Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist

""Let's Kick Shell!!!""

TMNT use to be incredably popular, making the name ''Leonardo'' about as popular as ''Bob'' is. So, now if you ask the average kid about if they've ever heard of TMNT, they'll more than likely have no idea what that is. Sad, isn't it? (Personally I'm thinking about nagging at Cartoon Network to try to get that show on there...) But back to the game. This game is a very short, easy, beat-em-up game. It is easy to go through except for level 4. There are 5 levels. And none but level four, where you have to fight the first three bosses you fought earlier and another one. That's hard. In case you didn't know, a beat-em-up consists of having lots of enemies walk across the screen and go hit you. You, go over to them and start a button mashing frenzy to beat the crap out of them. The three TMNT games on the Nintendo were decent, nothing special. Especially the first...that was really pretty lousy. But, don't let those get you worried about the quality of this. This is much better than those. The one on SNES is alot like this, so if you have a Genesis and SNES, take your pick between them, as you really won't need both. So, about this ''Hyperstone Heist'' thing, what's that? Like normal, Shredder is planning to do something not so nice. Shredder has stolen the Hyperstone (whatever that is...) and apperantly, it can shrink things. And so, Shredder goes around randomly shrinking famous landmarks. So, that leaves us with the turtles, back at home, watching April on the news, and they go out to save the world. It's getting to be a habit.

Graphics: 8
Not too shabby...some parts didn't look that great though. Mostly the background parts you couldn't walk around in. That looked pretty pathedic. It really seemed more like a cardboard wall than anything. But the sprites looked detailed, and are bright and colorful. The only complaint I had about them was the small amount of frames for them. Just watch Donatello just standing there. That's it? All he does is hold his stick out, then is instantly standing, looking forward holding the bo casually. A few more frames would be excelent. The enemies are all about the same except for color changes in their clothing, and different colors have different abilities. For instance, blue can use katana blades. Anyway, they all have their special little purpose in a special bit of the special game. How special. ^_^

Music: 10
The music is quite variable. Some parts like the first level have fast paced music that sounds really pretty cool. The second level starts off with the turtles on surfboards. This has very good music in it, infact the only music I really can say is something special is that. Then most of the time it's really boring music that never seems to get anywhere. None of the music actually gets anywhere, but some parts sound better looping around compared to other parts.

Control: 9
The only reason this gets a 9 is because of how the controller is shaped. Some moves like the slide are a bit annoying to pull off, because to do the slide, you have to run (hit C), then somersault (hit B) and then attack (hit A). Now, reaching your hand across the whole right side portion of the controller is purely annoying. I hate the controller shape...but, ignoring that altogether, generally attacking and moving is very easy, and it feels nice and loose. Very nice.

Replay: 10
Let's just say after playing this game and beating it already once, I am still doing it. Loads. I've been playing this game quite a large amount, and still haven't tired of it. You may think it seems repeditive, considering it's mostly ''Hit-the-foot-soldier-4-times-and-then-hit-another-4-times'' but it still is quite fun for being so repeditive. The levels usually aren't much of a difference, but the five levels there are are darn fun.

Overall: 9
This is a very fun game, and with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles licence, that makes the game even more fun. I mean, who else has a game that involves beating up enemies left and right as a turtle with a bo stick? Hmm? Not many, unless you count the other TMNT games. If you liked this game, you might like the Battletoad and Battletoads/Double Dragon. They are about like this, except they fight with their fists, and are quite harder. Let me tell you, they are much harder...anyway. If you are looking for a game that doesn't take too much commitment, this could be what you are looking for. Don't pay more than $15 for it. It's fun, but with how short the game is, you don't need to shell out more than that. Pun intended...

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/27/01, Updated 10/21/01