Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge

 Xbox One
User Score
8.2

Generally favorable reviews- based on 118 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 93 out of 118
  2. Mixed: 17 out of 118
  3. Negative: 8 out of 118
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  1. Supernaught
    Jun 18, 2022
    6
    Mechanically sound, with scant additions to the gameplay from previous TMNT beat 'em ups, my gripe is with the total lack of any new direction with the characters and story, and the fact that there are no filter options to take the edge off the extremely pixelated graphics. This isn't how these games looked in the arcades OR on home consoles, kids. In fact, they looked much, much betterMechanically sound, with scant additions to the gameplay from previous TMNT beat 'em ups, my gripe is with the total lack of any new direction with the characters and story, and the fact that there are no filter options to take the edge off the extremely pixelated graphics. This isn't how these games looked in the arcades OR on home consoles, kids. In fact, they looked much, much better with scanlines and bilinear filtering.

    Streets of Rage IV is the bar for a new beat 'em up in this era. They completely failed to meet that expectation, and didn't even advance the gameplay to meet other arcade style beat 'em ups of the era this game represents. There's far too many beat 'em ups that do this much better, and with more style and originality, and with more gameplay options, which is a shame for anything bearing the TMNT brand on it.

    More interested in the Cowabunga Collection than this lazy 'redo' of Turtles in Time, which is a better game overall. SoR IV offers much more variety in gameplay and replayability than this lazy effort.    … Expand
  2. TitaniumDragon
    Jun 18, 2022
    5
    Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge is a call back to a bygone era of games. This is very much a sequel to TMNT: Turtles in Time, but it also is leaning very, very heavily on nostalgia, pretty much running every single popular character and toy from the original series in the game as a boss or someone you have to rescue. Giving you the long-awaited ability to play as MasterTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge is a call back to a bygone era of games. This is very much a sequel to TMNT: Turtles in Time, but it also is leaning very, very heavily on nostalgia, pretty much running every single popular character and toy from the original series in the game as a boss or someone you have to rescue. Giving you the long-awaited ability to play as Master Splinter, April O’Neill, and Casey Jones, this game has seven characters instead of four, and while it is a side-scrolling beat ’em up, there are some differences between the characters.

    Unfortunately, this game also shows why they don’t make these games anymore – this game took a lot of effort to make, and is nicely animated pixel art, but it’s only two and a half hours long. If you try and collect everything, it might take you another hour… but after that, it’s just grinding for some tedious achievements, which isn’t fun.

    The other problem is that beat ’em up gameplay remains very simplistic, and this game is no exception. The characters aren’t especially mobile, and while it reflects the design of the era, modern games are more fun to play and less awkward and stiff. This isn’t bad as far as beat ’em ups go – in fact, it’s a reasonably good example, though Turtles in Time felt like it had better variety – but the game is still very simple, and not really super fun to play. Being short is a saving grace as much as it is a drawback; if it was any longer, you’d get bored.

    Which is the biggest problem, really – it isn’t 1994 anymore. Back in the day, I remember enjoying these games, but today, they’re just too simple compared to modern game design. The game is quite easy even on the middle difficulty setting, but cranking the difficulty didn’t really make me any more enamored with it. The high difficulty older beat ’em ups were designed as quarter eaters; modern games don’t benefit from that, but it reveals just how little content there actually is.

    While it was kind of nostalgic seeing all these characters again, the voice acting wasn’t great and the only thing that made me laugh was the “twist” at the end.

    All in all, I can’t recommend this trip down memory lane unless you get it for free, like playing it on Game Pass or something. There, it is a reasonable thing, as you can taste it and see if you want to see it through, and even if you do, it won’t feel like it took a bite out of your wallet for such a short and mediocre experience.    … Expand
  3. Prizm
    Jun 18, 2022
    5
    They changed the notes slightly from the TV theme song, so now it sounds like a cringy sing-song rhyme (TEENAGE mutant NINJA turtles). Many impact sound effects are weak and flaccid (I smash the movie lights in the TV studio and it sounds like I tapped a light bulb with a pencil??). And something seems a little off about the hit detection/responsiveness... some hits just don't quiteThey changed the notes slightly from the TV theme song, so now it sounds like a cringy sing-song rhyme (TEENAGE mutant NINJA turtles). Many impact sound effects are weak and flaccid (I smash the movie lights in the TV studio and it sounds like I tapped a light bulb with a pencil??). And something seems a little off about the hit detection/responsiveness... some hits just don't quite connect when I feel they should've.
    The voices are generally good, but the recording sounds very dry, like they could've used some reverb or processing so it doesn't sound so much like someone talking into a mic.

    On the flip side, the artwork is beautiful, if a bit over-pixellated. The enemy nuances are great, such as the little things they get up to when you're not fighting them. Apart from the reworked theme song, the music is excellent, with a repertoire of orchestra hits, synth brass, and other instruments straight from the era of these arcade games. You can tell a lot a care was taken to mimic the style, art and music of these games.

    But when I'm playing, it feels too often like mindless button-mashing. Yes, that's basically what they were back in the day, but compared to Streets of Rage 4, it's just missing something to keep me engaged longer (the moves/combos are less intuitive? Too many enemies at once for its own good? Missing the crunch of some solid SFX?).    … Expand
  4. royalguy07
    Jun 17, 2022
    7
    Fun call back beat 'em up, great style and soundtrack. The combat is engaging but seemingly much more mashy than layered. Very straight forward, good GamePass game. Beat the main story in about 3 hours playing couch co op on normal difficulty, maybe should of upped it cause we didn't fail a single episode.
  5. Captiosus
    Jun 18, 2022
    6
    Although it hits all the right nostalgia beats I haven’t been able to finish a single online multiplayer session of this on Xbox Series X without encountering the invisible characters bug, the disappearing boss bug, game freezing, or players crashing between levels. It’s happened in private, invite only, groups and in public random matchmaking.

    Since coop is the primary draw, these bugs    Although it hits all the right nostalgia beats I haven’t been able to finish a single online multiplayer session of this on Xbox Series X without encountering the invisible characters bug, the disappearing boss bug, game freezing, or players crashing between levels. It’s happened in private, invite only, groups and in public random matchmaking.

    Since coop is the primary draw, these bugs are inexcusable and until they’re fixed I can’t personally rate the game any higher than a 6/10. Fix these gamebreaking bugs and it would be a 8/10. Solo and local coop, easily an 8/10. But online needs patching. The amount of bugs is downright embarrassing.

    The game needs some visual filters like scan lines or CRT emulation because the pixel art on larger screens is really jarring. The overall difficulty is quite easy even on its hardest level, which is a slight disappointment given its arcade, quarter-munching, pedigree. Also, the taunt mechanic to build up ninja power is easily exploitable and really annoying when you join a public game and all the players keep spamming taunt in between EACH encounter.    … Expand
  6. Voodoo123
    Jul 11, 2022
    7
    Arcade fun - great pixel art and soundtrack. As a fan of the original show I can tell this was a project of passion for those involved. Gameplay is pretty basic and with a full squad things are ridiculously chaotic. Can't say I would've dropped the £££ to buy this new so was pleased to play it on gamepass.
  7. Dalray3s
    Jul 9, 2022
    7
    Puntos positivos
    - Duración
    - Respeto por la IP
    - Variedad de enemigos
    - Modo Cooperativo

    Puntos negativos:
    - Gráficamente podría estar mas currado
    - Progresión mala de los pj
    - Algo mas de historia...
  8. GrumpyParrot
    Oct 2, 2022
    5
    Unless you're playing this game with 2-4 people this game is too hard. Challenges are also impossible alone, like never get hit during a level, because the game sends enemies to you from all sides. After dying multiple times on "chill" difficulty i gave up. Not even Streets of Rage was this challenging on easy...
  9. z00ey
    Jul 7, 2022
    6
    Surprisingly uninspiring graphically, with limited repetitive gameplay, but i could easily have forgiven those if not for the utterly useless matchmaking online - completely broken, unless you want to start from the very beginning every time.

Awards & Rankings

2
#2 Best Xbox One Game of 2022
2
#2 Most Discussed Xbox One Game of 2022

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
87

Generally favorable reviews - based on 18 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 18
  3. Negative: 0 out of 18
  1. XGN
    Jul 18, 2022
    80
    Shredder's Revenge is a game that makes a true hommage to its roots. Everything is recognisable from the Turtles movies to the previous games. It also is a very good brawler, but not the perfect puzzle unfortunately. The game is somewhat short and it tends to get chaotic if you play together. Still, if you like Turtles this is a must play.
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  2. Slant Magazine
    Jul 8, 2022
    80
    The game isn’t just a nostalgia-driven throwback, as it also marks the evolution of a genre.
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  3. XboxAddict
    Jul 5, 2022
    92
    If you’re looking for a great game to spend your summer with, look no further than Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. Dotemu and Tribute Game have knocked one out of the park with this return to the days of 80's and 90's beat ‘em-ups, and have done so in spectacular fashion. Thus, this title will surely be in the running for Game of the Year.
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