Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan is a sharp departure from previous turtle games – instead of a slower isometric beat-'em-up, it offers a fast character action brawler from the studio PlatinumGames, the team behind Bayonetta and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Visually, the game relies on striking comic-book cel-shading that makes it look as if the characters jumped straight out of the animated series, and its structure resembles more a sequence of boss fights against the series' iconic villains – Shredder, Krang, or the Foot Clan – than classic linear levels filled with minor tasks.

The PS4 version was among the platforms on which the game launched in May 2016 simultaneously with the older PS3 and Xbox 360 consoles as well as Xbox One and PC – it was thus a generational leap within a single release, where the new console offered smoother framerates and a sharper image compared to the older generation of hardware. In terms of gameplay, it is the same game as on the other platforms, but it is precisely on PS4 and Xbox One that PlatinumGames' fast, combo-focused combat system shows itself best, because the on-screen action can handle up to four players in co-op at once without slowdown, even in moments when several bosses and dozens of smaller enemies appear on screen simultaneously. The fights are designed to look and play smoothly even in this overwhelming chaos, which is most noticeable precisely on the more powerful console.

The game offers eight playable characters, including the four turtles and support characters such as April O'Neil or Casey Jones, a significantly wider selection compared to earlier entries in the series, and each character has its own set of abilities that can be upgraded between missions using points earned for completed missions and fulfilled side objectives.

Why play it: A choice for fans of fast, combo-based action from PlatinumGames who want to experience the turtle license in the genre usually occupied by Bayonetta or Devil May Cry, and on PS4 they will enjoy it without the compromises that players on the older generation of consoles had to accept.