Minor Introduction
Ah, teenage mutant ninja turtles. A franchise I used to watch a lot during my childhood (specifically the 2003 cartoon, which remains the best tmnt cartoon, fight me). Nowadays you can call me a casual fan rather than the hardcore one I was as a kid, but nevertheless it’s a franchise very fond to me. I recently happened to pick up the new cowabunga collection, which contains basically the most played tmnt games released during the arcade to snes era (for better and for worse). As a result of that, I have decided to dedicate a little marathon of sorts, starting with the original arcade game and ending with the recent tmnt game, shredder’s revenge. Soooo let’s get started!
First Impressions
Where it all started! The original tmnt arcade game is very much a standard beat’em’up game…one which hasn’t quite aged as well with time for multiple reasons. I still had a fun time with it…specifically because I was playing co-op with my little sister, so this score reflects that. It may be a different story if I played alone.
Gameplay
The obvious attraction to a beat’em’up is obviously its gameplay…and it is the aspect where this game hasn’t aged as well, and also disappointing in how little I can talk about it. The actual combat is surprisingly basic, coupled with the limited combos. You have a punch button, a jump button and a special attack button for each turtle, with very limited possibilities to take advantage of them. As a result, while the loop remains fun in coop (beating up baddies is still fun), it can get repetitive as a result due to this basic mentality. The turtles themselves aren’t much distinguishable in combat, outside of their attack animations and iconic designs. The game does control well though and the hitboxes from my experience worked well too. There are some other cons that I will mention later on, but the gameplay is above average.
Story
Well ok let’s make this quick. The stories in tmnt games never were the attraction and this is one of them. It’s the usual “shredder does something bad or kidnaps april, turtles to the rescue, they beat krang and shredder at the technodrome, cue credits” deal. It’s not much, but it’s a fun story and the level environments (coupled with the gameplay) do make it feel like you’re playing the usual episode of the cartoon (the original 80s cartoon at that time).
Presentation
This is one aspect where the game has aged beautifully. The spritework, animation and music remain great and the general sound design is really good. They all work together to give the turtles and this game a sense of energy to them.
Negatives
That’s about where my positives end for the most part. Outside of the basic feeling of the gameplay that I already talked about above, my two main complaints are with the difficulty and bosses…they’re just bad. This is definitely an arcade game alright, as it’s not ashamed to throw cheap bullshit at your face to eat up quarters for the entire way through. The bosses are a major contributor to the bad difficulty as well…by being badly designed themselves lol. They’re just brick walls that counter your every attack without being stunned, forcing you into essentially an endurance contest against them. There is some pattern to be learned, but you have to be damn committed, perfect and insanely patient to execute a no-damage run on these bosses.
Final thoughts
This review really makes it sound like a bad game, worthy of a 2 or 2.5 stars (or even lower)…so why the forgiving 3 stars? Well, I played in coop. No exaggeration when I say that playing with friends helps remove the sting a little, as the bad bosses and difficulty is made more tolerable when you’re playing with them and having a fun time joking around and beating up baddies in an interactive tmnt episode. So yea, just for nailing that vibe with other people and also serving as a blueprint for the best tmnt games to evolve from, I am willing to be more merciful towards it with this score. If you’re playing alone however…yea take 1 star off of this score. Final Rating: 3/5 with friends, 2/5 alone.
Ah, teenage mutant ninja turtles. A franchise I used to watch a lot during my childhood (specifically the 2003 cartoon, which remains the best tmnt cartoon, fight me). Nowadays you can call me a casual fan rather than the hardcore one I was as a kid, but nevertheless it’s a franchise very fond to me. I recently happened to pick up the new cowabunga collection, which contains basically the most played tmnt games released during the arcade to snes era (for better and for worse). As a result of that, I have decided to dedicate a little marathon of sorts, starting with the original arcade game and ending with the recent tmnt game, shredder’s revenge. Soooo let’s get started!
First Impressions
Where it all started! The original tmnt arcade game is very much a standard beat’em’up game…one which hasn’t quite aged as well with time for multiple reasons. I still had a fun time with it…specifically because I was playing co-op with my little sister, so this score reflects that. It may be a different story if I played alone.
Gameplay
The obvious attraction to a beat’em’up is obviously its gameplay…and it is the aspect where this game hasn’t aged as well, and also disappointing in how little I can talk about it. The actual combat is surprisingly basic, coupled with the limited combos. You have a punch button, a jump button and a special attack button for each turtle, with very limited possibilities to take advantage of them. As a result, while the loop remains fun in coop (beating up baddies is still fun), it can get repetitive as a result due to this basic mentality. The turtles themselves aren’t much distinguishable in combat, outside of their attack animations and iconic designs. The game does control well though and the hitboxes from my experience worked well too. There are some other cons that I will mention later on, but the gameplay is above average.
Story
Well ok let’s make this quick. The stories in tmnt games never were the attraction and this is one of them. It’s the usual “shredder does something bad or kidnaps april, turtles to the rescue, they beat krang and shredder at the technodrome, cue credits” deal. It’s not much, but it’s a fun story and the level environments (coupled with the gameplay) do make it feel like you’re playing the usual episode of the cartoon (the original 80s cartoon at that time).
Presentation
This is one aspect where the game has aged beautifully. The spritework, animation and music remain great and the general sound design is really good. They all work together to give the turtles and this game a sense of energy to them.
Negatives
That’s about where my positives end for the most part. Outside of the basic feeling of the gameplay that I already talked about above, my two main complaints are with the difficulty and bosses…they’re just bad. This is definitely an arcade game alright, as it’s not ashamed to throw cheap bullshit at your face to eat up quarters for the entire way through. The bosses are a major contributor to the bad difficulty as well…by being badly designed themselves lol. They’re just brick walls that counter your every attack without being stunned, forcing you into essentially an endurance contest against them. There is some pattern to be learned, but you have to be damn committed, perfect and insanely patient to execute a no-damage run on these bosses.
Final thoughts
This review really makes it sound like a bad game, worthy of a 2 or 2.5 stars (or even lower)…so why the forgiving 3 stars? Well, I played in coop. No exaggeration when I say that playing with friends helps remove the sting a little, as the bad bosses and difficulty is made more tolerable when you’re playing with them and having a fun time joking around and beating up baddies in an interactive tmnt episode. So yea, just for nailing that vibe with other people and also serving as a blueprint for the best tmnt games to evolve from, I am willing to be more merciful towards it with this score. If you’re playing alone however…yea take 1 star off of this score. Final Rating: 3/5 with friends, 2/5 alone.