Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed Review (Switch) Hallie Frederick | usagoldmines.com

It has been slightly over a 12 months since Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem arrived in cinemas, and quite a bit has modified for the heroes in a half-shell. Shredder’s Revenge has welcomed not one, however two DLC packs, THQ Nordic has introduced a Last Ronin adaptation and, in 2024 alone, the Change has already landed a pair of latest TMNT releases. In brief, when Outright Video games and developer A Heartful of Video games introduced they have been engaged on a tie-in to the 2023 film, our response was one thing alongside the traces of, “Yeah, that sounds about proper.”

One 12 months on, and we’re fairly frankly impressed at how bold that tie-in turned out to be. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed packs a complete follow-up story into its 15-hour runtime with fantastic voice performing and much more Persona (sure!) affect than we ever would have anticipated. It’s totally a lot not with out its flaws — the fight is repetitive, the plot feels bloated, and the efficiency on Change frequently strikes at a snail’s (or ought to that be turtle’s?) tempo — but it surely does purpose for one thing barely completely different, and that deserves reward.

Captured on Nintendo Change (Docked)

For many who have seen the 2023 movie (and if you have not and do not wish to know what occurs on the finish, look away now), Mutants Unleashed takes place proper the place its supply materials wraps up. After Leo, Raph, Mikey, and Donnie save New York and defeat Tremendous Fly, Mutants are shortly welcomed into society. However because the Fab 4 begin to expertise the thrill of highschool, pals, relationships, and hobbies, a bunch of Mutant newbies (or “Mewbies”) start inflicting uncharacteristic chaos, placing the kids’ new-found way of life and the reception of all mutants, on the road.

It is a neat sufficient set-up, and whereas issues veer dangerously into the realm of massively overstuffed by the third act (there have been three separate events through which we thought we have been completed, just for a brand new mission to emerge), we appreciated it amongst the same old plot swathes of ‘the Turtles want to guard a society that hates them’ or ‘time-travelling aliens are inflicting havoc, once more.’

Working via the primary storyline follows a easy sufficient components: the Turtles have an goal to get to and a bunch of Mewbies stand of their method. The fight is button-mashy sufficient that it will possibly simply be performed with a youthful Participant Two (two-player native co-op is accessible all through), however there’s room for some advanced combos because of 4 Turtle-specific talent timber that you’re going to unlock alongside the way in which. The platforming facet of this ‘Motion/Platformer’ mash-up gives little problem, however, once more, it is a effective welcome to these new to the style, and there are a few collectibles in every degree to maintain even the well-versed mildly entertained.

Captured on Nintendo Change (Handheld/Undocked)

The issue is that every one this grows slightly repetitive. There are solely so many locales through which these missions happen, and after hitting them up a few instances to free a captured mutant pal, steal a thingymajig or observe down a whatchamacallit, the stream of ‘Y’-mashing encounters started to really feel like a chore. Mix that with digital camera controls which might be cussed at greatest, and the gameplay resembles one thing nearer to the TMNT film tie-in to a few of the higher makes an attempt we have seen lately.

Fortuitously, and this is the place that ambition comes into play, Mutants Unleashed is extra than simply its essential story. The plot is the central thrust, after all, however the recreation employs a Persona-style Day/Night time cycle between the primary missions with a ‘Due Date’ countdown earlier than it’s good to dive into the following. On this downtime, every Turtle has his personal facet story which unlocks a brand new talent tree degree — Leo takes management recommendation from a younger entrepreneur, Mikey begins a podcast, Donnie teaches a child arise for himself, and, our favorite, Raph involves phrases along with his anger whereas befriending a Paralympic-hopeful swimmer. Alternatively, all 4 set out on pizza supply time trials or dojo fight minigames. So long as there are days left in your subsequent mission, you are free to do as you please.

Captured on Nintendo Change (Handheld/Undocked)

These facet missions have the fabric bonus of increasing the heroes’ skillset, however, extra importantly, they break up the cycle of button mashing and supply some much-needed character improvement within the course of.

Every sequence is offered by its voice actors, with Mutant Mayhem’s teenage essential forged returning to lend every Turtle a contact of child-adjacent whimsy that made the movie so joyful. Severely, after listening to these 4 of their starring roles once more, we’re baffled at how the heroes in a half-shell have been of their darkish/edgy part for thus lengthy. There are even some good meta-callbacks peppered all through, with the Turtles’ obsession over a beat ’em up collection known as Sushi Sharks being a selected spotlight.

Sadly, and it’s a slightly giant sadly, the sport’s efficiency on Change mars these in any other case doubtlessly touching moments. Each line of cutscene dialogue is adopted by a prolonged pause which even the quippiest quip from Mikey cannot overcome. The visible fashion, which resembled one thing near Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse within the film, has not translated nicely to the sport, leaving every character with a useless look behind the eyes in most cutscenes and making them troublesome to trace in fight encounters, notably with two-players on-screen without delay. Giant body drops are frequent all through, and we encountered greater than a handful of exhausting crashes which noticed the sport unexpectedly shut and left us to restart the extent once more.

Captured on Nintendo Change (Docked)

And that is to not point out the load screens. These pop up earlier than and after every degree, cutscene, and placement change, and frequently run in extra of 40 seconds. A day-one patch was launched to scale back these instances, however we discovered the modifications to be marginal and did not discover greater than a handful are available in beneath 35 seconds.

Usually, this would not be the top of the world, however when the sport’s most interesting facet content material (which could quantity to a one-to-two-minute cutscene) is wrapped up in no less than a minute of looking at a pizza field auto-save icon, it is troublesome to seek out the keenness to dive in.

Conclusion

We would all the time slightly see one thing purpose excessive and fall quick than accept one other dime-a-dozen motion/platforming expertise, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed definitely sits nearer to the previous. A Heartful of Video games has made some noble swings right here and a few of them repay – heck, no person anticipated the Persona mission construction in this TMNT recreation. Sadly, all this ambition is overshadowed by efficiency points that make even its most approachable parts really feel like a chore. It is a effective welcome for youthful followers eager to kick some shell after watching Mutant Mayhem, however this joint requires some critical scrubbing whether it is to reside as much as its big-screen counterpart.