Five years have passed since we last saw a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game on console but that looks set to change soon. Coming from developer Tribute Games and publisher DotEmu, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge is a “classically informed” side-scrolling beat ’em up coming to consoles and PC.
The title has been inspired by the design of classic TMNT games like 1987’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles In Time. Half-shell heroes Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello are trying to thwart the latest fiendish scheme from Krang and Shredder. They’ll take down foes across iconic TMNT locations in Manhattan, with a particular focus on warthog and rhinoceros supervillains Bebop and Rocksteady who are gathering the gizmos needed to put that scheme in motion. The quartet will have new abilities that have been based on “classic brawling mechanics”. You can see some of them in action in a short gameplay clip at the end of the trailer, which has a new version of the theme tune performed by Faith No More’s Mike Patton.
DotEmu is a publisher who’s gaining quite a reputation for bringing back beloved franchises. Having previously published Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap and Windjammers, they also continued the Streets of Rage franchise with the lauded Streets of Rage 4. Tribute Games are known more for their retro-inspired original IPs like Flinthook, Curses ‘N’ Chaos, Ninja Senki DX, and Mercenary Kings. Their developers have plenty of experience with the genre, though, as their staff includes members who have worked on Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on GameBoy Advance.
The TMNT franchise hasn’t had much luck in recent years. After a series of distinctly average games that included Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Danger of the Ooze, many of the games were removed from the PlayStation Store at the start of 2017 after their licenses expired. Publisher Activision had done nothing with the license since then and evidently let it become someone else’s responsibility. Hopefully Tribute Games’ title can fare much better. The title will be coming to unspecified consoles in the future.