Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge (Nintendo Switch) – The test

If you grew up in the 1990s, there’s a very good chance that you had even a t-shirt or cap bearing the image of the Ninja Turtles, a mythical license putting turtles into action. apprentices in martial arts under the wing of their master Splinter. Whether through cartoons, derivative products or video games, turtles have clearly marked the cultural landscape of the past thirty-eight years with their three fingers. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge (TMNT Shredder’s Revenge for short) is a beat em all co-developed by Dotemu (Streets of Rage 4) and Tribute Games (Panzer Paladin), leading specialists in the genre and arcade-style games, a cocktail of talents whose mission is to offer fans the game they’ve been waiting for for decades.

KOWABUNGA the cry of the ninjas

TMNT Shredder’s Revenge is a brand new game that draws its inspiration from the heritage of the arcade cabinets of the 1990s; we can cite in particular Turtles in Time which is still to this day considered one of the very best arcade games involving apprentice ninjas. This new opus is therefore intended to be both original and up to date while retaining beautiful references, starting with the design even turtles inspired by the 1987 cartoon with their colors well flashy and as a bonus the original voice actors of the time.

The inspiration is also found in the animations in combat which are for the most part faithful recreations of the attacks of Turtles in Time, whether it’s grabs to send enemies flying towards the screen or super attacks. The game is teeming with winks and fan service while respecting the source material, well mentored by Nickelodeon current licensees.

The story of this opus takes us to the New York well known to our feisty pizza eaters; their nemesis, Shredder, wants to take over the Statue of Liberty with the help of Krang who needs to put his robot body back together. It will therefore be up to you to cross the cult places of the license such as the studios of Channel 6, Dimension X or Coney Island to block the road to Shredder and save the planet.

Once in the main menu, you will notice that two modes are available, a story mode allowing you to replay each level at will, complete challenges and secondary missions as well as increase the power of your characters. Then a classic Arcade mode in which you will have to go through the game’s sixteen stages in order with a number of game over limited, allowing you to appear in online leaderboards based on your score.

The game therefore comprises a total of sixteen levels, during which tireless waves of minions from the Foot Clan will try to stop you, before finishing on one, or even several, bosses to conclude. The diversity of scenery and enemies is staggering, which gives each stage its own identity making it easily recognizable among the others. Special mention for the few levels in hoverboard which bring a platform side.
A good thirty enemies and twenty bosses are present, not to mention the different cameos and recreations of scenes from the cartoon that can be seen in the set. Each run of the game is a pleasure especially since the selection of characters brings a great breath of fresh air if the need to renew the experience is felt.

Of a classic duration for a beat em all, TMNT Shredder’s Revenge can be completed in a handful of hours, count about three hours to complete a run complete. The replayability is still excellent with the presence ofXP story mode characters as well as achievements that will require you to complete the game with the entire cast.

From April to Master Splinter

Regarding gameplaythe developers have succeeded in the immense task of keeping movesets of the nineties and to energize them so that in 2022 the game remains of exemplary fluidity. So we find the dough Streets of Rage 4 with the ability to chain enemies and use a mix of slides, aerial attacks and special moves to literally juggle opponents.

The mechanics of the game are quite simply explained, very accessible in a “how to play” section which presents in twenty-two small animations the keys to use to perform each possible manipulation.

It is also possible to completely customize the controls to best suit your preferences.

It is thus possible to hit up to a combo of four basic attacks, hold “Y” to give a powerful charged blow, double tap in a direction to sprint then charge with a shoulder blow or slide to the ground , finally “Y” and “B” will allow you to use a launcher quick to start air combos.

Very nice and rare addition in the Beat’Em All arcade, a key is dedicated to dodging, so hitting the “A” button will make you roll backwards, which is extremely useful in one-on-one situations when facing bosses for example, a slight frame invulnerability allowing you to survive more easily. This dodge can be combined with a simple attack to make a diving counterattack.

The use of all these attacks fills a power gauge, the latter triggers very strong special attacks to cover an area of ​​the screen, in addition three special attacks are usable, one normal, one jumping and one dodging . The gauge can also be filled by “taunting” enemies: each character has its own taunt animation that will leave you vulnerable until you finish it but will reward you with a full level of gauge instantly.

The attack panel is therefore quite complete allowing you to easily build your sequences between normal hits to fill your gauge then big special in a group of enemies to clear everything at once, the whole thing is played very smoothly and rarely the feeling of repetitiveness that can be found in the genre is felt. Different pickups are to be picked up in the form of pizzas, the latter granting temporary bonuses such as a devastating attack sweeping the entire screen or an unlimited special attack gauge for ten seconds.

In terms of casting, seven characters are playable, including one to unlock by completing the story. We therefore obviously find the turtles, Leonardo, Raphaël, Michelangelo and Donatello, as well as their master Splinter. Then for the first time in a game of the license, the reporter April is a playable character, the last to unlock will remain a surprise so as not to spoil everything for fans reading these lines.

Each character has stats which are range, speed, and power. The whole is quite balanced since a Donatello who will have a very long reach with his stick will necessarily be slower than Raphaël and his saÏ allowing him to more easily pounce on his enemies.

As mentioned above, in story mode characters can earnXP, indeed series of challenges are available in the levels allowing you to earn points, but also the simple fact of playing. By entering a level you will therefore be able to have missions asking for example to finish without getting caught in obstacles, without being hit or even eliminating X enemies with an air/charged/sliding attack. A very good idea bringing replayability and rewarding you by making your character stronger by adding HP, additional special attack bars or new abilities (special jump attack for example). Each character has their own experience so you will have great opportunities to retry levels with each of them, not to mention the few secrets and objects to find.

The entire game can be played in multiplayer up to six simultaneously, at any time it is possible to join or create online rooms and invite your friends via the invitation interface of the nintendo-switch (too rarely used these days), or locally by synchronizing the right number of controllers, the maneuverability perfectly allowing you to play with joycons alone or even a gamepad SNES to reinforce the vintage side.
Multiplayer brings some additional interactions such as the possibility of transferring life points to his ally by making him a high fivemake sandwich attacks or revive his ally on the ground.

We Ain’t Came to Lose

If there is one point in particular on which the titanic work of the teams of Dotemu and Tribute Games can be seen, it is the general presentation of the game.

Particular care has been taken with the graphics and the various animations, each playable character and each type of enemy has its own palette of very numerous animations. Whether it’s directly in game or even in the way they land on screen, it’s simple minute details that manage to inject a lot of life into the sets. Whether it’s shinobis which tilt a sign in the background, ninjas hidden in garbage bags or robots that you knock over on their heads, everything is very well done.

Each playable character has their own animations as well as variations in their special attacks, making each fundamentally different visually and inscribing their identity to the others available. In addition, references to period arcade games slip into the movesetsSplinter master using senpukyaku of street fighter.

The pixel art is excellent, giving a lot of visual fluidity while maintaining great clarity, even with a crowd on screen your character remains easily identifiable among the surrounding chaos. The game will take you to quite a variety of settings, from the street to a construction site, from science complexes to the X dimension with its pizza monsters.
Everything is very fluid, the game turning without ever flinching even in the most intense action phases.

Finally the soundtrack is a real nugget, the main composer of the game, Tee Lopes having worked on sonic mania before, always manages to surprise with its very hip-hop and retro sounds at the same time. The ultimate icing on the cake is a piece written and perform especially for the game by Ghostface Killah feat. Raekwon the Chehpillar members of the legendary Wu-Tang Clanthe collective being one, if not the, greatest reference of hip-hop in the world.