If you were to ask anyone from my generation who the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) were, your question would be answered instantly and then followed by stories about pretending to be Donatello on the playground, waking up early to watch the cartoon, and having all the action figures including the blimp. Recently the Turtles were revived with a new comic book, TV show, and action figures sporting a new, updated look and an all new story. It seemed like the perfect time to release a new game, and Konami did just that.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles follows the TV show’s story, and almost perfectly simulates each episode in the game. There are even story sequences that use clips straight from the show. Events, characters, and sometimes dialogue are taken straight from the new show.

Right from the beginning I knew something was wrong. There are four Ninja Turtles, yet the game only supports two players…there’s definitely something wrong with that math.

Combat is made up of two buttons: square and triangle. Any combination of the two buttons results in a different combo with different results. This is great, except for the fact that the Turtles say different lines after each attack. It gets pretty annoying when after I do my favorite combo I hear “Let’s play stickball; I have the stick, you be the ball” every time. You can also pick up throwing stars along the way, which are thrown with the circle button. I should mention that many times my friend and I would pick them up, but upon pressing the circle button we found out that the game decided to change its mind and not give us the throwing stars.

Each level is split into areas. Sometimes between levels there is a dojo stage where you get to practice and learn new techniques. One thing I found quite ridiculous was the fact that you needed to go to the dojo to learn your jump attack – and second player doesn’t even get one! The dojo stages are player one only, and the moves learned there aren’t given to the second player. This was frustrating because the next boss we fought was a huge beast that had to be hit in the head, so player two was useless.

There’s also a versus mode. At first you only start with the four turtles, but as you play the game you’ll unlock more characters such as Casey Jones or the cyborg turtle doppelganger. I had a bit more fun with this mode, because I was fighting against an intelligent human rather than an enemy that’s just going to stand in one place. If the game played a bit smoother, the environments had a bit more character, and four people could play at once it could have been a contender for even Power Stone - instead it feels like The Bouncer.

While the art and animation has been slightly improved in the new cartoon, the same can’t be said for the game. The characters have significantly less detail than even the sprites from the old TMNT games. The level design is also linear and boring, sporting almost no character. Bland textures are used on every surface; which doesn’t quite give the feeling that the world is alive. I expected brighter colors, and more of them, in a game that’s based on a cartoon.

The music in the game isn’t very good at all. I started to turn the volume for the music and voices down whenever I played, and at that point I just had whacking sounds so I’d just mute it and put on my own music.

As far as unlockables go, TMNT has all bases covered. From new costumes to brand new characters to art work, you can unlock just about anything imaginable. While most of these bonuses require playing through the game at least once, though, not a lot of people are going to even see them. Plus, with the game being boring from the beginning, getting new costumes isn’t going to help things. It’s still going to be the same game, just with a slightly different look.

I think the true audience for TMNT is a very young crowd. There isn’t very much going onscreen at any given time, so they won’t suffer from any sensory overload. Also, the very simple gameplay won’t really appeal to any fans of the old TMNT games since they’re all grown up now. There isn’t much replay value since the unlockables really aren’t worth it, and the multiplayer mode isn’t much better than the story mode. 

Gameplay: 4.5
Do not play this game alone. When you’re with a friend you can at least make up little games within the game. If you don’t heed this warning, you will become bored very quickly. Plus, due to the lack of supporting four players, versus mode does not make up for it at all.

Graphics: 5.8
The graphics are mediocre, but if it weren’t for games like Viewtiful Joe that push the boundaries of cel shading it could have looked good. The extreme lack of detail and style really hurts this game visually.

Sound: 4
The soundtrack is faithful to the TV series, so fans of the show will probably enjoy the music. Personally I found it annoying along with the voice acting. The sound effects are fine, but when that’s all you’re left with, you mid as well put on some of your own tunes and mute the game.

Difficulty: Easy
Throughout each level you’re confronted by enemies that stand in front of you. Sometimes they’ll attack, but when they do it doesn’t do much damage. The only time the game gets difficult is on boss fights where you’re supposed to hit a barrel or vase at them, because lining up your shot is near impossible.

Concept: 6 
Making a new TMNT game for the new generation of systems was a great idea; it was just pulled off poorly. I’m not surely exactly where they went wrong, but I think the graphics and level design are the first things that need work.

Multiplayer: 5.3
Playing this game with a friend helps the boredom issues, since the two of you can make up games within the game. For awhile we had player two use the uppercut move as player one tried to jump attack the enemy out of the air, which only lasted about 5 minutes. Versus mode isn’t much better.

Overall: 5
Even though TMNT was a huge disappointment for me I could see this being a good game for kids, but for more experienced gamers it’s just too boring and uneventful.