When Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was unveiled a while back I think every kid that grew up in the 80s jumped for joy. Yes, Konami has brought the franchise back to interactivity -- hot off the heels of the newly revamped animated series. The big deal about TMNT is that the graphical presentation stays true to the animated series by incorporating cel-shading. If you've seen the screenshots, then you know what I'm talking about.

TMNT was definitely one of the first games that I was eager to check out here at the show, so as soon as I saw the demo kiosk I waited my turn in line to go hands-on. The screenshots don't lie; TMNT looks fantastic, with bright vivid colors, excellent animation, and a look that seems like it was ripped straight out of a comic book. Aldo already touched on much of the graphical style, so I wanted to get my chance to concentrate on the gameplay.

Unfortunately, the gameplay is where TMNT comes up short. After the nostalgia wears off, you quickly realize just how shallow things are. There are no super meters to build up and no super moves besides a few canned combos. This is button mashing at its finest ladies and gentlemen, and while that may have worked a decade ago, it's not going to work in the year 2003. Now please, bear in mind that the game is a work-in-progress and still in development. Konami could be saving some of the cool features for later on when the game hits store shelves. As it stands now, though, the title is severely lacking the depth needed to compete with products in this day and age. Even some of the 16-bit titles had nice effects like being able to throw enemies at the screen, etc.

Considering that this is Konami, we're confident that things will change come release day. We just felt it was our job to bring you the real deal and talk about what's underneath TMNT's beautiful shell.