Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The first hour makes a strong case for itself because Out of the Shadows understands that the Turtles are more fun as a unit than as four isolated character skins. You can switch among Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael at any time, and the tag-style combo system encourages you to do exactly that. Land hits with one Turtle, swap mid-string, and keep the pressure going with another. It is a good idea, and when a crowded fight lets you move fluidly through the whole team, the game feels closer to the energetic four-player brawler it clearly wants to be.

Each brother brings a trademark weapon, a secondary weapon, and a distinct fighting style, so swapping has a practical purpose beyond fan service. Experience objectives—such as maintaining a combo or scoring a stealth knockout—also give you reasons to vary your approach. Back at the sewer workshop, weapons can be equipped and upgraded, while ability points improve attacks, defense, finishers, leadership, team attacks, specials, and more. There is enough progression here to make experimentation worthwhile, especially if you have a favorite Turtle but still want to build a functional full squad.

The trouble is that the action is tied to a set of linear levels and regular enemy-clearing duties that can wear thin. Traversal breaks up the fighting with jumps, climbing, and rail grinding, while stealth lets you crouch, quietly eliminate enemies, and tell your AI teammates to stay behind. These are welcome changes of pace, but the hacking terminals are a less welcome interruption: opening blocked routes means completing a board-game-like circuit puzzle. Limited pizza revives add pressure when a Turtle goes down, which can make a messy fight more tense, but also more aggravating when the group is already struggling.

Co-op is where the design has its best chance to breathe. Up to four people can control the team at once, and smaller groups can still switch into any Turtle not being used by another person. Coordinating the team with friends is a much better fit for the combat and revives than relying entirely on the group dynamic alone. Campaign, Arcade Mode, Challenge Mode, and Dojo Training offer places to practice or replay, but the core question is simple: do you enjoy revisiting these fights enough to master the combo switching? If not, the extra modes will not rescue the experience.

Graphics

The game uses a 3D, third-person view of New York locations, mutant enemies, Foot soldiers, and the four Turtles in designs drawn from the contemporary Nickelodeon cartoon while nodding to older TMNT versions. Seeing the full team together is the visual high point, particularly when four distinct weapon styles are cutting through a fight.

Story

The story gives you a familiar TMNT assignment: save New York City from mutants and take on Foot forces and Shredder. It is a sensible frame for a combat-heavy game, and the broader mix of cartoon, comic, television, and film references means the Turtles are not locked to a single narrow interpretation.

Still, the narrative is more useful as a reason to move the team from one fight to the next than as a major draw on its own. The important thing is that you get all four brothers together against recognizable foes, not that the campaign offers a particularly distinctive dramatic hook.

If you want another Turtle game with a different focus, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Arcade Attack is worth a look. Out of the Shadows is most interested in making you manage a four-Turtle combat team, for better and for worse.

Overall Experience

Out of the Shadows has the bones of a better TMNT game. On-the-fly switching is not merely decorative; it gives the combat a welcome rhythm and makes the brothers feel like a team. The individual loadouts, upgrades, stealth option, and team-focused skills add more depth than a basic licensed brawler, and four-player co-op is the clearest route to the fantasy the game is chasing.

But it is a game you have to meet halfway. The linear structure, repeated combat demands, hacking detours, and constrained revives can make its rougher stretches feel like work rather than a Saturday-morning Turtles rush. The combat is enjoyable enough in bursts, yet it does not consistently build on its strongest ideas.

Give it a chance if you have a few TMNT-loving friends and want to poke at an ambitious, imperfect co-op brawler. Solo fans can still find satisfying moments in learning the team and extending tag combos, but patience is required. At a 5.6, it lands as a middling licensed game with a genuinely smart central hook that never quite carries the whole mission.

Retro Replay Score

5.6/10