Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed Review

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans have been spoilt with multiple games featuring these characters as of late, the newest release is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed. As soon as you start the game, you see that the art style feels like it is right from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem movie. It feels like it's constantly being drawn on and added to all the time; it almost makes it feel like everything is animated and alive. If you enjoy the raw, imperfect look of that film, you will be happy to see it here; if not, this may not be the game for you.

You have the option to play in single-player or co-op mode locally; there is no option for four players or online multiplayer. If you are planning on playing with someone, you can turn off friendly fire in the options menu if you want. Or if you find it fun to hit your teammate, then you can just leave it on; this will definitely add to the challenge!

The new mutants in town, known as the Mewbies, have been acting up, destroying the city, and ambushing residents and the other mutants already living here. It has got bad enough that a citywide curfew has been enacted, and it's up to the brothers, who are now public figures, and April to find out why they are doing this and try to get them under control, with the end goal of the humans finally accepting the mutants who call this same city home. Mutants Unleashed uses a day and night cycle that tracks the amount of time that has passed since the curfew began. Some of the missions and tasks have to be completed before a certain date or time, so be sure to keep track of the time.

While traversing the stages set in Manhattan, you can smash the wooden boxes you find sitting around. Besides feeling incredibly satisfying, you may also find items like VHS tapes, which are used as currency; slices of pizza to replenish health; or ooze canisters to upgrade your maximum HP. I have never played a Ninja Turtles game where eating pizza didn’t help you recover from the damage you took!

The world in Mutants Unleashed is not an open one; this is a guided experience, and the game leads you to where it wants you to go. There isn't too much you can do on your own exploration-wise. Invisible walls and barriers will block you from wandering too far unless there happens to be a useful item or power-up in the game to collect. If you aren’t stopped, then you know that you are either going in the correct direction or that you need to keep an eye out for collectibles.

You may think that this 3D beat ‘em up platformer will be like all the others that you have played, but there is one main difference that is a bigger deal than you may expect. In Mutants Unleashed, there is no way to control the camera; the only thing the right thumbstick does is slightly nudge it. Instead, if you are standing behind something, you will see a sketched shadow to show you where you currently are. This is useful, but personally, I would rather be able to adjust my view to see the foes around me and the hazards of the level.

All four turtles have their own unique combo moves they can perform; you can see the list when you pause and go to the Move List. There is a button for jumping, attacking, dodging, and a special move. Like most platforming games, you can double jump. But the thing that makes this extra useful is that they can perform an attack in the air with their weapon of choice. They each have ground and air attacks they can use, along with some really cool combos. If you play like me, chances are when you are in the middle of a fight, you will be frantically button-mashing, not trying to pull off complicated combos when the Mewbies ambush you.

Once all the enemies ambushing you are defeated, you get a grade and collect experience points. This is based on your performance and how many VHS tapes you found in this section. The XP is used to unlock new skills for each of the turtles back at your lair in the sewer. These skill trees will be unlocked as you progress; you can access these at your home base, where you select which abilities to unlock with the XP you earn for each mission. The first level of upgrades can be unlocked at any time, but to access the higher levels, you need to speak to allies to strengthen your bonds and unlock the next level of moves. Unlocking these is done through Ally Bonds; making connections with the people important to the Turtles is a nice touch; it shows how important these relationships really are. When these bonds are increased, it will unlock upgrades for each turtle and new special missions to complete.

Some events, like having a long conversation with friends or going on a mission, will advance time. Be sure to make the most of the time you have until the due date by talking to allies, purchasing power-ups, and playing special missions. This reminded me of a Persona game where strengthening your relationships with other characters makes you stronger; you even work with Bebop and Rocksteady to wrangle the Mewbie outbreak. Mutants Unleashed isn’t only about beating up all the enemies you come across.

The most frustrating thing that I encountered besides the lack of camera is that the loading times on Switch are quite long, and there are a lot of them! This doesn't seem to be as much of an issue on other consoles based on the videos that I’ve seen, but it is frustrating if you are playing the game on the Nintendo handheld. I hope that this issue could maybe be helped with patches, but I’m guessing it is more of a console issue. If you want to play Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed, I recommend checking out this title on a different console if you have the option, or waiting until this one goes on sale.

If you ever wanted to experience a TMNT game with a hint of Persona, this title may be up your alley; it definitely feels different from the other Ninja Turtle games out there. It isn’t super long, but it will keep you entertained for the 14ish hours it will take to complete.