TMNT (Xbox 360, 2007)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) gives players the chance to relive their nostalgia for the series. Going in, the game holds a lot of promise as it is developed by Ubisoft Montreal most notablely known for their Prince of Persia series. The prospect of a POP-esque game in a TMNT world is very tantalizing. Unfortunately the game does not live up to expectations.

TMNT is a third person action game that, like POP, gives players the ability of run along walls, do acrobatics, dodge traps and adds new abilities like call in your turtle brothers to pull team combos. Despite these features TMNT is no where close to the caliber POP Sands of time was. The blame can solely be put on a fact that it feels dumbed down to appeal to a very young crowd to coincide with the demographic targeted by the tie-in movie. What made POP great was (1) superb story (2) excellent game play elements (3) topnotch pacing. All these are missing from TMNT. The story is tied to the animated film and not explained as the game expects you to have seen the movie. Even if you have seen the movie it is not compelling. Despite borrowing elements from POP, the game feels too easy. There is no satisfaction from either completing environment puzzles or from the dumbed down repetitive combat that forces to you fight bland generic enemies. How can you have a TMNT game and not have hoards of boss to fight?

Graphically and audibly the feels like a budget title. One can clearly tell the game was developed for the PS2 and then ported to other platforms. Even worse, the graphics and sound are that of an average PS2 game. Not a problem if you play it on your PS2 but it looks dated on a 360.

In the end, TMNT is a budget title that should keep younger audiences mildly interested and its only redeeming quality is the easy 1000 achievement points that be earned in under 4 hours.

5.5/10

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I don't know how many people who would look at this and actually want to play it since it's based on a "kid's movie" and it's in no way at all like the TMNT of yore. Now, I'm not old by any means but I'm old enough to have watched and loved the old school TMNT before all the time traveling power ranger whatever nonsense and french faux-anime design that's been plaguing all the old comics and television shows that are still watchable to this day if only today's generation would give it a chance. The movie was disappointing and the story was insulting, so I didn't expect the videogame tie-in to be any better. I was mainly drawn in for 2 reasons: My mother was interested in checking it out and we both wanted to complete another game's achievements in a day or two.

So I put it in, beat the first of 16 stages within 9 minutes and get my first taste of the game. Right off the bat, the camera (or lack of one) pissed me off as you can't control where you look or even know where you are in relation to your surroundings at times. At most times, actually, since the later stages only got more frustrating. You speed through like Sonic with fewer load times, get into force-fed battles with either the Foot Clan or a new, wimpier group called the Purple Dragons. The combat, like the platforming, doesn't seem finished and is more of a chore than anything else. In fact, it feels as if the combat was more of an afterthought. One button pretty much does everything but it's not even as much fun as Avatar's simple combat. It's just... ok, I'm blindly punching something. The most insulting part of all this is the fact that you cannot die.

You fall into a pit or 2 floors to the ground, you "die." And by "die," I mean you start from where you left off 3 seconds prior (checkpoints save every 5-9 seconds) and keep going as the timer keeps counting. All that really means is that you get a lesser grade for completing the stage but the rewards are merely coins you can spend on big head cheats or "weekend weapons" such as a broom for Don. No thanks. You get beaten by 10 people who all look alike since there's 2 models per enemy type and you "die." This calls forth a mini-game in which you tap A until another turtle pal picks you up, says something encouraging, and runs off as you continue the fight. This no death, no surrender system even holds your hand through the final boss. Hell, the whole game holds your hand. If you're in doubt when you see a gate which only Leo can get through and are unsure if it's the appropriate time to press a button to progress, you'll see the blue flashes that prompt you to understand. Wait a second and you'll even see the commands displayed for you on the bottom left of the screen.

Thinking isn't necessary for this. I don't think it's even meant for kids so much as it's meant to simply be an extension of the movie because, c'mon, no thinking or skill development in a platformer!? And Ubisoft is responsible for this? After such great action platformers like Prince of Persia and Assassin's Creed, I just feel bad. I felt even worse though as I couldn't concentrate with whatever turtle on-screen constantly saying the same exact reaction loop over and over again. I jumped and Michaelangelo flipped out like I'd just ripped some gnarly foam, bro... I hate him...

The video game isn't 100% like the movie. I can't say any video game movie/show/comic adaption is 100%. Though this makes it better. Within the video game you delve in deeper into the Turtles lives as they reminisce upon the events that happened during the movie. Including parts you didn't get to see.

The combat is deeper than in the other TMNT games. More free flowing and a definite improvement. Boss fights are wonderfully planned out and easy to accomplished. The best part is you have to work with strategy (for the majority) instead of just hacking your way through. Still anyone can pick up the game - novice or not - and get through it without frustration or boredom.

If you've seen the movie you know the plot. If you haven't it is classic TMNT story. The Turtles are destroying evil and learning about themselves. The Turtles are near adults. They have been separated for a couple years - mentally and physically. Now they are back together but have to relearn how to be brothers again. During this an evil is set free and the Turtles (as always) are forced to stop the evil. As the story nears the end everything works out for the best and people/turtle become closer.

Only thing I didn't really like about the game was the camera. Now in the game it was fine. Then when you decide to acquire all the shells it can be a bit difficult. There are about 5 shells that are near the edge of the screen. Due to this it is hard to fix the camera at the right angle to get the shell. Let alone see it.

Acquiring achievements isn't that bad. You may get one or two bumps along the way - acquiring the shells and the time trails in "Quest Mode." Still nothing is hard and just requires a lot of looking or taking the simplistic route.
Your first time through you could complete 80% of the game.

I rate the game excellent for what it is. Still it only has moderate replay value. You may find yourself watching the movie more than playing the game.
When you get enough points buy the videos, namely the test videos. I think they are hilarious.

TMNT. Those four letters have spawned a whole slew of games for one of the most popular cartoon television shows that I am sure most of us have seen, but if you have never even heard of or even played this game then let me tell you what you are missing and what makes this arcade hit a totally tubular game.

Graphics 8- Now you have to consider that we are talking about 1989 here and that for a game made back then the immense tradition of colors seen here like in the TV show and the basic 2D side scrolling as in most of these games back then are pretty much all you see here, but its something you have to just appreciate. Really makes you feel like you are playing an episode of the original TV show.

Gameplay 9- Very fun I must say. From destroying the foot clan to showing the evil Shredder who is boss makes this game a very fun one to play. Once again making you feel like you are actually playing the show. Even eating the turtles favorite italian dish gives them a little slice of health. The boss battles are fun to play as you will encounter the likes of Baxter Stockman as well as Rocksteady and Bebop.

Sound 10- Had to give a high score on this. Eveything from when they say "Pizza time to Rocksteady and Bebops bad mouthing is all like the show itself and how can you ever forget the best theme song ever?

Control 10- You have here your basic two buttons one for jumping and the other for attacking. Pressing the two together allows you to perform a special move which will damage your foes even more. No real hard learning curve here.

Overall 9- One of the best ever arcade games has finally came to the Xbox Live arcade and I must say you shouldnt miss out on the chance to play this very sweet game. If you are one of those people who just remember the theme song and cant rememebr that much about the show or are just itching for some TMNT action I highly recommend this game to anyone both old and new fans of the show.

TMNT is a great game overall with good graphics and a good story line also you get play all the characters which all 4 of them have a special ability that becomes handy. My 5yr old son loves it he always wanted to rent over an over, that why I decided buy it but it was hard to find one in excellent conditions.