Karai’s teleport, Stockman’s means to fly and drop inexperienced goo on you, and so forth. It turns into a great problem to time your Turtle Energy proper and keep away from their scariest stuff by being invulnerable when it occurs, however not all of them have these twists, and I want extra of them stood out.
By far the coolest factor about Wrath of the Mutants is how a lot stuff has been added for this residence launch. It’s mainly double the dimension of the unique arcade recreation, including three new ranges and 6 new bosses, together with a brand new remaining boss. The unique voice forged from the TV present additionally returns, and everybody provides a great efficiency. The highlights are in all probability the late Gilbert Gottfried as Kraang Subprime – a casting as completely unimaginable because it sounds – and Kevin Michael Richardson as Shredder, principally as a result of his voice sounds prefer it was solid in the fireplace of a dying star. Don’t get me incorrect, although: everybody right here is sweet, and had I not recognized new traces or characters have been added, I might have by no means been capable of inform the distinction.
The identical goes for the new ranges, and I really like all three as a result of every one provides one thing enjoyable. The Amusement Park has you dodging rollercoasters and cardboard monsters popping up in the foreground and background as you discover a haunted home. Enemies actually teleport into the Dimension X stage, and there’s an enormous eyeball making an attempt to blast you with lightning. And Shredder’s Lair is, effectively… the place you battle the Shredder, and with out spoiling issues, it’s fairly cool. Not all of the new bosses are as large of a slam dunk, however a number of – like Karai, Rahzar, and Tiger Claw – are at the least memorable. And even the ones that aren’t are humorous.
Sadly, even with all of that new content material, Wrath of the Mutants isn’t lengthy, even by the requirements of the short-but-sweet beat ’em up style. You’ll be able to end the complete story marketing campaign in about an hour (roughly the similar as Turtles in Time, however half of Shredder’s Revenge), and it’s not notably troublesome on the customary problem, although Exhausting mode would possibly take you a pair tries for those who simply attempt to mash your approach via. Half of the purpose for that is that you could successfully use the two continues per stage (that are break up throughout everybody for those who’re enjoying co-op) and three lives per proceed to brute-force your strategy to the finish, however on Exhausting, you solely get two lives per proceed. It a small change that makes issues tougher with out feeling unfair and forces you to discover ways to keep away from harm and memorize the areas of key power-ups and well being gadgets. For my cash, it’s the greatest strategy to play.
When you’ve overwhelmed Exhausting, nonetheless, there’s not so much of incentive to maintain enjoying in addition to excessive scores as a result of there aren’t any different modes and nothing else to beat. Bafflingly, you possibly can’t even enter your identify on the excessive rating display; Wrath of the Mutants simply data the character, so for those who play it with pals and also you’re switching Turtles it may be exhausting to know who obtained what rating on a stage.
Wrath of the Mutants’ greatest deficiency might be its most disappointing: there is no such thing as a on-line co-op. There’s a native co-op mode for as much as 4 gamers, and it’s glorious, however meaning you’re restricted to enjoying it with folks in your own home/condo/rental/RV/sewer-beneath-New-York-Metropolis, or by way of Steam’s Remote Play workaround. It is a recreation I’d like to play with pals who stay throughout the US and internationally, and it’s awful that there’s no straightforward strategy to do it except they’re sitting on the sofa with me. Don’t get me incorrect: I’m a sofa co-op evangelist, particularly for beat ‘em ups, however it will be good to have the choice to play with pals even when we are able to’t all be in the similar room.
I additionally ran right into a level-breaking bug on Shredder’s Lair that solely appeared in co-op the place enemies wouldn’t spawn, however we couldn’t progress. We tried restarting the stage, however hit the concern once more. The one approach out was to make use of the Leatherhead power-up, which made all the enemies on the map seen. Keep in mind how I used to be speaking about quality-of-life issues? As soon as he’d killed them we may proceed, however since we’d already summoned him on the earlier try, there was no approach ahead. This isn’t an enormous deal as a result of the ranges are pretty brief and we solely spent a couple of minutes getting again to the place we have been, however it’s price mentioning.
All of that mentioned, I’d be mendacity if I informed you I didn’t get pleasure from Wrath of the Mutants. It’s a stable beat ’em up performed solo or in co-op, it captures the feel and appear of the TV present admirably, and it’s genuinely humorous, whether or not it’s Donnie lamenting that the well being gadgets you come throughout are “ground pizza” or Krang’s robots yelling issues like, “Put together for undesirable consequence!” Ninja Turtles is as a lot a comedy as it’s anything, and you need to nail that to actually get what makes this bizarre universe tick. And sure, Shredder says the line. You understand which one.