Another day, another Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle game review. This time it’s a full retail game based on the Nickelodeon animated series from developers Magic Pockets. Here we have a TMNT side scrolling beat ‘em up for up to four players.
Before we get started I need to point out that this is a children/young teens game. And while it is accessible for adults, there isn’t much here for adults to keep adults busy. The extremely simple fighting system with a one button attack and no counter, it feels like a throwback to classic side-scrollers such as Golden Axe. I’m sure fans of the TV series will find plenty here to enjoy.
As expected all 4 turtles are here, if you are playing through solo you can switch between – though they must be visible on screen to do so, which can be an annoyance when you want some quick switching to a turtle with more health or in a better position. What is more of frustrating though is how dreadful the AI teammates are. At times it looks like a children’s football game, where all the other characters are following whoever you’re controlling around the screen. Standing mindlessly in the way of enemy attacks like punching bags while you do all the work. They are essentially there for you if you fancy trying out some slightly different moves.
Each turtle is upgradeable as you progress through the game, getting the younger generation into the concepts of improving characters in a video game. There are also combat multipliers to increase the damage you can dish out, along with improving your high score at the end of the level.
The story mode itself is quite short based over 15 levels. But the story itself is decent enough, ending up with a ‘save the girl + the city’ scenario, and while there isn’t a huge amount of variation in the gameplay and enemy types, the varied boss fights scattered throughout split up the usual play of fighting off waves of enemies, forcing you to change the way you approach each of them. There are slight differences in the way each turtle fight of course, but nothing that will drastically change the way you play if you were to switch. All of them do their standard attacks with ‘X’ and just with ‘A’. There are then rechargeable special moves that you unlock by upgrading your character as mentioned earlier, and some throwing weapons such as ninja stars and smoke grenades. Collectibles are strewn around each level, and which the most aren’t too difficult to find, there will be a few which will take a bit more of your time.
The animation style is verging on a cel-shaded look, which really suits the games style, but don’t expect great textures and high graphical fidelity here. The amount of attacks restricts how many animations are required for the fighting moves, but it would have been nice to see it ‘flow’ a bit better, it can feel quite rigid. The level design is varied enough to keep each environment interesting and plentiful use of different colours, though some levels I found slightly too dark. Voiceovers can get tedious and are often repeated, but I’m sure some of the humour will go down well.
There are another few modes (Time Attack and Survival) that are unlockable after collecting enough items during the story mode which will extend the play time. All modes come with relatively easy achievement unlocks for the achievement hunters out there.
I’m finding it difficult to find anything else to say about the game. It’s a family friendly fun action game for kids, that should have probably been released as an arcade title rather than full retail due to how much is actually on offer. There is plenty of fun to be had, but being in my mid twenties I find it difficult to talk much about a game that is clearly not targeted at my age range, but I didn’t have a terrible time on my play through. This game comes recommended for fans of the TV series.
