If you are old enough to remember playing Turtles in Time way back when, you were either lucky enough to have a copy of the SNES home console version or you frittered away your pocket money on the arcade cabinet version. Either way, those that played the title remember it for the familiar rendition of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme song, sharp graphics (for its time) and the ability to toss Shredder's foot-soldiers straight into the screen.
Leo shows off his turtle power.
Like many of the licensed arcade games that Konami was behind in the early part of the 1990s, Turtles in Time: Re-Shelled lets up to four players play co-operatively (both offline and online) as one of the four heroes in a half-shell: Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo as they make their way through a number of side-scrolling levels where the objective is to beating up on a screen full of enemies, with the ultimate aim of making it to the end of the level to take on a boss enemy that resorts to cheap tactics. Like most arcade games, you'll find that there are elements of cheapness afoot in the title - after all these games were made to swallow every dollar you had in your pocket. As you play through the game you'll come across a number of enemies that have their annoying advantages, such as the many bosses that heal themselves mid-fight or the plethora of unavoidable doors and traps that are peppered throughout the game - particularly the dreaded sewer level! Though for all of these annoying quirks, there is no actual challenge to the title as eventually you'll figure out how to take down your opponents, not to mention the use of unlimited continues is also a help.
One of the most disappointing aspects of the title is the fact that the developer has managed to make each turtle so boringly generic. Everyone knows that while sharing the effects of the mutagen ooze, each of the turtles all had their own distinct personalities and talents to display. Though for the purposes of Turtles in Time: Re-Shelled, each character moves the same, talks the same and even attacks the same as each other. What's even more laughable is the fact that at the game's character selection screen each turtle is given different statistics for speed and power, yet in-game you can barely tell them apart. Sharing this generic fighting style also makes it quite difficult to track your character when you've got four people playing the game together. For all of the effort that the developer went into with remaking the title, we at PALGN wish that they would have gone the whole hog and given us a game that shows off the individuality of each character and given them an attack/special move which meshed in with their persona, but unfortunately we just critique the games, not make them...
Cheap bosses run rampant in Turtles in Time.
While the complete package isn't anything to write home to Splinter about, there are some nice touches to Turtles in Time: Re-Shelled which will keep the fans pleased. Firstly, there's the kick out of seeing all of your favourite characters from the Turtles themselves right through to our favourite baddies Krang and Shredder. Not to mention the fact that the game is filled with the cheesy one liners that we've come to expect and funny animations as you lay the smackdown on enemy foot-soldiers.
For all of its faults, the one thing you can't fault about this title is the graphical overhaul that it received. The updated graphics engine brings an extra dimension to the Turtles giving them a stylised appearance that is in the vein of the new Ninja Turtles cartoon - not to mention that it sports some nice lighting effects to boot. Though for all of it's clean animations and bright colours, it just doesn't have the same charm that the pixels and sprites of the original title sported. Playing the game with its original graphics is one option that was sadly overlooked.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled aims to bring back the feeling that gamers had with the original title back in the day, but ultimately it's nothing more than fan service as all this game elicits between bouts of nostalgia is the feeling of shock as you mow through the title in under an hour of button mashing and realise that you just paid ten bucks for the privilege. If you're a Turtle fan you'll probably pick this up just for the hell of it, but for those looking for a solid Xbox Live Arcade experience, there is better gameplay to be had with a similarly priced title like Splosion Man.
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