It’s TURTLE TIME!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredders Revenge makes me truly feel like I’ve gone back to my childhood. The feeling of going to the Pizza Hut on a Friday night, downing multiple slices of pizza and breadsticks while chugging Coke, and playing the various arcade brawlers machines they had set up like The Simpsons Arcade game. Why is this relevant you ask? Because Shredders Revenge is a game that checks off all the boxes for nostalgia all while making a modern brawler that looks as amazing as it plays. Even if you weren’t alive for the incredible arcade machine days, you’re going to enjoy thing game!

Shredders Revenge is a modernized brawler that allows you to take on Shredders army of Foot Ninjas with up to six friends. All the Turtles are here as well as Master Splinter, ace reporter April O’Neil, and the Hockey Masked badass Casey.  Each character differs based on their ratings which comprise of range, speed, and power which dictate those aspects of the character. Across my playthrough, this didn’t make any character feel superior or inferior in comparison which is great for allowing every character to shine.

Gameplay-wise, this game is just hectic in all the right ways. Bodies are consistently flying across the screen, and sometimes even at the screen! The gameplay revolves around simple controls so there’s one button for hitting, jumping, dodging, taunting, and specials respectively. It’s easy to pick this game up and do well so you can get friends and family to jump in without having to explain much in terms of mechanics. For those who go through the games story mode, you can unlock upgrades that give a variety of improvements for characters including new specials, more special gauges, and a few other perks. You gain experience by beating up the enemies along the way, but also by completing the side quests that pop up. Side quests entail either finding characters or items dispersed in the stages and while offer fun cameos, they feel extremely useless in how they’re presented.

Shredder’s Revenge looks and sounds incredible creating a modernized arcade appearance in 2022. Whether you lived at the arcades back in the day or were brought in by games like Streets of Rage on Gamepass, the game has a presentation that just looks clean. When you add in the song by Ghostface Killah and Raekwon, it really adds to the vibe really embracing everything about the Turtles from characters, to backstory, to even the setting.

Shredders Revenge was a game that piqued my interest because it was a Turtles beat’em up. After playing the game, it was all of the attention to detail that made this game stand out. While the game is amazing, there are some faults such as the length and the poorly added side quests, but Shredders Revenge shines beyond these faults. With the success of this title, I can’t wait to see what other IP Tribute Games can make an incredible game next!