Konami’s 1989 and 1991 TMNT arcade games stand as two of the most successful co-op arcade games of all time. In 2017, Raw Thrills (makers of the Fast & Furious arcade games) gave the license a shot as well, releasing a third arcade game that was simply titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. That arcade game has finally been ported to home consoles and Steam and retitled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants. The home versions come from GameMill Entertainment, a publisher of famously low-frills games. Don’t expect many bells and whistles but do be prepared for a decent helping of beat ‘em up fun.
Wrath of the Mutants is based on Nickelodeon’s 2012 TMNT animated series. While it might seem a bit odd to release a game based on an older show (there have been two new series since the 2012 one), the 2012 series ran for five years and was quite popular during that time. Raw Thrills’ arcade game came at the tail end of that run, and we’re just now getting to play it at home. Better late than never!
The game itself is a beat ‘em up with 2D gameplay and 3D graphics. Surprisingly, the gameplay seems to have been closely modeled after that of TMNT: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled, Ubisoft’s 2.5D remake of Turtles in Time. The Turtles’ attacks consist of regular slashes, a spinning slash that hits in all directions, two jumping attacks, and a couple of throws. The throws mimic those of Turtles in Time, allowing players to either slam enemies into the ground or toss them towards the screen.
The specific Re-Shelled influence comes from the fact that the Turtles and enemies can attack in 8 directions rather than being limited to horizontal attacks like in traditional beat ‘em ups. While some gamers might favor being able to attack in any which way, it creates “looser” gameplay and makes bosses' attacks harder to dodge. You can certainly get used to the 8-way attacks here, and casual players probably won’t even notice the difference. Wrath does have two new mechanics: throwable objects and “Turtle Power” special moves. Whenever the Turtle Power meter fills, players can unleash a Turtle-specific special move that damages all enemies on-screen.
Most good arcade games have fun power-ups, and Wrath is no different. The turtle shell icon lets a player spin around on their shell, enjoying temporary invincibility. The occasional smoke bombs will stagger enemies, and throwing stars offer temporary ranged attacks. As for health refilling pizzas, they only pop up infrequently – much less often than in previous TMNT beat ‘em ups.
Jitsu Squad-style assist icons appear at specific intervals in each stage. These will summon an ally to clear the screen of foes. The only two allies are Metal Head and Leatherhead, though. Why don’t Casey Jones and Splinter show up? Players will see the same two summons over and over again throughout the course of the game. That lack of variety really diminishes the excitement of calling in the Turtles’ pals.
Wrath of the Mutants has only one game mode. After choosing a save file, players can select from three difficulties. You have to beat Normal to unlock Hard, and all three difficulties have a non-stackable Achievement of their own. Having selected a difficulty, players will arrive on the stage select screen, and then, the character select screen. Wrath supports 4-player local co-op, with each character playing as one of the Turtles. The entire team shares an allotment of three continues per stage. Once those run out, any downed players will have to stay dead until the remaining players beat or fail the stage. Thankfully, continues replenish each time you restart a level, so you don’t lose that much progress on a game over.
The original arcade game had three full stages and a short boss-rush stage for Shredder. Here, two completely new stages have been added: Amusement Park and Dimension X. Additionally, the Shredder stage is now an entirely different, full stage. The boss rush is gone, but the length of the game has doubled. This being an arcade game, it will only take about an hour to complete, but that’s better than the half hour length of the arcade version. Additionally, players can revisit stages at will, whereas the arcade version presented them in a linear order after the first stage had been selected.
Stages represent a fair assortment of locations from the 2012 series, including the streets of New York, the sewers and subway tunnels, the TCRI building, and more. Each stage includes lots of fights against robotic Foot soldiers and humanoid Kraang robots, plus a handful of additional foes like Mousers and Squirralenoids. Foot ninjas come in many colored varieties, just as in Konami’s TMNT arcade games. The Kraang robots drop the little brain-like Kraangs when destroyed. Players can then kick or throw them off the screen – a fun touch. None of the stages get particularly imaginative, but the sewer surfing sequence and the trip through the Amusement Park’s funhouse stand out a bit.
Each stage has a mid-boss and a final boss fight as well. Some of these include Bebop, Rocksteady, Chrome Dome, and even the classic Krang from the 1987 cartoon. Oddly, Krang’s intro spells his name in the traditional way, but the subtitles for his dialogue misspell it as “Kraang” (the name of the alien race in the 2012 show). With three new stages, new bosses like Rahzar and Karai have been added to the home game, leading to a superior representation of the Turtles’ rogues gallery. See our “Meet the Bosses” story for the full lineup. The boss fights are likely to chew through players’ lives, but the teams’ Turtle Power attacks can reduce much of the sting.
Wrath of the Mutants’ presentation is a mixed bag. The 2017 arcade game lacked an actual intro cinematic, but it at least had an attract screen that established the premise: Shredder has kidnapped April O’Neil. Wrath of the Mutants doesn’t include the attract screen, nor does it add an introduction of any sort. Given that TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge and TMNT: The Cowabunga Collection both feature new animated intros, it feels cheap and generic not to have some kind of introduction here. The game does have an ending, thankfully, though it lacks voice acting. Despite the silent ending, during the actual gameplay, players will hear lots of voice clips from the show’s genuine voice actors: Seth Green, Rob Paulsen, Kevin Michael Richardson, and even Gilbert Gottfried as Baxter. The only problem is that the Turtles themselves quip so frequently that you’ll wish they’d shut up and eat some pizza after a while.
Many cool arcade games don’t receive home versions nowadays, so it’s great that TMNT Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants has finally made its way onto consoles and PC. The only problem is that GameMill seems to have undervalued the property while overpricing the game. The Turtles franchise is big enough that Wrath of the Mutants should have online co-op. After all, Shredder’s Revenge and the Cowabunga Collection both do, and even TMNT Arcade and TMNT: Turtles in Time: Re-Shelled offered the feature in the Xbox 360 days. It’s strange to release a Turtles game with far less content and features than Shredder’s Revenge and yet charge more for it. Wrath of the Mutants is a genuinely fun game; it’s just too expensive for what it offers. Top Turtles fans might want to pick this one up right away, but everybody else should probably wait for a sale.
TMNT: Wrath of the Mutants costs $29.99. The game is available digitally on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and Steam. Physical versions are available for Xbox, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Switch on Amazon. The Steam version is fully Steam Deck compatible.
Xbox and Steam download codes were provided by the publisher for this review.