Developer: PlatinumGames
Publisher: Activision
Platform: PC, PS3, PS4, 360, Xbox One
Tested on: Xbox One
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan – Review
Even though the current Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, as well as the modern live action movies might have become the new face of the pizza-loving turtles’ franchise, their story originally began way back in the 1980’s. Their visuals may have been ‘updated’ to computer animated sequences, but their spirit still remains the same. These lighthearted reptiles went from baby turtles, to mutant creatures that may look like giant turtles with some human appendages, but they do actually behave as human teens, albeit with a great sense of honor and justice. This time they are once again crammed into a videogame developed by PlatinumGames and while it does have a few merits to control this force of four, it came out of the mutant-oven a tad too soon.
Story
Even though the TMNT have been watching the city with a vigilant eye, crime has been on the rise as of late, With no clear indication of what may be happening, the ninjas head out to see what is the matter. When they learn that something is afoot and that everything can be traced back to their nemesis Shredder and general Krang, they know the Foot Clan is also nearby. Truth be told, everything turns into a story that could be suited for a lengthy episode of the Nickelodeon series, which involves many familiar faces and a grand schemed battle, that will require ever ounce of the beloved green creatures’ strength.
Things remain very simple story wise, with only a small story fragment before and at the ending of each stage. Things are clearly directed to both a younger audience and some longtime fans, who follow everything the turtles’ universe throws at them.
Graphics
The visuals are a bit reminiscent of the current animated series, which is rather clean, but still pleasant to look at. The cel shaded graphical style adds a bit of seriousness to the equation, as well as a subtle wink to the comic book series. That being said, while all of the characters look extremely well animated and quirky, the environments tend to lack the same spirit. Most environments are rather empty, have nothing destructible in them, safe for a few exploding barrels, and just look like they were even basic commodities on the previous generation of consoles.
We also noticed a hefty amount of frame drops during the story sequences, even though these should not be that hard to process, as it often simply involved the characters on fairly static backgrounds. Nonetheless, everything looks rather decent, but a bit more stage setting would have been nice.
Sound
With a very upbeat soundtrack the game has a nice ring and flow to it, but in all honesty, it’s the voice acting that makes this game into an authentic TMNT experience. All of the characters’ quirks are properly highlighted and everything is presented in a convincing fashion. In many ways, the acting and background music prove to redeem this game, to a certain extent.
Gameplay
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan is an action packed brawler, where the story mode will probably be your main source of content. You’ll be defeating Shredder’s Foot Clan, as well as his many lieutenants, which will prove to be a familiar sight for many TMNT fans. Overall things will prove to be extremely straightforward, even though the game tries to add some extra mechanics, but in reality most of them prove to be rather simplistic and bland.
During the story mode, you’ll be treated to around nine missions, which all last around thirty minutes. This immediately makes it clear that this game doesn’t have that much content, but having a low amount of game-time doesn’t mean it’s bad, if everything thrown at you is of great quality. Sadly, the game ends up being a bland experience, as all you’ll do is tedious tasks in the levels, namely look for enemies, defuse bombs, access terminals and so on. These tasks are all rather slow moving, as it’s simply a few grunts that attack you, with a slightly stronger one from time to time, all while you tinker with the objective(s) at hand. A fun gimmick is that, during the entire mission you’ll run around with the four turtles, allowing you to switch freely among them. This adds a bit of variation, seeing they all have their own set of special moves (which you can edit). Even though the combat proves to be rather fluent, it still feels like it’s only the structural work of the game.
The game does offer a few items you can pick up during the levels, or purchase via battle points (which are earned by completing missions and beating up enemies), but these are also rather simplistic and bland, yet they do help out from time to time. Other than that, you’ll be able to upgrade your skills and equip some charms, which add some passive bonuses. All of this means that you’ll also be able to edit your loadout before every mission to a skill set and charm you like the most. Other than that, there’s not that much to look forward to in this title.
While on the easy difficulty things prove to be manageable, the bosses become a lot harder when you start cranking up the difficulty settings. While this is to be expected, you can’t use any proper tactics against these bosses except hit-and-run, on said higher difficulty. If you, or one of the other turtles are knocked out, you can still be resurrected by your green brothers, but if all of you perish at the same time, it’s game over, at least after this happens three times during a stage.
Even though the Mutants in Manhattan has online capabilities, you won’t find that many matchups if your friends don’t own the game. All our attempts to do some online brawling and complete stages with other players proved to be futile, as there was constantly a stream of zero people online and willing to play. Perhaps the console versions have more luck, but even that sounds rather doubtful.
Conclusion
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan probably started out as a good idea, but ended up being executed in a poor fashion. Not only is the game short as hell, the mechanics are rather dull and the online modes are unpopulated. While the voice acting and the overall appearance of the game do feel authentic, the gameplay tends to drag the entire game down. Simplicity isn’t always the way to go, and this title sorely lacks some extra whistles and bells.
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