With so many great modern beat em ups still being released, it's impressive how this one still manages to stand out years later! And while nostalgia bait can feel annoying and pandering sometimes, Tribute has always managed to successfully translate the look and tone of it's source material into games.
Shredder's Revenge is all about the fighting of course, so thankfully it's feels great slapping and throwing enemies around and while characters mostly feel similar in how they control, there are little differences in their range, movement and special moves that help differentiate them.
The game has 16 levels and can be finished in just under 2 hours. Normally I'd say this is a bit overlong for an arcade style beat em up but the game's pace feels perfect! Enemies never have annoying amounts of health, and can be dispatched quickly, especially when you figure out which attack or maneuver works best on which target.
As far as fan service goes, this game does a good job of representing for the Turtles in Time fans, the 1987cartoon crowd and the fans of some deep cut characters like Halfcourt. I should also note this is one of the few beat em ups to have unique endings for each character! It may just be one image and some text specific to the character tacked onto the main ending you always get but that's more than almost any other game in the genre gives you.
Gripes are few. The entire game takes place in New York City (with a few later stages in Dimension X) and with 16 stages to plow through, a lot of them blend together in my memory as just sort of "big city" themed. None of them are ugly or confusing to look at. The colors and details look great when you're playing but I always felt stages like the zoo, the mall or the roof tops would stand out a little more in my head.
The survival mode is also kind of disappointing. Power ups that let you temporarily play as bosses are pretty cool but it's basically a hardcore gauntlet for experienced players and for everyone else, you'll spend most of your time getting knocked into pits.
The snappy controls, quick pacing and large character roster are more than enough to keep me coming back to this game, even with it's limited modes. Also gotta give credit to any game that included local multiplayer!
