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TMNT (Xbox)

• Developer:
• Publisher: Konami
• Genre:
• Official Website: http://www.konami.com
• Score: 1 of 5: Save Your Cash

Due to the fact that I grew up on Ninja Turtles I considered it a godsend that there would be a new TMNT game coming out this year. Boy was I sorely mistaken. I vividly remember playing all of the TMNT games for NES until my thumbs were numb. Unfortunately for myself and many other TMNT fans, that will not be the case with the newest game based on the crime fighting teens from the sewers.

Before I get into the nitty gritty, lets suffice to say that I actually cancelled my preorder of TMNT after playing it for a short time at EB the day that it came out. I was highly disappointed with much of what Konami had to offer this time around. In Konami's defense, it was Mirage Studios that created a new series of cartoons that are completely inconsistent with the originals and that use voices that completely stray away from the original characters' personalities completely ruining TMNT.

There are plenty of things wrong with TMNT but none are as mind blowing and preventable as the lack of 4 player action. Given that the Xbox and Gamecube both support 4 players natively and the PS2 does through the use of a multi-tap, I was left wondering why oh why this was left out of the game. There are 4 turtles and 4 controller ports and yet I am stuck playing with only 2 at a time. Would the addition of the 4 player option have saved this game? Highly unlikely, but we don't need game developers intentionally ruining games now do we.

One area of the game I have to give Konami credit for is the graphics. We recently saw the use of cel-shading in Viewtiful Joe to add a nice comic book feel and it definitely works for TMNT. I wouldn't use a word like "stunning" or even "superb", but they were good and they really made it feel like you were actually playing one of the old cartoons. As we all know, graphics cannot carry a title. That statement has never been more true.

Allow me to revert and continue on with another area that was lacking, the controls. When you press A, you generally expect something to happen right? I don't know if it is strictly limited to the Xbox version or not, but I felt like something would only happen every other time I pressed a button. As I battled street thug after street thug, all 2 or 3 variations of them, it was painfully obvious that you had to be very nimble with the button mashing to pull off some of the "combos". Even though you pressed the right buttons you were never really sure if the combo would actually be executed. If you were lucky enough that your combo was in fact executed you would probably be greeted by one of the three or four annoying phrases your turtle would utter. I am not asking for a complex combat system. I am not even asking for them to put these simple combos in. All I want is for Donatello to attack when I press the A button.

The annoying catch phrases I mentioned are not annoying at first. They aren't even annoying after you hear them 20 times in the first level which lasts an astounding 3 minutes. They do however become highly annoying after you have heard them 1200 times and you realize you are only on the 3rd level. The fact that the voices are "wrong", which I already complained about, only compounded the problem. The in game music didn't add anything and was quite lame.

I honestly wanted this review to end on a more positive note, but after a lot of thinking I realized that wasn't going to be possible. Aside from the stale controls, the game was mildly entertaining, but after only a few levels it became highly repetitive and just plain boring. I played thru the first couple of levels with each character and there were some slight variations in the story, but not enough to keep the game interesting. If you couple that with the fact that your progress is only saved at the beginning of each stage (which contain upwards of 5 or 6 levels) and some bosses will drain your lives in a matter of minutes, you can see how repetition will take its toll.

While it was nice to see an updated version of the cartoons I watched so religiously as a child, TMNT falls short of my expectations in a whole slew of categories. TMNT is a lame attempt to capitalize on one of the very popular licenses from the early 90s that many of us were so fond of. Should anybody ever think of developing another TMNT game, they should go back and watch the original cartoon series and play the original NES games. Despite being a huge TMNT fan I have to recommend to everyone that you save your money on this one. If you absolutely have to see this one for yourself, just give it a rent as a day or so is all you need to beat the game or get utterly bored trying.

P.S. I hate the way the turtles jump.

Nov 20, 2003 | 5 comments
Chris Rasco