The latest TMNT game is a decent enough experience, aimed more or less to satisfy fans who consume every Turtle thing ever
We’ve been consuming a lot of TMNT stuff lately, from movies and new shows, to remakes of games and DLC for recent ones. There’s a lot of turtles to go around. TMNT: Mutants Unleashed, the latest from Outright Games and developer A Heartful of Games, is capitalizing on all of that buzz. It’s a direct follow-up to the 2023 movie and really leans into that world, even bringing back all of the actors to do the voices of the team and trying to capture the lower-frame animation style of the movie. The developers are trying hard to make it a good TMNT and it’s so close, but ultimately still feels like a licensed project meant to capitalize than something that stands on its own.
I’m not saying this game is bad. In fact they do manage to nail the aesthetic and the style of writing that made the movie so good. But the gameplay is not there; it’s super stale. It doesn’t try to shift away from anything outside of the basics of action/adventure games from the last 30 years. And it’s repetitive, too; we essentially fight the same enemies over and over and over again.
It does have some weird, cool little moments in it to break up that monotony, at least. There’s a social aspect to the game that has us interacting with other characters in a calendar-based system, so the turtles will be walking around in their street clothes and flannels building up relationships. Oh, cool, I’ve I’ve upped my relationship with Splinter to one star. At one point we can attend a peaceful protest, which isn’t something we’d normally find in any game, not just one aimed at kids. Mutants Unleashed also has simplified skill trees to unlock attacks and abilities, too, because it dives headfirst into those gaming tropes. At least we’re able to switch between the turtles on the fly, which is helpful when we want to mix up those skills or get tired of playing the same way over and over.
The writing and story come together fine, because the developers seem to understand the source material and want players to really feel like this is a part of the modern Turtle universe. It’s just as a game it’s janky. It’s slow. Loading screens are a slog, and they’re happening all the time. It’s tiring. The game is designed with the aesthetics and intentional stop-motion style frame rate, but it uses that to mask any meaningful animation, like water splashing or smoke & bubbles rising. It’s not taking any steps to do more than the base level of flair.
This wasn’t a game made on any sort of significant budget. It’s a kid’s game, and a less discerning kid will definitely get a kick out of it because it has the Turtles and at least it’s not broken. It’s not long or very deep, and it’s not offensive or pushing any limits. The nagging little performance issues aren’t going to alter the experience, because with Mutants Unleashed we know exactly what we’re getting: brand extension.
This review is based on a Steam code sent to SideQuesting by the publisher. It originally appeared on the October 29, 2024 episode of The SideQuest. Images and video courtesy the publisher.
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