Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan

Gameplay

The game is an action hack and slash game with cel-shaded artstyle, in which players control the four title characters, including Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael, from a third-person perspective. Different characters have different abilities and powers, as well as different fighting styles. Each turtle also has their own ultimate ability. For example, Leonardo can slow down time, and Michelangelo can perform cheerleading, which reinstate the cooldowns of other turtles' abilities. Players can shift between turtles at will in the single-player campaign. The turtles can perform successive attacks to create a combo. The four turtles also have the ability to parkour and use parachutes while traveling around the game's world. Players encounter numerous green orbs in the game. These orbs, also known as Battle Points and can be spent to upgrade the turtles' abilities. The turtles can also scan their surroundings and tag enemies.

The game is divided into different stages. In each stage, players encounter random enemies before reaching a boss. When the player character is killed, other turtles (controlled by artificial intelligence in the campaign or by other players in the multiplayer) can help revive the players. If the turtles are not revived, they will be sent back to the subterranean lair. A mini-game will then begin, tasking the turtle to eat pizza as fast as possible. The game supports four-player online cooperative multiplayer.

Plot

The 4 turtles arrive in the city to find the Foot Clan showing up to cause trouble. Once the streets are cleared, the turtles are told by April via T-Glass that Bebop is robbing from the city's bank. He's armed with a chainsaw explosive bombs and fires off guns. The turtles will need teamwork to get pass him. In the second mission, Rocksteady, Bebop's partner, is destroying the subway system and placed dynamite bombs with timers set to go off. The four brothers are prepared for the hammer-swinging Rocksteady; they next are communicated by April that Slash is hiding in the deep depths of the sewers. In the third mission, the turtles go investigate at the same time watch out for Slash throwing temper tantrums. Leo and company are directed to the construction site up in the skyscrapers. Karai, the daughter of Shredder, has the explosives put in place and the turtles have little to no avail to waste time. The bombs are defused but Karai is more than ready for Leo, Mikey, Don and Raph. She fights off the turtles but they manage to defeat her in making her retreat. Armaggon is the fifth boss up to no good; he's waiting aimlessly for his next bite and has no patience when the turtles approach him. He's defeated and another nuisance happens when the meeting with Wingnut comes. The turtles can not stop his swift movements until Wingnut makes a mistake in pausing for a while depending on his pattern. Wingnut is finished off and General Krang is not impressed with the turtles making it thus far. General Krang learns his lesson the hard way as with the previous bosses have and the brothers celebrate too early in result having General Krang becoming Mega Krang. The Turtles have to use robots to utilize lasers to fire at Mega Krang; lastly, Shredder is annoyed at the failures his subordinates suffered and takes the fight with the turtles himself. Shredder proves to be more than a challenge for the turtles but through teamwork and everything else they have experienced, the Turtles defeat Shredder and save New York City from the Foot clan taking over.

Development

According to developer PlatinumGames, the team developed licensed video games as creating new intellectual properties was difficult. Mutants in Manhattan is the third licensed game developed by Platinum, after the company partnered with Activision to create The Legend of Korra (2014) and Transformers: Devastation (2015). According to Platinum, they developed the game based on their own vision instead of the previous comics, films or games. According to game designer Eiro Shirahama, the team watched the TMNT animated series and also played the old TMNT games for the Super Famicom while working on the game so as to understand the universe and the characters. The game's artstyle was inspired by Mateus Santolouco, the artist of the series. Tom Waltz, who had previously written TMNT comic books for IDW Publishing, is the game's lead writer. The game's existence was first leaked by Xbox.com, Australian Classification Board and a user in Twitter. PlatinumGames later officially announced the title on January 26, 2016. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on May 24, 2016.

Reception

Mutants in Manhattan received "mixed or average" reviews, according to video game review aggregator Metacritic.

Ben Makedonski from Destructoid awarded it a score of 4.5 out of 10, stating "it doesn't even necessarily succeed where Platinum Games usually excels."

Dave Rudden from IGN rated it 4.9 out of 10, calling the game short, bland, and highly repetitive, while also expressing criticism at the lack of local co-op multiplayer.

Digital Foundry's John Linneman criticised the game for not reaching 60 frames per second on any platform, even though an Activision producer stated that local co-op multiplayer was omitted to reach it.

Game Informer awarded it a score of 6 out of 10, saying "Controlling the turtles is fun, but the structure of the levels, missions, and bosses leave much to be desired"

Hardcore Gamer awarded it a score of 2 out of 5, saying "About the only real way one can recommend Mutants in Manhattan is if you’re a really die-hard Ninja Turtles fan and have access to online multiplayer, and even then, the tedious level and mission design is sure to get grating after a while. In the end, sadly, not even an old-fashioned Ninja Rap could save this mess."

GameSpot awarded it a score of 4 out of 10, saying "Without a doubt, Mutants In Manhattan is a disappointment, one multiplied several times over not just by its pedigree, but by the fact that the ingredients for a good game are present."