Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shredder's Revenge: Return of the Turtles
Shredder's Revenge: Special Attacks and Combos
While the revised Super Attacks pleased players, taunts divided the community. Clicking the left bumper on an Xbox controller causes the turtle to perform a short animation. Michelangelo dances, Raphael laughs, and Splinter meditates. If uninterrupted by enemies the taunt fills up the Gauge once. While taunts aren't useful for a single player, in a four player game players can cover for each other as they charge their Gauge. One by one players taunt to refill their bar, as their friends fight enemies. Then use a Super Attack. A team can create a rolling wave of Super Attacks. Or you can be like my six year old, and only use Taunts and Super Attacks. Because Super Attacks not only do immense AOE damage, but also make the character invulnerable, some consider the taunting game breaking. Tribute recently released a custom mode where the player can adjust all sorts of rules. One option; taunts have no effect. There are a bunch of other options to allow the player to customize their experience and difficulty, all explained by Donatello.
The players fight a mix of different
colored Foot Soldiers and a variety of other foes. Each color of
Foot Soldier lets the player know immediately what type of attack
they can expect. From the basic purple punchers, to the yellow
ninjas with throwing stars, to the green archers, each bring their
own attack. Combat, probably because of the improved animation,
feels faster and more fluid. The Foot Soldiers move around agilely,
and even the purple Foot deploy a variety of movements, from punches,
to kicks, to charges. The speed, the variety, and additional number
of enemies with four players, make combat feel crowded and chaotic.
It's easy to lose your character with all the fighting, animations,
environmental effects, and Super Attacks bouncing around.
I checked on the number of enemies per
player. In the first four rooms in the first level the number of
enemies increased by a third to a half per room. One player
encounters five in the first room and six in the second, while two
players fight seven and nine. Shredder's Revenge is well designed to
deal with an increased crowd. It's a cool, and expected feature,
that you can play with four players on the same screen. It's even
possible to play with six, either at the same screen, or across the
internet.The developers also introduce a combo
number. Previous TMNT games kept track of enemies defeated, but
Shredder's Revenge displays how many times a player has
hit an enemy without being hit back. This is fun, but distracting,
as you try to keep an eye at the top of the screen. You wouldn't
have to do this often (the game tells you your top combo number at
the end of every level), except that the combo number also resets if
you take too long between hitting opponents. The amount of time
given is absurdly short; between eight and nine seconds. It's
possible to lose your combo number near the end of a chaotic fight
because your friends are dealing with the remnants, or between scenes
if everyone isn't running to the next fight. It is much too short,
and there doesn't seem any good reason to inflict this needless
anxiety to hurry the players. The player shouldn't be able to lose
their combo while there are no enemies on the screen.
But being able to hit the enemy, and avoid being hit, is a big part of combos (also trying to win the game). But there are a number of flaws. One would assume this would encourage precise timing and position (which it does), but see chaotic team fights above. Still the player can play safe and aggressive at the same time. Don't overextend. Use strong combos to attack, and use jumps/dodges to avoid damage. Use Super Attacks to clear enemies, or use it to avoid taking damage. This is good, but there are a number of mechanics that seem to go against this precise gameplay.
One, the player can be hit during the
middle of a dodge animation. As a Dark Souls player I expect to be
safe during the rolling animation. The maneuver doesn't provide as
much frame protection as it appears based on the animation. That's
very frustrating.
Enemies have other tricky ways of
getting in attacks and breaking up combos. First, they (the basic
Purple Foot) appear to be able to hit me when I can't hit them. If I
am standing a bit up or down in relation to them, I'll miss and they
will hit. It's not huge, and it's difficult to reproduce.
Other things are hard to notice as well, and really only genuinely reproducible or very noticeable in a single player game with a limited number of enemies. I've been trying the game solo before writing this review, and I've noticed these effects.
When hitting a group of enemies (Purple
Foot), those further back suffer reduced flinch, and are still able
attack. I'm not sure if it because the attack effect on them is
delayed/slowed by going through the closer enemies, or because the
ones in the back don't flinch or the flinch is delayed. Some single
enemies still attack when hit, with no flinch. Maybe I'm not hitting
them hard enough? In the same vein, it seems as if there a variety
of different outcomes of different combinations of attacks crashing
into each other. For example, Purple Foot soldiers jump kick. The
player can try to dodge, but can they attack back, and which wins?
Trying with Leo, Raph, and April I found Leo and Raph could win with
a charge attack, or just a well timed regular attack. Only Leo could
use a jump attack to beat the enemy jump attack. This comes down to
animations (what the player sees) like does Leo's foot or the enemy
Foot's foot connect first against the target. Some characters have
better animations for winning attack vs attack. Also, how hit boxes
align with animation plays a large role in determining the victor.
Enemies also have a brief moment of
invulnerability when they are getting up after being knocked down,
that they can exploit to get a hit in, if the player is mindlessly
hitting the buttons instead of timing it. But it does require fairly
precise timing.
Are these game breaking problems? No. Should I just play better? Sure. Do I care too much? No, I'm checking things as I write an article. On a positive note, I noticed that when the player does a charge attack, the attack will lock on, shifting the player up or down a bit to ensure contact with a foe.
A final thought is on bosses. In the
SNES classic it was possible to combo hits on bosses and then move
(just move, no roll, no dodge) out of the counter attack. It was
difficult, but it was possible. The bosses in Shredder's Revenge
attack before the natural three/four hit combo is finished. They
react prematurely and swiftly. For some, like Tempestra, it seems
nearly impossible to avoid being hit. This makes Bosses a real
challenge on Gnarly Difficulty where they inflict significant damage.
My family and I tried to play Gnarly and couldn't get past level 7's
Bebop and Rocksteady in their truck (which is probably the hardest to
dodge the counter attack). In short, bosses are less hitable, but we
are going to try again.
Reviewing this article for the posting,
months later, I've come to a new strategy on bosses, especially at
Gnarly difficulty. Instead of hitting them, the four players should
each take turns charging their Ninja Gauge by taunting when they are
safe. Then use the Special Attack without risk. Is it gimmicky?
Sure. But hitting bosses with regular attacks on Gnarly, without
getting hit and losing a third of your health is very risky.
Shredder's Revenge is packed with collectibles, goals, achievements, hidden cameos, and more to see and collect. It also has seven endings? But this appears to be just one for every character that you beat it with, but we only got one when we beat it. I wonder if it is just for the character that deals the final blow.
In conclusion,
Shredder's Revenge is a true turtles tribute to the classic SNES and Genesis games. Like Sonic Mania, it's been updated for the modern era with significant improves. Special moves, superior animations, and dynamic battles raise battles to a new level. Most quibbles (irritating combo meter, confusing attributes) are minor. The most significant issue is not the difficulty of bosses, but the feeling that they are frustrating to manage. If you are a fan of the classic games, of the TMNT, or of just a fun local or online multiplayer experience, this is a game you'll want to get.
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