Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

aka: TMNT
Moby ID: 10839
PlayStation 2 Specs
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Description official descriptions

Based on the newer anime styled FOX cartoon of the same name, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles features Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo and Donatello as green ninjas. Living in the sewers, they creep out when nobody is looking to fight for truth, justice and another slice of pizza. Fighting against the public face of inventor Baxter Stockman and the more shadowy figure of Shredder and his Foot Clan, these Ninja Turtles will get the chance to make their opponents eat shell!

The game is a 3D beat-em-up with multiple players. The game sprites all resemble the cartoony look of the TV show and each turtle features unique moves, sound bytes and fighting style all his own. Ninja Turtle moves include a weaker/quicker attack, a stronger/slower attack, Ninja Shuriken and a Jump-Kick.

Spellings

  • 忍者神龟 - Chinese spelling (simplified)

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Credits (PlayStation 2 version)

93 People (75 developers, 18 thanks) · View all

Director
Game Designers
Main Game Programmer
System Programmers
Assistant
Lead Designer - Character Design
Designers - Character Design
Lead Designer - Character Animation
Animators - Character Animation
Character Setup
Lead Designer - Level Design
Designers - Level Design
2D Designer
Lead Editor - Image Edit
Sound Producer
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 52% (based on 33 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 39 ratings with 4 reviews)

1, 2, 3, 4, TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES!!!

The Good
I got TMNT for my GameCube as an early Christmas present, and OH, MY GOD I was SO impressed!!! The graphics ARE SO FREAKING AWESOME!!!!!! THE GAMEPLAY ROCKS!!! I also found it cool that the moment you turn on the game, you get treated to the new cartoon theme music! And some cutscenes look like they were taken directly from the show!!! The VS. Mode is FUN with a capital F!! Need I say it again, this game is SO F-U-U-U-U-U-U-U-U-U-U-N!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Bad
Are ya kiddin'? NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Bottom Line
Fans of TMNT of all ages: FOR THE SAKE OF PETE, GO TO YOUR LOCAL STORE AND BUY THIS ULTRA FUN AND ADDICTIVE GAME NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This game DEFINITELY gets a 10 out of 10!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GameCube · by Dark Cloud (31) · 2003

The Turtles are back!

The Good
With the return of the Ninja Turtles to comic and tv it made perfect sense to license once again the videogame adaptations to Konami so as to once again cash-in on the license with their trademark beat'em up gameplay, but a few things have changed for the better in this next-gen Turtle game. Juiced-up for the next generation of gaming machines, this particular game is far from the classic 2D titles of the SNES era in terms of look and features, with a fully polygonal cel-shaded engine that makes the game look incredibly good and fluid while also having that "ripped-out-of-the-tv" look so popular nowadays, plus the addition of comic book-like "Bang" "Slam" and assorted pop-up signs that give the game a distinct comic-booky feel that makes the game a unique experience in it's kind.

The other big improvement for games of this kind these days are the additional features and extras, and TMNT delivers the goods. Whereas the earlier games only featured little more than the arcade mode and the possibility for 2-player cooperative gameplay, this time around you have a story mode (single or 2-player), Vs mode (one-on-one fights between the turtles and bosses, also 1P or 2P), a challenge mode (endurance fights against every possible character in the game) as well as a gallery of conceptual art, pin-ups, character sheets and behind-the-scenes stuff that includes stuff from the animated series and toys, which you unlock by collecting special items in the story mode. Furthermore, the story mode is more than a glorified arcade mode, with moves unlocked as special dojo stages are cleared, with different and extra boss fights depending on the turtle you select and a gameplay arc that requires you to finish the game with all four turtles to get to the final challenge. All with added footage from the cartoons between the action and full voiceovers from the entire cast.

As mentioned, the gameplay involves unlocking moves and abilities such as jump attacks for the turtles, but the basic attacks have changed quite a bit from their original console roots, with each turtle playing differently from each other and with a selection of unique combos that can be quite rewarding for the proficient player (my record was a 35-hitter with Don!), also you have a collection of shurikens with different abilities that you can use to give you an edge anytime, and a special screen-clearing attack that becomes a key feature in the final fights.

The Bad
As expected, this game tackles the new continuity in the Ninja Turtles story, which is much truer to the original comic book roots and thus darker, grittier and much more urbane, without any of the Dimension X crap we knew from the old cartoons. The game takes you through a stroll through what's essentially the first big story arc in the cartoons, going from the humble beginnings in the streets to the encounter with the Foot clan and Shredder. The problem with this is that this is handled as a showcase of highlights from the show instead of a full-lenght campaign, and as such leaves anyone without an intimate knowledge of the show in the dark as to what the hell is going on. On one level you are cleaning the streets from clan ninjas and the next you are fighting robotic monsters created by some stupid scientist, while the next you fight against a robotic turtle... at least the earlier games followed a simple arc that took you across the city while Shredder threw all his monsters at you in boss fights but this thing mixes everything up expecting us to know what the hell it's talking about.

Furthermore, the levels themselves are pretty boring, and just as the original Ninja Turtles games, they are a fun diversion, but not much else, Also the Vs mode needs a bit more balancing, as usually it only takes you to be the first one to connect a combo to win the match due to their raw power.

Finally, the turtles have the nasty tendency to spout catch-phrases and one-liners whenever you are fighting. Problem is they each have like 3 phrases and repeat them with an excruciating frequency, enough to drive you mad or kill the audio and put an album in the background as I did 99% of the time.

The Bottom Line
Despite some minor flaws this is a great title to relive those simple-minded, head-bashing days of 16 bit glory with all the flair and improvements today's technology allows for.

Yes, it's not the most brainy game of the universe, and it doesn't break any new ground, but who cares about that when you can be a giant ninja turtle bashing street punks in the head with a bo stick?

Windows · by Zovni (10504) · 2004

Old-School, Yet Missing One Important Element.

The Good
To start, the main pull was the graphics. This visual effects are great, with the cel-shading, and cartoony attacks. It's an impressive looking and well animated title to watch, and each turtle behaves differently, unlike the original arcade games of yore. The cut scenes also blend in well with the style, and help to advance the story, which seems based off plot lines from the new series.

The "authenticity" factor is further enhanced by having the actual voice-overs from the show, which is a cool feature.

And to it's credit, it feels like one of the old-school Turtle games. Lots of enemies to fight, things to smash.... If you like a good stomping through button-masher, this works pretty well. And I do like the fact that going through bonus rounds gives new attack abilities. Clever move for an attempt to broaden the game's depth. And there's also a lot of cool bonus features, including some great choices for unlockable characters.

The Bad
I can't go any farther without hitting the biggest problem: It's not four-player, and there's no excuse for that. Sure, they adjusted that in the sequel, but for this game, how they dropped the ball on such an important feature is beyond me. Konami was well-known for its 4-player madness in the late '80' - early '90's. The fact that they didn't do it here is just puzzling.

The voices? Authentic, but repetitive. If you're going to use voices for attacks, Konami, keep it diverse. And they didn't. Hearing Michelangelo scream "Eat feet" over and over during his attack... well, it's a bit much. The music is also on the forgettable side. It's a shame that the new "Turtles" theme wasn't quite as catchy as the old one. I barely remember the music in this game, if at all.

In terms of difficulty, this game ramps up pretty high, and stays tough, even for two players. That junkyard robot boss will just destroy players, and I don't like that. If they're going to be tough or have a high life bar, that's one thing. But don't make some lower-ranking boss a huge time-consuming process. It kills the mood. Wait until the end so that it's more worthwhile.

The Bottom Line
Don't get me wrong. As an old-school gamer, I freaked when Konami announced that a new TMNT game was on the way after all these years. And for most respects, I was happy. It's just that it killed me when I found out that the game was only two-player, and for this game, that just doesn't seem right.

The game does a good job emulating the old games, while adding some new features to make the game more "now". I liked the presentation. I liked the graphics and authenticity of the (overused) voices. I'm just glad that the "beat 'em up" genre has made something of a return again, because these types of games were among my favorites. But no matter the attempt, I just feel like something is missing.

And it's that 4-player thing.

You can tell the people who made this game were Turtle fans just by the bonus content alone, and some of the original programmers worked on this game as well. Still a fun enough game, but it's not the full return home that you would expect or even hope for.

GameCube · by Guy Chapman (1748) · 2004

[ View all 4 player reviews ]

Discussion

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Multi language support for German or UK version? Leonardo Righi Jun 5, 2021

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Shoddyan.

Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, Guy Chapman.

Game added November 1, 2003. Last modified February 5, 2024.