Summary
For nearly as long as I’ve been alive, I’ve lived and breathed theTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. That’s true of pretty much every iteration of the awesome foursome (except for the Next Mutation lot), which made it a surprise when I was uncharacteristically sceptical of the Mutant Mayhem movie.
Despite how incredible its wonkier Spider-Verse art style looked, I didn’t like the teenage focus of it all and thought it was too immature for a story about mutated reptiles trained in kung-fu by their adoptive rat father. Imagine my surprise when its heartfelt and fresh take on the TMNT world ended up being one of my all-time favourites.
With the unnamed and Shredder-focused sequel not releasing until 2026, I’ve been chomping at the bit to dive back into the world of Mutant Mayhem. That made the tie-in brawler Mutants Unleashed an exciting prospect, although I’ll admit I once again had my reservations.The turtle-paced rollout of trailers and informationcombined with Outright’s games usually being on the simpler side didn’t inspire much hope.
It was also confirmed to me that all four of the Turtles have their voice actors from Mutant Mayhem, which is a very nice touch. As a result, the dialogue sounds like it was ripped straight from the movie.
Still, as an ooze-canister-half-full kind of guy, I went into my hands-on demo of Mutants Unleashed atGamescomwith the optimism I wish I’d gone into Mayhem itself with. It didn’t go to waste either, as Mutants Unleashed ended up being the biggest surprise of the show for meand what I hope will be yet another banger TMNT game.
An Epilogue To Mutant Mayhem
My preview of Mutants Unleashed took place a few hours into the game when the (for once) accepted by society Turtles have already kicked off their mission to figure out why a new wave of mutants (lovingly referred to by Mikey as “Mewbies”) have started to turn feral. Before diving into my first mission, I was given a rundown of the game’s map and mission structure, which is where some unexpectedPersonainfluences come in.
While most TMNT games just have you jumping from stage to stage, Mutants Unleashed takes some cues from Atlus and presents the player with a bunch of locations to select on a map that each have their own character and mission attached, such as training with Splinter in the Turtle’s lair or learning how to graffiti with Mondo Gecko by visiting the coffee shop.
Choosing an area and following that mission passes the time from day to night, pushing you closer to the main quest’s deadline and forcing you to choose what quests and character upgrades you want to pursue next. I only got to see a select few of the locations and have no idea how deep the mechanic goes because of that, but it’s something I didn’t expect to see and made for a very interesting start to my demo.
Donnie Is On The Job
Once I was done hastily scribbling ‘TMNT Persona’ in my notebook, I was given the chance to play a level that had the Turtles heading to the underground train station to meet Leatherhead. As always, I picked Donatello and made my way through the level - a route less linear than I expected - by holding a button down for some stylish, if a little janky, parkour.
It was at this point I finally got to check out the thing I was most excited about in Mutants Unleashed - its combat. Pretty much every TMNT game is focused on fighting, and it’s no different with the latest generation of radical dudes. Rather than being a side-scrolling beat-em-up like most recent Turtles games, Mutants Unleashed goes the way of a 3D brawler, complete with a DMC-style combo counter.
Just like with the Persona influences, Mutants Unleashed instantly surprised me with how difficult its combat can be. As a game primarily aimed at kids, I walked in with my bo staff raised and expected no challenge, but found myself overwhelmed by the powerful fast-paced mutants and nearly out of health.
The Mewbies that the Turtles come up against have unique mutations that change depending on how skilled the player is, which is yet another surprising show of depth.
A Throwback To The PS2 TMNT Games
After getting over my bruised ego, Donnie locked in and showed off some of his moves that, in line with the sorts of abilities he usually has, are focused on ranged attacks and bo staff spinning. Once I’d figured things out, the combat felt satisfying and had a lot of surprising smaller mechanics that add up, such as Mikey’s nunchucks spinning and dealing more damage as he kept up with his combos and the brothers being summonable on a timer for powerful attacks.
The rest of my demo sped by as I made my way through the underground and fought through waves of Mewbies, but the overall feeling I got was very reminiscent of the PS2 TMNT brawlers, which I mean as a very big compliment. Mutants Unleashed feels like a more complicated Battle Nexus with some surprising JRPG influences thrown in.
One very cool detail that I was told about during my demo was the inclusion of action figure skins that will actually come packaged with Mutant Mayhem toys.
By the end of my all-too-brief time with Mutants Unleashed, I couldn’t believe just how much it had sucked me in and made me want to stick with my favourite kung-fu reptiles. Even as a diehard TMNT fan, I had some major reservations going in, but they were quickly knocked down thanks to how much effort has been put in to make this something much more than a quick cash-in. Cowa-freaking-bunga.
