TMNT: Wrath of the Mutants

Cowabung-Nah…

When it comes to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, their history of video games has been largely hit and miss. The brawlers, such as the classic Arcade game and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time, as well as the more recent adventure in Shredder’s Revenge, are prime examples of some of the best games across the license. However, when it comes to games on the other end of the spectrum, those that are considered the most disappointing, we then get the likes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Wrath of the Mutants, an expanded port of the 2017 Raw Thrills arcade game based on the 2012 series. With it finally seeing a home release after 7 years, it’s such a barren and generic take on the heroes in the half-shell that after wrapping credits in just over an hour, I’ll likely never touch it again. 

I remember being aware of the arcade release back in 2017 but didn’t have an arcade nearby that had it. I remember watching a pretty quick playthrough of the game on YouTube, seeing a brief story setup that saw Shredder kidnapping April and the awful voice acting present across the Turtles. Spread out across three levels and a boss fight, it was a rather short affair that still had some sort of charm to it, at least back in 2017. However, despite the addition of three new levels as well as the original cartoon actors reprising their roles, Wrath of the Mutants offers just over an hour of gameplay, especially as it is shockingly missing a few battles from the arcade game and the entire opening cinematic. 

When Wrath of the Mutants was announced for home consoles, it was sold as having three brand-new levels. While that is technically true, the third level is actually just a few rooms leading up to the final battle with Shredder. Since the original arcade game had this level as just a boss fight, it also had a boss rush mode present before you even went toe to toe with Oroku Saki. This boss rush mode is not present in this release as you simply start fighting Shredder the moment you find him. 

In the original arcade game, you had three levels: The Sewers, NYC, and TCRI. Here, Dimension X and The Amusement Park have been added and feel like natural additions, almost as if they were originally part of the game. To the game’s credit, they mesh in well here. However, what is rather bizarre is that there is no level progression, despite the climax of each mission prompting you to “Prepare for the next level”. Instead, you are sent back to the level select free to pick whatever order you want, making the loose narrative around tracking April to feel haphazard at best. 

In fact, with the whole cutscene being removed from the start of the game, you have no idea what the story or motivation for the Turtles is until you rescue April in one of the most cringe-inducing TMNT scenes I have ever seen. With GameMill having the resources of Nickelodeon at their disposal, given they produce about a dozen Nickelodeon games a year, I am shocked that this entire scene wasn’t redone and made to be something that was even remotely watchable. 

With the new stages and tweaks to the originals, you now have six new bosses that make an appearance alongside Bebop, Rocksteady, and Krang, offering us the likes of Rahzar, and The Creep. However, none of these new encounters are really that memorable and most of the new additions pull from deep cuts within the 2012 series. And despite the new additions, you still only get the same assist characters in Leatherhead and Metal Head to help out, screen-clearing anything in your way. However, their placement in the levels feels scripted and too predictable. 

Perhaps the best addition to this release is the return of the 2012 voice cast. Seth Green, Sean Astin, Rob Paulson, and Greg Cipes are all back as their respective turtles. However, for as great as it is to have them back, they don’t have a lot of voice lines. In fact, you’ll hear the same lines and shouts over and over again. To be honest, this has always been an issue with GameMill as their attention to voice acting has been less than stellar across every single Nickelodeon game. Hell, All-Star Brawl originally shipped without a single voice line within its memorable cast. Still, it’s great to have them back, but I wish more had been done to give them their due. 

From a gameplay perspective, it’s a mixed bag. Turtle Power attacks feel fine, if a bit underpowered at times, but the Turtles lack any real mobility to get out of the way of some pretty standard attacks. You feel pretty vulnerable, which for an arcade game feels natural since it is meant to bleed quarters from you. Here, it simply feels cheap and artificial in its challenge. You’ll often take hits that don’t feel like you deserve it. 

Combat-wise, it’s a pretty simple arcade format with basic attacks and special moves. Y is your standard attack, such as Leo’s swinging his blade, and B allows you to jump, with a second B pressed in the air to then perform an air-slash. Then you have Turtle Power attacks that charge up and are pulled off by pressing X, causing each turtle to pull off an intense special attack, such as a spinning cyclone. You’ll also find turtle communicator icons that grant you a special attack, such as spinning around on your shell and knocking over enemies. You’ll find items such as smoke bombs and pizza to refill your health, although I found that the health pickups are spaced out a bit too far apart and I ended up finding them after encounters that usually had me die and be full health immediately when I found them, making them never feel worthwhile. Add in grabbing garbage cans and a brief stint atop some hoverboards, and you check all the boxes of what has been done before.

While the game is fully playable on your own, which is the way that I played it, given there is no online play, I can see the action feeling more enjoyable and easier to handle larger groups when you have more Turtles on screen at once. I think a few of the issues I have with Wrath of the Mutants is that it is very apparent that co-op is meant to be the focus of the game, making its single-player aspect feel more of an afterthought than intentional game design. 

While the visuals seem to be cleaned up a bit, this is pretty much the identical experience I’ve seen through footage of the arcade release. Models and environments are pretty dated and despite the new stages, those seem equally as low-effort as the original set. I mentioned the ending cutscene and that is being generous in calling it such. It’s actually a series of static images with a voice-over, including a line from the Turtles that makes no sense, especially since had already defeated the Shredder. I literally face-palmed. The whole package surrounding Wrath of the Mutants feels like a very low-cost effort to bring this game to consoles, and frankly, I’m not surprised by this. 

As there is some fun to be had here, Wrath of the Mutants is a TMNT game that I likely won’t touch again, even if I have people over as the latest Double Dragon brawler or even Shredder’s Revenge are far better alternatives. I was extremely excited for Wrath of the Mutants as TMNT brawlers are rarely bad, but while this expanded port is by no means bad, it’s a pretty remarkable disappointment in that it offers more than what was present in the original and yet feels lesser in many ways. With so many brawlers available out there, Wrath of the Mutants is just not a contender in any way shape or form, and that’s unfortunate, given the lasting legacy of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. 

Developer - Raw Thrills / Cradle Games.
Publisher - Raw Thrills / GameMill Entertainment.
Released - April 23rd, 2024.
Available On - Windows PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch.
Rated - (E10+) - Fantasy Violence.
Platform Reviewed - Nintendo Switch.
Review Access - Review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.