Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed
Summary: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed is undeniably a mixed bag, with solid combat and some inspired art direction being hindered by a monotonous soundtrack and budget graphics.
3.3
Heroes in a half-decent game
Let me preface this review with the admission that I am a TMNT tragic. Undoubtedly the franchise that is nearest and dearest to my heart, I’ve been a fan of the awesome foursome across all of their various iterations over the past forty years; from the Mirage comics to the Murakami Wolf animated series, through to the 2003, 2012 and IDW representations, I’ve found something to love about every version of these awesome amphibians.
Yes, I even enjoyed the much maligned The Next Mutation series, that’s how down I am with the turts.
One of the most endearing features of the characters created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird is their ability to be revised and updated for new audiences; each generation has their own distinct version of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and it’s this quality that has made the franchise endure for so long.
So when the reigns for the green ass-kicking machines was handed over to Seth Rogen, I was cautiously optimistic; his production company Point Grey had shown that they could competently and respectfully handle comic-to-screen adaptations with previous efforts such as Invincible, Preacher and The boys, so there was definitely a pedigree there and an expectation of quality.
Thankfully, Mutant Mayhem was a moderate success, garnering positive critical reviews despite failing to set the box-office on fire. Audiences were generally receptive to the more modern take on the four turtle brothers, which toned down the ninjitsu in favour of turning up the “teenager” aspect.
In the wake of the film’s success, an animated television series and game were announced to fill in gaps in the story before the turtles return for their theatrical sequel, which leads us to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed.
TMNT fans have been eating good the past few years when it comes to video games adaptations of their favourite Testudines, with Shredder’s Revenge, The Cowabunga collection and Splintered Fate all releasing to critical acclaim, as well as a crossover with the money printing machine known as Fortnite.
Unfortunately Mutants Unleashed doesn’t quite hit the lofty standards set by those aforementioned titles but it does manage to stand on its own merits, albeit shakily.
The first thing you’ll notice when booting up Mutant Mayhem is the generic music and budget visuals; although the game does employ the same kind of scratchy “scribbles in the margin of a textbook” visual style of the film, the character models and environments are nonetheless low quality. This is perhaps most evident in the lip syncing, which has the models flapping their heads like Terrance and Phillip in a rough approximation of what is being spoken on screen.
Once you jump into the game proper and get through the tutorial stage, you’ll gain access to the sewer lair, which serves as a hub from which you can level your character up, use your phone to seek out collectables, talk to your family members and more. There is a lot more dialogue here than one would expect, with a majority of the gameplay actually focusing on building relationships with characters through conversation in order to unlock abilities on your skill trees.
The plot has the brothers facing off against a host of new mutants, or “Mewbies”, that have emerged from the bay of the city after Superfly’s mutagen bomb exploded underwater at the climax of the film. Initially coming in peace, the city is soon wracked by assaults from violent Mewbies, forcing the brothers to get to the bottom of what is causing their rage before the public turns on all of mutantkind.
My first experience with the game wasn’t exactly a pleasant one; I enlisted my daughter to join me in some co-op shenanigans, as most turtles games have their fun factor exponentially increased once you buddy up with a homie. During the opening tutorial, we encountered two game breaking bugs that forced us to hard restart, both times due to being unable to progress to the next area due to invisible walls.
Mutants Unleashed takes the questionable route of employing fixed camera angles, which often leads to some unwieldy navigation as you’ll consistently find yourself running up against some imperceptible barrier; this isn’t a game that rewards exploration, which is kind of odd considering gathering collectibles such as VHS tapes and upgrade tokens is a primary mechanic.
We only managed to pass the stage on our third attempt when, upon encountering yet another invisible wall in a different location to the previous two times, we backtracked to the beginning of the stage and then apparently reset the troublesome area, something which we couldn’t do in the other two instances.
Now, I know it sounds like I’m being overly harsh on the game, and I will concede that, as a budget title aimed at children, one shouldn’t compare it against the same yardstick as, say, Elden Ring. Developer Aheartfulofgames have impressed me before with Heart and Slash, so I know that they likely had to make myriad concessions to accommodate the budgetary restraints and additional pressures that come with getting a licensed title out on shelves within a tight time frame.
Where Mutant Mayhem manages to redeem itself to a degree is in its relatively tight combat system, which feels a little like a Devil May Cry. The combat feels refined and more precise than regular traversal and offers a welcome respite from the missions centred around having a palaver with your pals.
Missions are generally split into two distinct categories – RPG-esque sections where you interact with allies and action-platforming areas where you’ll work your way through crowds of Mewbies, kicking asses and taking names. As the game progresses, you’ll unlock more attack upgrades to your skill tree, allowing for some decent variety in combat.
Players are given a style grade after each encounter, which leads into another quibble I have with the game – the pacing is atrocious and the game doesn’t really open up until you’re a few hours in. Even more egregious in regards to pacing, each enemy encounter is preceded by a short animatic and finishes with your grade. Every. Single. Time.
Any time you start to get into a groove, the action grinds to a halt for a superfluous closeup of your character squinting angrily and a camera pan over the incoming enemies before allowing the molly-whopping to commence.
Audio and Visuals
The graphics are quite clearly hampered by the limited budget, but the unique visual style afforded by the source material goes some way towards covering up these shortcomings through creative artistic direction. Overall, the game is graphically serviceable enough but lacks the polish one may expect and is prone to visual stuttering and frame drops.
The music is, for the most part, gratingly bad. The same brief snippet of music will loop endlessly throughout most of the game until you want to perforate your eardrums with the nearest screwdriver. Occasionally it’s broken up by intermittent bursts of different tracks during combat, and some of these tracks fare better than the main theme, possibly due to not being played ad nauseam until your brain forgets what sounds are.
Voice acting is actually solid for the four turtle teens, with the four main actors from the film reprising their roles, and although other characters can be spotty here and there, such as the soundalikes for characters such as Ray Filet and Mondo, the dialogue and sound design is quite accomplished.
Final Thoughts
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed is undeniably a mixed bag, with solid combat and some inspired art direction being hindered by a monotonous soundtrack and budget graphics. The need to go and explore the city by interacting with characters to unlock abilities was an idea that had potential, but the game spends far too much focusing on TMNT relationships that it starts to really become a grind.
By the same token, the enjoyable combat constantly being interrupted by cutscenes really works against the game being able to showcase its greatest strengths,
So, should you pick this up? Unfortunately, I’m not entirely sure that there’s enough here to keep all but the most dedicated turtles fan engaged. The fact that the main appeal of the game is obfuscated by way too many meandering side quests and doesn’t start to really find its groove until a few hours in makes it a hard sell, and I know that the poor experience with the co-op left a bitter taste in my daughter’s mouth and deterred her from going further.
Still, if you can look past these shortcomings, there is the skeleton of a good turtle game here. I may be TMNT biased, and it may be hard to believe after this ostensibly damning screed, but I did find myself having a fun time with the game those times when everything managed to click together, it’s just that these moments occurred far less frequently than I would have liked.
Game Details
Primary Format – PlayStation 5 (Reviewed), PlayStation 4, Xbox Series S and X, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch
Game Genre – Beat-em-up/RPG
Rating – PG
Game Developer – AHEARTFULOFGAMES
Game Publisher – Outright Games
Reviewer – Sean Warhurst
About the Author
Sean Warhurst Avid gamer. Cinephile. Considerate lover. Neither the word Protractor or Contractor accurately conveys my position on how I feel about Tractors.
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