All your 90’s Turtle Dreams have come true. (TMNT: SR review)

When I start up TMNT: Shredders Revenge it feels like popping a quarter into an Arcade machine and hopping into a DeLorean headed straight to 1992. Pure nostalgia. The Tribute Games title plays like a late, very late, sequel to the classic brawler Turtles in Time. A Classic beat-em-up through an onslaught of enemies to meet a final boss, praying you have enough juice to finish the job. We waited 30 years for this sequel, and it was well worth the wait.

Taking us back to the likes of the classic arcade brawlers in our pasts, it checks off all the childhood memories while adding some tubular new features to the fray that set it apart. I used that correct, right? At first glance you’ll notice the huge advance in the graphics, which breathe life into the character models of some of our favorite pizza eating sewer dwellers. It bodes a fun combat system that rewards high combos, radical finishing moves, good dodge timing (yes there’s a dodge button), and copious amounts of teamwork. And tossing your sworn enemies, The Foot, into walls ain’t so bad either.

There are a total of 7 starting characters (Kasey Jones is unlock-able squeal) and each of them fun to play with and rewarding to level up, all the move sets and basic motions for each of the classic sewer homies just feel authentic. If you’re playing with Michelangelo, it’s going to feel so much different than playing with Master Splinter. Even different from playing with Leonardo for that matter, each character is fleshed out to have their own quirks and combos. These quirks include a few cool catch phrases and taunt motions that inject you with the kind of childhood memories that might just make you reconsider being an adult at all. A stat list of Speed, Range, power allows you to strategically choose your kind of fighting style. if you’re a raging close range whore you can pick a character like Ralph whose short Sai daggers might not go the distance but they make up for it with the power behind his strikes, or if you don’t like getting punched as much Leonardo’s stick can keep the bad guys at bay for a bit of a sacrifice in power. These small features make the levels feel brand new with each play-through.

Each level feels like a jump into a portal of pure 90’s Saturday morning cartoon bliss, but with ninjas. Environmental traps placed every which way make you think before just running in and it’s even more fun to bounce your foes off these traps. It’s irony but with fits. Some bosses even use the environment to their advantage like the Rat King, who summons a wave of rats in different formations testing your turtle toes to jump or cleverly dodge around them. Some levels even place you on hover boards and fighting flying enemies, sometimes these can be frustrating when getting the right angle but once you get the hang of it, it’s a blast.

This gorgeous souped-up sequel is polished and satisfying to master in every way possible. It’s a fun and easy game for anyone to pick up and play. You can solo it like a loner, play with homies side-by-side or you could use the online co-op which supports up to 6 players. Playing it with a friend my face lit up when I noticed we did a shell smash on an enemy simultaneously, small combat moments with friends make it that much more fun. But any way that you choose to partake in this bruised up, shell rumble beat down is the right way. Our favorite mutant creatures from the ooze are kicking butt again, and it’s a good ass kick.

4.9/5