These turtles have a long way to go before reaching their potential...
The Good:
Cell Shaded Animation Style makes the game visually appealing especially during the action scenes.
Special 'Ninjitsu' Moves and team up attacks are fun to do and see.
Different explorable environments in each of 9 levels of the game that varies from city streets, rooftops, sewers and Alien infested buildings.
Boss Battles at the end of each level are the best and most exciting parts of the game as you will fight against many fan favorite villains like Rockteady, Bebop, Slash, Kraang and Shredder.
The Bad:
30 FPS cap is the very first thing I noticed when I entered the gameplay. Not only is it surprising to see such thing from a 2016 game that isn't very graphically demanding, but also the reason they initially gave for not having local split-screen co-op mode is that so it can maintain a stable 60 fps. Talk about false advertising.
Unbalanced Upgrade System where each upgrade cost much more than it worth, discouraging player from trying out different special moves.
Unnecessary powers ups and items that has very little affect against enemies, giving the player no reason to use them.
Unlockables: Usually games like these have extra content like alternate skins, concept arts, character statues, or even digital comic; Things that give the game more replay value and make gamers explore the environment more. This on other hand just have cover pages of comics.
Unmemorable: Here's the biggest problem of this game, to convey this let's take look at Platinum's previous game Transformers: Devastation. Both of these games are based on popular franchises that has been around for more than 30 years, spawning many cartoons, movies, games and other forms of merchandise. So what makes Devastation different from this game? Between the retro arcade games, the movie based games, and High Moon Studio's darker and grittier Cybertron series, Devastation is a fresh and unique take on the formula with its fast paced action and animation style which makes it stand out from all the dozens of games of this franchise. Mutants of Manhattan on the hand, stays within its roots of old arcade games with its simple level based gameplay, one boss battle at the end of stage, retro-like music and has very little of anything else. As a result, this creates a game that has no personality of its own. It panders to the nostalgic feelings of the fans by reminiscing the old retro TMNT games rather than making this game itself be memorable and different from the rest.
50/50:
Short and Simple Stroy: Shredder and Kraang have joined forces to take over the world and.....yeah that's as far as it goes. There are other villains but as mentioned before they only serve as final bosses and has next to no affect to the story itself. There's no drama among characters, no twists, just simple story that has the complexity of a 22 minute episode of a Saturday morning kids' show.
Conclusion:
This game is a step forward at right direction, but unfortunately doesn't go all the way through. It has all the ingredients to create a great and memorable TMNT game but each of those elements have a lot of room for improvement and are not stirred well, resulting a game that feels lacking and farfetched from reaching its full potential. Nevertheless it is a fun lighthearted game that stays true to its source material and will keep the players entertained for awhile. TMNT is a decades old franchise and are currently in spotlight with the new movies and animated series. A game that is more than just another simple licensed game is long overdue.
Rate: 6.5/10.0