Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

"Heros in a half-decent shell of a game."

Kids who grew up on videogames also grew up on cult classic cartoon capers. Whether it be the Disney's Hours line up of Duck Tales, Transformers....whatever, we all had our favourites, but one is truly legendary. It starred an evil tin-face as the villain, four butt-kicking turtles as the heroes and a wise-old rat as the mentor and sensai. Sound familiar? It better. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! It had kids enthralled, so much in fact, that games were released for the Arcades and home consoles. Teenage Mutant Ninjas 2 was the bench-mark, as it was definitely one of the best (if not *the* best) side-scrolling beat-em-ups. You could pick your favourite turtle (Don, every time) and fight your way through familiar stages, directly from the show. Those who loved that title should love this, as it follows the same formula and style.

Out with the old and in with the new. Not entirely true for this game, as it is still the button-mashing frenzy of a fighter we all knew, but updated for the current consoles. Improved visuals (depending on who you ask) means 3D Cel-shaded goodness delivered straight to your eyes, and with pleasing results too. The plot is guessable; chase down Shredder, with the occasional twist-and-turn here and there. The story's not what you need to focus on though, as the gameplay is the main thing. Choosing your character you must make your way across stages of slice-and-dice action. Each turtle is different and unique, down to his appearance, fighting moves, and their iconic weapons. Using their karate skills, they are free to build up combos and take down enemies who hinder your progression. The longer the combo-string, the bigger and more powerful the move is, but because of the large swarms of enemies, its often impossible to do more than a single tap of the punch button again and again and just hope for the best. And if you're wondering, yes, there is the end-of-level boss for each stage.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is an update of a truly special game series, but if it wasn't broke, why did they try to fix it? Games aren't made like they used to, or sometimes not at all. Generic clones of blockbuster hits such as Grand Theft Auto or Halo line the shelves, all thanks to the 3D Revolution. I'm not saying that I don't enjoy Current-Gen gaming, but it did wipe out excellent and well-loved genres such as the humble Side-Scrolling Fighter. Ninja Turtles is a fun game which does become repetitive shortly after playing, but it's still enjoyable. A rent-title if I ever saw one.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/31/05