Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Turtles in Time Reshelled
Last week, Newb Review.com began a short mini-series of articles reviewing the titles released in the recent Summer of Arcade promotion on XBox Live.
No I welcome you to the next article in that ongoing series. Today Luke “Mightyles” Mears continues by reviewing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Turtles in Time Reshelled.
GAME: TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: TURTLES IN TIME RE-SHELLED
PLATFORM: Xbox 360
DEVELOPER: Ubisoft Singapore
PUBLISHER: Ubisoft
For the sake of review space I’m going to refer to this game as TITRS
TITRS is an updated version of the classic arcade side scrolling 4 player beat ‘em up game that was eventually ported over to the Super Nintendo. This version, it should be pointed out, is an updated version of the Arcade original, not the Super Nintendo version. The graphics have been overhauled, although they lack any real detail and as such look a little undefined. Unlike other classic arcade games that have been graphically overhauled, you cannot switch between the new graphics and the original graphics, which is a shame.
Play as any of your favourite Turtles in Various locations throughout time
The game opens with April O’Neil reporting that Krang has stolen the Statue of Liberty, and it is up to the Turtles to get it back. After fighting your way through members of The Foot Clan, and surfboarding through the Sewers, the evil Shredder transports you back in time. From this point onwards you must fight your way through members of The Foot Clan, through various different eras in time, ranging from prehistory to the far future. At the end of each level you will face a boss character, which spices things up a little bit. There in lies the problem with this game, apart from the background, and occasional level specific traps to avoid, the levels feel very samey. The developers have attempted to breaking up the monotony by featuring two surfing based levels, but you’re still doing the same thing as the other levels except you are on a surf board. You’re always fighting the same Foot Clan ninjas, or rock soldiers, and the boss encounters revolve around avoiding the boss while they’re attacking, and hit them when they stop moving.
Once you complete the story mode, which took me about half an hour on the default difficulty, there really is not much else to do. There is a survival mode, in which you are given one life and tasked with getting as far as you can in the game. And that’s it. TITRS does feature online multiplayer, which is a bonus, but still the point remains that there is not a lot to do.
REVIEW ROUND UP
GRAPHICS: 3/5 Nice enough cartoony graphics, but it’s a shame that you cannot switch to the original graphics.
SOUND: 3/5 Fairly generic music, and uninspired sound effects. The voice acting is competent, but there is not a great deal of it.
GAMEPLAY: 3/5 Aside from the story mode, there is only a survival mode available, which is essentially just the story mode, but you only have one life available. The inclusion of 4 player local and online co-op is a nice feature though.
LONGEVITY: 2/5 A fairly brief story mode, and very little else to do. If you want to earn all the achievements then you need to complete story mode with each of the Turtles, and complete Survival mode. If you’re not interested in achievements then there is little other excuse to continue playing once you beat it.
OVERALL: 3 Shells out of 5. The first few times you play through the game will probably be pretty entertaining. However once you complete it, there really is not anything that will keep you playing it.
[starreview tpl=16]
You don’t buy and play this game for a mind-blowing gaming experience. You play this game for nostalgia and with three other friends who were all rasied on TMNT’s just as you were and remembered spending countless hours at the arcade playing the first TMNT arcade game.
This is a fun party game, and should be treated as such.
I think the score is reflective of the quality of the game if you look at it objectively. Sure you’ll probably enjoy it more if you played through the original, or have any love for the turtles. But what about those that are a little late to the party?