Metalhead’s moves don’t pose much of a threat to the player, and before long, the robot is out of commission, and Raph is eating a slice of pizza off his sai as my demo ends. He’s also joined by a menagerie of mousers and can shield himself while launching rockets your way. Shredder’s techno-turtle has a similar moveset as the version players faced in Turtles in Time, complete with arms that can stretch across the screen and flying kicks. While the mouser infestation might lead you to believe the boss battle is against their inventor, Baxter Stockman, the climax of this electronics expedition is against an additional robotic rogue: Metalhead. The dynamic footing and the fact that new smashable items are constantly arriving on screen adds new layers to the encounter. In one memorable section, Raph takes on several enemies on opposing conveyor belts. Co-op is drop-in/drop-out, and whenever the player count changes, the game adapts in real-time, adjusting the enemy compositions on the fly if you decide to suddenly invite three friends into the mix. The final stage I see is the 10th level in the game, called “A Few Screws Loose.” Here, players battle through a back alley and into an electronics store full of tube TVs and mousers galore. After repeating this cycle a few times, Tempestra is defeated, and the mall is safe. Once you defeat the mutant snapping turtle and wolf, Tempestra becomes vulnerable to attack. In this boss battle, the virtual sorceress summons digital projections of Tokka and Rahzar from The Secret of the Ooze. Tempestra is a character who escaped from a video game with which Leonardo became obsessed in a 1990 episode of the cartoon, so her appearance in the mall arcade of Shredder’s Revenge makes sense. While the first level featured Bebop, a familiar face for anyone who’s played through the Turtles’ past games, as its boss battle, this level gives players a foe who hasn’t appeared in a game before. Eventually, Donatello and April O’Neil fight through the food court and shopping promenades to arrive at the arcade. Fighting through the mall, players are treated to a plethora of nods to the mall culture of the time. While the first level is full of Easter eggs, the next stage I see (the sixth level in the game), “Mall Meltdown,” further commits to the nostalgia. We met with the companies behind Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge to see the game in action and chat with the developers about how they’re hoping to make the video game Turtles fans have dreamt of for the past 30 years. The World, Streets of Rage 4, and the well-liked 2007 TMNT for Game Boy Advance, Dotemu and Tribute Games hope to restore the cowabunga kings to their former gaming glory. Now, with talent that worked on games like Scott Pilgrim vs. Even Ubisoft’s 2009 remake of Turtles in Time was met with harsh criticism. After 1992’s Hyperstone Heist and 1993’s Tournament Fighters, the Turtles still starred in games, but few reached any level of acclaim. Following the IP’s late-‘80s/early-‘90s boom, the fan base of TMNT shrunk considerably, and much like the movies, TV shows, and merchandise, the brand’s gaming output slowed. However, just as the side-scrolling beat-‘em-up genre faded, so too did the luster of the Turtles’ legacy. Whether you’re talking about the 1989 arcade game, 1991’s Turtles in Time, or the myriad other brawlers starring everybody’s favorite Heroes in a Half-Shell, Konami’s creations in the ‘80s and ‘90s are legendary. In the 1990s, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were ubiquitous in the side-scrolling beat-‘em-up scene.
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