Before Yu-Gi-Oh!, before Pokmon, before the Power Rangers, and even before Spongebob Squarepants, there were the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Many of us grew up in the midst of Turtlemania; we watched the T.V. show, collected the action figurers, saw the movies, and played the videogames. Now, with a new TMNT television series going strong Fox is trying to start up Turtlemania all over again, and Konami is on board once again to take care of the required videogame.

The new game (simply titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) is a cel-shaded 3D action romp poised to be released for all three major consoles and PC. Fans of old school classics like TMNT: The Arcade Game or Turtles in Time will feel right at home with Konami's latest offering, as the gameplay is quite similar. In the main Story Mode, players select one of the four Pizza-lovin' heros (Leonardo, Donatello, Michaelangelo, or Raphael), and fight their way through 6 levels (broken into 35 'stages') of NYC streets, sewers, and rooftops on a mission to meet up with big-baddie Shredder in his Shinto Temple.

Controlling your turtle is relatively simple, with face buttons assigned to quick attack, heavy attack, jump, and shuriken throw. To keep things interesting, Konami is also implementing a simple combo system and character-specific special moves (check out Aldo Merion's E3 impressions for a more detailed breakdown of the game's controls and moves). The Story Mode will also feature two-player cooperative play, which is definitely welcome news to fans of the classic games.

Players interested in being a little uncooperative with their friends will have the chance to do so in TMNT's Vs. mode. This mode will play out like your typical 3D fighting game, with one player fighting against another in a best out of three matchup. Hopefully Konami will include some unlockable non-turtle characters to spice things up a bit - playing as Shredder or a Foot Soldier in a one-on-one battle with a pal would be great fun. Unfortunately, like in the Story Mode, the maximum number of players supported in Vs. mode is 2. This really is a shame, as both the GameCube and Xbox have four built-in controller ports, but for whatever reason Konami has opted to not support more than 2 players.

One of the coolest aspects of the new TMNT is its slick presentation. Thanks to the killer cel-shading and smooth animation, players will feel as if they're playing through an episode of the T.V. series, not a videogame. The sound effects are also great, and are usually accompanied by "action" word bubbles ("Bam! Thok! Crash! Boom! Whack!" - think of the old live-action Batman series). To top it all off, the voice actors from the new TMNT television series will be contributing their talents to the great-looking cartoon sequences being created specifically for the game.

Konami's strategy with their new TMNT game seems to be, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." While all the aesthetic elements have been kicked up a notch since the last title in the series, the core gameplay seems to be very much the same. It worked great back in 1990, but will it still hold up in the year 2003? Find out this October when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ships nationwide across the U.S.