March 31, 2007
TMNT: The Movie Game Review!

So, following my haiku “review” of TMNT and extended comments here in the blog, here is a fairly lengthy review of the PC version of the game based on the movie. I don’t have a lot to add, as I’ve included just about everything that I wanted to say in the actual review — but yeah, read that. And if you’re interested in giving the game a try, you can download the PC demo from Ubisoft’s game site! The page is admittedly pretty confusing to navigate (I never did find that interactive comic book thing it mentioned, unless they meant to suggest that the entire site is the comic), but there should be a button towards the lower right-hand corner that will let you grab the demo. It’s got an eight-minute time-limit (which is kind of silly, seeing as how you can get fairly far into the level and would only need an additional minute or three to complete it altogether), but I guess Ubisoft did that to trick players into thinking that the level is longer and thereby conceal the overall brevity of the game. Shame on you, Ubisoft.

As always, comments are encouraged and appreciated. 🙂

-posted by Wes | 2:55 pm | Comments (13)
13 Comments »
  • RADIX says:

    Judging by what you just wrote, TMNT sounds like another hashed movie/game tie-in. That “fart” bonus must have been put in to keep the younger players busy.

    A better bonus might be the ability to play as the Shredder. That would kick ass.

  • agustinaldo says:

    One thing:

    You complain that the game should have included characters from the ’80s cartoon.

    But you fail to realize an essential truth: true TMNT fanboys HATE the ’80s cartoons.

    They formly believe the be-all end-all of the Ninja Turtles are the original Mirage comics, and they ALWAYS claim that all future TMNT media should be based on the comics.

    Hell, the main reason people didn’t like the new movie is that it wasn’t true enough to their sacred, beloved comics (they wanted more blood and guts and dismembering and more characters from the comics).

    The main reason the new TMNT cartoon was created in the first place was to cater to the fanboys by being as true to the comics as possible.

    So, in short: asking a devepoler of a TMNT video game to include characters from the ’80s cartoon is akin to asking a developer of a Batman videogame to include characters from the ’60s/70s Adam West TV series.

  • Spoodles says:

    No co-op multiplayer? Daaaaaamn. Great article. I’ve been supremely disappointed with the recent-gen TMNT games (except for the unlockable 8-bit and 16-bit games contained therein), and it looks like this one may be fun.

    Also, everything looks ship-shape in IE6.

  • Greg says:

    agustinaldo: All the characters Wes mentioned in the article originated from the comic books, not the first animated show.

  • An Eskimo says:

    What happened to April Fools?

  • Wes says:

    RADIX: Agreed — though I would’ve settled for the ability to play as April and Casey, seeing as how they both might as well be hardcore ninja now. More Karai would have been nice too!

    agustinaldo: What Greg said — as I noted, all of those characters were from the original Mirage comics. Most of the name characters who appeared in the comics also appeared on the animated show, though.

    Also, I for one would be thrilled if they made a Batman game that included characters from the campy TV series. Again, most of them were also in the comics, but an appearance by Egghead in any Batman game (complete with speech samples from the late, great Vincent Price) would be awesome.

    Spoodles: Thanks, and thanks! And yeah, the game is kind of fun. I hated it at first, but once one gets past the fact that it’s a short, single-player platforming game, it ain’t half bad. That first Nightwatcher level is my new Solitaire. :mrgreen:

    Greg: Right you are. 🙂

    An Eskimo: Honestly, I’ve been so focused on the other layout changes on the site as of late that I haven’t had time to really put together a good alternate layout for the main page. Also, with WordPress now handling the content pages — largely via .htaccess rules — fixing the front page to redirect elsewhere would likely (temporarily) break quite a few of the new features on the site, such as the search dialogues and the navigation links at the bottom of the category pages. I may have the rest of the site laid out and in better shape for something like this around Halloween, though. Here’s hoping. 🙂

    ALSO:

    Looking over some of the other reviews of TMNT, I realized that I didn’t mention the sound at all! Again, it’s nothing terribly impressive or memorable, but voices sound more/less like they should (even though the voice actors sound like they could be different; Mako definitely did not voice Splinter), footsteps sound like footsteps, splashing in water sounds like splashing in water, and so forth. The music isn’t going to stick in your head or make you want to buy the soundtrack, but it’s similarly unintrusive and accompanies the action well enough. No complaints from me in this department. 😀

  • agustinaldo says:

    By the way, Wes, how do you know so much about Japanese culture?

  • Wes says:

    Erm, wha? I don’t know very much about Japanese culture at all. What I do know, however, I’ve probably picked up from watching lots of anime and Japanese cinema.

  • agustinaldo says:

    Well, only a guy versed in Japanese culture would know the name of the weapon the Nightwatcher wields.

    Not to mention you know what kind of sake is the best, you know a lot about martial arts, and you even know of anime that isn’t known in the US.

  • the Jax says:

    Just wanted to say I really enjoyed reading this review. I will know what to watch out for if I purchase this game. Another short-ish game with lots of unlockables & mini-games is Judge Dredd: Dredd vs Death, which should be fairly cheap now. Great music, atmospheric levels, ragdoll physics. It’s an fps. The weapons are a bit weak, and dude! Vampires should not be able to move that fast and continue to attack while on fire.

  • Wes says:

    agustinaldo: Actually, I had to do a bit of research to find out the name of the Nightwatcher’s weapon — the action figure describes it as being a “bolo chain”, but I knew that wasn’t the thing’s actual name. So I read up on chain-based weapons in Wikipedia and cross-referenced the names with images via a google search to come up with the proper name of the weapon. I described it as being manriki-style, though, because it looks like they’ve taken a few liberties. That chain is incredibly long in the film!

    And I wouldn’t say that I know which sake is best — I only know which one I prefer among the brands that I’ve sampled. One doesn’t have to be well-versed in Japanese culture to buy and sample sake, though. 🙂

    As for the rest, one can learn a lot about martial arts from anime, and I did practice Judo for a few years during my childhood (not that I remember all that much about it, but yeah). And as far as the relatively unknown animes go, that’s what newsgroups and anime websites/chatrooms are for!

    Jax: Glad you enjoyed the review. And c’mon, they’re vampires! If a corpse can come to life and alter its physiology to sprout fangs and subsist solely on blood, I’m willing to accept that it can move quickly and attack even while on fire. 😛 FPS games generally make me dizzy, though.

  • Yordan says:

    I have a question ? I want to collect all the shells,but i cant find fourth on 5 level , Spirit of the Forest .If you can help me please.Do the photo on the shell for example.I realy want to do the game 100%. Help guys.(Sorry for my bad english i am from Bulgaria) 🙂 Keep a good work!!!Peace.

  • Yordan says:

    yordanbaltov@yahoo.com is my email if you can send me some help for the 4 shell a 5 level. Please.

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