TMNT: Wrath of the Mutants Review: Gameplay Impression, Videos and Top Features

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants from developers Cradle Games and Raw Thrills is the latest game featuring Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael in arcade action.

The latest, in terms of availability on home consoles, at least. Wrath of the Mutants is a port of the 2017 arcade game, which was a highly successful beat-em-up offering that ate quarters in exchange for play time.

Not content to just be a re-issue for home audiences, though, this version of Wrath of the Mutants does come with additional stages and boss fights.

What's interesting is that, if successful beyond simply being another fun offering in the genre with beloved characters, the game could be proof that there's ample room for more arcade-only releases to arrive on consoles.

Graphics and Gameplay

Those who happened to play Wrath of the Mutants on a literal arcade machine know what to expect here.

This isn't the recently released Shredder's Revenge with the sidescrolling art that was a sort of hand-drawn throwback to console generations of the far past. This is more 3D and blocky, with the expected pixelation across details when blown up on bigger screens than arcade machines.

That colorful 3D style properly fits the 2012 rendition of the Turtles from the Nickelodeon show, too. As expected, there are a variety of environments to romp through over the course of the game, with some interesting depth added to background scenes in a way common to games of this ilk.

Even the sound design is faithful to the '12 style, including the same voice actors such as Seth Green and some—forgive the pun—punchy sound effects to go along with the combat.

Sure, the art style won't be for everyone, but the 3D look doesn't, in any way, stop it from feeling like those fantastic sidescrolling TMNT arcade games of years past.

Combat feel certainly falls under the umbrella of arcade fighter, with basic and heavy attacks mapped to the expected buttons and a variety of different enemies that require different strategies. Those controls translate well from cabinet to controller. The Turtles feel distinct enough based on their preferred weapons to keep things fresh, too.

Boss battles can be bigger in scale, too, courtesy of some interesting set pieces, while other areas present players the opportunity to pick up and wield items or use the environment against enemies. And mowing through enough enemies to earn the Turtle Power big move for each character is a fun reward for working through mobs, especially because of how they can get players out of tricky situations.

There is some input lag for players to get familiar with before finding success, but it's merely a product of the animations. There can be some frustration though, especially for those unfamiliar with similar, literal in-arcade offerings. Enemies do swarm the player from all directions, so it's not as simple as a typical sidescroller.

But it's never too overwhelming and certainly eased by the presence of other players to help. Overall, Wrath of the Mutants is fun in a way that makes its success as an arcade game understandable.

Story and More

Wrath of the Mutants isn't here to rewrite the narrative on stories delivered through arcade cabinets.

That doesn't have to be a bad thing, though. It functions effectively like an episode of the series, which is good for fans and pretty entertaining for anyone with an even fleeting interest in the characters and world.

And hey, there's just only so much story to be had when the game was previously made for the extremely noisy, coin-clattering environment of spots like Dave & Buster's and movie theatres.

As expected for that environment, the game is undoubtedly much more enjoyable with more controllers connected and players to help out. It supports local co-op up to four players, though it would have been nice to see online play options.

There aren't a ton of options tucked into the menus, which isn't totally unexpected for a basic offering with two face buttons required for combat and one more for a super power. But there are three difficulty settings, the hardest unlockable only after completing the middle tier.

Conclusion

Admittedly, there's a bit of a cowabunga dude going on with the amount of TMNT games over the last few years, including Shredder's Revenge and The Cowabunga Collection.

Yet, it's hard to complain about arcade games faithfully coming to home consoles, especially when they are this brief and fun while featuring beloved characters. Provided players aren't going in blind and setting lofty expectations, this is quick-hitting fun with multiplayer for all ages.

There's also something to be said for the fact that TMNT can act as a sort of trailblazer for the industry. Hopefully, at least—the long-term preservation of literal arcade games on home consoles should be encouraged, as opposed to them just getting a run in arcades and disappearing into the void.

Even if that's not the case, Wrath of the Mutants joins the fray at a time when more fun multiplayer brawlers for players to choose from is a good thing.