TMNT

"TMNT. 2-D gaming fun for a new wave of Turtle fans. And, well, even the old ones."

Teenage Mutant Ninjas Turtles. A franchise popular with many people (mostly kids) in the 1980s, and the stories of 4 mutated turtles and their foes spanned over many mediums: Comic books, video games, cartoons, and even a huge line of action-figures. Like many of the popular series of the late 80's, the TMNT franchise's fire slowly began to die down, until it was nearly extinguished. However, a pseudo-revival brought many of these old series back in the form of new, updated movies and cartoon series. TMNT was one of these. TMNT was brought back with a new cartoon series a few years back, and there had been talks of a new movie. Well, the movie was made, and like many new movies, it spawned a line of new games. The new Ninja Turtle games spanned nearly every system around: The GBA, the DS, the PSP, the PS2, etc.

Now, back in the hay-day of Ninja Turtles (in the late 80's/early 90's) the series had many 2-D side-scrolling platformer games on systems like the NES, the SNES, and the Gameboy. These games were mostly great, and TMNT 2: The Arcade game, and Turtles in Time are heralded as being some of the greatest platforming games around. Certainly, they were generally considered as being the best Ninja Turtles game. So, when the new TMNT game came out, many people were saying the Gameboy Advance version was the best, because it stayed truest to the roots of those early games that many people loved. After seeing the new movie, I was flooded by all those times I spent with my friends playing the Arcade game, and playing Turtles IV on the SNES. I decided to pick up the TMNT game for the GBA, because I was looking for a new game, and this was Turtles! I had to see if it could stand up to all those old games that I once loved. Could it? Read on...

Graphics - 8/10: For the most part, the graphics look pretty nice. Some of the colors on the characters look a bit washed out, but the sprites are nice. Big enough, like in the older games, so you can tell what's going on, but not so large as to feel clunky and weird. The backgrounds and areas all look really great, too. Sewers, subways, rooftops, streets, each area has it's own little details and quirks. What's more, like in some of the older TMNT games, you can use parts of the scenery, and other items as weapons, or means to attack your enemies.

There really isn't much of a problem here, but for my person preference, some of the enemies and areas get to be a bit repetitive. In the old games, every level was considerably different. In Turtles 2, you had all these unique areas: A burning building, the sewers, a snow level, a water level, city streets, etc. Turtles IV had many different levels too, all of the old games had lots of variety. Also, the enemies feel a bit uninspired. You have the typical footsoldiers, sure, but then there are all these random thugs in hooded sweatshirts, and...Pirate guys....or something, with baseball bats. I mean, I know they're trying to stick somewhat to the new TMNT movie with this game, but I think they could have given a bit more variety and freedom.

Overall, the graphics certainly aren't bad at all, they certainly look nice, and the animation for the sprites (specifically, the Turtles) are pretty fluid. I just think there could have been a tad bit more variety, overall.

Story - 8/10: Well, what can you say here? It's a platforming, beat-'em-up game. It doesn't really need a story at all. Anyway, the story supposedly takes place after the movie's events, in which April has written a book about the events that occurred in the movie. So the Turtles are reading through the book, and looking back on the events, while you battle them out in "chapters." There will also be some dialog between the turtles before and after each chapter. It's really not a spectacular story, but in all fairness, it doesn't really need to be. It serves it's purpose well enough.

Control - 8/10: For the most part, the control is pretty responsive, but there are times that I couldn't pull of moves and things that I knew I was doing right. Such as the kick where you jump in the air, and do a sort of diving kick into the enemies. Sometimes it worked for me, and sometimes it didn't. Often times, I wanted to use it to get out of sticky situation and couldn't because it wouldn't work. Other than that, the control is pretty good. All of the action commands (attacking, jumping, walking, etc) are easy to figure out, and it just fits the GBA/DS's button schemes well. Being a platformer, there aren't any menus to navigate, other than than when you're buying things at stores and such, and even that is simple enough. In the end, the control is generally quite responsive, but there are odd occasions when it just seemed like some actions wouldn't execute quite right...

Gameplay - 7/10: For the most part, the game certainly is fun to play. As I mentioned in the story section, you play the game out in chapters, and by beating a chapter, you'll unlock the next one. Sounds simple enough, right? They also allowed you the ability to go back and play previous chapters, which is pretty nice, except for the fact that some of the chapters don't allow you to select what turtle you can use. For instance, chapters one and three only allow you to use Raphael. Again, I understand that the game is trying to keep some semblance of following the movie, but since they allow you to go back and play levels over and over again, couldn't they have allowed you to choose one of the other turtles on these subsequent playthroughs on levels? It just makes some areas feel restricting, because you're forced to only use one character. It's more fun to go back and play the levels where you can use anyone, but like I said, since you can't do that on every level, it just feels a bit limited.

As for the other aspects of gameplay, you can collect money to buy a number of things, including powerups, healing items, and even extra lives. You also collect points by defeating enemies, and performing large combos. By getting these points, the The turtles level up, which increases all of their parameters. That being said, each turtle has his own strengths and weaknesses. Raph generally has the best attack, Donatello has the best Defense, Michaelangelo has the best speed, and Leonardo is the most balanced of the four. So it's fun to use their strengths to your advantage and experiment with which characters are best for what combos.

There's also a trophy case, and by fulfilling certain requirements you'll unlock new trophies and things for you to view. Also, there is a special bar up in the right-hand corner of the screen that you can fill up. Once it is full, you can summon a turtle friend to help you battle enemies, or if no enemies are around, they'll drop items that you can use to refill your life. There are also minigames and things you can play in between chapters/levels, which earns you some money and things.

Music - 8/10: The music and sound effects certainly aren't bad at all. It sounds fitting when you're playing, but I can't really say any of the tracks were all that memorable. The music does fit it's purpose, though.

Replay - 8/10: The game is short enough so that you can easily play through it multiple times, and even has multiple difficulty levels. You even unlock some of those trophies by beating the game in certain difficulties, or by beating the game within certain time limits. So, it's a pretty easy game to pick up and play again and again.

Overall - 8/10: The game itself was fairly fun. Although, I don't really agree that it lived up the expectations that it was better than some of the earlier games, it still holds a certain amount of charm, in itself. I think if the game had a bit more variety in level design, and you were given more freedom in choosing which Turtles to use during some chapters, it would have been better. But it certainly is a fun game, and worth a playthrough if you were a fan of the "old" turtles, or even if you're a new fan of them, or even just a fan of the new movie. So, check it out.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/31/07