Although its AI is on thin ice, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles still manages to grab your attention.
The bad: Stupid AI, repetetive enemies, weak music audio, camera is a real pain in most levels, few powerups, lacking of a save feature between levels.
Gameplay; 7/10
Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 6/10
Value: 8/10
Tilt: 6/10
Average Score: 7.2/10
Many people have been saying that the TMNT video game series has been wearing thin. I think so, but Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is the latest TMNT game to grab your attention. It stays fun no matter what of the flaws, but it generally lacks to become a great beat'em--up even under Konami, a master of classic TMNT beat'em-ups.
The game is based on the tv show from 2003. You must help the turtles defeat the evil Shredder and the Foot Clan. You must control the four turtles based on famous painters; Leonardo, the leader, Raphael, the tough guy, Michaelangelo, the goofball, and Donatello, the genius, and guide them through many, many levels. There are about 7 stages in the game, and each of these stages contains at least 6 levels. Between each stage, there will be a training mode where you'll learn new moves, but these generally lack a challange and are rediculiously easy. Still, TMNT's basic fun comes from its combo's. Each turtle has 6 combo's, and this can result into loads of beatings on your enemies. However, you must beat all of your enemies in the level, which is fine, but frustrating at a few certain spots in the game.
A notable example of the game's frustration is the weapons. The weapons are great to use, but they run out rediculously quickly. You start out with 10 blades, but these don't really do anything, since you'll need at least six blades to kill one enemy. The fire blades are more powerful and fun to use. At least three of these blades should kill your enemy, or dissolve them as they lie on the ground in agony. When you get an item, you don't just get it, you have to do a certain task to get them, which can be frustrating but superb for those patient tmnt fans.
The game allows you four moves; the useless blades, the nunchuck slash, your special move that you'll learn later, and a comboless punch. Of course, you'll use the nunchuck slash because you can use as many combo's as you possibly can, and you can even attack several enemies at the same time, and still kill them. You can use the punch for explosive barrels, simply doing one punch to blast at the foot clan. The Nunchuck slash also helps when you want to light a car on fire to lure your enemies into it before it explodes and sends them flying, giving you a joyful experience.
However, it's difficult to do this, since the enemies are brain dead stupid. Not only are they repetetive, they also stay in their spots until you come 5 feet from them. On the other hand, in one spot you're trying to kill an enemy, and you can't turn around quickly enough, and your enemy can kill you, giving it at least some challenge. This weakens when you face the first boss in his complete form. Later in the fight, you are forced to climb on top of a small building and lure the boss over to you. However, the boss sometimes gets stuck and can't get to you until you're in the direction he's facing, making it even more frustrating for you to beat him, and when he finally comes to you, the camera is so annoying that it doesn't give you a clear view of the action, and you'll end up missing a chance to hit the vunerable boss. If you lose all 6 of your continues, you'll have to start the stage over again from where you last saved. You can only save when you beat a stage or task, and this gets very frustrating for those who just want to get the level over with.
Multiplayer in story mode is harder, since you end up with 6 continues still, instead of 12 continues or a number of continues for each player. Recovery items are completely useless and only offer a tiny fraction of health for you, so you can only guarantee that the pizza is the only food item that can boost your health up to a lot. There aren't a lot of foods in levels, so you must be careful with two players, and try to attack at the same time. The camera in the multiplayer also is worse than before, and when you are splitting up, the camera moves out for an aparentlly better view. However, if you are closer together, one player can't move up when the other is trying to kick ass, and you must wait for the other player to finish, or help him instead of taking a shortcut, making an already frustrating experience more frustrating.
Graphically, the game is detailed and polished, and its clean environments are thanks to its cel animated style visuals. The soundtrack also is neat, but it's hard to hear and not loud enough for the player to be able to love it. Plus, the sounds the turles make are annoying and repetitive.
Altough it's AI is on thin ice, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles still manages to grab your attention, and is one of the better beat'em-ups avaible for the Gamecube. Although it's weak compared to other classic TMNT beat'em-ups, fans of the TV show will certainly love this game.