Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan

"Short, shallow and repetitive."

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (or Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles as they where known in Europe) where somewhat of a phenomenon towards the end of the eighties and the beginning of the nineties. This consisted of a cartoon, live action films, action figures, lunch boxes and the like. Of course there where also a fair amount of games released for the various consoles at the time. The game under scrutiny in this review was the first one for the original Game Boy released in 1990.

GRAPHICS
The game was one of the very first titles to appear on the Game Boy. It was released alongside such games like Super Mario Land, Spider-Man, Dynablaster, Castlevania and Duck Tales to name but a few. Compared to most of the competition at the time, TMHT looks absolutely stunning. Big characters, nice animation and detailing and only a hint of slowdown. There where few titles that could come even close. Konami really did a great job so early on in the handheld's lifespan.

Even so, the visuals did have their flaws. The individual turtles are almost indistinguishable from each other where it not for their weapons. The original Game Boy may have lacked colours but they could have had a bit more individuality. While the enemies may have looked pretty good, there was little in the way of variation seeing there where only a few different types of adversaries. Finally, barring a few exceptions, the environments tended to look rather bland and also lacked variation.

Of course, the Game Boy would last for almost a decade, sporting a library of hundreds of titles. The visual capabilities where bound to improve considerably. TMHT's visuals would inevitably become less impressive. Despite this, the game looks pleasant and inoffensive enough and it's visuals rank amongst the better for the machine.

SOUND
Obviously the song that the player will hear the most is the signature tune from the show. It is fortunate then that it is rendered quite well within the limited capabilities of the Game Boy. The remainder of the score sound equally good. Sound effects have a nice metallic echo effect. All in all pretty good.

GAMEPLAY
TMHT is a side scrolling brawler combined with a few light platform elements. The four reptilian mutants must travel trough five stages in order to save April, their journalist friend. Along the way they will encounter several recognisable enemies like the foot soldiers and mousers. Each stage also features a familiar boss characters like Shredder and Krang.

Progress is made by kicking, hitting, slicing and stabbing the approaching enemies. Each Turtle wields a different weapon but this is purely cosmetic. The weapons all have the same reach and do the same amount of damage. Besides wielding their katanas, nun chucks and the like, all of our heroes can perform a flying kick and throw a shuriken when crouching. There are no special moves and such which would have added a bit more depth to the fighting system. As it is, TMHT's combat is rather limited. At least the controls are comfortably sharp.

So the four Turtles are to all intents and purposes identical in their abilities. A possible reason for this is the way the game's health and death mechanics works. At the start of each stage, the player can choose which Turtle he or she wants to control. If that character is captured, another can be selected until all the reptilian ninjas are in captivity. When this happens, the player must start again from the beginning. The captured Turtles can be freed by successfully completing the occasional mini game. So in essence, the four individual Turtles actually represent the chances available. A decent system in itself, it would nonetheless have been nice if the individual Turtles had been a bit more different from each other.

The game isn't that difficult. Seeing that the majority of the enemies return in each stage and that those stages don't play all that differently, it becomes rather predictable. Walk to the right, spot the incoming adversaries, stop, kill them, continue strolling to the right, spot the…, well you get the idea. The platform elements transpire to nothing more then occasionally jumping across a few platforms or to a higher ledge. Even so, TMHT consist mainly of an ever going journey towards the right side of the screen. A short one at that, due to the measly five short levels the game contains. A nice touch comes from the option to practice all the levels by selecting them from the menu. Unnecessary perhaps, but nice nonetheless.

FINAL REMARKS
There is little to fault with the game's presentation, even after all this while. Visuals and sound are still pretty good. The gameplay is slick and entertaining but eventually also very repetitive, short, shallow and ultimately quite boring. That doesn't mean TMHT can't be enjoyable. At times it can be tremendous fun but that is mostly due to the game being so short. It can be completed in one sitting and that is just long enough to partly obscure the shortcomings. Perhaps the short duration isn't such a problem after all?

OVERALL: Play it once and never touch it again and the score will be a 5.0.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 11/14/08

Game Release: Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan (EU, 1990)