Although the launch of Mutants In Manhattan coincides with the big screen release of the new TMNT movie, the game instead follows the style and tone of the popular kids cartoon series.

Clearly aimed at a younger audience, it’s easy to pick up and play thanks to the simple-to-grasp controls. A couple of buttons to attack, another to jump, dodge, parry and throw ninja stars. The D-pad lets you switch between turtles – thus accessing their special abilities and power ups. It also provides access to a selection of commands that let you direct your green-skinned brothers in battle.

"You can play alone or with a few friends online – but sadly, it’s a real oversight that there’s no local co-op option."

Sadly, most of these controls and abilities are rarely required due to the overly simplistic gameplay. On normal difficulty, Mutants In Manhattan takes only a few hours to complete – and you’ll have pretty much seen all there is on offer within the first fifteen minutes. It’s hugely repetitive too, with each of the 10 stages (including a brief tutorial level), following the exact same format.

This third person hack and slash affair sees Leo, Donnie, Mikey and Raph in all their cel-shaded glory, traversing rooftops, navigating sewers and investigating the New York streets to uncover the dastardly plans of Krang and Shredder.

You can play alone or with a few friends online – but sadly, it’s a real oversight that there’s no local co-op option. Solo play teams you up with three AI turtles who help take the strain when the enemies start flooding in and the odds are stacked against you – but it’s easily more fun when slicing and dicing with human teammates. Gameplay-wise, it all feels reminiscent of the old arcade game that guzzled my coins back in the day, so that’s no bad thing.

The visuals and animations are decent enough, and the cut scenes are nicely done too – capturing the show’s trademark tone and humour. Some of the environments are a little on the drab side though; the grey Manhattan streets, and dark sewers and subways looking dull and unimaginative. In contrast, each attack, sword wipe, special move and combo floods the screen with a burst of colour – which can make it tricky to see everything that’s going on in the thick of the action when loads of enemies are onscreen.

"On paper, this is a game that holds so much promise, especially with Platinum behind it. But it all gets dull too quickly."

An element of strategy and customisation has been added through a simple shop facility where you can cash in points accrued from collecting the many green orbs that are dotted about the maps. These can be traded for weapons and abilities to make your turtles even more deadly. There are some cool upgrades among them too – particularly the freeze bombs, plasma launcher and missile turrets. Energy boosting pizzas and drinks also prove handy. The nature of the gameplay, however, and reliance on button mashing means these upgrades are not really necessary and prove to be a bit of a missed opportunity.

Levels are split into a series of surprisingly short sections, which demand either an area be cleared of enemies, that bombs are defused or objects retrieved. Along the way, the turtles come face to face with hordes of foot soldiers and other cronies – most of whom suffer from weak AI and pose little real threat. Despite the ability to parry and dodge, it’s unlikely you’ll ever need to do anything but tap the light and heavy attacks to see the bad guys off. A bar at the top of the screen fills as you progress through the level, indicating how close you are to reaching the boss battle.

The boss fights really are the saving grace, reuniting us with some of the franchise’s most memorable characters. Mutants In Manhattan pits you against the likes of Bebop, Rocksteady, Karai, Armaggon, Slash and Wingnut – each having a distinct attacking pattern and level of aggression. These segments take place in an enclosed arena and are really the only occasion where you’ll need to call on your special abilities. Each boss fight proves reasonably challenging, largely owing to their multiple health bars that need to be fully depleted. Succeed and your performance for the level is graded – I guess offering some replayability factor should you want to beat your score.

On paper, this is a game that holds so much promise, especially with Platinum behind it. But it all gets dull too quickly. Unless you’re on the tougher settings, it doesn’t pose too much of a challenge – on normal, the first time I died was on the sixth level when an airborne Wingnut kept spamming me with a spinning attack.

"This is a game aimed at a younger audience that is extremely easy to pick up and play, yet it’s simplicity, weak enemy AI and lack of any real challenge means it’s unlikely you’ll be playing this in months to come."

Also, a few more cameos would have been nice – Splinter and April make an appearance but it would have been great if Casey Jones, Metalhead, Fishface, Leatherhead or Dogpound, had shown up too.

Probably my biggest bugbear is the lack of any real variety between turtles. Everyone’s got a favourite, right? Mine’s always been Raphael – the angry one with the red bandana and trademark twin sai to skewer the bad guys. But I quickly found that there’s actually very little that differentiates them in-game. You’d have thought that Donnie should have a longer reach thanks to his bo staff – or owing to his penchant for technology, he should at least have access to loads more gadgets. Perhaps the smaller Mikey should be more agile and awesome for close quarters combat with his nunchucks? Well, no. Whichever turtle you pick has little effect on the gameplay, and that’s a real shame.

This is a game aimed at a younger audience that is extremely easy to pick up and play, yet it’s simplicity, weak enemy AI and lack of any real challenge means it’s unlikely you’ll be playing this in the months to come.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox One.

Shadow of the Beast

Based on the 1989 classic, Shadow of the Beast will see the return of Aarbron and feature a healthy dose of platforming and action. Combat now incorporates combos and counter-attacks. Sure the quick-time events are a little iffy but at least it has traps like the original game. Even the parallax scrolling made the transition! Despite a long development time, Shadow of the Beast will finally be releasing on May 17th for PS4.

Homefront: The Revolution

Even if the closed beta was fairly terrible, there’s still plenty of reason to be hyped about Homefront: The Revolution. With a new story that deals with taking back Philadelphia from the Korean People’s Army. In the large open world environment, players will be able to take on numerous side missions and employ various tactics like stealth, gadgets and guerrilla warfare to succeed. It’s out on May 17th in North America and May 20th in Europe for PS4, Xbox One and PC.

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

This is the big one. After numerous delays, Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End will finally be releasing on the PlayStation 4. Along with promising Nathan Drake’s final adventure, the developer is bringing arguably the best-looking visuals of an action adventure shooter in this generation. Multiplayer also looks like fun but suffice to say that it’s the campaign that’ll keep us enthralled. Look out for its release on May 10th for PS4.

Battleborn

Gearbox Software’s first person shooter/MOBA hybrid Battleborn is a beast of many parts. It has a compelling single-player campaign with the trademark dark humour (which also supports five player co-op along with varying difficulties). There are PvP modes involving either minion escort or traditional FPS zone capture. Did we mention the 25 heroes each with their own varying abilities? Battleborn is out on May 3rd for Xbox One, PS4 and PC and judging from the recent beta, it’ll be worth checking out.

Overwatch

Blizzard’s team-based hero shooter has been in closed beta for months, taunting us with its amazing gameplay and features. On May 24th, it will finally be available for PC, Xbox One and PS4 (though the open beta begins next week for all platforms). Overwatch  brings a roster of different heroes together for competitive multiplayer, incorporating different skills and techniques for each hero that can heavily influence the battle. While time will tell just how the world reacts to its strategic FPS gameplay, there’s no denying that Overwatch is one of the most hotly anticipated multiplayer shooters in a long-time.

Total War: Warhammer

Have you waited for the penultimate strategy adaptation of Warhammer? The Creative Assembly has fulfilled your wishes with the upcoming Total War: Warhammer. The series’ trademark fantasy elements and units will be present with four playable factions to control. Magic will play a big part but Total War fans can still expect the usual city-building and conquering. Total War: Warhammer releases on PC, Mac OS X and Linux on May 24th.

DOOM

The king has returned…sort of. id Software’s DOOM is a reboot of the series and returns to the brutal, arcade-like ferocity that defined the first two games. The campaign mode will see players embarking through a demon-infested story, making use of classic weapons like the Super Shotgun and Rocket Launcher while employing new takedowns to violently execute enemies. Coupled with a halfway decent multiplayer and map editor and DOOM could very well be a dark horse of sorts when it launches on May 13th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Valkyria Chronicles Remastered

Sega’s tactical RPG/shooter classic is finally seeing the resurrection it deserves with Valkyria Chronicles Remastered. Combining an overhead tactical map with up close and personal unit management, Valkyria Chronicles Remastered will also feature revamped visuals running at 60 FPS and 1080p resolution on the PlayStation 4. If you haven’t had a chance to experience it, then it’s worth looking out for on May 17th for North America and Europe.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan

The Turtles return and thankfully it’s not in a Michael-Bay-esque avatar. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan is a follow-up to Platinum Games’ hack and slash title of the same name. Yes, the same Platinum Games of Bayonetta fame. With four-player co-op, players can make use of the different fighting styles and abilities of Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael to succeed in an all-out war with the series’ classic villains. Watch out for its release on May 24th for PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.

Stellaris

Those in the mood for more strategy gaming, with a 4X twist, can check out Paradox’s Stellaris. The PC, Mac OS X and Linux release will follow the usual conquering, warring, empire-building practice that’s defined the genre’s best. However, things will take an interesting turn in the late game with different crisis events occurring and keeping you from becoming complacent. Stellaris is out on May 9th and we’ll see how well it contributes the 4X grand strategy genre in the long run.

Platinum Games and Activision’s awesome seeming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan will be launching pretty soon- IGN today revealed that the game will launch on May 24 on Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PC.

The game is marked by its emphasis on four player co-op action, with each player taking control of one of the turtles. It is also remarkable for Platinum’s distinct sense of style, and bombastic boss battles- things that jive extremely well with the Ninja Turtles license.

This news came alongside a brand new trailer for the game, which you can see for yourself below.

Platinum Games is busy this year- apart from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan and the upcoming Wii U exclusive Star Fox Zero, they are also working with Square Enix on the PS4 exclusive NieR: Automata, as well as with Microsoft on Scalebound, currently due out in 2017 on Xbox One. 

Fresh off of the release of Transformers: Devastation, Bayonetta developer Platinum Games will apparently be continuing its tryst with Activision via a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game. A listing for the title, called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan, was discovered through the Australian Classification Board.

It was rated “M” for mild impact theme. This means mild language and moderate violence, not a “Mature” rating like in the United States, so don’t expect the Turtles to be committing wanton murder any time soon. Thus far, Activision has not commented on the official existence of the title.

Platinum Games does seem to have a lot on its plate lately. Along with the recently released Transformers: Devastation, it is working on Star Fox Zero for the Wii U, Scalebound for the Xbox One and NieR: Automata for the PS4. What are your thoughts on a new TMNT game though? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and stay tuned for an official update.