Review #241: TMNT(GBA)

 Things are finally starting to look up!

 TMNT on the Gamecube is, so far anyways, mediocre. TMNT on the PSP was downright terrible. TMNT on the GBA, surprisingly, is all kinds of great.

 TMNT(GBA) follows the plot of the movie, d'oh, this time around it's told through blurry movie stills, alongside some text. It's not best way to tell a story, but it does a slightly, veeery slightly better job at it than TMNT on the PSP. Still, if, for whatever reason, you wanted to make the most of the story, watching the movie is a must. This version of TMNT only has Story Mode, and that's about it, there's no multiplayer of any kind, which is a bit disappointing, as it could've been a blast.

 This version of the game is a 2D Beat'em up that borrows a lot from the gran daddy of all beat'em ups: River City Ransom. There's 7 'Acts', but between acts you are thrown into a small Hub, made up of the Base at the sewer, a couple of streets and a rooftop. In this Hub you can enter the various different stores to buy power ups, healing items or even weapons to start with on the next level, using the money you earned by defeating enemies. There's also a couple of mini-games that you can access at the rooftop. To be fair, the game is rather short, but taking into account that this is a beat'em up, repetitive by nature, it's a good thing that it ends right before it gets boring. And finishing the game unlocks a harder difficulty setting. Oh, not that the game is particularly easy, au contraire, it offers a decent challenge. Enemies are plentiful, can deplete your life bar in just a couple of seconds, love to surround you and can take quite a bit of punishment. You are gonna have to be on the move constantly, simply mashing buttons won't take you anywhere in this game.

 The A button is a jump, while B is relegated to your basic attacks. There's an uppercut by holding up when you press B, or a back kick by tapping back+B and a sweep by pressing A and B together. The shoulder buttons can be used to call your brothers when the gauge at the top right of the screen is filled, by defeating enemies. All four turtles have different stats and different combos, but for the most part, they play the same. Plus, you can pick up weapons from fallen enemies to curb stomp other foes. All in all, it gives you a few more tools than most beat'em ups, beating enemies feels satisfying and rewarding, while being challenging without being cheap. It's pretty darn good!

 The game is just gorgeous, sprites are very stylized, detailed and animated very smoothly, that said, there's a rather small amount of different enemies, must be about 6-8 not counting recolors. Still, it's a very colorful game, and the stages are just as detailed. The music is nothing to write home about, but it fulfills its purpose, so that's alright.

 It's surprising how the version of the game that was released on the-then 'ancient' hardware manages to be better than the others. It's very polished, and you can tell that it was made by people that love the genre. It doesn't reinvent the wheel as far as beat'em ups go, but what it does, it does exceedingly well.
 8.0 out of 10