Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze was the movie I saw in 1991. Casey Jones was gone, April O’Neil was no longer Judith Hoag, and the Turtles were not utilizing their weapons anymore. It was like returning from vacation to discover that your crush had transferred schools. Simply put, it was not what I had anticipated, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed puts me in a similar situation. I anticipated a simple 3D beat-’em-up that would end in a few hours.
In reality, it is a 14-hour light role-playing game with a simple 3D beat-’em-up that connects lengthy exposition and relationship-building segments. Unfortunately, taking a different route does not always result in a positive outcome, much like in The Secret of the Ooze. Despite the creator’s aheartfulofgames’ obvious attempt to make Mutants Unleashed a compelling and realistic sequel to the 2023 Mutant Mayhem movie, the game soon loses its appeal due to a dearth of diverse enemies and a limited number of levels that are frequently used. Although the T.U.R.T.L.E. strength is restricted, it is not ninja nonsense.
Though I think Mutant Mayhem is the best TMNT film since the first, I still think the 1990 original is indestructible. It has amazing music, a purposefully flawed, hand-drawn look, and, as the father of a sixteen-year-old, it features the most convincingly teenage Turtles ever.
In Mutants Unleashed, two of those pillars are remarkably close to being recreated. Even while the visuals fall short of the film’s beautiful, painterly appearance, they successfully mimic Mutant Mayhem’s hurried, asymmetrical style, from Bebop’s distractingly drooping, pierced nipples to the film’s rough, 2D scribbles for smoke and light sources. In large part, since the movie’s voice actors have returned, the four major Turtles themselves are also in sync with their film counterparts. The trio may have been achieved if the budget had been able to cover some of the licensed music for the movie. Sadly, it didn’t, but Mutants Unleashed has several more serious issues than just a dearth of classic ’90s hip hop.
Can I Kick It?
On paper, a 14-hour TMNT RPG would seem like a no-brainer, but in reality, Mutants Unleashed is pushed to the limit throughout that unexpectedly long period. As soon as you realize that the primary plot missions are repeatedly repeating the same stages, they start to get monotonous.
Mutants Unleashed makes an effort to hide the true number of levels by having us go backward through ones we have already finished or by changing the fixed camera’s viewpoint, but it is incredibly obvious. Additionally, it feels like a trick to switch up the order of environments used for each mission without merging them, and there is way too much loading required as we finish portions. In any case, it quickly becomes monotonous to scramble across the same building site, go through the same pipe, ride up and down the same elevator, and dodge the same cargo ships.
Even worse, there is hardly much room for exploration. Mutants Unleashed usually just punishes us for trying to stray from the path, but yes, there are hidden items and pieces of street art to uncover for Mondo Gecko. I could not remember how many times I attempted to jump to an area that seemed safe to land on, only to be confronted with an unseen wall or fall to the street off camera. On one occasion, I found myself in a situation where I was not supposed to be. Only once have I unintentionally followed the path I believed I was meant to take to discover hidden art.
Combat is completely serviceable, even though foes are not particularly intelligent and do not always do a good job of following you around the surroundings. As you advance through particular relationships for each Turtle, you can upgrade their fighting techniques with new moves. It is a button masher, though, so there is little need to get too technical. As a result, it is easily available but largely mindless. I would experiment with different moves, but primarily to get the tutorial boxes to disappear from the screen, which occasionally obscure your Turtles because of the fixed camera.
The slow pace of dialogue completely stymies cutscenes.
The dialogue’s speed, however, is the main issue. The glacial rhythm of dialogue, which waits line-by-line for massive dialogue boxes and pre-made reaction animations to appear, completely stymies cutscenes. This significantly slows down conversations and produces incredibly awkward pauses in between phrases.
These scenes are essential if you wish to advance the Turtles’ friendships with their pals throughout the city and gain new upgrades, although they can also be skipped or slightly accelerated by pressing a button.
Verdict
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed looks the part, almost exactly replicating the scribbled, asymmetrical style of the highly regarded 2023 animated movie to which it serves as a sequel. Although it is obvious that spending money on some of the ’90s hip hop that gave the film its distinct sonic edge was not within the budget, it also sounds the part thanks to some truly amazing voice acting.
However, Mutants Unleashed’s basic button-bashing action soon gets monotonous due to its limited enemy choices and its frequently repeated levels, even if there is an obvious attempt to make it a long and convincing sequel to the movie. It all just becomes rather… bland when you try to do too much with too little, and that is a loaded term to say around the green machine, who rock the town without anyone noticing.
