Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

"Charming old-school beat 'em up."

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is based off of the new cartoon incarnation of the Fearsome Foursome. Four turtles are covered in a strange ooze that mutates them in a humanoid form. Under the tutelage of their Master Splinter, a rat who was also mutated by the ooze, they have trained themselves in the art of the ninjitsu. Together, they face off against the dreaded Foot Clan, a ninja clan headed by the nefariously evil Oroku Saki a.k.a. The Shredder.

GRAPHICS
The game employs a cel-shaded style that closely resembles the cartoon itself. Animation is smooth and fluid. I was quite relieved to see that you can turn off the hit effects (i.e. ''THOK''), thus making it more like the TMNT games of old. The in-game cutscenes themselves are quite uninspired - the Turtles stand unmoving in most of them - but the scenes taken from the cartoon series (and a few created specifically for the game - though they stick out like a sore thumb) are great. Each turtle also has a specific fighting style that emphasizes their personality.

SOUND
Unfortunately, this is probably the game's weakest point, unintentionally so. The voice actors from the cartoon reprise their roles (which is wonderful) and the dialogue is true to their characters, but there is such a limited library that your character will repeat the same phrase (i.e. ''Slice and dice!'') approximately 356 BILLION times throughout the course of the game. Music is rather generic filler background.

GAMEPLAY
This is where nostalgia can either be a good thing or a bad thing. For me, it's a great thing. This is classic beat 'em up action - the Turtles have a standard attack, a fierce attack, the ability to jump kick (once you learn it), and a variety of shuriken to throw. You move through a wide variety of environments, defeating Foot Soldiers, Mousers, and members of the Purple Dragon game to proceed. Boss battles are intense - they are all offense, all the time. You also unlock content by finding Makimono scrolls scattered throughout the levels. These typically show character designs and artwork, and bonus characters can be unlocked in the Versus mode. Nothing innovative or spectacular, but fun... especially when playing with a friend. I will, however, NEVER understand Konami's decision to exclude four player co-op.

OVERALL
Great for fans of the show and fans of the old arcade games, but may be too repetitive for new-schoolers. At the very least, a fun rental. You should check it out if you like old-style arcade brawlers and/or the TMNT.

8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/27/03