When we first acquired our fingers on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge final 12 months, we had been on no account of the impression that the sport was missing within the content material division — that is, in any case, what we deemed to be “one of the best Turtles scrolling beat ’em up ever“. A little bit over a 12 months later, the sport’s first DLC, ‘Dimension Shellshock‘, is right here to indicate that typically greater is in actual fact higher, and much more Turtle motion is at all times a superb factor.
This DLC comes as a moderately stable bundle. Alongside a number of new character color palettes (lots of which come from a free replace that launched alongside the DLC), there’s additionally the addition of a model new recreation mode, two fresh-faced fighters — Usagi Yojimbo (aka ‘Miyamoto Yojimbo’ in his authentic comics) and Karai (a mainstay of the 2003 animated TMNT collection) — and numerous shredding authentic music tracks from composer Tee Lopes.
We’ll kick issues off with the star of the present: Survival mode. If a roguelike-style tackle the beat ’em up wasn’t the primary thought to pop into your thoughts after finishing the Shredder’s Revenge Story mode, then know that you’re not alone, however after attending to grips with waves of powerful foes, power-up propositions and the unending want for ‘only one extra run’, we had been happy to see that the most recent loop continues to kick shell.
Survival mode begins with a brief cutscene. The Neutrinos (a race of humanoid youngsters from Dimension X that you just would possibly bear in mind from the unique animated collection) seem by means of a wormhole and warn the Turtles that Shredder is trying to overcome the multiverse — as a result of you’ll be able to by no means have too lots of them, proper? The previous gang, now joined by a ninja rabbit and a former-Foot Clan member, leap into motion to take down the large unhealthy as soon as once more.
So begins the central loop. You hop into one of many 5 new Dimension settings — the retro ‘8-Bit Battleground’ and comedian book-inspired ‘Mirage’ environments are standouts — take out a wave of foes, and purpose to gather sufficient shards to finish a Dimension Crystal and progress onto the following space. When you die, your collected Crystals are tallied up and produce upgrades to your subsequent run. So far, so roguelike, although the similarities to Dotemu’s earlier ‘Survival Mode’ DLC for Streets of Rage 4 are additionally clear.
The construction is repetitive by its very nature, however a bonus mechanic on the finish of every wave retains issues fascinating. Before diving into the following battle, you might be given a alternative between two upgrades together with extra shards, well being, unusual power-ups, or the possibility to mutate into some basic villains for a short while. These vary of their usefulness — taking part in as Shredder, Bebop, and Rocksteady supplies some respite out of your fighter’s reducing well being, although the villains’ restricted movesets really feel a little bit gradual in comparison with the fluidity of the Turtles’ — however the ever-changing rewards add an fascinating threat/reward system to what would in any other case be punch, accumulate, repeat. Do you play it secure and accumulate a Pizza Box well being increase at each alternative, or is it price grabbing a bundle of shards to make sure fast development? With boss battles randomly thrown into the lineup of enemy waves, your alternative of bonuses can both make or break a run.
And boy, do you want that increase within the early levels. Each fighter’s first run sees them with just one life and restricted hit factors, making these preliminary waves really feel all of the tougher whilst you try to rebuild your beat ’em up muscle reminiscence. That being mentioned, as soon as the upgrades begin rolling in and the ultimate aim of finishing 5 Dimension Crystals and defeating the Master of the Void appears all of the extra attainable, Survival mode rapidly turns into troublesome to place down.
But what concerning the new fighters? Many of us could have tried out a number of completely different Turtles within the recreation’s fundamental story, however the addition of Survival mode encourages fighter experimentation, making it the proper time to throw two newbies into the combo. Usagi Yojimbo has rapidly fallen into our rotation, with excessive velocity and balanced vary and energy making him a powerful alternative for navigating a few of the busier waves, although Karai’s improved energy is a blessing when taking over more durable foes. Both can be found to make use of in Survival, Arcade, or Story mode, so you will get to grips with the brand new animations and fight kinds nonetheless you please.
Seeing two new characters included with the sturdy new recreation mode makes the DLC’s £6.69 / $7.99 / €7.99 pricetag ooze worth. It is uncommon {that a} DLC supplies simply as a lot leisure worth as the primary recreation, however we will see the brand new mode turning into a replayable staple for a lot of a recreation night time to return — no quarters required.
Conclusion
This has all of the allure of the bottom recreation, however with a difficult new stand-alone mode that provides high quality and worth. The opening problem will not be for everybody and people early runs could be fairly unforgiving, however when you see these unlocks rolling in and with an improve or two below your belt, you will quickly marvel why a Turtles roguelike hasn’t been in your wishlist from the very starting. With these added bells and whistles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge continues to be completely tubular, dude.
