Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

"The only Turtles game which ISN'T a clone of the Arcade Game!"

The wild success of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game spawned many other games which used the same basic engine. While I won't deny that they were all very fun, I still like this one the most. Why? Well, it's original. And, it combines alot of different aspects to it.

The graphics are...strange. On the one-hand, they are ok for the time. The characters, while not too big, are pretty detailed. The overworld also looks quite nice. The overworld displays RPG like qualities, in that everything is alot smaller. Like Zelda II, when you go into an area it switches to a sidescroller, and the graphics soon in. Unfortunately, while the graphics are nice the palette is a bit shaky. Most of the monsters are just different shades of brownish-orange.

However, I like the style for the graphics. While some enemies just simply try to copy the show, and do a decent job, some actually try to be original. There are some very interesting monsters that you get to fight as a result. Instead fighting millions of foot-soldiers like you do in other games, instead you might fight some men on fire. Or, you may battle some weird clay creatures. Or even a guy with a chain-saw!

There isn't much of a story to the game. April has been kidnapped, you must go through the different areas and save her. Battle bosses, watch her stolen anyway, rescue her, do some other stuff, repeat.

The gameplay is interesting. You start out on an over-map to travel across. There are some enemies on the overworld, and you can still fight and kill them. However, you won't get very far unless you go into the sewers. When you get inside them, you must then fight your way through a side-scrolling action game. The sewers you travel through allow you to get around the overworld map. Another interesting thing is how you can sometimes just randomly sumble upon bosses throughout the sewer. They will really be nothing more than average enemies just slightly stronger, but it's still cool.

The most noticable thing about the game is how you control all four turtles. While you only control one at a time, you have all four in your party. You can switch between them at any point in time, and sometimes it is wise too. Every character has their ups and downs. Leonardo has good range, good speed, and does good damage. Raphael has the lowest range, but does alot of damage and had decent speed. Michaelangelo has slightly longer range, but does not do as much damage. Donetello has great range and does alot of damage, but is slow when attacking. So, it's about portioning your characters out. You will also switch to avoid one character from dying, since you will then lose their help throughout the entire game. You can also pick up items like ninja stars to throw at the enemies.

The game has nice and crisp sound, as well as music. The sounds are fitting for the attack of the enemies or your weapons being used. The music is made up of a well balanced variety of tunes. While not many, they are able to stay good and not become repetitive. And, they have the same little spunk that the turtles TV show had. A definite plus for the game there.

The game is quite hard, and I will doubt you will beat it. Hell, I still haven't been able to beat it without extensive cheating. But, you can always pick it up and play it anytime.

I'm not sure why so many people dislike this game, it's actually my favorite out of all the turtles games. Maybe because it tried to be original, it had some more problems instead of just more of the same like the others. Either way, this is definitely worth trying out.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/19/03, Updated 02/19/03