The fact that the gameplay hasn't changed at all is actually a great point for me.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles : Turtles in Time graced the arcades in 1991, 2 years after the original 4 player game. And is a MUCH better game. When I first heard they were doing a remake with completely re-worked visuals, I was a little put off by it simply because I stand by the old mantra "If it works, don't fix it". Plain and simple. I saw the first gameplay footage of someone playing the game who wasn't worth anything at it, and I honestly wasn't all that impressed. I can't say that I'm all that much better mind you. Then I saw the in game screenshots, and while they looked great, they just didn't have the bright, colorful pixelated visuals of the original arcade.
When it came out, I naturally downloaded the trial, which lets you play through the entire first level. I started it up fully expecting to be disappointed. But they kept with the esseice of the original perfectly. Because this game is a hell of a lot of fun. Even if it's WAY too short (I played it solo and I beat it in literally about half an hour, but I'll get to that in a bit).
The first thing you're going to notice about this game are obviously the graphics if you remember the arcade version or the SNES version. To start off, April O' Neil, for what little of her you see in the game in the cutscenes, has never looked better. God I wish she was real. *Ahem* anyway. This is a COMPLETE graphical overhaul. EVERYTHING has been redone in high definition widescreen, and it looks and animates great. The characters have a lot of personality and individuality. It's hilarious to see the foot soldiers riding up on fire breathing dinosaurs, or on horseback. The bosses look great, although I didn't like the voices that much to be honest. Especially Krang … he just doesn't sound right to me for some reason. But that's being a bit nit-picky. And the music is great. I wish I could get a soundtrack for this, because it's redone but still keeps the energy of the original music.
The game plays almost completely identical to the original version as well, which is both good and bad. This game has never been deep as far as gameplay. Run to the right Double Dragon style and beat the hell out of everything that moves. At the end of the level, you fight a boss. The game plays just fine with the stock Xbox 360 controller, and I even found myself using the analog stick comfortably playing the game. Something I was not able to do with the 2007 XBLA release of the original TMNT arcade game. You have 3 buttons to work with … as I said, not a lot of depth. Attack, jump, and a special attack. Which you can do a hell of a lot with that single attack button. String together combos, slam the foot soldiers around. Throw them toward the screen, which is always a hilarious site to me. The game controls exquisitely no matter what you use. But if you have an arcade stick for the 360 of some kind, that's definitely the way to go to get the real arcade experience here.
There are the typical game modes. There's the regular story mode, which every time you beat a level it gets unlocked for a Quick Play mode where you can just go in and play whatever level you want. You can play with up to 3 other people on Xbox Live, which is how the game SHOULD be played because that's where it's the most fun. And there is a Survival Mode, which throws you into the game with 1 life and 1 life bar. And it's damned hard because when I beat the game I had died 6 times in story mode. I don't know if I can do any better than that. But I'll keep trying.
Now the bad. The voices of the bosses just didn't sound right to me for most of them. Baxter Stockman sounded fine, and Shredder sounded great. But Krang's voice just doesn't sound right to me. Neither did Metal Head's. Maybe it's just me, I don't know. And for some reason Shredder, although he looks awesome, is just regular old Shredder. In the original version of the game he's Super Shredder and friggin' HUGE. That was a slight disappointment for me at first, but not for long. The game costs 800 points ($10), and is a VERY short game. I played it solo earlier. And considering this is the first time I've played TMNT : Turtles in Time in YEARS … I beat it on my very first playthrough on normal difficulty in about half an hour. I'm not kidding. Luckily, it isn't anywhere near as frustrating to play as the previous XBLA TMNT game because they reworked the AI somewhat so that it doesn't have that brutal quarter munching difficulty. Which works out great because you don't have the near infinite credits in this one like you do in the previous release. You have a set amount of lives with pizza scattered liberally throughout the levels to help you out. But the length of the game is going to hardly be worth the $10 price tag to gamers nowadays. People like me who grew up playing stuff like this probably won't mind though.
8.5 – Overall, this game is up there with Castle Crashers as one of the best beat 'em up games available on Xbox Live. Even though it is extremely short, and some of the voices are a little weird, it's a blast to play. Especially with your buddies. If you're not already a fan of the turtles, download the demo and play through the first level to give it a try. If you're already a fan of the series, just buy it. It looks great and the gameplay is as much fun now as it was in 1991.