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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
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GameCube - Konami - Action -E - 2 Players
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| Last week, as I neared the end of the game, I came to a few conclusions. The first being that the game is @#$%ing amazing. Seriously. For the life of me, I can't understand why this game received such decidedly mediocre reviews all across the board. The game is knocked for being linear and shallow. No shit. It's a beat ‘em up. You don't get someone morally opposed to throwing a football to review Madden, and the same etiquette should apply here. And two, the next time I hear "Turtles Count it Off!", I'm going to hang myself with my own underwear. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Jumping back to my first point, what did you really expect? Stealth action stages? Attribute building? A cohesive plot? Come on now! Did you even bother to read the back of the box? It says, and I quote: "Prepare for ninja kick-butt fighting as you face the Shredder and his vile pack of Foot Ninjas!" Two things, and only two things, are implied by that statement: Ninjas will be present, and butts will be kicked. TMNT delivers fabulously on both accounts. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Despite the fact that you're a mutated, humanoid turtle trained in the art of Ninjitsu, your move set is extremely limited. You're capable of executing either a weak or strong attack, an uppercut capable of juggling your foes, a shuriken chuck, double jump, and "wave dash", which serves as your main method of defense/evasion. Your strong attack functions as either a stand alone move or a combo finisher. By varying the number of weak attacks you execute before hitting strong, you'll perform different combos. Though you only have 4 or so for each turtle, most of the time there's enough differentiation between them to ensure that they all have a specific purpose. A short combo might leave a single opponent standing in a daze, while a longer one might clear out a whole room. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| And you'll be utilizing those room clearing techniques often, because it’s seldom that you ever see one-on-one combat. You'll constantly be swarmed by Mouser robots, cyber ninja, street thugs and everyone's favorite, the Foot. Since the game lacks a throw, you'll have to find new ways to deal with overwhelming odds. This is handled quite well by the inclusion of the Shinobi-style wave dash maneuver. While doing this move, you're rendered invulnerable to all enemy attacks. This means that if you hope to have any chance of survival, you'll be forced to zip around from foe to foe, racking up high hitting combos by the end of stage one. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| And I say that, not because the controls are so unbelievable intuitive, but rather because by the end of stage one, you'll be almost an hour into the game. For a brawler, that's incredibly long, bordering on absurdity. I wouldn't necessarily see this as a problem if it wasn't for the fact that despite their length, the levels don't go anywhere. Remember when, as S HIRYU put in his review of Final Fight; beat ‘em ups were early side scrolling Street Fighter 2's with a "less complex fighting system, stage bosses, and lots of walking to the right"? Well, TMNT nails all that sans the bit about walking. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Normally, when playing a game of this fashion you'd take on a few enemies, defeat them and move on. This usually is not the case in TMNT. Once you’re done with a single batch of enemies, new ones regenerate to take their place. The end result is that the game feels a bit like a test of endurance, rather than a trip to topple Shredder. Consequently, though much longer, the levels in this game are no where near as unique or interesting as the ones found in, say Turtles in Time. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| If the game has another flaw, it would be its audio department. Now I don't hold anything against this new series, I'm actually quite fond of it. But the new theme song is obnoxious and should never be spoken of again. The other thing is that though the voices are well done, they're used far too often. You'll sometimes hear your turtle spout the same catch fraise upwards of five times in rapid succession. And given the games length, you might be able to see how this can become irksome. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Though I hate to keep harping on the length of TMNT, it does magnify some of the games flaws that would be considered negligible if the game was a few hours shorter. Even still, TMNT is an enjoyable little romp that fans of both the series as well as brawlers in general should enjoy. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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