 Review By: Jared Black |
Developer: | Konami |
| Publisher: | Konami | |
| Genre: | Action | |
| ESRB: | Everyone | |
| # Of Players: | 1 | |
| Online Play: | N/A | |
| Accessories: | N/A | |
| Buy Now: |   |
The first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle title for GBA was released in October 2003, and is a fairly straightforward Double Dragon style brawler still worth a look today. Each of the four turtles gets a set of four levels to complete, some of which are vehicular-based. In Leo’s vehicle stage he drives the Sewer Slider in a forward-scrolling shooter, where he must get through the stage by taking out enough Mousers to keep from being destroyed. Michelangelo rides his Muta-Board in another forward-scrolling level, although the goal here is to attack enough crystals while avoiding obstacles. If that sounds exactly like the bonus stages in Sonic The Hedgehog 2…well, it is. Raphael’s special stage is an Excitebike-like race on the Shell Cycle against Casey Jones, and his is probably the hardest stage in the entire game. Finally, Donatello’s special stage takes place on the Turtle Glider, in a fun side-scrolling shooter level.
On foot combat is simple as well, with the A button executing jumps and the B button executing attacks. Rapidly attacking with the B button performs simple combos, which earn extra points. The B button can also be held down to charge a normal attack to one of three different levels, although these must be used wisely since they will temporarily leave each Turtle vulnerable. Each turtle also gets special moves to use, executed by holding down the R button in conjunction with A or B.
Really, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles only has three glaring flaws. The first is that the game has no multiplayer support at all, which is a travesty given how good the multiplayer arcade old-school TMNTs were back in the day. This franchise is practically built for it; since you have a team of four distinct personalities all ready to kick some shell. Secondly, it’s extremely short, and can be completely in only a few hours. Finally, dialog is boring and drones on way too long. Even though the Turtles exchange barbs as they would on the show, the game almost treats itself like a RPG at times but fails to deliver anything close to that level of dialog.
Graphically, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles looks good for a GBA title. Each Turtle is animated well and moves distinctly, and enemies also look good enough (although you’ll face the same ones repeatedly). The environments and special stages also impress, with a good sense of speed in the special stages and plenty of unique areas to fight in. The stills used in story sequences disappoint though, as most are somewhat grainy and poorly drawn. Sound is decent enough, with the occasional sample from the show and music in the same style. Nothing special about the sound overall though.
Bottom Line:
While the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has a better single-player mode than the second one released on GBA, it also lacks the solid multiplayer modes and longer storyline the second one provides. Still, on the whole it’s a slightly better game, since what is here is pretty fun stuff.
While it’s still worth a look for fans of the series, unless you can find it dirt-cheap you’re probably better off buying the recently released Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Double Pack and getting both TMNTs in one box.
| Pros: | Cons: | Final Score: |
|---|---|---|
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| 7.0 |
Posted: 2006-09-10 12:35:47 PST