Victim of sale
As a child of the 80's Turtles have special place in my heart. This is franchise that has more or less always been handled pretty well. Even the remake series was good. Worst treatment have been maybe the movie's. The four green shelled ninjas that borrow names from historical Italian masters are as eager after pizza as they were back in the 80's.
This is actually a remake of a old SNES game Turtles in Time. Which I must admit that I didn't know that this. Or that this was exactly the remake of THE turtles game. Nothing in this XBLA game points to an older game. Well maybe gameplay, which is traditional button smashing brawler action.
Being a Sega-man I did not play the original until much later so can not therefore compare directly. What I do remember from similar games of that time that they were bit more complex than this. Or that is at least how I remember them. Turtles in Time Re-Shelled has very simple gameplay. One button for attack, special attack and jump. No blocking or dodging of any kind. Doesn't leave room to any kind of tactic or strategy. Other than that button smashing.
Game follows a short story where Statue of Liberty is stolen by a giant caped goon. Almighty Splinter with his endless wisdom carefully directs the anthropomorphic team to go after this. Shredder (who else?) is the antagonist here in traditional Turtles way. Action is spread across 8 level with boss battles and so on. Smashing through this wont take longer than 1h. Once the story is finished a Quickplay mode opens where each level can be played individually. Only other single play mode is a survival mode where player is just given one life for the whole game.
This would be quite an useless game if there wouldn't be a multiplayer at all. Which there is luckily. The 8 levels can be played in a 4 player multiplayer, one each turtle naturally in a local co-op or via Xbox Live. Which no doubt is very this game becomes fun.
Re-shelled term in turtle lingo seems to mean HD treatment. Turtles and the countless foot ninjas are displayed in finest 3D fashion and high definition. Some people have said this being not as detailed it should be, but I enjoyed the visuals here. Music is one looping track for each level which are bit above the average quality. Quite catchy and nothing too intrusive.
I've got a soft spot for Turtles so naturally wanted to like this. But after couple of playthroughs this starts to get very repetitive. Combine the length with the simplicity of the gameplay one is not left with a lot. Had there been nod towards the 80's turtles. Game or cartoons it might have tingled the nostalgic nerves, but nothing. This just cuts through middle leaving absolutely nothing.
