The Heroes in a Halfshell jump into Xbox Live Arcade!
Having played this game recently on Xbox Live Arcade, it was a very pleasant trip down memory lane. Being able to play as Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Donatello and Raphael was such an awesome feeling that is just hard to describe if you aren't a Turtle fan. Each turtle felt different, and I was always Donny because of his incredible range with the bo, and my friend was always Raph because he was very quick with his sais.
Playing through the game's five levels was a sheer delight back then. The place was swarming with foot soldiers, and they came in all sorts of colors. We were quick to identify them, so we knew how they would attack us and how we would approach them. Scattered throughout the levels were objects that we could strike and send flying in their direction such as parking meters and street cones. If one's timing was right, we even batted manhole covers and giant truck tires back to the foot soldiers. Speaking of manholes, who could forget falling in them? "Duh, who turned the lights out!" How embarrassing!
Playing the game today, though, after the reminiscience subsides, the game hasn't aged all too well. It's hard to blame the game for being so short, but back in the arcade days, it seemed so long because it took so many credits to play. For gamers today who have never played this game, they won't understand how brutally cheap it is. The skateboard helicopter level is one of the cheapest levels I can think of in gaming history, and there's just no way you can stand toe to toe with the bosses and expect not to die. This results in cheap stick-and-move routines that just makes you think, "I hate to resort to this, but what other choice do I have?" The game was designed to cheap death you over and over again to keep you depositing quarters, and that just doesn't translate well today.
For a single player session, cheap deaths aren't that big of a deal, but when you play multi-player live, it ruins the experience. Somehow, some genius thought it would be funny to supply endless lives for offline multi-player, but limit them on-line. ??? Because of this, trying to beat the game online with a friend becomes a mind-numbingly frustrating experience. I can say, though, that the online is as smooth as a creamy milkshake. The online session I had didn't produce a single hick-up at all. Hats off to the network coder on that. Just give me back my endless lives so I can beat the game with a friend!
One thing that really held up well against the ravages of time is the music. The score is very upbeat, and the theme is instantly recognizable. I even caught myself saying out loud with a friend, "God, I love this music!" They couldn't have made a better soundtrack to convey the feeling of being a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.
This was such a favorite arcade game of mine back in the day, and although the feeling isn't one hundred percent the same (and never will be unless you to a lan party with specially designed arcade cabinets that yoru 360 can hook up to), I'm still inclined to call this game one of Xbox Live Arcade's gems. If you remember this game at all and have any kind of fondness for it whatsoever, you'll do yourself a favor and download it, so you can relive some of your happiest childhood memories.