Now Playing: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles(Movie)

 Wow,

 I knew that this was a Diablo clone, but as soon as the game starts I read 'Magic Pockets, the devs from the very first Nickelodeon TMNT game. I was scared.

 Then I played it, and it was amazing. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a Diablo clone, you fight enemies, you earn XP and loot. As you level up you also learn skills, and all four turtles have different skills. Holy crap. I guess that having all four Turtles on-screen at the same time might've been asking too much, but it doesn't matter.

 The game feels so good. I love this game. I barely played two missions, hey I haveta study!, and I know that I love this game. I need to keep on playing. I need new weapons. I NEED MORE XP.
AHHHHHHH

Review #246: Nickelodeon's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Danger of the Ooze

 Erm... which ooze?

 While the previous TMNT game wasn't bad by any means, it wasn't particularly good either, so Activision lent the franchise to Wayforward. Instead of a beat'em up, they opted for a single player Metroidvania romp, and while still far from being the ideal Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game, it's still a step up from the previous offering.

 The story... is almost non-existent. The Foot Clan, lead by Shredder, are dealing with the Krang in developing a new weapon, so it's up to the turtles to stop them. During the adventure they'll come across allies like Casey, Slash, Karai and April, even though they do little more than say a couple of lines and teach you a new move, and fight foes like Rahzar, Baxter Stockman, Tiger Claw and the Newtrominator. It manages to cover most of the really important characters, even if they only get to say a few lines, and the writing feels straight out of the show, so that's fine. One neat little touch is, since you can swap Turtles at will, each turtle has different, voiced lines when initiating each scene!

 The game plays mostly like the original TMNT game on the NES, but with a Metroidvania flair. The entire 'world' of the game is interconnected: Sewers, City, TCRI and Dimension X, and the more you play, the more 'connections' between areas that you'll discover. This being a Metroidvania, at the start you won't be able to go everywhere, some ledges might be out of reach, or doors that you can't open may block your progress, but by exploring, you'll earn new abilities that allow you passage through them. First complaint: Most of the 'obstacles' are doors that require ammo-based weapons. Why? Whose idea was it? Usually, behind each gate there's a machine that spawns infinite enemies so that you can kill them endlessly in hopes that they drop ammo for that particular sub weapon. To be fair, Shurikens are plentiful, and I only had to farm for smoke bombs once, but the fact remains that there's the possibility for tedium, and since that was the case, I just avoided using subweapons as much as possible in order to conserve them. Not a good design choice. But the worst one? Inspired by the first TMNT game, losing all your health with a turtle means that he gets 'captured' and you must find him in one of the many 'Rescue rooms' throughout the game. These translates to artificial length, by forcing you to backtrack in order to get him back. As a matter of fact, I lost Leonardo, my favorite turtle, to the first boss... and as luck would have it, he was 'captured' in one of the latter areas of the game, which meant I spent over an hour without my favorite turtle. Fun. You can eventually find an item that tells you in which particular room they got sent to, but while it cuts down on the wandering, you will still have to backtrack. And you just know that they did it to extend the game's life, as having lost Leo twice, and only him, I 100%ed the game in little over four hours.

 The game is one of those floaty, slidey kinda games, you know, those games in which it feels as if everything lacked weight. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but I'm not particularly fond of it, that said, after a while I got used to it and didn't mind it at all. The combat is a simple 'mash Y' matter, although they did bother to add a parry mechanic, which you don't really need. At all. They also did this weird 4 hit combo, but the way it works is that after the third hit, you press Y a fourth time and hold it, then couple it with a direction in order to pull one of four different finishers. Each one has a different purpose, 'Down+Y' breaks defenses, 'Up+Y' breaks shields and juggles enemies, 'Forward+Y' pushes the enemy with a kick, and 'Back+Y' makes you somersault over the enemy. The 'Hold Y' thing is baffling, but you can just mash Y, so don't even bother with it. There's also sub weapons: Smoke Bombs, Shurikens, Electric Shurikens and... Exploding Shurikens. Just save them up for the different doors, really. And hey, it wouldn't be a Wayforward game without a few bugs, the ones I came across were: The game crashed once, during Shredder's boss fight an enemy got 'stuck' in the middle of the arena, he couldn't move, I couldn't harm him, but touching him would hurt me! And lastly, sometimes the Squirrel enemies would default to their 'standing' animation just for kicks.

 Just like the previous game, the presentation is rather overwhelming. Graphically, it took two steps forward and one step back: Character models look worse than before, however, they are more detailed, with Raph even having the trademark chip on his shell. The animation is rather poor as well, for instance, the rolling looks all kinds of terrible. Even so, the stages, while simple, are visually appealing, I was particularly taken by the 'City' backgrounds. The music is... believe or not, it's actually quite good! And the voice acting is every bit as good as the previous one.

 Danger of the Ooze is far from perfect, it's very flawed as a matter of fact, but when it comes to it, it's quite fun. Maybe it's just my inner Metroidvania fan talking, but beneath the bugs, beneath the lackluster graphics, beneath the questionable design choices, it's fun.
 6.5 out of 10

Now Playing: Nickelodeon's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Danger of the Ooze

 I believed in you, and you failed me.

 There's this company called Wayforward, they've done some neat, little games for handhelds before. Remember that Thor game for the DS? Pretty good, right? Aliens Infestation was pretty cool as well. And Contra 4 was as good as the classics. I trust Wayforward, if someone could get a modern TMNT game right, it was them.

 Well, maybe I'm being a tad harsh. Danger of the Ooze is a Metroidvania, y'know, one of my favorite videogame genres. And it was developed by Wayforward. Double whammy. And yet, there's something... something missing. I can't quite put my finger on what feels off, what feels out of place, why I'm not liking this game as much as I think I should.

 Just as with the previous game, it has that cheap, floaty, slidey feel to it, like nothing really has weight. The combat is kinda odd, how after the third hit you have to hold Y before using a finisher? What's up with that? A simple press of the button would've been better, heck, I just mash the Y button and the direction.

 The music is pretty good, but the graphics are.... they are bad. Cutscene graphics look much better than the previous game's, but in-game... it's not a pretty game to look at.

 Eh, I dunno, I'm not giving up on it. And hey, at least it ain't TMNT on the PSP!

Review #245: Nickelodeon's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

 Shellshocke'd

 After Peter Laird sold the rights to TMNT to Nickelodeon, fans were worried. Then the initial renditions of the new fab four were released, and fans were not happy. Joke was on us, the new TMNT reimaging by IDW is, to date, my favorite version of the TMNT, and Nickelodeon's show, while not quite as tight as 2003's, is fantastic. So of course a videogame had to follow.

 Gotta give credit where credit is due, if Activision's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles got something right, it's the feel of the show. The dialogue isn't quite as polished, but dammit if it doesn't feel like an episode of the show. The plot has to do with the Turtles tailing Xever, Dog Pound and Baxter Stockman before they can complete a Mutagen Bomb, but eventually, and naturally, they have to deal with the big bad himself, The Shredder. The story isn't particularly good all well written, but the dialogue, the characters, that's where it's at.

 The game is just your run of the mill beat'em up: You walk to the right(Sometimes left!), then the scrolling freezes until you defeat every single enemy. There's not a whole lot more to the game! You play as any of the four turtles, and can switch character's at a button press, while the others tag along, either as other players or as CPUs. Something that should surprise nobody is that the CPU is terribly, content with just watching what's going on than take part in it, still, the game is easy enough that their input isn't really needed. And even though extra Lives are shared among turtles, it seems that turtles used by the CPU are extra resistant to damage. Throughout each level you'll find canisters, which unlock extras, and sparks, which can also be found from fallen enemies, that allow you to upgrade your four turtles. The extras are: Survival, in which you try to survive waves of enemies, Time Attack, in which you try to finish stages as fast as possible, and a shoot'em up minigame that isn't half bad. The upgrades are rather boring, but at least it's something to work towards to.

 As far as gameplay goes, it's very simple: B jumps, A attacks, C grabs(Only and ONLY when the enemies are near death), Z does a special attack and + or - are used for the rather useless extra weapons, like Shuriken or smoke bombs. I'd never go too hard on a beat'em up for being simple, it's a staple of the genre, particularly the earlier ones, as long as they got the feel of the hits right. And they didn't. The game has that very floaty, slidey, cheap feel that low budget games have. Collision detection seems to be off at times. As a matter of fact, sometimes, even though the 'C' symbol above weak enemies is flashing, it won't allow you to grab them, heck, sometimes fallen enemies will stop you dead on your tracks unless you angle your run. Not to mention the occasional bug, like that one time that Leonard got stuck behind an invisible barrier he couldn't cross, at least the game will respawn turtles near you if they fall behind. As for the bosses, they are really easy, but take so long to kill! Still, I'd lie if I said that there's no fun to be had with the game, as long as you like 'Beat'em ups', it's not too bad.

 Fun fact: This game is a port of a 3DS game, and it shows. However, let me set the record straight, even for a 3DS game, this would've looked bad. Character models are devoid of detail, for example Raphael's shell missing dent, are coated with muddy textures and the animation isn't very good. Stages don't fare much better, but at least they make a decent job at emulating the backdrops of the TV Show. The music is forgettable, but there's very few tunes so you'll hear the same tunes quite often, that said, I think there's a remix of the Japanese Opening, sans lyrics, in there? I could be wrong. The voice acting is amazing, they got the cast of the show and they knocked it out of the park.... but for some reason, some audio lines have very bad quality, with a lot of garbage noise accompanying them.

 Nickelodeon's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is mediocre. It's not particularly bad, but it doesn't do anything particularly well, besides getting the feel of the show.
 5.5 out of 10

Now Playing: Nickelodeon'sTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

 Not too bad

 I was planning on finishing the Konami handheld games before going into the Activision era... but Mutant Nightmare is so bad(Not as bad as TMNT on the PSP though) that I got tired. I mean, one thing is being hard. Another thing is being tedious. But being hard AND tedious? I'll elaborate on the review, but I got tired of that game to the point of not wanting to play it any more.

 Nickelodeon's TMNT plays and looks like a budget title, it's even got that trademark cheap floaty feel these games have. And y'know what, at first I thought it was a bad game, but by level 9, I can attest to having had fun with it. Is it perfect? Far from it, is it as good as Konami PS2 games? No quite. But it's not a bad game, it's just simple and lacking in production values.

 That said, it nailed the feel of the show perfectly, the script and dialogue made me feel as if I was watching an episode of the show. A+ for effort.

Now Playing: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 - Battle Nexus(GBA)

 No bueno. Konami, what'd you do!?

 So, um... I heard that this was supposed to be an improved sequel... but sadly, I'm not seeing it. First of all, new modes for multiplayer, even if they are just mini-games... that's something, right? But the game was overhauled in more ways than one, and I can't say that it was for the better.

 Firstly, characters have been redrawn, and they don't look particularly good. They've been shrunk, but I fear some animation frames were lost as well? Tied to this, the fighting is different, characters have different combos, and now the up+b, down+b variations are done with the hold B thingie, which at least, is now almost instantaneous. Regardless, I'm not convinced.

 I only finished the first stage, and attempted the second one... So this 'Start with no weapons' is gonna be a thing now? I like the new stealth mechanics, but having to find my weapons in each level, and also collect crystals so that I can open up new worlds... It doesn't sound like my cup of tea.

 First Impressions: Not good, not good at all. I heard it was supposed to be better than the first one, but so far it feels like a huge misstep. Hopefully it picks up.

Review #244: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles(GBA)

 Enter Konami.

 Back in 2003, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles finally got the TV adaptation they deserved. It was a happy medium between the gritty comics and the dumb show for kids from 1987. Alongside with the reboot, Konami was tasked with handling the videogames, like they did in the past. TMNT for the GBA is a very interesting beat'em up that plays it safe, but doing what it does well.

 The game has no form of multiplayer, and it's made up of 13 levels. Each Turtle has 4 'Acts', or stages, to its name, as well as an unlockable 13th scenario. Each set of four levels is a loose retelling of particular episodes in the series, for instance, Leo's 4 acts would be the very first Baxter Stockman episode, while Raphael gets to play through the episode in which he meets Casey. All four acts are made up of two beat'em up sections, a vehicle stage and a boss fight of sorts. Sadly, each Act can be finished in between 6-15 minutes each, to call it short is an understatement. Lastly, the 13th scenario allows you to play as any turtle as you take down Shredder.

 Basic controls are the same for each turtle. B initiates a normal attack string, B+Up is a juggling move, B+A is a desperation attack that consumes some health, every one but Mikey gets a B+Down variation, then there's the A button which is used for jump. The game also uses a 'charge' mechanic, holding down the B button allows you to use two different special moves depending on how much you held the button down. It's a bit... weird in this kind of game, but enemies, at least in the normal difficulty, are dumb enough to allow you to charge your attacks. Controls are responsive, and are just fine, for the most part... For some reason, they decided that after walking for a few seconds, your turtle will automatically start running. This is absolutely annoying, as 'dash attacks' are a thing. Sometimes I just want to get close to an enemy in order to initiate a combo, not knock'em down with a dash attack. Why it was done this way, particularly when dashing can be done by double tapping, is beyond me, and annoyed me quite a bit more than I'd have liked.

 One little touch that I did enjoy is that every turtle is slightly different from each other. Take Mikey, he can instantly turn around from a dash, heck, he can initiate a turn around attack from a dash, which no other turtle can do, although he can't crouch, which can be a huge handicap when facing the overpowered shooting enemies. Lastly, Mikey is the only turtle capable of double jumping... which he only uses in one level. Donatello's dash attack is a flying kick, which propels him forward quite a bit, and must be used for some platforming. He can also use his staff to do a pole jump, at the cost of the double jumps his brothers can perform. Then there's Raph, he can use his Sai to climb certain walls, on that one stage of his. And Leo is the only one that can crawl. This is very neat, but very underutilized, take Raph's climbing, he only gets to do it in one of his stages, a 10-15 minute stage.

 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' presentation is a bit lacking on the visual department. Sprites are colorful, and I appreciated the different animations for each Turtle, but.... said animations could've used a few more frames, I think. The style in which the turtles were drawn takes a bit of getting used to, as they have huge shoulders, but tiny legs! On the flip side, the game has quite a few different tunes, and, as far as the Gameboy Advance goes, they are pretty darn good.

 All in all, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was a valiant first attempt for a then-next generation Turtles game. It's a bit short, and some features go underutilized, but at its core it's a really good game.
 7.0 out of 10