Let’s start with the good points. The game includes the intro from the new cartoons, an update of the previous cartoons of old yonder. It’s well presented and intact.
The rest of this review is less than complimentary. If those of you that play games remember the Konami arcade classic of this game’s namesake, you’ll remember it with kind fondness. A side scrolling 2D scrolling beat em up with up to 4 players at one time, fighting against a copious amount of sprites from the game. It was well balanced and became progressively harder.
In that time you would have thought with the technology moving forward, we could look forward to innovation yet keep the gameplay of yonder. Not so with TMNT 2003. Konami may have changed it’s logo to fit nicely with the modern youth, but this game reeks of embarrassing cashing in.
Innovation is one thing, to not test an idea before releasing a product is quite another. What were Konami thinking releasing this abomination of a game? Probably not a lot from what I can gather.
Take a well loved title, turn it into a scrolling beat-em up, but with cliched cartoon cel-shaded graphics a la Jet Set Radio, and watch the money roll in. Sadly for this title, the graphics are little more than a poor man’s attempt at patronising those that purchase this 2 cd direct x 9 title. The gfx are pedestrian at best, with big bold colours, and simple 3d sprites.
Starting the game off, choose your turtle, enter the game and hack and slash your way through the levels. Pretty straight forward, and yet unsatisfying and empty. The moves are indeed limited. For a title in 2003 it seems to have taken the scrolling beat em up back to the days of Yie Ar Kung Fu. A time when you could move left or right, and hit attack.
Konami may have changed it’s logo to fit nicely with the modern youth, but this game reeks of embarrassing cashing in
The same can be said of this mistake of a game. You move in a 360 degree direction and hit attack. Unlike most 3rd person 3d titles, where your character is on a plane providing perspective for the environment around you. In this your character can run into the screen, disappearing behind objects without you being able to see the enemy ahead. It’s dreadful.
The enemies are repetitive and dull – and offer little to no challenge. The environments are sparse, with interaction very limited. The game is slow, with 0 innovations, and is light years behind the original Konami produced title of the same name.
Music and sound is feeble, with speech being repetitive to the point of turning the sound off…and then getting bored with the game and uninstalling it, for return to the retailer for a full refund. This is game is absolutely dire, with no redeeming features whatsoever.
Instead of spending several millions on a new logo, Konami would have been better spending that money on creating good games, which it has been lacking of late. Much like it’s classic Contra series that made a more than despicable 1st 3d transition thanks to the ineptness of the American based Apoloosa, this game is a reminder to Konami that not everything 2d can be made 3d and succeed.
Poorly designed, flawed game mechanics, abysmal graphics and a poor excuse to cash-in on memories – Konami should be ashamed.
Verdict: Rubbish beyond comprehension. Avoid like turtle soup – it’s equally bitter