Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge is a 2022 beat 'em up game developed by Tribute Games and published by Dotemu. It is inspired by and based on the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series and borrows stylistically from the arcade and home console Turtles games developed by Konami during the 1980s and 1990s. The story follows the Turtles as they set out to stop Shredder and Krang from taking over New York City, whilst facing foes that stand in their way.

Nickelodeon approached Dotemu following the release of Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap (2017) about the possibility of developing a video game adaptation of one of its franchises. Knowing that Tribute Games had been pitching a Turtles game to Nickelodeon since 2010, the two companies decided to work together. The Turtles voice actors from the 1987 series reprise their roles. The music was composed by Tee Lopes, with contributions from guitarist Jonny Atma, rappers Mega Ran, Ghostface Killah, and Raekwon, and singer Mike Patton.

Shredder's Revenge was released for Windows, Linux, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on June 16, 2022, and for PlayStation 5 on November 15, 2022. The game received critical acclaim, with reviewers praising the pixel-based visual style, playable character roster and combat mechanics, while criticism was directed at audio quality issues and the short length of the story mode. The game was also a commercial success, selling one million copies within a week of release. A downloadable expansion, Dimension Shellshock, released on August 31, 2023.

Gameplay

Shredder's Revenge is a side-scrolling action brawler with a pixelated artstyle. The player assumes control of Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo, April O'Neil, Master Splinter, and unlockable character Casey Jones as they combat opponents including the Foot Clan, Bebop and Rocksteady, Krang, and Shredder in locations ranging from New York City sewers to Dimension X. Each character has their own attributes (range, speed, and power) and plays differently. They have unique super moves and taunts. Throughout each stage, players can find pizza boxes, which can be used to heal them, and other pies that grant players extra strength and infinite supers for a brief period of time.

The game features two different modes: Arcade Mode and Story Mode. In arcade mode, players have a limited amount of lives, and the game must be completed in one sitting. Story mode allows players to exchange accumulated points for health, extra lives, additional combat moves, and a special ability known as Radical Mode which temporarily enhances the player character's combat abilities. In story mode, each stage has optional side-content, challenges, and collectibles. In addition to the single-player mode, the game supports cooperative multiplayer for up to six players, both online and locally. Players can high-five to share health, or work together to perform certain moves.

A downloadable expansion, Dimension Shellshock, adds a new Survival gameplay mode, in which the Turtles and their allies must travel to other dimensions to stop Shredder from conquering the multiverse. The expansion also adds two new playable characters, Miyamoto Usagi and Karai, and unlockable character costumes.

Plot

Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo along with April O'Neil and Master Splinter are watching the news on TV when it is interrupted by Bebop, who announces the Foot has returned and is taking over the Statue of Liberty. The Turtles go to the Channel 6 building and find Bebop with the head of Krang's android body, but Rocksteady takes it away while they were fighting Bebop. The team fight Foot operatives and other adversaries while pursuing Krang, finding other parts of his body being reconstructed. Their chase leads them to Dimension X, where they fight their way through the destroyed Technodrome, until they eventually reach their enemy's lair in Dimension X and face Shredder and Krang in his new body. This was actually a diversion to get the Turtles away from New York while they are turning the Statue of Liberty into the Statue of Tyranny, a robot controlled by Krang. The Turtles return to New York and defeat Krang and the mutated Super Shredder.

After the battle, the heroes return to their lair and watch the news as the city is being restored, but are disappointed to see that the credit goes to the Punk Frogs. That night the Turtles, along with April, Splinter and Casey Jones celebrate their victory with pizza, another ending is unlocked when finding all the cameos (Irma Langenstein, Vernon Fenwick, Burne Thompson, the Punk Frogs and Neutrinos) to which they are posing at the restored Statue of Liberty, now sporting a red ninja bandana.

Dimension Shellshock

The ninja team celebrate another pizza party (now joined by samurai rabbit Miyamoto Usagi and surviving Foot Clan member Karai), however it gets interrupted by the Neutrinos, who informs the turtles that Shredder is planning to conquer the multiverse. In order to stop him they must collect 6 crystals from different dimensions to reach Shredder's lair. After they have defeated Shredder, the Neutrinos award the heroes 10 new brands of pizza from other dimensions, however they find them difficult to be eaten.

Development

Shredder's Revenge was developed by Montreal-based Tribute Games. The team had experiences working on brawler games at Ubisoft on Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game and TMNT. Nickelodeon approached Dotemu following the release of Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap (2017) on the possibility of developing an adaptation of one of its franchises. After finding out that Tribute Games had been pitching a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game to Nickelodeon since 2010, the two companies decided to work together after meeting each other at Game Developers Conference. The game was inspired by the animated series that debuted in 1987 and the arcade games in the 1990s such as Turtles in Time (1991). While the game paid homage to older Turtles games, the team wanted to modernize the series by introducing various quality-of-life enhancements, online multiplayer, and locations that have not been seen in a 2D Turtles game.

The game features voice acting, with the original cast of the 1987 series, Cam Clarke, Barry Gordon, Rob Paulsen, and Townsend Coleman reprising their roles. The soundtrack was composed by Tee Lopes, who is known for his work on other retro-style games such as Sonic Mania and Streets of Rage 4. Guitarist Jonny Atma provided the guitar recordings for most of the soundtrack, and vocals for the song "Panic in the Sky!". Singer Mike Patton was invited to perform the theme song for the game. American rapper Mega Ran contributed vocals to the credits theme, "It's a Pizza Party!", while Ghostface Killah and Raekwon were featured in Shredder's boss theme, "We Ain't Come to Lose".