"Well...it worked for Mario."

The heroes in a half-shell have returned for a quick cash-in on their new movie because, after all, even ninja turtles need money. The game kind of follows the plot from the movie, but they left a lot of stuff out. But in the end, it doesn't matter a whole lot, as you probably won't care too much for it anyways.

The game can be summed up in one word: no, not cowabunga, jumping. You'll be in 3D stages that give you the illusion at you can walk around it, but you're really on a preset path that you need to jump from place to place to reach the end of the level. There will be glowing spots that signal you to jump by pressing Y, A, or B, depending on which direction it is. It may seem kind of boring, but it's actually quite addictive. The better you do, the faster you go, and you can replay the levels over and over for a better time. They'll mix it up by making you hold a button to swing on something, slide, and a few other acrobatic moves, but the core game pretty much stays the same.

But what's a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle game without beating up waves of bad guys, right? In this game's case, a better one. The combat is just tapping the same button over and over, and it drags the game down. Not to mention all of the enemies (including bosses) are incredibly easy. There's no strategy, you just keep pressing the buttons and moving around. Even if you get close to running out of health, there will usually be some food spread around the arena.

You'll play as five characters, four are the turtles we know and love, the fifth is a turtle you know and love. For the most part, all of the characters are exactly the same, sure they look different and have different weapons, but the same button mashing is all you need. You'll only play as one turtle per level, but in most levels you can summon one of the other brothers to come to your aid, and either kill everyone, or just hurt them a bit. Another thing, is that until the end, it's usually Raphael or Michelangelo that get the most play time, meaning you'll be seeing barely any Don or Leo, not that game play-wise, it makes a difference.

The game's pretty short, it will probably take you three hours max, you can get gold medals depending on your performance but then you'd have to ask yourself: why? There's no real point, it's just something to do.

The graphics are in 3D, and while it doesn't look great, it definitely is nice. The story is told through heads with text and stills from the movie, I was expecting at least some voice acting to be honest. The music is nothing memorable, at all. It's pretty generic, and you probably won't notice it at all.

TMNT is for whatever reason, addicting, but it's short, the combat is bad, and there's no reason to come back. This is definitely a bargain bin buy.

The Good: Addictive jumping action, 3D levels

The Bad: Leaves out things from the movie, boring combat, too short, no reward for replay value, unmemorable music.

The Ugly: The 3D turtles look kinda funny…

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 08/22/07