Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus

"The Turtles are back? Again?"

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus

Hoo boy. The four green superheroes and I go back a long, long time. I was a huge fan, rabidly playing all the arcade games, and buying all the VHS tapes. That is, until they introduced a live action series, with a female turtle!

I decided to pick this up to see about the "new" TMNT series! I wasn't disappointed...much...read on to see why...

Story - 4/10

It's not your standard TMNT story, in which the Turtles face off against Shredder/Krang. This time, the Turtles have been teleported to a distant nameless planet by the tin-can-opener...and they meet a scientist who can teleport them back, if they collect all of the crystals. Only glitch in this plan is that Shredder jams the scientist's teleporter to separate Turtles and weapons.

Gameplay - 6/10

Pick up all the crystals, and pummel all the baddies. Did I mention that you have to find your weapons before progressing through the level?

The good news is that the Turtles all have different skills when they have their weapons. Leo can do a multi slash, Donatello can jump extra high, Mikey can hit an opponent and stay suspended for a short amount of time, and Ralph can drill into an opponent. These moves are all needed to fully complete the game, and grab all of those darn crystals!

Levels are divided into ten different sub-levels, and offer some different action.

Some sub-levels are timed, some are broken down into hoverboard racing and some are space shooting levels. Most of the time, you are sneaking around a level and picking up those crystals.

Sound - 3/10

Why does Konami insist on using the sound clip of the Turtles saying "Yeah!" in each and every Turtles game? The sound is very generic, including the zaps of energy that lasers put out, and the death cries of enemies. Maybe Konami recycled most of the sounds in each TMNT series game?

Graphics - 8/10

Great googly graphics! The graphics are very sharp! Yeah, well...basically they do their jobs very well. The prison levels look extremely drab with tones of grey, whilst the more organic levels look like what they are supposed to do. There is no slowdown in the game...even if you have five enemies on the level with you.

Control - 10/10

Why fix what ain't broken? Standard TMNT game rules apply here, except when you don't have a weapon. B button attacks, A button jumps, R button does a special attack. Hold B to do a power attack.

Final Thoughts - 5/10

It isn't the greatest TMNT game, like ever...but it's a decent buy for a couple of bucks. If you are new to the TMNT franchise, I congratulate you, and insist that you pick this little gem up. If you grew up with TMNT...please pass this one by, there's nothing new here for all of you!

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 03/29/06