With Konami ruining the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, Ubisoft swooped in with its TMNT, a game based on the recently-released film. It certainly had potential, with Prince of Persia style game play. Unfortunately, it offers little enjoyment beyond repetitive punches and kicks.

Throughout this adventure, players alternate between the four Turtles -- sword-wielding Leonardo, staff carrying Donatello, nunchuck-swinging Michaelangelo and sai-swiping Raphael. They battle an evil multimillionaire that resurrects a race of ancient monsters and recruits a shadowy ninja clan to make sure they stay on their destructive course. On top of that, the brothers are in disarray, with Leo questioning his leadership abilities and Raphael setting off on his own crime-stopping tangents. Only the power of teamwork can bring them together to stop these menaces from overtaking New York.

Game play seesaws between inspiration and tedium. Its high moments come from its Prince of Persia-style segments, with the Turtles grabbing ledges, flipping between walls and scurrying across rooftops with acrobatic ease. The team's moves find excellent usage here, with a fellow turtle hurling another across a gap that normally couldn't be reached. They can also switch off during the combat segments. Completing these switch-offs successfully fills a "brotherhood" meter, which adds to the overall score at the end of each level (along with coins collected, time completed, and ninja rank). It should be noted that the system doesn't work as smoothly as it does in Persia. Occasionally, a Turtle will run along the wall if he gets too close to it, making timed jumps slightly frustrating. Fortunately, that doesn't happen enough to ruin the otherwise refreshing platform segments.

In a weak attempt at variety, Ubisoft divides the platform sections from the fighting ones. Players go a while without facing enemies (with only some steam pipes standing out as lethal threats), only to later be ambushed by gang members or Foot Clan ninjas. Even worse, the combat gets boring. Donatello swings his staff around before doing a flying mid-air kick, and then goes right back into it without anything new. Mikey launches a laughably bad break-dancing spin that gets old fast, only to start spinning again a few button taps later. A kick button can be used, but only to temporarily knock an enemy back. Ubisoft should have added more combos or the ability to buy new moves for later use in the game.

Continue...