Majorly overhyped, but still solid
2009 marked the 25th anniversary for many popular properties; Transformers, the G.I. Joe cartoon, Usagi Yojimbo... but most importantly, to me, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The TMNT, along with my father's Bruce Lee movies, guided me to find my lifelong interest in the martial arts.
TMNT fighting games haven't always been amazing, but at least they're all playable. The Super NES version of Tournament Fighters is generally the only one widely accepted as being "good". When it was revealed that Ubisoft would be releasing a new, Smash Bros.-esque fighter, the world at large let out a collective "meh". Then it was indicated that the game would not adhere to any one universe of the license, and that they would take things from all major incarnations. Not only that, but the developers would be a mixed collective of Super Smash Bros. Brawl developers and former members of Team Ninja. The pedigree and fan service possibilities definitely turned some heads. Message boards were littered with speculation of the epic match-ups that could theoretically be done. The Smash Bros. community began to consider the competitive aspect of the game.
Then, it all went wrong. Rabbids showed up in a demo build. Not just one, but two, as unique characters. Ubisoft was shoehorning the insane alien hares from their Rayman Raving Rabbids games into Smash-Up. Fans were livid, citing that the Rabbids had no purpose in the game, especially if they were replacing viable characters from the TMNT universe.
The heat died off as time went on, especially after the official site indicated that there were at least 20 characters in the game, and an alternate costume for Shredder was shown. Hope was being reinvigorated in the game.
Then, when the game was leaked a week early by a couple of retailers, Hell broke loose, nearly literally. Not only was there three Rabbids, but the cast of thirteen TMNT characters were all known back in June. All of these characters were present in either the 2003 cartoon or 2007 movie, and took on the appearances from those universes. Despite the game using the 1980's cartoon logo and the Technodrome appearing in a stage, there were no characters native to that era. Nothing directly from the original Mirage comics. Even the alternate costumes were suspect, with only ten of them in the game, and most based on canceled Playmates action figures. The backlash for these decisions reached such an insane level that gaming news sites even started reporting on it.
Sadly, because of the colossal upset, most people will never play what is otherwise a solid fighting game. Game Arts and the former Team Ninja employees only used the Smash Bros. engine as a loose template, and built upon that with many other combat options that were trademarks of other, more traditional fighters. Tag team attacks, weapon clashes, throw escapes, and off-the-wall attacks are just a small handful of additions to the engine that keeps the combat from feeling like Brawl Lite. Battling online is also fresh, and is the one area where one can say is 100% better than Brawl, and is actually better than any other game I've played on the Wii. Graphics are also amongst the best on the Wii, although the usage of the 2007 styled characters (especially the humans) may turn away a couple of people.
There are a few other, minor complaints that do not detract overall from the game experience, but must be noted nevertheless. For starters, despite the game's story mode being heavily touted as having been written by co-creator Peter Laird, the plot is literally the most ridiculously generic thing the Turtles have ever been attached to. Even Laird at his worst can write better than this rubbish. The comic that comes as a pack-in actually plots out the story a little better, but not much.
Also unfortunate, is the lack of unlockable materials. Unlike the last two Smash Bros. games, there isn't a whole lot to uncover, and a player may achieve 85-90% of everything in a day. In addition, the story/arcade mode can only be played as the initial seven characters. Clearly this was a game with multi-player in mind overall.
Gameplay is the most important part of any game, and for the most part, Smash-Up has achieved a gold star in this regard. However, this game was hyped to the maximum possible degree, and the end result in that department was total failure. If there hadn't been an entire hype railroad behind this game that derailed, this game would likely be much more well-rounded overall, and actually sell more than a handful of copies. As it is, the word is spreading like wildfire about the abysmal roster. Ubisoft shot themselves in the foot with this one. However, I feel as if I got my money's worth, in spite of the sad way the license is utilized here.
