{"id":821683,"date":"2025-12-09T06:50:40","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T06:50:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-arcade-wrath-of-the-mutants-review-better-left-in-the-sewers\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T06:50:40","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T06:50:40","slug":"teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-arcade-wrath-of-the-mutants-review-better-left-in-the-sewers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-arcade-wrath-of-the-mutants-review-better-left-in-the-sewers\/","title":{"rendered":"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants Review \u2013 Better Left In The Sewers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Teenage<\/p>\n

Reviewed on:<\/b> PlayStation 5
Platform:<\/b> PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X\/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC
Publisher:<\/b> GameMill Entertainment
Developer:<\/b> Cradle Games, Raw Thrills
Release:<\/b>

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were synonymous with gaming in the late \u201880s and early \u201890s, largely thanks to their influence over arcade brawlers. Games like 1989\u2019s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (also known as \u201989 Arcade) and 1991\u2019s Turtles in Time are time-honored classics that shaped the side-scrolling beat-\u2018em-up genre, and 2022\u2019s Shredder\u2019s Revenge<\/a> demonstrated that the style is still viable in the modern landscape. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants clearly takes inspiration from those beloved games, but it falls spectacularly short of those acclaimed titles.<\/p>\n

Originally released to arcades in 2017, Wrath of the Mutants takes a similar approach to gameplay as the original TMNT arcade games: You choose from Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael, each with distinct moves, as you slash and brawl through stages full of baddies. Based on the 2012 Nickelodeon cartoon, Wrath of the Mutants includes a ton of enemies for the Turtles to beat up in various locales; this home port adds three all-new stages and six new bosses. Unfortunately, no amount of Easter eggs and fanservice can compensate for its uninteresting gameplay.<\/p>\n

Though the core concept is the same as the most beloved entries in the series, I never felt anything more than listlessness as I fought through the six extremely linear stages on offer. Each Turtle brandishes their signature weapon and a unique Turtle Power that clears the screen of enemies. These moves should feel empowering, but instead, they throw the action to a halt while a drawn-out animation plays; Leo spins to form a tornado that sucks up all the minions, while Raph drums on the ground, sending enemies flying.<\/p>\n

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But it all feels so routine as you fight through waves of the exact same enemies in tedious stages that require no strategy \u2013 you just go right and spam the attack button. You can also pick up power-ups that cause your character to spin on their shell or summon side characters to dispatch enemies, but with the base combat so uninteresting, I only enjoyed deploying these frequent special moves because they provided a quicker path through the long levels.<\/p>\n

Brawling the seemingly endless screens of Foot and Krang minions found in each stage wouldn\u2019t be so bad if the signature arcade unfairness wasn\u2019t ever-present. TMNT Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants isn\u2019t a tough game by any measure, but there are moments where you simply cannot avoid being hit. At nearly every phase, enemies attack you from off-screen, where you can\u2019t see or reach them, and they frustratingly won\u2019t stop attacking you nor come into view unless you go to the other side of the screen. Additionally, enemy projectiles are deadly accurate, and with the Turtles\u2019 sluggish movement and no way to effectively dodge, you\u2019re all but guaranteed to take hits.<\/p>\n

These enemies don\u2019t do a ton of damage, but it\u2019s often death by a thousand papercuts, and since each hit briefly stuns you, your combos are constantly getting interrupted. The bosses, who often just repeat the same attacks over and over, are trials of patience rather than engaging challenges. These boss encounters typically bring slight variations on the same move sets, causing them to all play out similarly. Even the final fight against Shredder does little to differentiate itself; he just lumbers around the screen while you wail on him with little strategy required other than jumping when the game tells you to jump \u2013 another repeated convention in nearly every boss battle.<\/p>\n