Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants Reviews
Beating the entire game takes less than two hours, but it still somehow manages to drag. You can return to the game’s six stages to try and get higher scores, but I had zero interest in doing so. The arcade games of yesteryear sometimes lacked depth, but they at least had a hook that stuck with you and kept you itching to return to pump more quarters into the cabinet. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants strives for the greatness of the influential arcade hits of the past but falls well short. Thanks to uninteresting and annoying gameplay, repetitive enemy and boss encounters, and grating audio design, Wrath of the Mutants is little more than a shell of the series’ glory years.
They each have their own ‘Turtle Power’ which players can initiate anytime the meter is full to clear out the enemies on screen or deliver extra damage to the bosses. Leonardo creates a tornado, Raphael punches the ground causing an earthquake, Donatello channels his inner Thor and shoots lightning from his staff and Michelangelo throws pizza everywhere. Even though three of those make absolutely no sense with the character’s personalities and backgrounds, the Turtle Power is still a really handy tool for when things get tough.
Wrath of the Mutants is a functional beat 'em up. I'll give it that. If you liked the 2012 show and want more TMNT beat 'em up goodness to play, it's fine if your co-op friends are nearby. Otherwise, there are far better options at similar or cheaper prices, even within this IP.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants is not the steaming cash grab that you might have assumed by seeing the publisher involved. Neither is it anything close to the action-packed highs that we have seen from the heroes in a half-shell in recent years. Instead, we are left with a game that is perfectly serviceable but ultimately forgettable, let down by repetitive levels and combat and lacking any reason to go back for more. If, for some unknown reason, this is the only Turtles beat 'em up that you can access, then you will likely have a perfectly fine 90 minutes of playtime. But the alternatives on Switch deliver much more memorable, satisfying TMNT experiences.
TMNT: Wrath of the Mutants puts you on a roller coaster ride through the world of the 2012 cartoon. The ride proves amusing, but digging any deeper into its game design reveals the game to be a rather sloppy bout of sewer surfin'.
The simple gameplay of Wrath of the Mutants can be enjoyable in the right mood, but don't expect anything more than a bland and repetitive button masher.
At a basic level, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants is a perfectly serviceable brawler and a decent enough port of the 2017 arcade game, with a couple of additional levels to play through. However, one-note gameplay and a lack of unlockable extras make this a throwaway, short-lived affair.
I was shell-shocked by the pathetic mediocrity of TMNT Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants.
Inspired by Turtles in Time, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants certainly plays like a blast from the past. After Shredder's Revenge, you'll likely find its gameplay too basic, however, and it fails to impress in other ways, too.
With hollow gameplay and monotonous design choices, TMNT Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants rides the nostalgia train but delivers nothing.
If you find yourself itching for some more Turtle beat-em up content after exhausting everything from Shredder’s Revenge and the Cowabunga Collection, Wrath of the Mutants provides a brief serving that’s simply more flashy and less fun.
It's a faithful port of the arcade game which adds two extra stages, but it is massively underwhelming for anyone hoping for something fun to play.
Had Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants been released in, say, 2021, I would have definitely complained about it, but I would have also said there was no better option for us fans out there. In a post Cowabunga Collection and Shredder’s Revenge world, however, this game feels almost like a joke. I don’t know who this game is for. By being so dull, so lifeless, so devoid of joy and excitement, Wrath of the Mutants actually stands out like a sore thumb.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants expands on the 2017 arcade game but it’s simple and safe style and lack of replayability leave this brawler best left in the past.
There is no need to get Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants unless you really like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or you are one of the very small batch of people who enjoyed this game on the arcade and wanted to play in your own home for some reason.
Unfortunately, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants offers an experience far below expectations for a Ninja Turtles beat 'em up. The visual identity based on a more “recent” animation, even though there are already newer ones at the moment, could have been a great element, but the bland and uninteresting set ended up affecting what could be another great group game.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Even with my love of the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and my enjoyment of the fun, but simple gameplay, Wrath of the Mutant's short run time and high price point make it an incredibly hard game to recommend. If this was a bonus game added to The Cowabunga Collection or a part of a sequel collection for some of the modern games then it’d be a notable treat, but on its own, it's simply not worth it.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Wrath of the Mutants is lacking in both content and quality - a cynical console port of an ageing arcade game, which does right by neither the source material nor the fanbase.
Maybe there's some superficial, fleeting fun to be had here, but TMNT Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants is far too simplistic, straightforward, and shallow to ultimately be anything more than an utterly forgettable disappointment.
It pains me as a huge Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan to have written this review, but in an age where titles like Turtles in Time and Shredder's Revenge exist, Wrath of the Mutants just isn't worth any more than the quick 10-minute play I gave it on those half-broken sticks back at the arcade.