It comes as no big surprise to this reviewer that the minute my children got done watching a Ninja Turtles movie on HBO awhile back, that I would almost certainly here that familiar refrain soon after. "Daddy does the video game make a game with the turtles in it"? As per usual routine I made my way to Amazon and typed in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to see if such a game existed. Well what do you know, there they were, in all their greenness. We decided to go with this game TMNT for the PS2. Was this a good pick for the family or did we wander too far out of the shell. Let us peer inside and take a look.
Well ladies and gents, this one is a hard one to call. My children and I have had some fun with this game, but it also has parts of it that will make you wonder why you bought the game. Let us examine first the parts of this game that make it a worthwhile purchase.
Graphics wise, I found this game to be very formidable indeed. In any number of games that are based off of movies, you usual find the graphics in the game are good, but do not live up to those you saw in the theatre. Well I am here to tell you that this is one game where the opposite is in effect. The graphics in the game appear to me better than the movie. What makes me say that? Attention to detail. In the movie, a lot of the sets were rather generic and with not a lot of enhancement. The game on the other hand pays particular attention to bringing out the fine details of the scenery and all that that entails. An A+ here in my book!
The other real nice feature I took note of during game play was some of the things that could be done by the turtles themselves. They all are capable of doing things such as scaling a wall or fence, which can be hard in many games. They also all have a signature move that they perform which is also very cool to take a look at it. You will also find that our shelled friends are also able to combine their moves with each other to make what I call "super moves". These moves are awesome for eliminating some of the real tough enemies. All of these various moves, both as individuals or as tag teams between various turtle members are very important when you consider that points are awarded at the end of each battle for things such as style and effectiveness. You are awarded shell points and that is what you need to be able to unlock other things within the confines of the game.
The previous two points I mentioned were some of the best this game has to offer. Unfortunately the game does have some bad points to it too. One of the major disappointments for myself, as I had played some of the previous versions of Ninja Turtle games with friends, was the elimination of multi-player action. It use to be that you could have multiple friends competiting or helping each other at one time, which made some of the tasks easier to complete. In my case, with small children you tend to get frustrated if they cannot figure something out, I can no longer assist them by grabbing the other controller. I have to jump into the game myself, which tends to cause them to lose interested.
This was not the only downside though. There was another significant problem that we encountered with the control of the turtles themselves. As I stated earlier, yes the turtles could perfect some really cool moves, and could work in teamwork with their other, but there are significant issues with them performing some pretty innocuous moves they should have no problem with. What happens is that the controller does not do the action that you are actually performing. You can be doing something like trying to jump between two things and be pushing up and forward on the controller. To your horror though (ok maybe a bit dramatic), instead you look and see your turtle turning backward and lunging off a building hurdling towards the end of you game. It happens in various situations, and seems to be a game issue, not the player.
Overall, my family has enjoyed the game, even given some of those glitches I mentioned. Is it worth you picking up? I would say if your one of those gaming purists that wants everything to be dead on accurate, probably not the game for you. If you're a guy like me with young kids who enjoy the turtles, yea I would say give it a shot. You can find it rather cheap on many sites, so it will not set you back a bunch, and your kids will enjoy the experience.
More details
Do you enjoy playing it?
Like playing
Graphics quality
Excellent graphics quality
Sound Quality
Excellent sound quality
Ease of Playing
Easy to play
Value for Money
Excellent value for money
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