ARCADE WRATH OF THE MUTANTS

A NEW TURTLES BEAT-'EM-UP IS FINALLY HEADING HOME AFTER YEARS OF DELIGHTING ARCADE-GOERS WE TALK TO EUGENE JARVIS AND MARC-ANDRÉ JUTRAS TO LEARN HOW THIS THROWBACK BRAWLER CAME TO BE, AND HOW IT'S BEEN EXPANDED FOR CONSOLES

- NICK THORPE

If you’ve popped into a seaside arcade or a bowling alley in recent years, you’ll know that the kinds of games that thrive these days are racers, lightgun shooters and giant versions of mobile games that have been adapted for ticket redemption.

Finding a traditional game with joysticks and buttons is far from guaranteed – but if you do, it’s likely to be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Raw Thrills. So why try making a multiplayer beat-’em-up for a coin-op scene in which they’re practically an endangered species?

“We’re all Turtles heads from way back, and we love the original Konami arcade games,” enthuses Eugene Jarvis, president of Raw Thrills and legendary designer of games like Defender and Robotron: 2084. “The other thing we were really excited about was the Turtles TV series that ran from 2012-2017. That was so well done – I know it was up for a number of Emmys, and the art style I thought was just incredible,” he continues.

“It had just been a long time since there was a cool Turtles arcade game. It was a passion project, and we just thought, ‘Hey, this is a great game style.’ You know how things get forgotten in all the 3D simulation hysteria – it’s like, ‘Let’s have some classic joystick play.’