Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

"Help! I can't get that stupid song out of my head!"

Ninja Turtles is franchise license that I was always into when I was alot younger. There was nothing cooler than a bunch of Mutant Ninja Turtles running around ninja kicking the crap out of robotic bad guys and fighting off a guy who had a fetish with sharp steel blades. Through out the years, the license has grown quiet but in its hey-day, it spawned comic books, action figures, movies, books, cartoons and even video games that were challenging and fun!

This particular story starts with the Shredder kidnapping April O' Neil, the beautiful reporter and taunting the turtles to come after her. Through this, you start out in the middle of a burning building, and fight your way through several waves of Foot soldiers that have just as much fighting skill as you do, even though they are ultimately stupid. As the stages progress, you're taken through this side scrolling beating fest, against some of the well known characters of the TMNT world in an attempt to stop the Shredder from taking over the world!

TMNT features some of the more addicting game play in terms of just hacking, slashing, crushing or whacking the various versions of Foot soldiers, little chomping Mousers and the ever lovable Rock Soldiers from Dimension X. While the game play seems advanced, it really id just a side scrolling action game, and the control interface is easy enough to work with that you aren't busting your hands to have to give off advanced special moves.

-Game Play 8/10-

Classic side scrolling action. Set up like a comic book story line, you have to fight your way through endless enemies and face off against a Boss at the end of every stage in order to progress. Even though this may seem pretty dull, the turtles have their own personality and even their own style of moves which gives the game a bit of variety. Each boss character has a pattern, but they are constantly spouting off insults and taunting at you, which does in a way, piss you off and make you want to slap the person closest to you!

The factor of the game that makes the play so good, is the fact that it is four player simultaneous. That way, you can get up to four people rocking on one machine, and it does tend to help with the difficulty level somewhat. When you play through by yourself, your only course of action is to hit and run, and pick up the pizza slices that will give you energy to move and finish out the stages.

-Control 8/10-

Mindlessly simple and easy to learn! You have an attack button and a jump button. With a combination press, you can do jump attacks, and a special move that drains some of your power away. Moving your hero through the stages is easily done, and there is no sluggishness with any of the attacks. A problem that does come in is the jump feature. From time to time, when you jump, you land in a bad spot and take on more damage then was originally intended, and from time to time, you can't attack in the right spot to take down a flying enemy...that'll piss anyone off!

-Audio/Visual 8/10-

The music selection is the turtles theme song played over and over again without any variation. This isn't a bad thing if the arcade is packed, and there is a ton of other things going on, but if it's just you and a couple of friends, be prepared to get a massive headache as well be annoyed! The sound effects range from short voice overs that come straight from the cartoon series, to the thuds, crashes, metallic scraping of blades and explosions of the Foot soldiers.

The visual part of the game is first rate and top notch. Each enemy is drawn in straight from the comics or from the cartoon, so the detail is top notch stuff. The fires, explosions, laser beams and backgrounds are also first rate, and show plenty of attention to detail, from the crashing of water waves, to the television screens that flash taunting enemies!

-Quarter Crunching: Variating-

Depending on your skill level and how fast you can keep up with the action on screen, this can either be an easy game, or a hard one. With the more people you have playing with you {up to four} the easier the game can be and you may make it from start to finish without spending more than two or three dollars.

-Overall 8/10-

TMNT Arcade cashes in on the license with some intense game play and plenty of action. With a couple of friends, you can have a good time just kicking the crap out of everything that moves, and more or less compete for a top score. With crisp visuals, mindlessly simple control, addicting game play, you've got a top notch side scrolling action platform that would make you scream Cowabunga!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/05/01, Updated 09/05/01