The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles brand defined early childhood for a generation’s worth of today’s young adults. Anyone born in the early 80s can relate to memories of racing home from grade school to watch the animated television show and sing along with the brain-meltingly catchy entrance theme, playing with hundreds of action figures and numerous video games, or begging their parents for the latest licensed product to bear the logo and likenesses of the four reptiles. Childhood memories are always cherished and whenever elements of those memories are dredged up by corporations they’re accompanied by a universal hope that they will be treated with the appropriate care. Ubisoft’s TMNT gives off the distinct impression that the developers had their hearts in the right place but were ultimately unable to make the game they really wanted to.

TMNT is based off of the upcoming movie of the same name, the latest in a recent string of productions intended to hook a new, younger generation of consumers on proven commodities. The game’s narrative is delivered through a series of disjointed flashback sequences with the turtles constantly interrupting each other at ever major event. The central theme of both the movie and the game is brotherhood and the narrative device of the turtles interrupting each other could have been further developed to not only explore that theme but enhance the game. Brothers typically interrupt each other to correct and elaborate on the last comment, not to simply continue the story. Replaying different variations of events told from each of the turtles’ point-of-view would have been an interesting experience given their wildly different personalities. A level that Mikey described in terms of a pizza party could have been fashioned quite different from the same level described in Raph’s signature cynical view. As it stands the presentation feels half-finished.

TMNT can effectively be summed up as "Prince of Persia Lite" since the game provides a similar combination of platforming and combat to that other Ubisoft Montreal property, but with greatly reduced levels of depth. Conceptually speaking, this was a great direction to take the series since no previous game based on the license has ever bothered to try replicate the flair and agility that comes with the territory for ninjas. Players have beaten the crap out of hundreds of palette-swapped foot soldiers in a ton of different games, but they’ve never had the chance to bounce around the world as only a ninja turtle could until now. The concept’s potential is never realized however, thanks to the incredibly straight-forward layout of the stages and a lack of pressure to push forward. Whereas Prince of Persia set players in huge rooms where they could experiment with 2different routes through the 3D space, the stages in TMNT all have incredibly obvious and linear routes from point A to point B. Players will have to make liberal use of jumps, double jumps, wall runs and pole-swings to navigate each of the stages, but putting all the moves together in the right places takes zero thought or skill.





The actual jumping involved isn’t exactly taxing on one’s hand-eye coordination or reflexes either since the tension imposed by the likes of falling platforms, incoming projectiles or other hazards are hardly a factor. Most of the ‘puzzles’ in the game revolve around each of the four turtles’ unique special abilities that allow them to progress where the others can’t. Raphael can use his sais to climb sheer walls and Michelangelo can use his nunchaku as impromptu helicopters to make long jumps, etc. Players can switch between the turtles at any time, but it’s always incredibly obvious exactly where each turtle’s ability must be used. All that said, the platforming isn’t terrible – it’s actually the best part of the game. The problem is that it’s simply adequate when it so obviously could have been stellar. Each stage has at least one or two platforming segments that serve to remind the player of just how awesome the game could have been with some more time and creativity. Furthermore, controlling the turtles is an absolute joy, as they respond with the perfect sense of weight and agility, and their animations perfectly convey their off-beat sensibilities.