Like I say on all Turtles media, I had no experience with TNMT as a kid, outside emulating Turtles in Time. Which this game definitely follows in its footsteps, which is always a good thing.

Beautiful game, but that much is obvious. Both the graphics and music are fantastic. There's even an animated OP that really fleshes things out. This is one of those licensed games that it's a miracle that the IP owner let them come out the way they did. It's a really solid beat 'em up , while things seem simple at first once you get the hang of your moveset (which you will do by playing, not staring at the 23 tutorials before you can even choose your mode and Turtle), you will really feel that flow of your combos and realize what you can master with this game.

I went with Leonardo because I'm boring and while I did have the Usagi DLC, I wanted to play as released and the difficulty is pretty fair, even if bosses are a bit on the simpler side. A shoutout to the bosses too as they exude a huge amount of personality that must have come from the original show. With the bosses and gorgeous varied locations, I bet the real Shellheads or whatever TMNT devotees are called gushed over this one and I'm happy for them.

All in all, this is

Really great, nostalgic and funny game. The response controls are ok, the visual is one of the best in pixel art I've seen, and the combat is a lot funny when you get it. The only issues I see are the bosses, they're not that memorable nor creative, except for the last one, that one is epic and the animation is stunning. This game should have a bigger variability on their scenarios too, like the old beat-em-up game, I can't remember some level that make me thinking about later, some creativity would be good.

>fun beat em up that actually opens up co-op in a genre founded in having co-op
>great animation and vibe
>Mike Patton in the opening

Yes

TMNT: Shredder's Revenge is the love letter of all love letters. What they did here, what they did for the fanbase of TMNT is nothing short of just awesome. I've gotten much more into TMNT since last year, but I've always been a little bit of a fan since I was a kid.

To start off, the Level Design in side-scrolling always seems so simple, but I feel like it actually takes a bit more skill to pull off a truly great and fun one. That being said, Shredder's Revenge did the design of each level great. From the overall design of the pathways the player had to move through, to the set pieces and the enemy placements, I though they did a great job.

To add to the previous paragraph, the Levels also looked absolutely fantastic. The Art style and Pixel art is something that I just love looking at. I've always been a big fan of Pixel Art, and the amount of care, detail, and love that went into each pixel is so obvious in this. I can't say enough about how good it looks.

The Gameplay is a ton of fun. It's classic 2D Side-Scrolling fighting game fun, with a TMNT flair. Just so much fun to hit enemies, use your Special Attacks, finding Collectables. It's all just great fun, and I struggle to think of much wrong, besides the things all 2D Side-Scrolling fighting games struggle with, such as hit detection and perception depth, but it's not that bad.

To quickly mention the story, it's good. It'd entertaining with great moments and great characters. It's not much, since the game is far more focused on the Gameplay, but the narrative does it's job and it does it very well. Nothing groundbreaking, but that's not what I needed it to be.

Speaking of characters, Leo, Raph, Don, Mikey, April, and Splinter are all well done any fun to play. I usually just switched between the Turtles since I thought April was way to weak and Splinter was to slow. Mikey is by far the best one, I only found that out later in the game for some reason. His speed is just so great that the enemies can't even react. All and all, they're all a lot of fun to play. Besides them, Splinter and all the Bosses in the stories have great designs as well, and were all very expressive and cool.

To touch on the Bosses, they were pretty damn awesome. They're also pretty damn hard, but that kinda adds to the fun, considering this game isn't that BS difficulty, it's tough but it's fair like it should be. I though the bosses had great mechanics and had great design. Just great stuff.

I already mentioned it a little bit, but the enemies and their designs are just great. Though they could be very annoying, especially on "Gnarly" difficulty, but for the most part they were good and fun to punch. I do hate any robot enemies though, just harder to kill.

To finish off my gushing of the game, the OST is pretty much perfect. Every track is a banger and it all matches the games tone and aesthetic perfectly. Everyone with ears should listen to it.

I think they only thing that makes me give this a lower rating than the review would suggest is that it's pretty damn hard, and at times annoying. It never took me to long to get passed a level but it did hinder the score just a little bit. Besides me just sucking at games, this game is pretty much a perfect 2D Side-Scrolling Fighting game, and it's no doubt a perfect TMNT game. From the OST, to the Levels, the Art Style/Pixel Art, the Bosses/Enemies, the Characters, and the Gameplay, this is just a great time. If you like this Genre, TMNT, or games in general, I'd recommend you play Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge.

Score: 4.1/5
Letter Grade: A-