Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants

TMNT Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants is a fun diversion for any fan like me that missed it the first time around. I didn’t mind it, despite its obvious flaws, but this console port should have done more. I’ll happily acknowledge that the original team behind the Wrath of the Mutants arcade cabinet did a solid job at the time to rekindle much of what made the originals so fun. It’s just, given the modern world we live in where Shredder’s Revenge exists, the timing on this port is unfortunate.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants is a decent addition to the collection of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games. It succeeds by playing it safe. The two original arcade games are regarded as great arcade brawlers in addition to being some of the better Turtles games, and the gameplay of Wrath of the Mutants is heavily patterned after Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time. Fans of the franchise and genre will undoubtedly enjoy playing through the game once or twice, but outside of collecting all the trophies, there isn't much incentive for repeated playthroughs. There are no different game modes, no collectibles and the only difference in difficulty levels is the number of lives. Even with the additional content, it takes only slightly more than an hour to put an end to Shredder's plans and rescue April. It's fun enough to kill some time on a boring afternoon, but even the most hardcore Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan would hesitate to say this game kicks some serious shell.

Gameplay isn’t bad, nor buggy, but it is very formulaic.

How much you enjoy Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants will depend on what you’re looking for in a beat ‘em up. If you just want something easy to play so you can laugh along with friends while you’re all splitting a New York pie on your couch, you’ll probably have a good time for the hour and change it takes to burn through it. If you’re looking for something more mechanically nuanced, like TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge or Streets of Rage 4, you’ll probably be hungry for more after the credits roll. What’s here feels good, but I wish there was more of it, and the lack of online co-op is a total bummer, dude. It’s like a two-dollar slice of pizza you pick up while walking home in New York City after a night on the town: it hits the spot in the moment, but it’s not gonna fill you up for long.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants takes inspiration from one of the biggest classics of its genre, but fails to attempt to modernize the experience with its shallow gameplay and presentation. The outcome is a weak and repetitive game, even though it's a short one.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants provides simple beat 'em up entertainment that can be kind of fun for a couchful of chums. However, its middling nature certainly leaves a lot to be desired.

Beating the entire game takes less than two hours, but it still somehow manages to drag. You can return to the game’s six stages to try and get higher scores, but I had zero interest in doing so. The arcade games of yesteryear sometimes lacked depth, but they at least had a hook that stuck with you and kept you itching to return to pump more quarters into the cabinet. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants strives for the greatness of the influential arcade hits of the past but falls well short. Thanks to uninteresting and annoying gameplay, repetitive enemy and boss encounters, and grating audio design, Wrath of the Mutants is little more than a shell of the series’ glory years.

Wrath of the Mutants is an old-school arcade port that adds little new to the 'home' version of the game, which can still be completed in about an hour. It's mainly for TMNT collectors and younger fans of the newer turtles.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants does not breathe easy outside of an arcade setting. The short campaign loses any risk when you're given plentiful lives at the start of each stage. Whilst the new areas are welcome, they don't make the package feel any more complete. In the comforts of home, every imperfection comes into stark realisation. The slim presentation, the decent but ultimately safe combat and the overall small package makes this tough to recommend.

TMNT: Wrath of the Mutants puts you on a roller coaster ride through the world of the 2012 cartoon. The ride proves amusing, but digging any deeper into its game design reveals the game to be a rather sloppy bout of sewer surfin’.

Inspired by Turtles in Time, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants certainly plays like a blast from the past. After Shredder's Revenge, you'll likely find its gameplay too basic, however, and it fails to impress in other ways, too.