Growing up on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the 90’s, I have always been a huge fan. I especially loved the side-scrolling beat-em-ups they had become known for. So, with the most recent interpretation of TMNT releasing, I knew I had to give it a try. Once I did, it took more effort to continue as without heart being put into this title, more content made it a struggle not to be aggravated. AHEARTFULOFGAMES tries their best to give Mutants Unleashed a chance but falls flat in a lot of areas.
The story follows up after the 2023 Mutants Mayhem film. Following the turtles as they navigate out of the shadows with their fellow mutants and try to coexist with humans. Things quickly take a turn for the worse as mutants start acting aggressively, causing chaos throughout the city. The turtles and April try to uncover what is going on and keep the peace they fought so hard to make. A very generic story, but I wouldn’t expect much plot from a children’s game as gameplay is a bit more important.
The gameplay is standard for a TMNT beat-em-up. Players pick the turtle they want to play with, navigating through various places throughout Hell’s Kitchen, beating up enemies. Players and enemies have health bars and pizza slices/boxes are used to restore health bars, which is on par with what I’d expect from a TMNT game. They even throw in a few collectibles to find throughout the game. Players can use their phone to collect digimutants, which for all practicable purposes, are just stickers of the various mutants you meet. It requires players to scan the environment by clicking away and looking for the exclamation point to appear, which hints that there is one nearby. There are also canvases that players will take pictures of while they fight throughout Hell’s Kitchen. Lastly, Ooze canisters increase various stats like damage and health. These can be discovered like canvas’ and earned in the dojo.
Outside this formula, the dev took some inspiration from the Persona franchise with days and relationships. Players will have a limited number of days to complete a mission level. With the rest of the free time, Players will meet various characters throughout the game that allow them to interact with and add some perspective to this world. Each one has different benefits too. Leo works with the Owner of CoExist, a group that is helping the human/mutant relationship become stronger. With this relationship, Leo unlocks new abilities that can be purchased with XP. Each turtle has their person, and each location has its benefits as well. Such as the character Wingnut and his haunted arcade allow players to use coins to purchase buffs/debuffs to be used.
As for the not-so-good of TMNT, there were a bunch of issues I ran into while attempting to enjoy the game. The dialogue is not the best and at times falls flat. Some of the scenes play a bit too long and the game forces you to watch some and doesn’t tell you that you can skip some scenes until you try holding the buttons instead of pressing them to at least make the prompt appear. Add this with if you stop playing halfway through a mission, even though it saves, you have to restart it. I learned this the hard way and had to rewatch and replay many scenes and missions before learning.
And where would we be without glitches? None are game breaking, thankfully, but do cause some uncomfortable gameplay. Such as scenes with characters in the wrong spots, but correct positions. A few enemies also fell into the water and wouldn’t die, which made me restart a few times. One other glitch I ran into was the picking up of collectibles. Every so often, I would end up grabbing multiple coins and ooze canisters, only to have collected one canister and only a few coins. It became very frustrating as it got harder to confidently collect everything as I wasn’t sure where I would be at count-wise throughout my play-through.
A redeeming factor of Mutants Unleashed is the stunning visuals. The art style of the environments and the characters are spectacular, as they look hand-drawn and pop out like a comic book. The enemy design is interesting because there are only a few enemies, they made a concept of mutation where each enemy gains a new look and new moves. Each variation of them tends to get a bit bigger and more aggressive looking but keep their theme. Audio can also be mentioned as it was one of the areas that were clean and enjoyable. Sounds and soundtracks were spot on and added to the whimsical themes of the art style.
Mutants Unleashed isn’t the best game I’ve played this year. It has a ton of flaws and can be a headache to play, from the combat to the collectibles. The visuals help polish it up a bit and make it worth giving it a try. Or if you have a young child who wants a coop game to play with you, this wouldn’t necessarily be the worst choice. With all the bugs and glitches attached, it’s hard to justify paying full price for this one. For forty dollars, you could probably just wait for the price to drop before adding it to your collection.
