Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the GBA

I remember the classic NES version of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game used to make me so mad. It was one of the best side scrollers for the system and was a huge game. One of the main reasons I wanted a GBA was to play games like that again. I still love my RPG and Strategy sims on the PC that takes weeks to complete, and I still enjoy some wild and crazy 3D shooters. Even so, I was born in the 70's and grew up in the 80's when video games and home computers were all the rage. I was there when it all happened, and I miss those days. Being able to play new games designed just like the classics has great appeal to me.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been around for a while. I remember the cartoon and movies from about twenty years ago, and I think before that they first appeared as a comic book series. From what I understand, they are still on the air, but I wouldn't know for sure. This game opens with a pseudo-metal theme song and a cartoon-like introduction that makes me think it came from a show. In between the different missions, there are lengthy cutscenes full of dialogue and story. Fortunately, you can hit the Start button and skip over them.

Part of what made the previous TMNT games so cool was that you could select which Turtle to play with. There have always been four and they were named after famous inventors and artists: Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo. Each character has his own unique weapons and special moves, as can be expected. In this game, you can not select whom to play with. Each stage makes you play with a certain character and those stages are designed for that character. To me, this takes a lot of the versatility out of the game and completely kills the replay factor.

The TMNT are forever fighting the evil samurai-like Shredder and his denizens called the Foot Ninjas and their tiny robotic knee-chompers. The whole game involves you going through different sewer systems and other industrial locations as you fight off hordes of Foot Ninjas and robots. Each stage has some kind of unique boss, and like all games of this nature, you must figure out a simple strategy to defeat them. In the end, you go up against Shredder. Despite the shortness of the game, each stage and boss are pretty challenging. As an added bonus, there are different little games in between each main stage, so you don't always run around doing the side scrolling action. One of the side games is a sort of 3D shooter where you ride a tank down a tunnel and blow up various robots that jump out of the water.

The gameplay is pretty standard for this type of game and I found the controls to be very fluid and responsive. None of the characters have many options for special attacks, but you don't really need them. Pretty much every opponent can be beaten with a basic jump and swing strategy. When you jump, you can hit the jump button again in mid-air to go much higher. I liked that you can move back and forth between different platforms pretty easily, but most of your opponents tend to end up on the bottom levels anyway.

The graphics in this game are pretty good, but they don't compare to the original. In the classic version, you had a much larger playing field. I thought the screens in this game were too tight and you didn't have enough room to move around. Each level progresses like a classic Double Dragon game where you take a few steps, fight some bad guys, then take a few more steps and fight some more. You can't move along until you've fought off everyone and the screens lock in place, reducing this to a very basic fighting game.

The sound is pretty basic with some unique effects to differentiate between the Turtles. The theme music actually sounds like a real song, complete with lyrics, but it is very low-fi in order to work on the GBA. The rest of the music in the game is very upbeat and bright.

This GBA version of TMNT was released a couple of years ago and has already spawned a sequel, so you can buy it for @ $15 new and probably half that for a used copy. To be honest, it isn't really worth owning. This is one you get for a weekend rental and finish it in a couple of hours. Unfortunately, this GBA title is no comparison to the classic NES game of the same name. It is still pretty fun to play, but it doesn't hold up to the original. I don't think it was meant to be a remake, anyway.