
If you spent even a portion of your youth in the early 1990s, chances are that you have at
least a vague, working knowledge of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Starting out as an underground comic book in the '80s, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles achieved massive success when it was translated into a Saturday morning cartoon in 1987. From there, movies, action figures,
and the inevitable video game spin-offs followed. Unsurprisingly, the games based on the TMNT franchise were largely very popular; what was surprising, however, was that they weren't successful simply because of their br
and name but because many of the games were actually legitimately well made. Though the TMNT franchise has been taking a bit of a breather over the last few years, a new TV series has recently debuted,
and not far behind it is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the latest video game featuring the heroes in a half shell. Developed by Konami, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a pure beat-'em-up that aims to rekindle favorable nostalgia for the TMNT games of days past, while at the same time the game also looks to update the look
and feel of the franchise for fans of the new series. Unfortunately, TMNT doesn't wear its nostalgic aspects particularly well,
and the remaining components simply don't make for a very entertaining experience.
Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo,
and Raphael are back, once again fighting Shredder
and his insidious Foot Clan.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles tells the story of four unassuming turtles who, one day, while w
andering through the sewers of New York, are mutated into humanlike form by a mysterious
radioactive ooze. With the help of a rat named Splinter (who was also transformed by the ooze), the turtles take the next logical step by learning martial arts
and becoming superheroes. The game's plot revolves around a mystical sword that is being sought by the evil Shredder
and his army of ninja thugs, known as the Foot Clan, so that they may perform unspeakable acts of evil with it. Along the way, you'll encounter many faces from the show, including the Turtles' best pal, April,
and Casey Jones, the hockey-mask-sporting vigilante hero. The game's story is told in an episodic fashion, with each stage containing its own segment of the overall story--although certain stages don't quite seem to fit into the overall plotline. Every stage has around five or six areas that you must clear to pass on to the next stage. Certain areas are preceded or succeeded by either a story sequence,
using the in-engine
characters, or an actual full-blown cutscene,
using the animation style
and voice talent from the TV show. The cutscenes are actually quite well done, but the in-engine stuff
only has the
characters st
anding around occasionally shaking their fists or marginally changing their facial expressions to signify being mad or something similar. The show's voice talent is used in these scenes as well, but, overall, they're still decidedly lackluster when compared to the real cutscenes.