This is a really fun, nostalgic belt-scroller beat-em-up in a deliberate retro pixel style that reunites the core voice actors from the original 1987 cartoon, revisits the old theme song, and features lots of more obscure characters in their 1987-series forms. (Wingnut, Zorax, and Mona Lisa are single episode characters in the original 1987 series, and the Turtle Tenderizer only appeared in a 1992 game.) I think Karai is the only character who wasn’t in the original series (and I didn’t realize Usagi was in the 1987 series). Apparently the developer had been pitching a TMNT game to Nickelodeon for a decade, and their passion comes through.
There is tongue-in-cheek humor with gags like Foot Soldiers bursting from garbage bags or playing on their phones, and the villains fleeing in terror from the turtles almost every level. And there are nostalgic throwbacks like VHS tapes, CRT monitors, 90s-style rap, and a grimy New York where Foot Soldiers steal hubcaps and engine blocks from cars.
Naturally the characters have different movesets that bestow different strengths, but the game goes further. Despite the retro styling, there are modern animation cancels that give more depth to the combat. There are lots of environmental hazards that affect both players and the enemies so you can throw Foot Soldiers into electric zappers, exploding barrels, trains, construction beams, robot punches, et cetera. As in many beat-em-ups, the best defense is shepherding together and stunlocking a bunch of enemies and air-juggling them until they all perish.
While there’s the traditional arcade experience, the more forgiving Story mode offers collectables and a metaprogression system. There is a wide variety of enemies with different behaviors; despite there being many different colors of Foot Soldiers, they use different weapons and need to be dealt with differently. Some hoverboard sequences are mixed in with the on-foot treks around New York and Dimension X.
The game really shines in co-op mode, though as expected it’s more chaotic. The scaling was seamless, 2p was just as smooth as 1p as just as much of a challenge. I used Remote Play with a friend who didn’t own the game, but couldn’t figure out how to set up two keyboard inputs and ended up just using a controller for myself.
