I have a real soft spot for arcade beat-em-ups. It’s easy to criticize the genre for its predictability… you walk right and mash buttons to punch and kick whoever you see over and over. But in my opinion, that simplicity is kind of the point. A good beat-em-up scales the level of challenge and spectacle without sacrificing approachability.

My personal favorite classic beat-em-ups star the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Ever since my first childhood encounter with the arcade game in (appropriately enough) a pizzeria, the franchise’s mix of martial arts action and colorful, cartoony fun seemed perfect for the genre.

Shredder’s Revenge continues that legacy. It feels consistent with the best of the series, while introducing plenty of its own improvements:

• The turtles now feel more distinct in terms of play style, with differences in range, speed and power. Along with their more unique sprites, character selection feels much more meaningful.
• Speaking of sprites, the visual presentation is gorgeous. Every pixel oozes (see what I did there?) vibrant color and personality.
• That level of polish extends to the game’s audio. Impact sounds have that satisfying 16-bit crunch, compressed voice samples trigger fond memories, and the soundtrack is catchy and fun.
• There’s plenty of variety in level themes, yet none overstay their welcome. Enemies and obstacles feel more fair to me than in previous entries, with better telegraphing of moves and fewer “quarter-eater” obstacles.
• Controls have been tuned to be more predictable and reliable. While it’s possible to button-mash your way through, the game rewards you for varying your approach against different enemy types.
• The overworld map, optional collectibles and expanded roster add replayability and help the game feel less like a long-lost arcade port and more like a full-fledged home release.

While Shredder’s Revenge doesn’t push the genre forward (visually or mechanically) to the same degree as Streets of Rage 4, it’s a friendlier game I’m more likely to revisit, especially in co-op. Loved it!

As someone who grew up on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game, as well as plenty of home console games, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge is exactly what I wanted it to be. This is a fantastic homage to the 90s era of TMNT games, an expansive beat 'em up that is both nostalgic for the games that I grew up with, but also with plenty of modern touches to improve upon the past.

Even though Shredder's Revenge is short (I basically did everything I wanted in about 2 hours), the amount of replayability for a game of this genre is truly impressive. There are 11 different characters to play as and level up, plenty of hidden items to find, secondary achievements to work towards, and with stages and villains that are always changing and keeping things fresh. Each character feels entirely unique from the others, and I had a blast simply trying out every one of them, and seeing the strengths and weaknesses of this entire crew. Again, the love for those early games is abundantly clear, as we're basically shown what the best version of the old TMNT beat 'em ups can be.

When playing beat 'em ups, I usually find myself done with them after the initial playthrough, but Shredder's Revenge is one of the rare games of the genre that made me want to keep playing levels over and over. The difficulty levels are perfectly in sync, ad if you want a more arcade-y challenge, that option is there for you. But even though I did everything I wanted with this game (I would like to try out multiplayer at some point), this is a game I want to put back into my console every once in a while, and that replayability is really what you want from a beat 'em up. It's that type of replayability that ate countless of my quarters in the arcades, and now, it's invaded my home as well.

Having happily grown up with the likes of, Renegade, Streets of Rage and Golden Axe, I have long stopped being the target audience for retro beat ‘em ups. I like them well enough, but these days they never manage to capture my attention in a consistent way, nor do they linger in my mind for long after I play them. At the start Shredder’s Revenge, I was actually struggling with the notion of playing the game from start to finish, which was particularly ominous since I knew I was only looking at a 2-3 hour-long experience.

It is a testament to the quality of this title, then, that not only did I play through it in one sitting, but I also actually enjoyed my time with it. I have no particularly strong nostalgia for TNMT IP, but it was still a nice throwback to revisit this universe, which actually does a pretty good job of replicating the TNMT retro arcade feel of old. The soundtrack is fantastic, and it anchors the game in quality from the first to the last moment, and the combat was actually better than I thought it would have. It is punchy, fluid and features a few pretty cool abilities, meaning Shredder’s Revenge feels pretty good to play on the whole. Enemies are varied enough - about what you would expect from this type of game -, and though some bosses seemed a bit underwhelming, most were fun to engage with.

Like I said, I am certainly not the target audience for these types of games anymore, so the fact that I ended up having fun with it tells me that fans of the genre will certainly enjoy it. I’d be lying if I said I liked it more than Streets of Rage 4, but Shredder’s Revenge is essentially an easy-to-recommend arcade romp, one that fully respects your time and can potentially feel like an awesome blast from the past for some. 7/10

I played through the game with a few of my friends and it was ok. It was a very fun experience, especially with all four of us having fun together. However, all throughout the game I couldn't help but feel that the game relied way too much on the player's nostalgia for the original arcade TMNT games, which ended up hurting the experience in the long run.

I did like the game, especially design-wise. There's a lot of stuff that it does right. For example: The enemy variety is great, where they're all essentially the exact same enemy wielding different weapons, so you have to approach each one differently. Presentation-wise, the game is absolutely beautiful. The graphics are great, and I loved how some of the music was remixes of Turtles in Time songs.

However, I the gameplay is where the game really suggers. A big issue with the game stems from the fact that, well, it's a Beat 'em up for 6 players. Not only does that already sound like a problem when you have to keep track of everything that's happening on-screen, but half the cast of playable characters looks virtually the same. But don't worry about it! You dont need to pay attention to the entire screen because this game's gameplay is... mashing the X button until everyone dies.

And I get why the game is overly simple: Because that's the way the old ones used to be. However in the modern era you have so many alternatives to this game. Sure, some of them can still be simple, but they're not Your only combo is X-X-X-X levels of simple.

It feels like, for some reason or another, everything in this game will eventually devolve into mashing. As I said, the enemy variety is great, but after a certain point you'll find enemies you can't grab or throw, so... You just gotta mash until they die. Same with the bosses. Eventually you'll level up, but they dont unlock more than just slight variations on your special attack.

In conclusion: Not the best, but I had fun. It's definitely one of those "Turn your brain off and play with your friends" kinda games, which i guess i's fine. Aside from my problems with the gameplay, the rest of the game is pretty great, and honestly i'd probably play it again if someone asked me to join them. 6/10

Are you nostalgic for turtles in time and the NES TMNT games? Then you'll love this. It's a translation of that feel into a "modern" game. it's not really a modern game. for better and worse, it's a game from that era. It plays just like the TMNT arcade game with a new coat of paint to look like the modern show. But you liked the 80s cartoon? that's all here too. there's nothing but references to all the TMNT lore. They don't come up naturally, they're just shoehorned inside. anywhere they cold fit them. The mechanics are very primitive. the complete game is very short. you'll be done in a couple hours. There's nothing else to do after you beat it once and played around some. Presumably it'd be more fun to play together with others and that might even be the point. I can't be arsed. The characters all play differently if you need that break. I appreciate that Splinter, Casey Jones, and even April is playable. No damsel tropes this time, April can beat some ass just like the turtles. Does she do this in the new cartoon? I have no idea. but it's nice. There are challenges and collectables but they feel forced. There's no great challenge in them. ha. puns. there's not a good variety of difficulty options.

so in summary, it's a pretty good TMNT game if that's what you want. If you just want a good beat 'em up, streets of rage 4 is much better.