Those of you who grew up in arcades playing this will love it for nostalgia purposes. Others? Well...maybe not.
Were they great games? Good lord, no. They were mindless button mashers to waste either an hour of your time or $2 in quarters - whichever came first.
Of course, Turtles in Time was one of the big ones. It was showcased at the very front of the arcade's entrance and at least a dozen kids of all ages surrounded it, enamoured by the Turtles wacky time-travelling adventure.
So, the story: Shredder and Krang have stolen the Statue of Liberty. The Turtles to go stop them, but then Shredder sends them barrelling through time. Really, if you stop and think about the story at all, it doesn't make a lick of sense. But then - and this is speaking AS a Ninja Turtles fan - many of the cartoon stories didn't make sense, either. It's basically just an excuse to throw you into all sorts of fun time periods.
And make no mistake: the game is loads of fun. I can't wait to have three other friends over and fight over which Turtle we'll each play. Like the times when me and other random kids would surround the giant machine back in the early 90s, this game is definitely meant to be a fun party game like Mario Party.
The gameplay? Well...it's very basic. You have two different attacks, a fast one and a stronger, but slower one that takes out several ememies around you. And you can jump for a few aerial attacks. You keep on trucking to the right of the screen until you get to the end boss. And that's...pretty much it. As I said, it's not exactly your deep game.
The graphics? They've been vastly improved from the 20 year old arcade game. There's a lot of bright, eye-popping colours and the animation is smooth. There are a LOT of prettier games out there, but when you have a basic, cartoony side-scrolling mindless beat 'em up, there's little one can do to improve on it too much.
The music? I don't know why, but the music redone for this just doesn't feel as catchy. I grew up on the SNES version and there were times I would be humming the various level's songs to myself ages after playing it. It's essentially the same music, but it's not as stylized.
Overall, I'm happy to have bought this. Recently, PSN lowered the price to $4.99, which I'd say is just about what it's worth. Is it great? No, but for $5, you could do a lot worse. I bought it purely for the nostalgia and had a giant grin on my face the whole time I played it. It's definitely for those who grew up on the game, either in the arcade or the SNES. Others who are more familiar with today's games will likely be disappointed.