Coming! The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge

The continuation of the classic arcade action game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge will be officially released on June 16. This game is jointly created by Tribute Games and Dotemu. The biggest highlight of the game is the integration of modern gameplay into the classic arcade mechanism, and contains a lot of 80s and 90s emotional content.

Classic reappearance, dream back to 1987

The classic first-generation NES is based on the 1987 animated version of the story, applying the material style of comics and animation, and combining with the popular horizontal arcade game play at the time, the most famous of which should be the Manhattan Project. However, the game did not follow the character design in the comics at that time, but adopted a more acceptable animated character design, and the overall look and feel was more childhood-like.

Back in this work, the game is divided into two modes: story mode and arcade mode. The game play of the arcade mode is to imitate the traditional arcade, and overcome levels with a limited life. The story mode is based on the original, adding challenges, collecting content and character level mechanisms. This combination of old and new mechanics makes this game more playable and fun.

Using different characters in the story mode can also unlock multiple endings, but once the difficulty of the game is selected, it cannot be changed before you overcome all levels. Starting a new game will delete the original save content, but we can choose to keep the character's energy level.

The story content of these two modes is the same, with a total of 16 levels waiting for players to challenge. The plot and levels are based on the animation of 1987. From the studio to Coney Island, these familiar scenes are also perfectly restored in the game. Each level is like an animated single episode, with scenes, enemies, and combat that advances the game's story.

Although also created by Dotemu, the game does not use the modern art style of  Streets of Rage 4, but uses a retro 16-bit pixel style. Following the settings of the 87 version of the animation, the background in the game is also in the style of the 80s and 90s. For example, the representative scenes in the animation or the clothing settings of the characters in the game reveal a strong retro flavor, and even we can see discounted rear-projection TVs in-game.

In fact, you can see the shadow of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in  Streets of Rage 4, and the annual edition includes the song Primal Pummel sung by Tee Lopes. The OST of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge was also created by Tee Lopes, and the opening song was the theme song sung by Mike Patton, a member of Faith No More in the 87 animated version. When I heard the opening song, my soul shakes.

In addition, Cam Clarke, Rob Paulsen, Townsend Coleman and Barry Gordon, who voiced the four Ninja Turtles in the 87 version of the animation, will also return for the 35th anniversary of the animation. It is worth mentioning that the voice actors in the follow-up animated series have changed, and the four returning this time are all voice actors from the first season. Although it is a pity that only the voice actors of the four protagonists have returned, the average 70-year-old is already considered an old age, and people have to admire the combat effectiveness of the voice actors. This time the return lineup can be described as limited version in a lifetime.

Excellent combat system

There are 7 available characters in this work, Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, April and Teacher Sprint, the latter two characters rarely appeared in previous games. In addition to the 6 characters in the trailer, there is also a hidden character, which we will let players to guess.

Each character has a unique fighting style, super combo and three important values, namely range, speed and energy. According to the characteristics of the character and the type of weapon, the values of the measurements are different, but the total value of each person is 6 points. Characters with high attack speed will also increase the combo effect when they jump up to attack, and characters with high energy will have higher attack power when they release their super combo.

When it comes to super combo, the era of deducting blood and releasing ultimate moves has passed. Now the super combo consumes the energy bar. The super combo in the game is also divided into three types, and these three super combos have special performances and attack methods, some characters can still move when they are released!

The game continues many of the previous content and fighting methods. The interesting point is that the grappling and flying retains the setting of throwing the enemy to the screen. In addition, the game also added modern combat systems, such as dodge, quick standing and so on. It is a pity that dodges can only dodge horizontally, and cannot avoid the vertical attack of the enemy.

Due to the limitations of the functions of the year, the sense of strike on the NES was slightly insufficient, but in the subsequent SFC and Sega MD versions, the sense of strike was further improved. The combat system of this game is much richer.

Game mode with more content

The most outstanding is the multiplayer mode. The game supports offline and online multiplayer teams of up to 6 people on the same screen, and supports cross-platform play. The number of enemies in multiplayer will also increase or decrease according to the number of players. It may be hard to distinguish them when there are multiple players. After all, these four brothers are all the same species.

There are three combined attacks under the cooperation of multiple people. When teammates have low health, they can share HP with teammates.

When multiple players play together, the game is also very good at adapting, and there are different icon reminders in the game corresponding to different controllers. For example, in a local multiplayer game, you might see a button alert of △ for one character and Y for another player.

Although adhering to the traditional arcade gameplay, the game has also innovated on this basis. The former Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has a relatively simple attack method due to the influence of the age, and the game has also been modernized in this work.

The story mode is the same as the arcade mode, with 16 levels, but on this basis, a collection element is also added. Each level contains 3 different challenging tasks, which greatly enhances the replayability and challenge of the game. The collectibles can be obtained by smashing the items in the scene. After the NPCs are rescued, the branch collection tasks will be opened. These are obviously not easy to miss.

In addition, the game also adds an energy level mechanism. Each character is level 0 at the beginning of the story mode. During the battle, the role will be gradually upgraded. In addition to unlocking the ability to improve the level, after the energy bar reaches level 3, it will also unlock Fever Attack. In the fever attack mode, the character's attack power will be greatly increased, but at this time, the super combo cannot be used.

Compared to the story mode, the arcade mode is easier to understand. There are no collections and challenges in this mode, and all moves and stat caps will be unlocked initially. However, the number of resurrections in this mode is limited, and there is no coin-operated life-sustaining mechanism.

Both modes have three difficulty options. In actual play, the difference between the three difficulties is not large, and the difficulty is mainly reflected in the enemy's attack damage and attack desire. Through the actual measurement, the damage of the enemy on the hard difficulty is twice as high as that on the easy difficulty, and the enemy's blood volume is actually unchanged.

The brand-new combat mechanics and excellent sense of attack in Iron Fist of Rage 4 also continue to the game, and there are still many Easter eggs in the game. For example, in the animation, the Ninja Frog created by Shredder to fight against the Ninja Turtles, or the BOSS that resembles the Steel Turtles, is full of sentiment. And this fusion of traditional content and modern elements is undoubtedly innovative and outstanding.

Summarize

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge retains the reflection of the old times, but incorporates new modern elements. This sense of contrast brings a different experience. The game has the taste of the original everywhere, and the further improvement of the battle system and the unique game mode bring a richer game experience. Although the game is a bit chaotic in the multiplayer mode, the multiplayer fun brought by this arcade is unparalleled. The details of the game are exquisite, full of feelings, and it is definitely a work worth playing.

Rating: 8.5

advantage:

Innovations in old-school gameplay and modern mechanics

Honest game content

Solid arcade feel

Multiple controller adaptations and cross-platform play

shortcoming:

In the multiplayer mode, there are many characters and it is easy to misunderstand the personal location.

Some cutscenes are not subtitled