Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

"Turltes in a Half-shell! Turtles in a Half-assed game!"

As some of you may be aware, the Ninja Turtles were the hottest thing back in the early 90's. For some of us, they are the cartoon we grew up on, and for some others, the new TV show is entertaining an audience about the same age as we were when we watched it, back in the day. So, for nostalgia sake, one would hope that a brand spankin new videogame should please all the fans of both the old and the new television shows. It satisfies to some degree, but is very disappointing to others.

Story 7/10

There isn't much to say about the Story. The turtles are ambushed in the sewers by Mousers (you may remember these from the older TV show) and Splinter is trapped behind some rubble...OH! How exciting! Well, not really, but it does pick up later on. You'll end up fighting Casey Jones (eventually becoming allies), A Giant Mouser, Dragon Face, and inevitably Shredder. The story is told through animated cut-scenes from the newer TV show, but something just doesn't click when watching them. Its the turtles duty to stop these menaces from destroying the city and innocent people...bla bla bla, you get the drift, it doesn't change much, and the action distracts from the sub-par story line, but it suffices for a button masher.

Graphics 9/10

The graphics are spot on, and the animations are fluid. The polygon counts are high, and the frame rate runs at a smooth 60 fps. There isn't much to complain about in the Graphics of this game, except the jaggyness and rough edges that the Character models have. Looking at games like Zelda and Metroid Prime, there is no reason that character models in this game shouldn't be smoother, but its not completley detrimental to the game.

Controls 6/10

I'll make this simple. A button light hit, B button Hard hit, tap multiple times to make combos. Throw in the occasional Uppercut with R, and thats all you need to know. Standard Jump, strafe, and sub-weapon are taken care of by X, L, and Y respectively, but don't add much to the fact that this game is a button masher: Specifically the A, B and R buttons. Thats about it, and it seems simple enough, its just that there is a delay between stringing together attack, uppercuts and jumps, so the control is a bit rough, but just barely makes them good enough for this game.

Gameplay 6/10

A, A, A, A, B...A, A, B...A, A, A, A, A! R! A, A, A, A, A!
IF you can complete this sequence of buttons, you've already mastered the gameplay. There is only one thing to do, kick some butt with the few attacks you have. In all aspects, TMNT is a button masher, but it is fun to play at times, when you aren't being cruely beaten to death. Which leads me to the biggest problem with this game, its intolerably cruel to the player. In the second Stage, you'll wonder if you've jumped to the final level of the game, because the enemies certainly aren't going to take it easy on you, not by a long shot! During said stage, you'll encounter several robotic ''legs'' which will gang up on you 4 at a time. You can just perform a simple jump attack to hit all of them at once...except you can't jump because the enemies are so FREAKIN CHEAP! Seriously, one enemy will kick, stunning you and delaying your turn, while the second, then third and then fourth enemy follow, while you have no time to recover from any of these attacks, unless you're lucky enough to get an opening so you can dash/strafe out of the way, but not likely. The thing is though, once the fourth enemy is done attacking, the first one is already attacking again, so you'll be caught between a rock and four hard places, and you'll die quicker than you can say Cowabunga!
By no means is the game impossible, but it does seem like it at times. Its challenging, but challenging in the way that frustrates the hell out of you! A myriad of attacks from the enemies, and in less than 5 seconds, if the enemies time their attacks right, will kill you. Its a sad thing to happen to something that has so much potential.
Hopefully, if there is a sequel in the works, they will add actual combos with less button mashing, and ease up on the amount and difficulty of the enemies. Besides those things though, the level design is fairly linear, but they are long, and you'll find that it will take any where from 30 mins to an hour to complete one stage, which is good, and expresses this games longevity, given you can surmise the pain given by the enemy AI.

Soundtrack 8/10

The music is techno-popish at times, but with a heavy rock orientation. Each stage has different types of music, and the new revamped Turtles theme song isn't bad. I can't say much more about the soundtrack because of the god awful voice overs. If the voice overs were better, the sound would be perfect, but.....I don't even want to think about it. And not to mention, each turtle only has one phrase that they repeat over and over and over every time you complete a ''combo'' Trust me, that gets really annoying faster than you say ''Surf's UP!''.

Final Score 7/10

Even though it has its downfalls, TMNT is a worthy start to a franchise that has so much potential. If only a few gameplay elements were fixed, and the controls a little more responsive, this game may have a chance at being more than JUST a button masher. If there aren't any more titles in the works, this game is bad way to use a license in gaming. Button masher at its best, but kind of nostalgic and a little fun to play in between the inherently chaotic difficulty. Very average.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/07/03