theoretically this could be one of the best tmnt beatemups out there, its filled to the brim with so much love, and so many characters each with their own moveset, stats and everything (unbalanced, sure, but its fun and cool so why the hell not) and is very ambitious for a free fangame, but unfortunately it does have one drawback. the lives system.
now, early beatemups had lives of course. 90s games, they could be tough. but they also had continues, and coin-op games allowed you to just keep wasting quarters when they put instant kill pitfalls or cheap bosses everywhere. hell, the console version of turtles in time let you continue infinitely, restarting you at the begining of the level with 3 lives
now, this game does technically let you "continue" but it sends you outside the level with just one life. and yes it is TECHNICALLY doable with one life, i'm no expert. i can maybe make it to the second boss of the level without dying if im lucky, but halfway through that fight, i will die and it is disheartening to game over, continue with one life, rinse, repeat until you just want to restart entirely, conserving your lives and duplicating saves when necessary (auto saves are fine for a retro throwback fangame but continues arent i guess...)
and let me tell you, before restarting, i tried everything to cheat or manipulate my saves, but sadly no save editor i found could help me. so i bit the bullet and decided to restart. and upon restart i was greeted by... an unskippable tutorial. the annoying kind, you know the one. the kind that makes anyone impatient as i am feel like theyre held up at gunpoint. the kind that literally starts off by teaching you how to walk forward, and goes through every action possible in the game all while doing it as slow as possible and restricting any action at all while the instructions are being told. the kind where even if it doesnt take THAT long, its enough to drive a man mad... i dont get why its even there, considering its a fangame, a love letter to the arcade games of the 80s and 90s... like not only is it simple, but if you know about this game at all, you know how to play these types of games... and making it forced, even on replay, just feels condescending, and insulting even.
don't let my gripes ruin this game outright for you though. it's free, it doesn't deserve the 3-star rating i gave it. if it had 3-life continues, this could easily be a 5 star game. it has so much love and care and detail put into it, it's fun as fuck, and your favorite character from the cartoon or classic toyline is playable. the amount of playable characters cannot be understated and theyre all fun. please at least give this game a shot, i just wish it was as fair as turtles in time was.
and while im at it, let me replay levels dammit
now, early beatemups had lives of course. 90s games, they could be tough. but they also had continues, and coin-op games allowed you to just keep wasting quarters when they put instant kill pitfalls or cheap bosses everywhere. hell, the console version of turtles in time let you continue infinitely, restarting you at the begining of the level with 3 lives
now, this game does technically let you "continue" but it sends you outside the level with just one life. and yes it is TECHNICALLY doable with one life, i'm no expert. i can maybe make it to the second boss of the level without dying if im lucky, but halfway through that fight, i will die and it is disheartening to game over, continue with one life, rinse, repeat until you just want to restart entirely, conserving your lives and duplicating saves when necessary (auto saves are fine for a retro throwback fangame but continues arent i guess...)
and let me tell you, before restarting, i tried everything to cheat or manipulate my saves, but sadly no save editor i found could help me. so i bit the bullet and decided to restart. and upon restart i was greeted by... an unskippable tutorial. the annoying kind, you know the one. the kind that makes anyone impatient as i am feel like theyre held up at gunpoint. the kind that literally starts off by teaching you how to walk forward, and goes through every action possible in the game all while doing it as slow as possible and restricting any action at all while the instructions are being told. the kind where even if it doesnt take THAT long, its enough to drive a man mad... i dont get why its even there, considering its a fangame, a love letter to the arcade games of the 80s and 90s... like not only is it simple, but if you know about this game at all, you know how to play these types of games... and making it forced, even on replay, just feels condescending, and insulting even.
don't let my gripes ruin this game outright for you though. it's free, it doesn't deserve the 3-star rating i gave it. if it had 3-life continues, this could easily be a 5 star game. it has so much love and care and detail put into it, it's fun as fuck, and your favorite character from the cartoon or classic toyline is playable. the amount of playable characters cannot be understated and theyre all fun. please at least give this game a shot, i just wish it was as fair as turtles in time was.
and while im at it, let me replay levels dammit