Since it’s un-officially “ninja month”, let’s talk ninja. Mutant teenage turtles ninjas.
And while their popularity and games based on the series still doesn’t waver, so much that we recently got a tie-in game to the 2023 animated film TMNT: Mutant Mayhem, TMNT: Splintered Fate, and one about the Last Ronin spin-off series by the TMNT original creators coming next year.
But we’re not talking about those, or the well received Shredder’s Revenge.
Nope, we’re going back to 2017, indirectly, thank to the recent release of the 2017 TMNT arcade game by Raw Thrills, in this expanded port (gaining the “Arcade” moniker and a new subtitle since there are literally dozens of TMNT game just called “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”) handled by Cradle Games and distributed (even physically) by… shovelware maestro Gamemill Entertaiment.
Though this is not shovelware, i had the pleasure to play this machine/arcade cabinet more than once in my local arcades, and it’s quite fun 3D side scrolling beat em up, obviously trying to arken back to Turtles In Time, as these arcade TMNT titles often do, for nostalgia but also because it was indeed a quality title worth trying imitation and the flattery that – ideally – that would imply.
It’s a pleasant surprise regardless, since i doubt anyone was expecting this, expecially given how some digital only TMNT titles have gone delisted entirely, especially made for smarthphones offering and arcade releases. The TMNT Cowabunga Collection is great but some titles will always be bound to being emulated, at best, like the Tiger handheld games and such.
This not the case, as we get the game seen and played in the arcades as well as some new extra levels, which is a good things since Gamemill still asks more than it should for a physical copy, but we’ll discuss that later.
Gameplay is about what one would expect, there’s throws (which often have the enemies launched at the screen itself, because Turtles In Time (there IS a hoverboard level too, they know what they’re doing), jump attacks, special attacks that clear out the screen and need their respective bar to be full by collecting special attack tokens, a basic combo, items, weapons on the stage that can be picked up to be tossed or used against enemies, alongside some elements of the stage like explosive barrells, parking meters that can fly off in a horizontal fashion and deal damage to enemies caught by it, and some power ups that summon a couple of allies basically acting as free screen clearing “turtle power move”, or make you spin attack on the floor in a way that would make Gamera proud (minus the lack of “shell jet flames”).
It’s basically identical as a beat em up of the mid to late 90s in terms of depth (all Turtles play the same, no difference in strenght, range, speed, none of that, they’re just there for the sake of co-op), as you can have surmised, which (alongside yes, learn to use and abuse the jump/dive kick) means it pales in comparison to modern retro styled beat em up (or some of the genre classics of yore), this is archaic and arguably incredibly outdated in every single way, even more so when compared to excellent TMNT Shredder’s Revenge, there’s simply no way i can recommend Wrath Of The Mutants over that one… but then again it never tried to compete, so it not quite the fair comparison.
As in, it’s pretty decent if limited fun for what it is, an arcade game meant to be played during a sleepy afternoon with other 3 friends, with a control system that basically uses two buttons (three with the huge one for the super duper “turtle power attack”) and an analogic stick, it doesn’t need more for its intent and purpose, which obviously include nostalgic allure, it’s TMNT, come on.
Again, it’s so arcade it has a Mega Man-esque level select that lets you play any stage, you’ll need to finish all 5 in order to unlock the final one, pure arcade style action and progression.
Even fully knowing what i was getting… it’s still kinda utter bullshit to see the barest minimum done on the game by the team tasked to port it to consoles, which i’m gonna instinctually blame GameMill Entertaiment for, because it happened before, there’s proof, so yeah.
Regardless of who’s to blame, it IS jarring to see this barebone of a release, especially in this day and age and for the price at which it’s sold.
I don’t really factor price much into reviews, i rarely do, i try to avoid as much as possible, since i know it feeds into the abhorrent mentality of the “dollar=playtime hours” reasoning, and it detracts from discussing the game itself… but i can’t really sit there and pretend this is worth paying the same amount the aforementioned TMNT Cowabunga Collection asks for by default.
Even the budget range price is too much when you most likely would have spent 15 bucks on tokens/coins/credits to finish in the arcades, i did pay less since it was on sale, but i’m a collector, a physical feticist, too, i knew i wanted to own it on physical media, fully knowing it was a game you could finish in an afternoon, at most.
Because it is, it took me 1 hour and 20 minutes to finish it on Normal by myself, again, about what i expected, t’s literally the arcade game with a couple more stages, the ability to pause, autosave and go back to the level select after. Obviosly with 4 players offline drop-in/drop out style co-op, i’m not lamenting the lack of online because i doubt anyone would really care too much, the local co-op IS part of the TMNT videogames’ brand and butter, but… there’s literally no unlockables alongside the “Hard” difficulty setting that requires to beat it at Normal.
I wish i was kidding. There are trophies in this PS4 version, but i don’t count them as a feature since every game has them now and has had them in similar fashion for almost 2 decades, nor do i count the High Scores records (or the settings) as a “mode”.
Having played the arcade game cabinet, i can say they didn’t rebalanced it much or none at all, you still have 2 lives for credit, it’s not them setting it to “free play” either, you just get 2 continues for stage. That’s…it. You can’t change the continues limit, add credits mid-game, nada, but they did keep..the Game Over screen. Apparently, i never did encounter it during my playthrough on Normal because it’s not THAT cheap of a game, and i have played dozens of games like these.
Ironically, this is what back in the day would have been called an “arcade perfect port”… but it was when home consoles were less performing than the arcade machines, it was the 90s, it was expected for home console ports to be different or downgraded in some fashion from their arcade original.
But Gamemill released this in 2024, a skeletal port of an arcade game that was 7 years old already, and you know, the 90s have been over (cronologically, at least) for well, more than two decades already, today Wrath Of The Mutants as a console release commits the sin of being just what it says on the tin, just an okay retro styled (for better or worse) arcade beat em up, sadly made almost useless in a market where the genre got a new golden age of sorts and where an incredible collection of the far more beloved old TMNT videogames is available for the same price.
This is an okay game that’s only for die hard TMNT AND arcade beat em up fans, its physical release will make sense in time for collectors and fans since the digital version will most likely be delisted over the following years, as it is inevitable it will.
Wait for sale, a big one, in any case, digital or physical. Just wait.
Wise Cafe (International) 