SHELL POWER

Thanks to plenty of turtle wax, TMNT: SHREDDER’S REVENGE shines

- Dominic Tarason

I don’t think I’ll ever outgrow ’90s cartoons and sidescrolling arcade brawlers. So it was with some excitement that I fired up Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, a modern follow-up to Konami’s arcade & SNES hit Turtles in Time. It’s an exercise in targeted nostalgia, opening with a fully animated intro, a cover of the Saturday morning theme song, and even the return of the original voice cast – albeit with 30 years of added rasp to their voices.

That’s a strong first impression and a tough one to live up to, but I’m happy to say that developer Tribute Games has managed to recapture that classic spark, even if it’s sometimes at risk of being snuffed out by a few attempted modernisations that don’t fully deliver.

Putting its strongest two-toed foot forward, Shredder’s Revenge is an absolute joy to look at and listen to. Even with most of the game taking part in New York, each environment feels distinct, with the graffiti-daubed streets outside the TV station (where the bad guys have painted the word ‘Foot’ over any sign where it’d make sense, plus a few where it doesn’t) leading to a chase down broadway, a grungy sewer crawl, a trip to the zoo, and beyond. The backdrops rarely repeat, impressive considering this game’s about four times the length of Turtles in Time, and far more detailed.