I'm always down for a quality beat-em-up and Majesco's upcoming Teen Titans should satisfy my lust for carnage. Based on the popular show on Cartoon Network, it revolves around five super hero teenagers and their efforts to rid the world of nefarious super villains. There's waves of enemies, power ups to collect, and four player co-op, which are all tasty ingredients that can produce a quality game if blended appropriately, which is what developer A2M seems to be doing.

The PlayStation 2 game is essentially just a mindless masher starring all five of the kids: Robin (sans Batman), Raven, Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Starfire (apparently the most popular of the bunch...among males anyways). Each has his or her own special strength that can be used throughout the adventure and will come in handy during tight spots. Starfire, for example, unleashes these ranged attacks that can obliterate enemies from a distance, Beast Boy transforms into various animals, and Cyborg can lift heavy objects, which just makes vacuuming so much easier.

Throughout the game you'll need to utilize each character's special powers in order to progress and the developers have kept things easy by shoving all five Titans on the screen at once, so all you have to do is press a direction on the digital pad in order to make the seamless swap. That's all well and good, but the best thing about this game is it's co-op mode that allows up to four people to play at once. Now obviously you'll need a multi-tap in order to rock the PS2 version, but if you decide to pick up the Xbox and GameCube versions you'll just need four controllers that'll plug directly into those respective systems.

There's really nothing complex about this game. Just about everything in it (bosses especially) are governed by some repetitive scheme that can be almost instantly deciphered, and the primary goal is to just wildly button mash and obliterate your opponents. It's not a thinking man's game, that's for sure, but it's not intended to be. However, A2M has added some very basic RPG elements. Over time your characters will level up and gain access to more powerful special attacks, and what I especially like about this idea is how the game takes care of the point distribution, so there's no pausing and head scratching as I decide what should go where. As soon as someone achieves a certain level they'll just earn a new move.

What's also cool are the 30 plus characters that can be unlocked by playing through the main quest. Once available, they can then be used in the separate Master of All Games mode that lets you beat up three of your friends. Similar in concept to Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. and Capcom's Power Stone series, you can run around about 13 levels tossing objects at your foes and annihilating them with your cool special moves. It's a shame that it's not playable online, but it's hard to balk when it boasts so many characters and levels. I'm thinking it'll be a superb complement to the main quest.

Whenever someone's making a game based on a show or film authenticity is key and Majesco has done a nice job with Teen Titans. All of the Titans are voiced by the actors who work on the show, and more than 15 people have provided voice work for the other characters. Plus, the visuals remain true to the series, as the environments and various characters look as they should. It's by no means a visual showpiece, but its developers have gotten the job done.

Teen Titans is a pretty good game and it'll no doubt get better as we near its February 2006. At the very least, fans shouldn't be disappointed. Expect the GameDaily review shortly after the game's release.