TMNT

"A bit bland but fun for kids"

If you glance at my reviewed games list you'll noticed I've played and reviewed a number of the Ninja Turtles games. After seeing the latest movie in the theater I just had to play the game. Well a month or so passed and I finally rented the game. Is it as fun as the film or does it lack something? Read on!

TMNT starts off with Leo in South America. The other turtles are still in NYC and doing odd jobs to keep sane until Leo returns. To make the long story short, Evil monsters are attack the city, the foot are about and there are four mystery guys running around trying to capture the beasts. It follows the plot of the film but adds a lot of filler and changes things around. The entire end of the game makes no sense if you pay any attention to the plot.

The graphics in the game really show off the way the new movie looks. Not a fan of the characters new looks but whatever. The game looks super shiny. Actually, something's look too shiny. I never think of a sewer as being shiny but these sewers actually shine. I hated the levels of the night man or whatever his name is. The black and white look with limited color just wasn't done correctly and looked bland. Actually most locations look bland in the game.

Sound wise the game isn't too bad. Voice work is done by the people who did the voices in the new movie. Music was alright but nothing special. Sound effects are actually good with the sounds of weapons on weapons being used at just the right moment and sounding correct for the most part.

The control in the game is so simple yet so full of problems. You have a weapon attack, jump, kick and special button. The special is the R nub and is used to do the characters special solo move. I didn't mention the skill that is placed on the X button. That allows team combos. This is fine but with a few unused buttons I can't fathom why the super long jump is attached to the same button as the character switch button. Many falls came from this issue. Another problem is that the wall running skill sort of always happens so if you're near a wall and trying to do something, you may run into some problems.

Beat em up games haven't been all that fun these days. I don't know what it is. TMNT follows those same lines as the original Turtles games but the catch is, this isn't fun.

The combat in the game is shallow and while you have a block button, there is no need to use it. It might be the fact that the AI tends to stand there to be slaughtered or the fact that you can't die. The team moves look cool though but combat is stiff and everyone deals the same amount of damage so this means Mikey is the best character in the game since he is the fastest. This was a dumb move on Ubisofts part.

Now, the game is made up of 16 levels. The levels rang from 7 minutes to the absurd 30 minutes that the final level took me. Have you played the new Prince of Persia games? If so, take those skills and place them in a beat em up.

To better describe this I'm going to play out a small portion of a level. You have to jump over a few gaps, run along a wall, and swing on some beams, cross some panels before they fall, run on a wall, cling to the edge of a wall and dodge flames, suddenly you're trapped in an area and you must kill the enemies that appear. Continue on doing the jump and crap for 5-8 more minutes and then you might find a fight. I think most stages have about 5 fight sections. So the entire game becomes a long and boring series of the same jumps and wall running.

To be honest there isn't much more to the game. You can collect coins in the stages which you get graded on. You also get graded on how often you were hit, amount of time spent in that level run through and how often you sued team moves. Then you get a final grade. Getting an A or better nest you an unlock and some extra gold coins. Gold coins are used to unlock videos and stuff.

To be honest this game is perfect for kids and people with low attention spans. Play a level here and there and the game can last a while. I found it short and way too shallow. With some serious lack of combat in the game and the same lame jumping puzzles it gets boring. The game took me 4 hours and 2 minutes. That's kind of sad and that's getting all achievements since they didn't even put in a 100% achievement.

Story - 6/10
Graphics - 7/10
Sound - 7/10
Control - 7/10
Game Play - 5/10
Replay Value - 3/10

Final Score - 5/10

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 04/30/07