A review for the old-school Ninja Turtles fan.
Growing up, I was a huge fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I remember watching the cartoon on TV, playing the NES games, arcade games, and every now and then I tend to play through the SNES version of Turtles in Time. When I heard that they were bringing one of my favorite games of all time to Xbox Live Arcade, you could imagine how pumped I was to finally play this game online. Now that the game is finally out, I can honestly say that the game retains enough of what I loved about the Ninja Turtles to satisfy my $10 download.
Everything about the game is pretty close to the original arcade version except that the game sports new HD visuals, eight way movement, and new music. The new visuals look great and don’t completely change how the turtles and enemies looked back in the day, they just look better. Eight-way movement works much better when trying to fight your way through surrounding Foot Soldiers and other enemies, or to avoid traps and other disastrous objects. The one complaint I have with this new version is that the music sounds bland and fails to compliment the older version’s charming tunes that take you back in time.
The best thing about Turtles in Time is that Xbox Live works great if you have a low ping. Up to four people can brawl their way through the nine nostalgic levels to take down the easy final boss, Shredder. Once you beat Arcade Mode, try your luck with the new Survival Mode or Quickplay with your friends to get more achievements. Nothing beats constantly smashing on a button for less than an hour when you are chatting with your friends, honestly.
New-school gamers and others who may not have played this game in the arcades beware. The game tends to get cheap on you as soon as you start Sewer Surfin’ and won’t stop until you hop aboard the runaway train on Bury My Shell... (levels three to five). When you happen to be in a game with people who have high pings, the game will tend to lag and some of the visuals will start to pop in or move around sporadically and hit you. If this happens, be prepared to lose a life or two per level if you are not careful as staying alive is a vital part of this game, especially in Survival Mode where you start with no extra lives.
So, is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled worth your precious 800 points? The short answer, yes, but take into account what you are actually purchasing. Once the game is beaten and you grab most of the achievements, who knows how many people are still going to actually replay this game for a week, month or even a year. With all of that said I can only recommend that this game be bought by people who loved playing this game back in the day and have other friends who enjoyed it as well.
