The surprise is total: Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo are back… in 2022! With its brand new fighting game starring Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revengethe Montreal studio Tribute Games scores a home run.
The evil Shredder takes New York City and the Statue of Liberty hostage. It’s up to the thunderous Mutant Turtles and their minions to save the Big Apple. In side view and with up to five teammates, one will smash and shear the dark character’s minions through 15 well-paced levels.
Thirty-two years after the release on arcade machines of the classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from Konami, the independent studio specializing in retro games (Flinthook, Panzer Paladin) brilliantly revives the formula of the fighting game with cooperative progression.
Because when you’re nostalgic, you have to know what to take and what to leave in order to get us to put on those pink glasses that we love to wear when we remember our childhood. Tribute Games holds the secret.
The sprites pixelated from Shredder’s Revenge are beautifully drawn and animated, with a full gamut of on-screen colors. The soundtrack is not in the chipstune, but takes us back to the 1990s with synth, candy rock and even rap with two Wu-Tang Clan elders, Ghostface Killah and Raekwon. Online game option, additional challenges, objects to collect: we are undoubtedly dealing with a modern game, far from the technological limitations of the arcade terminals of 1989.
But Tribute Games retains the essence of the original formula here: the simple pleasure, the exhilaration even, of blasting your way through hordes of enemies with katana swings to the level boss and up to victory. Side by side, sitting on the couch in front of the television, it’s ecstasy. A home run, we said.
Through the noise of big budget releases, all those soulless open worlds, and service games that make us feel like we’re working in our spare time comes a game that focuses on what should look like the most important thing in video games, that of being fun above all else.
The experience is brief, a gust of wind lasting around two and a half hours. Ideal for a rainy afternoon with family or friends this summer.