What's The Greatest Video Game: TMNT Shredder's Revenge

This is an ongoing list where I attempt to do the following: Play, Complete, and Rank every video game in the known universe in order to finally answer the age old question "What is the greatest game of all time?" For previous entries find the links on the attached spreadsheet.

How did I do?

Hey it’s been awhile and despite having a month long break to get through work craziness, see through winter break with kids, and take a small vacation with the family, you won’t believe, but I didn’t have an insane amount of extra time to play games during the month of January. You don’t really care about all those details, but I figured I needed to shed some light about why the absence and why I’m rusty when it comes to ranking games. Regardless you didn’t click this blog post to read how year end audits went at my company, you clicked it to see where TMNT Shredders Revenge ranks on the list and find out if it will top its very lofty predecessor, so let’s begin.

Shredder’s Revenge is a side scrolling beat-em up that harkens back to the old days of arcades and 32 bit systems. You play as any of the turtles, Splinter, April O’Neal, and more as you attempt to once again thwart Shredder’s evil plans. If you are familiar with Turtles in Time for the SNES or even the earlier NES TMNT games then you will know what you are in for. Each character that you pick has their own stats, but for the most part they all play roughly the same. You have basic attacks that can string into combos, a special that can be used after charging it through combos or taunts, and upgrades that can be earned by gaining enough XP. While there is a story mode and arcade mode available, the only difference is if you want to save your game or use virtual quarters to try and make it through the whole game. If you do decide to get the DLC there is a wave based mode where you need to see how long you can last in a single go.

I think the best place to start is at picking characters, because this game has a much bigger selection then previous TMNT beat-em ups. Obviously you have your turtles, but the addition of Splinter and April O’Neal are very welcome, and that is not including Casey Jones which can be earned after beating the game and two more characters that come with the DLC. Each character has points attributed to Reach, Speed, and Power and these can not be upgraded. I call these stats, but in reality these are just rankings because each character has a 1 Star in one category, a 2 star in another category, and a 3 star in the final one. There are of course some exceptions, for instance Leo (the boring one) has a 2 star ranking in everything, but surely no one would play as him. Casey Jones and the DLC characters are also exempt from this rule, but I feel that makes sense since one is gotten from beating the game, and the others are paid additions. They are technically stronger by having 7 stars amongst 3 categories, instead of 6, but in reality it is all about your playstyle. My three most used characters; Donny, April, and Splinter while all technically different in terms of stats I didn’t play a whole lot different with them. Maybe that’s sacrilege and by admitting it, I will never be the ultimate Turtles player, but I think you can make do with any character. When I play these types of games with my sons, I always try to nudge them to pick the characters that will make the game a little easier or more fun for them, but in this Turtles I felt that with all the characters being essentially equal I didn’t feel I needed to put my finger on the scale and I could let them pick whomever they liked.

The upgrades you get for each character are also the same, and while you can have a difference in levels between the characters they will all even out in the end game. For instance the level-up rewards are an additional health point, or an extra life, and eventually specials that can be activated in air. While this certainly simplifies the level-up process and doesn’t bog down the game by forcing players into a menu to spend points or assign attributes upon leveling up, I did feel a little bummed at some of the earnings. I was hoping at the very least for the final level up to be an extra star that you can assign to one of your base stats, and while that would slightly alter the balance it would at least seem like a fitting reward for maxing out a character’s level. The difference between a level 1 and level 10 character may only be an extra few hit points and a bonus continue if you die in a level, but you won’t notice a huge playing difference between the characters. (Here is where someone points out that a level 10 character can hold more specials, and do a jumping special, and how that is totally key to beating Shredder in one hit).

Moving on to the levels. As is the usual formulas, your character spends the game chasing Shredder through different areas including the news room, a zoo, the sewer, technodrome, factories and more. The levels are colorful and full of animation in the background that adds life and makes the scenes more interesting without seeming too overbearing. Most levels have traps specific to the area (a foot clan trying to hit you with a car, or a factory laser beam trying to fry you), hidden items to find, and a few pickups scattered around, but there is only so much you can do with a side scrolling beat-em up level. I wish some of the levels were a little more weird or out there, and while this game has you travelling into another world, I did find myself missing some of the time travelling levels in the Turtles in Time. The game still tries to mix it up, and we have levels where we are on hover scooters and doing the usual fare, so you know standard TMNT stuff.

There is a decent variety of standard enemy types, but…. Listen I don’t know what else I can say about this game, ok? It’s a good game, it is superior to the SNES version on almost every level and trust me I tried looking for faults. I was blinded by nostalgia and hoping that I could find ways where Turtles in Time was a better game, but that just simply isn’t the case. This game has more of everything you would want in this type of game. There are more bosses and they are more varied then other games. More characters to play as, a more robust multiplayer that allows up to 6 people to play together, and this game even has more replay ability by simply adding unlockables for each character and having different endings. I could argue that I liked the level variety better in Turtles in Time, but that is such a small gripe and I can’t pretend that it’s not. Maybe you aren’t going to play this 6-player co-op, but the option is there if you want it. Maybe you won’t unlock every ending or power-up all the characters, but it’s available to people who do want to do that stuff.

Would I have personally loved if we got something like a River City Ransom but with Turtles, where there is more RPG elements, sure… But then I am turning this game into something it is not. There aren’t a lot of complaints that I think can made about this game that I think are warranted. I saw some people bemoan that the game is short, but at 10ish hours, that feels right for this type of game. I wouldn’t want to be on my 30^th level of a beat-em-up just to pad out the length of the game. I mean there are only so many levels where I can beat up a hundred foot clan and still want to do it forever. Plus 10 hours is still roughly 3-4 sittings of playing the game. Maybe for teens that doesn’t seem like a lot, but I can tell you trying to organize that gaming night with adults for 4 straight outings is nigh impossible. And when I played with my kids they wanted to do maybe a level or two MAX each sitting before they wanted to move on. I also saw some people complaining about the game being too easy, but there are difficulty options for the career mode, and an arcade mode to boot if you feel like removing some of the career benefits.

Is this the greatest game of all time?: No.. it is a very good game, but not the greatest.

Where does it rank: So, yeah, this game is better then Turtles in Time, and it’s really freaking good, but lets talk turkey about ranking. Despite being better in nearly every way, it doesn’t actually rank that much higher than its predecessor. Is that my bias showing for the genre, or does the genre have a ceiling that might be hard to break. When I think about the list, I still think of the short-hand of “what game would I rather replay, right now?” So, Shredders Revenge is a good game, maybe even in the “great” pantheon, but it is ranked as the 16th Greatest Game of All Time. Its better then the original, and I think my love affair with Fortnite has cooled since playing it, but I would rather play through all of Mario 64 then fire up a full playthrough as Casey Jones in this game. That shouldn’t be a damning thing to say, and I would fire this game up easily if friends or my kids wanted to play it, but I think solo Phil is good for now.

What's it Between: Shredder's Revenge sits between Mario 64 (15th) and Fortnite (17th)

Anyone looking for it: here is the link to the list and more if you are interested in following along with me (this is not a self promotion).Here. I added links on the spreadsheet for quick navigation. Now if you missed a blog of a game you want to read about, you can get to it quickly, rather than having to scroll through my previous blogs wondering when it came up.

Thanks for listening

Future games coming up 1) MDK2 2) Wintermoor Academy

@imunbeatable80:

you didn’t click this blog post to read how year end audits went at my company

Don't tell me why I clicked on the blog post! Worst of all I never found out whether the audits went well. You really ARE rusty at this, setting up a big mystery and then never revealing the truth!

As for Shredder's Revenge, I think it's among the best of that style of beat 'em up ever made, but I think that style of beat 'em up does have a ceiling. Even more so than something like Streets of Rage, which is a bit more technical and challenging with additional depth. This game was made to be a breezy arcade romp that anyone can play through with some friends and have a great time. I've played it twice with two different people and enjoyed it, but playing alone it's just okay. It looks and sounds great but there's not much to it. And that's fine. There's definitely a place for a game like this. But these games can't be the greatest game (or at least it's very tough) because the accessibility and shallowness means they don't get their hooks in as deep as something like Elden Ring or Billy Hatcher.

But I think this game aimed to be a 9 out of 10 for a large group of people and hit that, which is quite an achievement in and of itself. And it made a splash as a 2022 licensed 2D beat 'em up. It's close to perfect for what it set out to achieve. And that is a form of greatness. It's hard to think of many games that are greater in terms of being the thing they set out to be.

Except Billy Hatcher.

Good to see you back! I liked this game alot and the nostalgia was strong with this game. Being a 5 year old in '89 I was the perfect age group for Turtlemania. I played this a ton with my kids but as soon as I beat the story and unlocked Casey Jones we all just stopped cold turkey. It just didn't have much as far as extra content once you beat it once. But that's what you get with beat-em-ups and that's fine. It is a solid game and better than Turtles in Time in every way but given a choice, I'd rather replay Turtles in Time than Shredder's Revenge.

Perhaps it's the Nostalgia.

@chamurai: They added a quasi roguelite mode via DLC. It's...not awful but personally I don't think it was worth the money. Came with some extra characters, which I think were also supposed to be part of the replay value equation (not just unlocking Casey but playing with the other characters originally unlocked.) Then there are collectables...

The true replay value comes from the same place that it comes from in Turtles in Time, which is just replaying it with other people in multiplayer from time to time. It's so easy to pick up and play that even non-gamers can at least have a decent time. The flipside is that it is shallow so you don't get huge depth in replaying with different characters.

I think what they could have done would be to add unlockable filters and cheats of various kinds. Pixelated mode, bighead mode, low gravity etc... Some of this does happen in the roguelite (though its more like unlimited super energy than something really fun) but there could have been more. On the other hand those things take time and budget and clearly the focus was on delivering something polished and enjoyable.

I think part of preferring Turtles in Time may be nostalgia but part of it is just that Turtles in Time is a product of its time and is more...authentic for lack of a better term. Shredder's Revenge is a copy (mostly of that game) and while it's an excellent copy it just lacks some of the rough edges that make TiT shine. TiT is also more challenging, and shorter, which makes it more intense for replay.

I don't think that any modern games that use 8 and 16 bit inspirations have truly captured the magic of the best of that era. There are some really good ones that are enjoyable, and the modern design conveniences do make a big difference, but for various reasons you're just not going to get things that measure up to the true classics of the era.

@chamurai: thanks for the read and comment. We did the same thing after beating it. My kids went from wanting to play a level every night to stopping once we saw the end. I played through solo afterwards to knock out some challenges and get a few costumes from the DLC, but yeah not much going back.

@bigsocrates: I wish I could tell you how year end audits went, but our 3rd party company hasn't given us the final report yet since our year end filling is like a week away.. I'm sorry I kept you out of the loop. Yeah the DLC was kinda of a waste. I played the extra mode enough to get all the costumes for Donatello, and I don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't just color grades.. maybe if the costumes were wackier (like trench coat turtle, or samurai turtle) and mimicked old action figures or comic variants it would be more fun to unlock those bonuses, but just getting "Gameboy green" isn't enough for me.. still a super great game, just outside the top 10.

Fun game. I jarred a little bit with the hitboxes, especially on the moving levels, but it was a really surprisingly solid package and I had a lot of fun with it. Agreed with the XP stuff. Kinda wish there was more to that.

greatest video game

Almost beat this game at launch in multiplayer, but then the online started crumbling and we had to give in. Did not get around to trying it again, but hey, it was on GP so no big deal.

I liked the original cartoon as a kid, while those movies never did much for me, but since the whole vibe was so directly channelling the cartoon, I did enjoy it as a nostalgia trip and the gameplay was solid. Also stellar soundtrack!

@sparky_buzzsaw: Thanks for the comment.. the moving levels are always my least favorite in any of the games.

@mistersims: you might be right, I have to apply the science first and I will get back to you.

@glots: thanks for the comment.. the music is good listening to it through those videos, but I can't say I really noticed the music while playing outside of the main theme.