Although a relatively short game by genre standards, Shredder’s Revenge takes you on a fun, mutagen-powered romp through New York City's ninja-filled streets.

Shredder’s Revenge harkens back to Konami's classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade games, but it swaps brutal, quarter-munching difficulty for creative, combo-friendly combat. This $24.99 PC game features a robust cast of characters, excellent visuals and animation, and a fun, throwback soundtrack. In short, Shredder's Revenge is an action-filled, nostalgic good time for TMNT fans, despite multiplayer syncing issues and a brief runtime.

Shredder’s Revenge doesn’t waste time with lengthy story scenes or pointless melodrama. The game begins with Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael devouring pizza with April O’Neil and Splinter. Unfortunately, the good time is interrupted by a news flash that alerts them to funny business involving Shredder and the Foot Clan at the Channel 6 headquarters. This prompts the crew to take action, and you to select a hero.

The action is fairly simple: You have a bread-and-butter attack, super attack, jump, and dodge. Like a fighting game, Shredder's Revenge charges your super meter as you attack enemies, a gauge that unleashes devastating, wildly animated super attacks when full. When multiple Turtles (or Turtle allies) bust out their supers at once, it's like a fireworks display of special effects that look great in action.

Despite the simple controls, Shredder's Revenge lets you get fairly creative with the tools at hand. For example, holding the attack button charges your next attack, which lets you break enemy defenses and launch them across the screen. Pressing attack and jump at the same time triggers an anti-air uppercut. Dashing and pressing the attack button initiates a rushing attack, which is a great way to start a combo. In short, you can string together hard-hitting, awesome-looking moves.

Admittedly, Shredder’s Revenge’s Story mode is not particularly difficult. In fact, the game's first half is pretty easy on Normal difficulty. It only gets harder during the second half, when bosses become more mechanically demanding and enemies soak up more damage. That said, you'll likely brawl through the opposition without too much struggle. I never saw a game over while playing Normal mode.

Fortunately, Shredder's Revenge offers a Hard mode, where enemies deal twice the damage and attack much more aggressively. You can also play through the story in Arcade mode, which limits your lives and saves. This is where the game gets especially challenging, particularly if you tackle Arcade mode on the highest difficulty.

Shredder’s Revenge is a short game; you can expect to finish the story in roughly two hours on Normal difficulty. If you’re the type who only plays through a game once, Shredder’s Revenge won’t keep your attention for long. Still, beat 'em up games are meant to be replayed for high scores and perfect runs, and this title is no exception.

Characters earn points as you progress through the levels, which unlocks more special attack gauges, health, and special moves. There are also optional objectives strewn throughout the game that you can complete for bonus points. The six-character roster and leveling system also encourages replays. The game’s playable characters each have unique play styles, as they fight with different weapons. For example, Donatello has excellent range, but his attacks are notably slower than Leonardo or April's.

At the start, you're limited to a default special attack when standing in neutral, but you eventually unlock an aerial super, and a dodging super to spice up your assault. Aside from wailing on thugs for meter, you can also earn it by taunting them, Devil May Cry style. You’re vulnerable for roughly three seconds when doing so, but a successful taunt rewards you with one, full special bar. This adds an extra layer of strategy to boss fights.

The combat contains a satisfying amount of mechanics, and that doesn’t include the situational attacks you can do when playing in co-op with up to five other people (in local or online modes). When playing with friends, you gain additional moves whenever you attack an opponent launched by an ally, or whenever you and a buddy flank a target. This makes combat quite dynamic, letting you set up some truly fun combos.

Shredder's Revenge emphasizes teamwork in other ways, too. When an ally is drained of health, you have 10 seconds to revive the fighter with pizza. Likewise, when a fighter is low on health, you can initiate a cool high-five to give the brawler two life bars. These are nice touches that showcase that the Turtles family fight as a family. And you do it all to a score that features retro arcade-style tunes, as well as lyrics-based tracks from era-appropriate artists (no spoilers!).

Oftentimes, beat 'em up games give you a few seconds of invincibility when you die and respawn, so you don’t eat a cheap combo before you regain control. Or, they'll knock opponents down when you lose a life, so they can’t cheap shot you. That’s not the case with Shredder’s Revenge. Enemies know exactly where you spawn, and are ready to slug you as soon as you use that new life to re-enter combat.

The other issue stems from connectivity. Playing online is terrific fun, and I tried my hand at three-player co-op a few times. This worked well, except for some odd syncing issues that cropped up fairly frequently. At least once per level, I noticed that enemies would desync and warp around the screen to another player, likely due to latency. During another run, the bosses turned invisible and intangible on my screen, so my buddies had to fight them off while I swung at thin air trying to find them. It’s nothing a patch or two won’t fix, but it was annoying. Please note that my friends didn't experience any such issue.

This is a personal preference, but I wish the game offered a parry option. Shredder’s Revenge isn’t challenging to the point that the combat needs one, but I really like having the ability to reverse and counter an incoming attack. Fight‘N Rage, another excellent brawler, incorporates a tightly timed, Street Fighter III-style parry that instantly interrupts incoming attacks and refills your special meter. A mechanic like this would make some of the more mechanic-heavy bosses less tedious, since you have a defensive option to employ during scripted attack phases.

Shredder's Revenge effortlessly ran on my gaming PC, a computer that contains an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 graphics card, and 16GB of RAM. To run the game, your PC needs at least an AMD FX-4300 or Intel i3-2100 CPU; an AMD Radeon HG 5570, Intel HD 4600, or Nvidia GT 320 GPU; 4GB of RAM; 1GB of storage space; and the 64-bit Windows 7 operating system. 

For a more optimal playing experience, your PC should house an AMD FX-6300 or Intel i5-2400 CPU; an AMD Radeon R7 250, Intel HD 630, or Nvidia GTS 450 GPU; 4GB of RAM; 2GB of storage; and the 64-bit Windows 10 operating system.

Visually, Shredder’s Revenge is a treat. The sprites are large, well-animated, and wonderfully expressive. Apparently the Foot Clan ninjas work part-time across New York City, with ninjas working in food courts, typing at work stations, or generally chilling around Central Park before jumping into evil action. The game is packed with neat little details like these, to say nothing of the awesome cameos from across the Turtles brand.

Shredder’s Revenge uses a cartoony art style that sits somewhere between Streets of Rage 4's comic book look and Fight‘N Rage's chibi art style. I especially liked the boxy NYC map you drive around between missions; it reminded me of the classic NES TMNT map. Overall, Shredder's Revenge is a nostalgic good time.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge features the excellent visuals, tight action, and accessible challenge you'd expect from a contemporary beat 'em up, and it's priced to move at $24.99. Sure, the game could use a more levels, and has a few online hiccups, but it's a fun, action-dense stroll down memory lane for TMNT fans.

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Although a relatively short game by genre standards, Shredder’s Revenge takes you on a fun, mutagen-powered romp through New York City's ninja-filled streets.

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My career has taken me through an eclectic assortment of fields, and connected me with people from all walks of life. This experience includes construction, professional cooking, podcasting, and, of course, writing. I’ve been typing up geeky takes since 2009, ultimately landing a freelancing position at PCMag. This blossomed into a full-time tech analyst position in 2021, where I lend my personal insight on the matters of web hosting, streaming music, mobile apps, and video games. 

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