Beat on game pass core, I first played this with my cousins and sister in a 4 player co-op which was quite hectic. I played as Leo then, and again with my girlfriend as we beat the normal difficulty with her as splinter, then did new game plus to beat the hardest difficulty as Casey and April. Then I played as Donatello beginning at the first stage going through each solo. The solo experience was much more difficult and I really had to learn the nuances of the mechanics for each enemy and boss. I used a lot of dodge rolls and combining that into an attack, and mostly used normal attack with the occasional jump attack, I did not like the double press dash but with the jump roll it was entirely unneeded. When playing in a team I could afford to spend time mediating to build up special attacks, especially during boss fights; we beat most bosses by alternating who meditated while the other distracted the boss. I rarely got the chance by myself.

Don struggled through the game due to his low speed, which made it difficult to dodge enemy attacks and attack quickly, though his range was useful to snipe enemies outside of their attack range. I did manage to play him enough to get max level, severely struggling on both auto scrolling stages, and the triceraton and stone warrior stages, though did not solo the last few stages at all. Then I went back and tried out each of the other characters on the first level and level 13, where I had the most difficulty. Raphael did ok as I didn’t really notice his lack of range. His speed and high power allowed him to kill quickly, and encouraged an aggressive play style. Michelangelo did surprisingly well beating the first level then beating level 13 without all the experience from the stages in between. His high speed with decent power may be the best stat distribution of all the characters, at least for me. I later went back and levelled him up to level 5, though I’m not sure if I like Michelangelo or Leonardo best. Casey jones seemed a little slower than Leo despite his better stats, so I think I prefer Leo and Michelangelo over him. April and splinter did not do very well. Despite April’s speed her low power made it difficult to kill efficiently, and splinter’s low speed made him worse than Don as he lacked the range to offset said speed penalty.

It was not hard to see how much this game was influenced by the old school beat em ups on the NES, SNES, and arcade. It was an excellent homage crafted with true passion taking the best parts of the past, even updating on some. Great controls that were simple but with plenty of depth to master, like dodge rolling, roll attacks, chaining jump kicks, and throws into other enemies. Excellent enemy variety with different tactics required for each. I especially liked the little touches of footmen doing things in the background before jumping out to fight, like eating or running a shop. The game still had great variety in animations for how enemies got on screen, though I think #3 on the NES was a little better in that department. I did not really like the autoscroller stages with obstacles to think fast or be hit hit, and pizzas to possibly miss, but the challenge was still well done. The bosses had excellent mechanics just like the regular enemies, and the playable cast all played differently with their stats and specials. While the game was short without much content, it succeeded in doing exactly what it set out to do; be a challenging solo experience harkening back to those retro titles while becoming more fun and chaotic with each coop player added.

9.0/10

I was disappointed to find that what was advertised as a free update was in fact a paid dlc. Nothing wrong with paying for more content, but for what amounts to scraps on the cutting room floor , the price of this "dlc" was insulting.

The new characters are a welcome addition and the only thing I'm glad of here. They should have been priced much, much lower. The arena mode is shallow and poorly made. It features only a few modifiers, implemented terribly, often having zero effect on the gameplay. Playing as a couple of the enemy bosses for a moment was fun while the novelty lasted but it was shallow.

The only good thing about the new mode was that it will challenge your skills and you will get better to face arcade mode on higher difficulties (if we had higher difficulties).

As a free update this would have been praise worthy. But after getting a complete and robust indie title for half the cost of this dlc recently , I was disappointed to have been milked for this content. It's not the most greedy cash grab I've ever seen , certainly .but in a game that is otherwise made with such love and care and passion, I was let down