The horror stories mounted up on me the nanosecond I announced it in the forum. "Hey, I'm picking up Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles today, should I go ahead and review it?" Within moments, Bryan Dawson came tearing into the product, insisting on how much it disappointed him at E3. A couple of other staffers joined in on the turtle lashing, but Andy remained optimistic, explaining that the title was still fun. He even convinced Bryan to give it a try; will wonders never cease?! Anyway, I stopped by, snagged my copy, and gave it a go. The feeling I got wasn't exactly shell-shock.

Not that it was disappointing, mind you. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comes to us from some of the same team members behind Konami's awesomely fun classic arcade games, the original Turtles and its follow-up, Turtles in Time. So the feeling of the action remains mostly intact, as you go along in a level, beat up bad guys, then proceed further, beating up more and more until, a boss appears. You defeat the boss, and repeat until the end of the game. This is good news for nostalgia fans. The only problem is, it's the only news for nostalgia fans. Konami has crafted a game that's fun, energetic, and wildly entertaining, if you're a kid. Otherwise, you may find yourself fuming like Raphael after a bad slice of pizza.

The game follows a story typical of the Fox Box animated series of the same name. In fact, it uses shorts from it, little animated pieces that fit the mood nicely. Then you get into the game itself, and the level design is excellent, lifting scenery straight from the show. The cel-shaded look really suits the cartoon mood well, and the animation isn't half bad at all. The detail is pretty good, right down to the flow of the bandanas that these turtles wear over their eyes. Some enemies are a bit too rugged in their appearance, but that's a villain image for you. There's also some neat little explosion effects where the screen blurs momentarily, and some pretty good loading time between levels. My only complaints are a sometimes off-the-wall camera and not much movement on the characters themselves, so when they're talking, their mouths remain shut. Weird, especially when you consider their full motion in the cinemas.

Now to the sound. And yeesh, right here, you can tell that these guys wanted the voices of the Turtles embodied into players' heads. With every attack, and I mean EVERY attack, the turtles will yell out some sort of dude-like battle cry. Really, a couple of times in a level is fine, but every time you pull off an attack? It's really unnecessary, even if the voice acting is pretty good. The sound effects are pretty minimal and get the job done, but I'm surprised the music isn't really that inspired. Couldn't a few old tunes from the old arcade games have been revamped with this release? Ah, that's right, Konami didn't have the hardcore in mind for this title, never mind.

Gameplay isn't too bad at all. You have a jump button, which can be used for double jumps to progress to higher levels, as well as two attack buttons, a dash button, a shiruken attack button (where you can throw ninja stars), and a combo juggle button where you can start off a combo count. The combos aren't too much to this game but it does allow you to build up some impressive hits, like up to 15 and beyond. The combo juggle button didn't do too much for me but it's nice to see Konami trying to modify the old gameplay. Some dash attacks are good for cleaning out a whole stack of enemies as well. But I really didn't see the point with the addition of the shurikens, besides the fact that throwing one at an ignitable barrel to take out a group of enemies from far away is pretty cool. The gameplay works, for the most part, but it too may get repetitive for those of you looking for complexity in your moves. There's only so many combos to pull off before you run out of ideas. Even the addition of new moves as you progress, which you earn from dojo visits, don't do much.

The game only has a few certain modes to visit, including a fun little Challenge mode to conquer different, challenges thrown at each of your turtles. You can also tackle the game in Story Mode with each of the characters to unlock another character, good ol' hockey-masked Casey Jones. It supports two-player co-op as well, and it's not too shabby. The Versus Mode isn't spectacular, but it definitely has its moments of chaos. My real disappointment here is the lack of support for any kind of four player mode. Would it have been too troublesome for Konami to add four players to the mix, like the good ol' days? Ah, but again, we are forgotten.

If that wasn't enough of a kick to the shell for us, Konami's also gone out to include more unlockable goodies for the kids. Besides some decent behind-the-scenes stuff and the unlockable character, there's only a few other extras, including toy commercials. Yes, now you can fight your way through a game and see the corporate toys behind them. Yay! Please. No original TMNT game, no Turtles in Time, no real mini-games, nothing. This bothers me. It makes me think that Konami's almost forgotten what their gamer base is all about when it comes to their licenses. (At least I have Contra: Shattered Soldier to remind me otherwise.)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles isn't as bad a game as the E3 squad makes it to be. It has some great graphics, good gameplay, and decent modes and additions in controls. But it's a shame that Konami didn't keep the different markets in mind and instead made a game that caters to the likely crowd of 12 and under. If only the first games were included, not only would they have served as a great education to these kids, but would've provided us old-schoolers something to long for, pushing aside our little emulators for the real thing. As is, it's worth a rent, and Turtles fans will definitely want to shell out for it, while the rest of the gamers will want to proclaim a little Lament of Innocence to soothe our taste buds.

Our Final ScoreBad

What did you think of this game? Post Your Own Review