Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan

"The first portable TMNT experience"

Everybody knows the story of the ninja turtles: four pet turtles and a ninja master living in the sewers of New York City get splashed with radioactive glop and mutate into half-human/half-animal creatures, and battle evil ninjas under the command of the Shredder.

The first thing I will tell you about this game is that the title is a dirty lie. At least a dozen other TMNT games were made after this little effort. Anyway, the plot is stupidly simple. The Shredder has kidnapped turtle-friend April O'Niel for no apparent reason and the boys have to smash their way through five levels in pursuit of her.

You can pick any of the four Ninja Turtles to play as, but the only difference between any of them is the picture of the weapon in his hand. Each one has the exact same attacks; a close-range smack with his hand weapon while standing, throwing stars while ducking, and a kick while jumping. The only reason to pick one over another is based on your favorite. But if a turtle runs out of life he gets ''captured,'' and unlike in the NES game there's no way to rescue captured turtles except to beat the game.

Despite that, there's plenty of pizza (of course) to refill your health and keep you going through the armies of foot soldiers and falling blocks and what not that impede your progress through each level. Most of the enemies and traps are either easily dealt with, or impossible to damage.

Gameplay-5/10
So you run through levels like the sewers, the booby trapped basement of some building, on top of trucks on the highway, through a swamp and finally into Shredder's base in pursuit of April, and at the end of each level you face a familiar boss character from the show. That's about it. Pretty average platformer.

Graphics-4/10
You're probably not expecting much anyway since this is a really old Gameboy game, and you're not getting much for that same reason.

Sound-4/10
Again, was never the Gameboy's strong suit. The TMNT theme song plays if you let the title screen sit long enough, everything else is about average.

Challenge-2/10
Not much. The game was meant for younger players, and you can actually pick which level you want to start on, without even using any codes.

Replay value-1/10
Can't says there's much here either, except the hidden bonus games in certain places in certain levels you can play to refill your life bar.

Overall-5/10
It's just an average run-and-jump-and-whack platform. Fortunately the gameplay and all got a little better in the later TMNT games.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 01/20/04, Updated 01/27/04