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March 28, 2024, 03:27:06 PM

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TMNT: Shredder's Revenge

Started by bgmnts, May 30, 2022, 08:43:22 PM

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bgmnts

https://www.eurogamer.net/how-shredders-revenge-continues-the-side-scrolling-beat-em-up-revival

I know a few people here were into the recent Streets of Rage title and i think this is from that same publisher. Them describing it as having the rhythm of a shoot em up is a bit unnerving but i'm sure it'll be a fun game.

#1
Quote from: bgmnts on May 30, 2022, 08:43:22 PMThem describing it as having the rhythm of a shoot em up

That makes no sense to me.
Each shmup has it's own unique rhythm usually tied to it's scoring mechanics and how that flows with the stage design.

I thought they must just mean the game is fast paced, none stop. Like a shmup, made to be infinitely replayable, so there's no downtime, no dead air that might last 3 seconds the first time you play, but start to feel more like an hour the 1,000th time, but judging by the footage I watched, that's not true either.
Like other games in the genre, you fight a handful of dudes and then walk to the right searching for the next group.

Then I thought maybe they mean the baddies are like popcorn enemies, you can beat them in one hit, and they just throw way more at you? Again, that doesn't seem to be the case.

I'd describe this game as having the rhythm of a belt scrolling beat 'em up.
If you've ever played that teenage mutant ninja turtles arcade game from the 80s, I'd say it's very much like that.

I loved these types of games when I was little. Me and my mate were big into renegade and target renegade when we were nippers. I grew out of them*, but I might have to get this. Turtles was the one we all played, as well as the simpsons when we were at whitley bay or wherever.

I've bought a few of these types of games on steam, but never gotten around to playing them, you know how it is. This one is supposed to be good. I might fire it up tomorrow.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/674520/FightN_Rage/


* That sounds a bit dismissive, to clarify, I used to move around and mash the punch button. I'm sure there are deeper mechanics than that, but I was mashing buttons and randomly getting hit, and rather than delving deeper into the games systems, which I'm sure is possible with the best of the genre, I just moved on to other types of games.

This comes out tomorrow! I think I am gonna get it. - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1361510/Teenage_Mutant_Ninja_Turtles_Shredders_Revenge/

I tried that Fight'N Rage and it's canny good. It's pretty hard though. Very Final Fight, the Ricardo character is very much like Haggar from that game, and is recommended for new players as he's pretty tanky and has a smaller moveset.

There's a great guide here that goes into the hidden mechanics - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1185287663

I enjoyed playing for a few hours, but I think I'd definitely like to play something a bit shallower and easier. Fight N'Rage feels like the game you'd get to after playing a lot of these games.

Kelvin

Loved TMNT 2: The Arcade Game on NES, I've lots of nostalgia for that era of TMNT games - I loved the original NES game too. 

That said, I wonder if I've had my hit of nostalgia just from watching the trailers for Shredder's Revenge. It feels like the game has had twenty trailers at this point, and I've watched enough clips and previews to maybe get all I'm going to get out of it. Not sure. Gonna be hard to measure up to Streets of Rage 4, I suppose.

madhair60

Embargo's up.

It's fucking brilliant.

Nice! Looking forward to trying this tomorrow.

Kelvin


Glyn

Thought this was supposed to be on gamepass today but am but currently getting an error message on Xbox. Looks like it might be there on PC though so hopefully it's just a glitch as I loved the arcade game.

Edit : working now!

I played with Donatello first for old times sake, he had a nice reach so I used to play him at the arcade, keep all the friggers at arms reach and protect my ten penny bits, and I didn't last very long, to be honest.

I tried April O'Neil next and she felt much better, nice and nippy and with moves I liked a lot better.

The game just wouldn't end! I got to stage 13 or something and lost my last life jumping over a gap but somehow falling down it. I dunno, maybe I needed to be lower down or higher up on the screen or something to jump over the gap.
Real men don't continue, so I left it there.

It's fun, combat feels really good!

Why is it so long though? Arcade games should be 20 minutes to half an hour not 2 effing hours.
I can see that really hurting the replayability of this.
If you're gonna have a long game like that, why not split them into 2 or 3 seperate campaigns?
Seeing this a lot lately. Drainus was 2 hours to play both loops, Galacticon doesn't ramp up the difficulty until you're 3 hours in and willing an early death.

Crenners

Yep, same. Looks great, feels good but longer than Death Stranding. Streets 4 had a similar issue. I get why they do it, pricks baulk at the prospect of having five well-designed stages to replay for many years but I'm not gonna 1CC something like this for two hours more than once in a life.

Presumably madhair60 was paid handsomely by the developers to promote this on CaB, UK premier gaming forum.

Swoz_MK

Quote from: ImmaculateClump on June 16, 2022, 05:15:09 PMlost my last life jumping over a gap but somehow falling down it. I dunno, maybe I needed to be lower down or higher up on the screen or something to jump over the gap.

This bastard bit! I fell down that, it kept spawning me directly above the gap so I was in a never ending cycle of death until it clicked I could probably do the double-jump attack to get me across. Bastard thing.
Very good though, doubt I'll every get the 250 hit combo challenge, I think my max has been about 175.

I wanted to play something again last night, but I didn't want to play for 2 hours so I played epicrecovery instead.
I mean, that's pretty telling that I'm not playing with my shiny new toy on the day I bought it. I think crenners is right, this is probably gonna be a one and done affair.

There's not much depth to something like this so it's in the games best interest not to outstay it's welcome each time you play it. That sort of brainless repetition can be joyous, but it has to be in small doses. It has to leave you wanting more.
Yeah, I understand why they've done it. If a Gamer™ credit feeds through something like this in half an hour, they're gonna get a refund, but if they credit feed through it in two hours, they'll feel like it's somehow worth more and worth keeping. They're a strange breed.

I'm gonna play again today, try another character.

niat

Never mind the game, Mike Patton recorded the theme tune:


Kelvin

I think the complaints that it's too long are a bit off base to be honest, the real issue is that arcade mode won't let you save your progress, so you can't complete it over a couple of sessions, you have to do the whole thing in one sitting - and it is too long for that. In contrast, I've played through Streets of Rage 4 loads of times, alone and with friends, because you can do a bunch of levels, stop, and then come back it it later. With Shredder's Revenge, you either have to play through the story mode with its crap levelling system, crap world map and crap side missions, or else play for two hours in arcade mode and hope you don't lose your last life 1 hour and 59 minutes in.

Overall, I do like it, though. They've added a lot of personality with the Foot Clan doing goofy stuff, like shopping and sleeping on benches, and the combat - which felt pretty simplistic at first - is growing on me now I'm making better use of the different moves.

That said, I don't love it. The art style is honestly kind of ugly in my opinion, especially in cutscenes. And possibly because I've being playing (the far better) Streets of Rage 4 a lot recently, I find the levels a little bit flat and empty, with very little that's really fun to interact with. It's got lots of nice, nostalgic nods, and it'll be fun to play through again with friends, but it definitely feels like the lack of a save option in arcade mode will hamper how much I play through it again.           

Crenners

I do think you've nailed the point from a slightly different angle, though. A save system is inherently antithetical to 'arcade' games. The fact it would benefit from that proves it's too long.

Much as I enjoyed it, I feel the same about the otherwise excellent SoR4. I find it really unsatisfying to park a run and come back to it later. It neuters the arcade sensibility and the escalating excitement and tension of going for a 1CC.

Five stages and maybe a secret boss to aim for and I'd play them much more.

Kelvin

Quote from: Crenners on June 18, 2022, 04:39:25 AMI do think you've nailed the point from a slightly different angle, though. A save system is inherently antithetical to 'arcade' games. The fact it would benefit from that proves it's too long.

But it's not really an arcade game, is it? It's a console game in 2022. Arcade game were short and very hard, to chew up coins. Here you own the game, and can play it at your leisure. So there's no harm in it being a little bit longer, a bit more content heavy, and sticking in a save system to allow you to drop it and pick up the same game later. SoR4 was several hours long, and although I have played that through in a single sitting, I've mostly replayed it over several sittings, alone or with friends. That's harder with Shedder's Revenge because the options are more limited (and less enticing) than Streets of Rage 4. You have to pick between the inferior Story mode (with extraneous bumf) or the superior Arcade mode, which you can't save. 

QuoteMuch as I enjoyed it, I feel the same about the otherwise excellent SoR4. I find it really unsatisfying to park a run and come back to it later. It neuters the arcade sensibility and the escalating excitement and tension of going for a 1CC.

That's fair enough, you like what you like. I just think that, for a game that you can play at home (i.e not an actual arcade game), a couple of hours isn't an "overlong" experience, unless you want to play through it in one sitting - at which point, I understand why it's more of an issue.

Kelvin

Of course, the fact they don't have a save mode makes the Arcade overlong and unappealing, as I've already admitted. So clearly the balance is off, whatever way you come at it. Personally, I hope they patch in a fix (e.g. a new mode, or save option).  Even a better level select would help.

They could have easily solved this by splitting the arcade mode up into three or four episodes with an option to play the whole thing in one go.

Crenners

@Kelvin You're absolutely right that it's not really an arcade game. If I'm judging it by that expectation, it's not got a chance.

I like the episodic idea, Huxley.

Yeah, that's bang on. It's much more a console game than an arcade game.

I think a lot of indie shmups get the balance just right. They take the breezy clear from console shmups, but keep the deep scoring mechanics, and the ultra refined tightness of the arcade games.

The way something like Blue Wish Desire does it is great. They'll just make a straight up arcade shmup, but give you loads of resources, lots of score extends and autobomb, but they reward you at the end of the game for how many bombs and lives you have left, so pretty much everyone of all skill levels can play the same mode and feel like a boss getting to the end, but as you get better at the game, you're eventually trying to get through without dying or losing a bomb and blasting your score.

Save systems are always abusable so you tend not to see them in arcady games with leaderboards.
Having said that, your score doesn't reset in this game if you continue, and the chaining system doesn't seem to do much to your score, I think that was all a total afterthought.

You're right, we have to take it for what it is and not what we think it should or could have been.
It's a relaxing console brawler. I was playing with michelangelo the other day and he's good fun too.
I enjoy the combat, how you have to get behind a lot of the enemies later in the game and I like how you have to wait for your opening with the bosses, give them a quick slapping and dodge their attacks and get back in there.

I didn't bind "taunt" on my stick, apparently you can build up your special meter by doing it, which makes the boss fights less of a chore, so I'll have to make sure I set that up next time.

It just seems weird that they'd have that separate arcade mode and it just be the same as story mode. It was the perfect opportunity to chop out all the downtime and tighten everything up, chuck out a few of the weaker stages and tighten up the baggy campaign into a lean beast that was none stop fun and kept you coming back for more.
Arcade games had to draw you in and keep your attention. They had to create a lot of spectacle, and distil their campaigns down until they felt like half hour highlight reels. It's just story mode relabelled.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth


bgmnts

Quite enjoying this so far it's just fun to play.

Yeah, I'm really enjoying the combat the more I play and the more I get used to it. Still far too long, but this is lots of fun.

Woohoo! Got the 1cc today with April





0.3% of players have 1cc'ed hard mode, I'm gonna have to try and do that!



Shaky

#24
This thing is an absolute joy. Any quibbles seem a bit besides the point (I'm no expert and I beat nearly every level in one go) and I get the 16 levels thing - 5 or 6 would be far too measly for this day and age. While you essentially do the same thing over and over, there's enough variety of characters and moves to make it work. Lookng forward to more run-throughs with each character and some co-op shenanigans,

Tremendous soundtrack as well - skating through the sky while smacking the Foot Clan about to 80's hair metal has never been so much fun.

I don't know, I'm having trouble finding a character as fun as April, all the other characters bar michelangelo feel slow and shit, so I'm just sticking with her. The length of the game is definitely an issue, and with the lack of any fun scoring mechanics, I can see me hanging this up pretty soon. Why did they bother with chaining if you're not rewarded for it? Seems weird.
I played today, got five stages in and just quit out.
I don't think they're trivial complaints. They're huge issues in a game like this which is supposed to be endlessly replayable.

Kelvin

No, I agree. I tried the Arcade mode again yesterday, got six level in and thought, "nah fuck this". If I can't complete it in an hour or so OR save it and come back later, I'm never gonna play through all 16 levels in Arcade mode. It feels like something they've added on purely because they felt obliged to, and then never balanced. I'm wondering if the developers have seen the same criticism elsewhere (social media, reddit, fansites, etc) and may patch in a solution. As it stands, it feels like a massive oversight.

Kelvin

They don't even have multiple save slots for the Story mode. If you want to play through it on a different difficulty (or from scratch, with a friend) you have to save over your old game where you've unlocked everything and levelled everyone up. It's bizarre.

I really like the game, I've been having lots of fun with it, but the bare-bones options are really going to hold it back, imo. And there are such easy fixes!   

Crenners

madhair60 will say literally anything for money, it seems.

madhair60

Not surprised you two cunts found a way not to enjoy this game.