I was excited to play Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants when I saw it because I was unapologetically invested in Nickelodeon’s 2012 reboot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It was incredibly stylish, amazingly animated and backed by an incredible cast for the iconic brothers—even if they decided to ruin Leonardo after Season Two.
I was largely unaware that there was even a four-player arcade cabinet based on the 2012 series, but that’s largely due to arcades essentially ceasing to exist in the modern day. But as someone who grew up loving the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I was ready to give a console version a try. However, it didn’t take long for me to realize TMNT Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants was going to be a bad time—I should’ve known right away when I saw Game Mill’s involvement.
I knew Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants was off to a bad start when I booted it up, excitedly awaiting that awesome reimagined theme song only to be greeted with a paired-down melody that kind of resembled the theme, but could’ve been mistaken for any generic “intense” hip-hop theme. This continued with the menu select sound effects that were not only so bog-standard in their attempt at “arcade” SFX, but they were at least ten times louder than the music.
“The only degree of ‘challenge’ comes from the bosses in TMNT Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants, who aren’t so much challenging as infuriatingly cheap and beyond overpowered.”
Now, I know I usually save criticisms of a game’s audio towards the end of the review, but this was so immediately jarring that it completely set the tone for the slapdash design of this game. The same was true for the character voices—I picked Leonardo as I always do, just to hear Seth Green unenthusiastically say “Hi-yah” and “booyakasha” over all other in-game sounds. And while naturally, there’s an option to adjust the audio, the fact that it’s so unbalanced by default just shows a genuine lack of attention to detail.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants fares no better in the gameplay department. It’s a mindless, button-mashed, boring game, even by Beat Em’ Up standards. Players move through uninteresting levels, fighting their way through the Foot Clan and occasionally Kraangdroids until they face one of the series’ notable mutant antagonists as a mid-way Mini Boss, then another for the Final Boss. Levels are way too long and devoid of any exciting background details or set pieces. I couldn’t believe this game even found a way to make Sewer Surfin’ a boring slog.
But it’s the way the game feels that makes it even more unenjoyable to play. Hitting enemies has absolutely no weight or impact, to the point you might not even know you’re doing it. It lacks that hard, punchy feeling you need in a Beat Em’ Up to really make the repetitive gameplay satisfying. On top of that, there is an abundance of screen-clearing items and a super move gauge that charges so fast that your brain will just go into auto-pilot while moving through every level.
The only degree of “challenge” comes from the bosses in TMNT Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants, who aren’t so much challenging as infuriatingly cheap and beyond overpowered. Single attacks will take off a clean quarter of your health bar, and thanks to a jump that is genuinely delayed by a second after you press the button, it can be incredibly difficult to dodge attacks. If the game wasn’t so incredibly generous with its continues and lives—almost to the point that you question why it even has them—fighting these bosses would be nigh impossible while playing solo.
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants feels like the kind of game that comes built into a TMNT-themed controller.”
Visually, the game is…fine? It does a fairly good job replicating the 2012 style and characters, but like I said, it’s so generic and bog-standard. Levels are static and boring, attack animations are too fast and almost feel like they’re missing frames, and there’s a genuine lack of any kind of interesting particle effects or bombast. Even the way the game flashes “POW” and “BANG” on the screen just looks like jpegs with the default transition animation applied to them.
On top of the aforementioned audio issues, the music is, like I said, just boring. Every level sounds like they took the basic harmonies from a James Bond soundtrack and put them in here. It would work if the game was based around stealth in any way, but this is an action Beat Em’ Up! Remember the first-level theme of the original TMNT Arcade Game? Or the above-mentioned Sewer Surfin’? I get that it’s a different show with a different vibe, but you could’ve made some changes for the video game.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants feels like the kind of game that comes built into a TMNT-themed controller. Maybe the arcade version was better when paired with the fun and atmosphere of an actual arcade. As someone who loves not only the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles but also the 2012 reboot, I can’t see why anyone would want to play this when the vastly superior TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge already exists. For a game that was supposedly inspired by Turtles in Time, this game forgets the most crucial component of that game: FUN.
- Re-experience the Classic Arcade Game: with 3 additional stages and 6 additional bosses never-before-seen in the classic 2017 arcade
- Play as the 4 Turtles: From the 2012 cartoon featuring Leo, Mikey, Donnie, and Raph. Dominate the hordes with your favorite Turtle
