Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

"A good rental should accompany this game prior to purchase."

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has become one of the most well known franchises to many gamers, especially those who are in their late teens and early 20's. This game is based upon the television show(currently on FOX) featuring four turtles that were transformed by mutagen that somehow allowed these four turtles(and their rat, Master Splinter) to grow into abnormally large creatures that have human-equal intelligence. The whole series however is based on the original comicbook from Laird and Eastman. This is actually the 3rd installment of the TMNT cartoons(the first set was shown on then Paramount[now UPN] and affiliated networks, the 2nd set was shown on CBS) and while the game delivers classic beat 'em up, it somehow lost it's flair from previous games.

Graphics
The graphics in this game are nothing short of eye-candy. The animation along with the cel-shading puts the player's mind into thinking they're watching an actual cartoon. The animation in this game is very fluid and slowdown is almost never a problem(unless you're really picky) as many mousers can flock a screen and the two turtles can battle them out without notice of dropping frame rate. The environment themselves are something truly amazing as even the "interactive" objects(like crates, boxes) in the environment mesh with the background completely, barely distinguishing between the touchable objects and the environment. The game's camera is fine in the earlier stages, but once you get into the later stages, the camera really starts to work against you. The camera at this point takes an almost direct 90 degree view of the character while off-screen enemies can easily come in and swipe at the turtle without knowing it. Although the radar at the bottom of the screen can sense where enemies are, this somewhat works against the player(which will be discussed in the gameplay section). While load times are present, most of it is about 2-5 seconds long, which shouldn't bother too many people. Overall, the graphics department is what really shines in this game and you'll really be in awe in determining if this is an actual cartoon you're controlling.

Sound and Music
The music and sound in this game is sort of a mixed bag. The sound quality is great, using authentic voices(same voices used for the television series) during cinematics and real time scenes, TMNT flourishes in this department. Music however can be a bit bland and sometimes you can barely hear the music, although there are a few catchy tunes. Sometimes when you fight regular opponents you often never hear their presence except in the case where you defeat them or when mousers are approaching. While this is a little nit-picky, it would be nice to see some life in the opponents you battle(other than bosses). As for the turtles themselves, they constantly throw out phrases like "Eat Feet!" or "That's gotta hurt!" when you attack, which certainly adds character to the turtles and some feel for your character.

Replay
Replay will usually depend on the person(like most games), but even more so in this game. Personally for me, I enjoyed the game a lot and did find great replay value in this game. Yet the repetition of the game can make gamers look elsewhere as once you beat the game, repeating it can seem like a chore as some of the stages are rather long and there really isn't much variety to the number of moves you can do. You can unlock certain storybooks and character designs used by artists as well as hidden characters to be used in battle, but this can take quite a while to complete as you must clear all the stages once with EACH turtle, basically going over the game four times. Even the most loyal of fans can find this tedious.

Gameplay
If this were the early 90's or even the late 90's, this game would top the charts on everyone's list. Unfortunately the Turtles still live in the last decade and while this game does a little of everything to move away from nostalgia and keep nostalgia, it can quickly become a very repetitive task in completing the game. You can select four turtles from the get-go and each turtle(if you play one player) you control will have their own animation and attacks, but some of these variations don't really matter too much and no one turtle seems to have an advantage or disadvantage over the other turtle in terms of fighting.

In the game each player can execute combos just by repeatedly mashing the attack button and during those combos are meter will pop up and determine how many hits you connect consecutively(with about a second to recover and chain your combo if you stop). Although this is just really for bragging rights only as it only records your record and you build score on the number of consecutive hits. The player doesn't gain anything from this, making combos just for show more than anything else. Other attacks include a dash, uppercut, strong attack, jump, and ninja stars. The dash, while it looks like it can give you a huge advantage, it actually doesn't. It's a quick dash that's lightning quick, yet in a crowded area of enemies it's easy to be knocked out of and doesn't provide much seperation between you or the enemies. While you can constantly dash without delay, most enemies are able to catch up to you because they are that much faster than your normal speed. An uppercut gives you the ability to juggle your opponent, the strong attack can be used in chain combos or alone to knock down opponents, jump obviously allows you to reach off the ground but all turtles have double jumps, and ninja stars, though very weak, allow you to distance yourself from opponents. A team up attack with two players is present only with two players and a jumping attack must be earned through the dojo stages.

The game is divided into 5 stages and each stage has 5-7 areas with three dojo stages in between stages to enhance the turtles' fighting ability or attribute. Each stage you start has you with 6 lives and once you lose those six lives you must start the stage over, and you can only save between stages, NOT areas, which can be typically frustrating when you play the tougher later stages but it also wouldn't be as challenging. This game is nothing short on action as nearly all the stages has about 100 opponents ready to take you down. While the opponents you face seemingly stagnate and attack at random, they do progressively get harder as you advance in stages. Boss fights are definitely more AI apparent as most of them require a certain pattern for you to memorize as many of them cannot be stunned as easily as normal foes and many of them provide a great challenge rather than the traditional hack and slash. The radar on the screen typically provides the characters where enemies are, but often at times in the later stages it doesn't help. The reason being is that the distances are not really judged according to ratio of scale at times. Although it's not labelled, the player is at the center of the radar and the white dots shows opponents, but sometimes as you close in on an opponent they really seem farther than the dots would indicate. It really just allows you to prepare for attacks rather than to get a jump on your opponent.

Although the game allows two players, it screams for four players(as there are four turtles). Although I'm pretty sure the PS2 can handle all such animations on the screen at once(I know the XBox and GC can), it somehow doesn't feel like a complete TMNT game without that four player option. This game looks like a great arcade port and plays like it with the button mashing and would probably be so much better with a four player option that allows you and three companions to walk through the world of TMNT and beat the living crap out of people while watching each other's back.

The game is incorporated with FMVs of the actual cartoon, and it's really worth playing the game if you haven't seen the cartoon yet just to catch all the clips. It seems like there's about an hour of total movie viewing in this game, which is a great asset to this game and can only increase it's replay value.

The game incorporates a few modes, such as Challenge, Database, Vs., and Story mode. Story mode is your typical arcade mode, Challenge mode lets you complete certain tasks to unlock secrets in the game, Vs. mode is the same mode in TMNT4(Turtles in Time) where you would face off against another turtle - though this mode really lacks much to have it compete with a traditional fighting game like Street Fighter. Database allows you to view secrets in the game provided you collect Makimono throughout the game. So there's really a lot you can unlock in this game, assuming you have patience and time.

Overall
TMNT is definitely a game that's black and white in terms of reviews. Either you love it or you hate it. Personally, I loved the game. I was kinda shocked by the numerous low scores that the reviewers have given it. The only main problem with the game is the repetition, but that can be good or bad. The game really provides quick and responsive controls and great action with no slowdown, but for some this can get tiring quickly while for some(like me) wish it could go on longer. It's really the redundancy that kept this game in the lower scoring range, not the actual gameplay itself. It's a game that is definitely worth the rental, and maybe the buy. But seeing how many low scores this game gets, it might almost be an underrated game.

Final Score: 8.2/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/03/04