Developer: AHEARTFULOFGAMES
Publisher: Outright Games
Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Tested on: PS5
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed – Review
Outright Games has a fairly busy publishing schedule for the end of the year, as they have recently been releasing quite a few titles for younger gamers, but also a few more adult entries such as TRANSFORMERS: Galactic Trials and the subject of today’s review, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed. Galactic Trials proved to be entertaining, albeit a bit rough around the edges. We were wondering if Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed would perform better, but sadly it suffers from the same fate, preventing it from being an outstanding entry in the franchise.
Story
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed takes place after the events of the 2023 feature film. The city of New York has gained many new mutant inhabitants, and the general populace accepts them. Sadly, a few troublemakers might destroy this harmonious cohabitation, as they have been wreaking havoc all across the city. The turtles are determined to put a stop to them and investigate why this sudden outbreak of violence has been occurring.
All in all, the plot isn’t that original and not even that engaging, but it does feel suitable when looking at the source material. The game is filled with dialogues that flesh out the story, even though not all of them are well-written or entertaining. Nonetheless, for a game such as this, the narrative works as a decent framework.
Graphics
Graphically, Mutants Unleashed is a bit of a mixed bag. The character designs are fun, and most of the main cast’s character models look quite polished. The quartet of shelled vigilantes stands out the most, of course, and we can easily say that they look perfectly in sync with the 2023 movie. Sadly, the environments and enemies don’t fare as well. Most backdrops feel a bit empty, and we see the same objects and clutter being repeated over and over. The enemies are a bit monotonous in the early stages of the game, and the overall presentation is somewhat lacking here as well. Before almost every enemy encounter, even if it’s just the basic grunts, you’ll get an unskippable cinematic, highlighting even further that every enemy model is identical. Performance wasn’t always that amazing either, with frame drops being a fairly regular occurrence. This is a bit of a shame, especially considering we were playing the PS5 version of a game that was still designed with the previous generation of consoles in mind.
Sound
All in all, the sound design isn’t too bad. All main dialogues are fully voice-acted, which does add a lot of charm to the mix. The performances are decent in this department, but we couldn’t outright compare it to the ones in the movie, as we sadly never saw the new feature film. The music is also fairly okay, albeit not that memorable. The SFX provide proper audio feedback for the onscreen action.
Gameplay
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed is a fairly straightforward action-adventure title that is based on the recent TMNT movie. The game takes place after the events of the film, and you’ll control the four iconic turtles while they punch and kick their way through a hefty number of mutants to make the city safe again. The offset is simple, as you’ll control one of the turtles during the missions, as you fight enemies, find a few hidden secrets, and of course, save the day. After each mission, you’re awarded experience, and in turn, you can unlock new skills if you meet certain criteria.
As stated above, you’ll be able to play as Leo, Raph, Mikey, and Donnie. Each of them has its own individual skill tree in which you can unlock new combo moves, but also passive upgrades. You can buy quite a few unlocks by simply progressing through the game, while others require you to bond with certain characters. The latter is actually a straightforward affair, as you simply have to choose events on the world map with those characters in them. The game’s format allows you to play through certain side events before tackling missions, which is a fun touch. In reality, the game relies a bit too much on spamming your attack button and occasionally dodging incoming attacks. Of course, the mechanics are a bit more complex than this, but we found ourselves not relying on the finer mechanics that often. We could easily button-mash our way through most of what the game threw at us with Donnie or Mikey, who either have more range or faster combos. Keeping the game’s audience in mind, we didn’t mind the simplistic control scheme.
While we enjoyed the combat for the most part, things feel very rough around the edges. Controls aren’t very precise, there are quite a few invisible walls, and enemies are in general a bit bland. The fast flow of the game is often ruined by the constant short dialogues during missions and the overabundance of short cinematics almost every time we encounter enemies. For some reason, the game designers thought we needed a cutscene for every enemy encounter, rather than being able to enjoy the rapid combat flow. This eventually all turned out to be padding for a roughly eight-hour game. Don’t get us wrong, the overall formula still proved to be enjoyable, and there was a bit of variation to be found in the stage design. Sadly, we felt like fast-paced action with fewer interruptions would have done the game quite a few favors.
Conclusion
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed isn’t a bad title; it’s just fairly unremarkable and perhaps even a bit bland. The action is entertaining, and so is the overall progression system, but the gameplay is rather monotonous and eventually boils down to button-mashing with your favorite turtle. This original TMNT adventure will probably entertain fans of the 2023 movie, but those looking for an old-school arcade title like the older Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games will probably end up disappointed.
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