The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise has a long history in video games with many big hits in arcades and consoles. The latest game, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed is a follow-up to the hit 2023 film, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem which was widely praised by critics for its screenplay and stylised animation with many considering it to be one of the best Ninja Turtles films ever. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed continues that story and is now available on PlayStation 4|5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC.

Taking place shortly after the events of the hit 2023 film, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, mutants and humans have been co-existing in New York City until the Ninja Turtles discovered that several shipments of the mutagenic ooze were scattered and contaminated various locations across the city.

They dubbed the new mutants as Mewbies and while not all of them are bad, there is more than enough roaming the city with evil intentions to cause panic amongst the citizens. Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo must band together with the help of April O’Neil, Master Splinter, and other familiar faces along the way to take down this new threat and save New York City.

In this 3D beat ’em up platformer, one or two players can take control of any of the four turtles and take down the Mewbies. Not having the option for four players in a modern game is a missed opportunity and there is no online play.

There are various platforming sections throughout the game though, so having more players could be problematic in that sense. Each of the four turtles mostly play the same as each other but also has their unique moves and their kill tree for even more moves to be unlocked.

There is no shortage of enemies to brawl against and they increase in variety the further you progress. Immediately from the first battle, the game already feels repetitive. Even with the responsive controls and variety of moves to perform, it doesn’t make it any more fun than it could’ve been. Combat does look more fun by just watching it, but it’s not the same when playing it. Even the boss battles aren’t all that exciting either.

Between the battles, there are a lot of platforming sections that are surprisingly more fun than the combat and get more interesting later. It feels good to jump around various obstacles and run across walls to reach the next destination. Unfortunately, they’re short and over too quickly, especially when they’re constantly interrupted by the loading screens and dialogue scenes that drag on way too much.

The loading screens aren’t long, but they happen so frequently that they ruin the flow of the game. The same goes for the dialogue scenes, which don’t occur as frequently, but do drag on more than necessary. The presentation doesn’t help either, as there’s always a slight pause when the next character is ready to speak, which makes it drag on even more.

You can’t skip the cutscenes at all, but you can skip each sentence but only after a few seconds each time, so even that doesn’t speed up the conversations much. The story itself is interesting, especially since it acts as a sequel to the movie from last year, but how the story is told here may struggle to hold anyone’s attention.

This is where the characters’ personalities should be able to shine, especially since the main voice actors return from the movie. Nicolas Cantu, Brady Noon, Micah Abbey, and Shamon Brown Jr. reprise their roles as Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo respectively.

Unfortunately, there is no Ayo Edebiri, Jackie Chan, John Cena, Seth Rogen, and more likely due to the game’s budget. The voice actors who fill in for them all do a fine job of bringing the characters to life with the same personalities and charm they had in the film. Of course, as good as the voice cast is, it’s how the presentation is executed that lets it all down.

Being a direct follow-up of the 2023 film, the game utilises the same urban and grungy art style and presentation throughout the entire game. It was one of the biggest features of the movie that helped set it apart from other TMNT films and what critics and fans loved most. In the game, it looks almost as good from afar, but not as much up close and the characters look like a cheapened version of their movie counterparts.

The film also had a low frame rate with its animation, which complimented the art style it was going for, similar to the Spider-Verse films. The game instead has a higher frame rate and doesn’t reflect the movie’s animation style at all. Almost all the standards feel like they’ve dropped since the movie. The game doesn’t have licensed music like the film did, but it does have simple urban-like tracks that suit the game’s aesthetics.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has all the ingredients to make a fantastic game. However, following the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem film will likely put it into the same pile with all the other underwhelming titles. It does have some interesting ideas but has too much going against it. Thankfully an actual sequel to the film is on its way and set for release in 2026 and hopefully, the upcoming spinoff animated series will fare much better.

Gaming-wise, there are a ton of better alternatives available, even on modern consoles and hopefully, we’ll finally hear more about The Last Ronin game as well. As for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed, it is what is, another quick cash grab.

Written by: Sammy Hanson