TMNT: Out of the Shadows

[Wallcrawler]

Wow. I picked this game up off of XBLA for 15 bucks, and I gotta say Im enjoying the hell out of this game.

I read the reviews and was pretty "shellshocked" at how many sites shit all over this game. Scores in the 1-3 range everywhere, and that's just flat out bullshit.

The combat is like if you took Arkham's Freeflow, and combined it with the Fighting Game genre's combos and special attacks.

Each turtle feels extremely different from the rest, and no other game has ever done this. Leonardo is balanced, Michaelangelo is ridiculously fast but does less damage, Raphael is a bull in a china closet and hits like a Mack Truck, and Donatello handles crowds with ease.

You've got a typical experience and leveling style to upgrade your turtles, unlocking new moves, team attacks, team finishers, the ability to counter special attacks by enemies, gain toughness, do more damage, and even unlock a special weapon and upgrade it for use with your special bars.

This was a really ambitious game for an Arcade title, and for 15 bucks, its well worth the price.

There is a little bit of a lack of polish, as you sometimes will see enemy weapons floating in the air after an enemy is defeated, and you will get the occaisional clipping issue, but overall this is a pretty damn fun game.

This game was targeted toward the TMNT fan that is in their late 20's to mid 30's. Those of us that grew up with the 80's cartoon and enjoyed the theatrical release of the original TMNT film.

This isn't just a typical button masher beat em up. It has a deep fighting system and you can really orchestrate a stylish symphony of ass kickery once you get into the flow of attacking, evading, countering and finishing.

Team up attacks are awesome. You can switch between all 4 turtles at any time, like the Ultimate alliance or XMEN legends games. There are instances where you will start an attack or counter with one turtle, and can switch to another to finish off a flashy takedown.

Team finishers involve some viciousl high/low hits, as well as the classic 2-4 turtle shell bash against a defenseless foot soldier.

The playable demo is on XBLA, and you can get a small taste of the combat on its Alley Challenge map which is very similar to Arkham's combat challenges. 4 waves of enemies where you try to score as high as you can. Untouched, take everyone out in the same combo, multiple variations on the takedowns, etc..

Its definitely worth a look if youre a fan of TMNT. It has it issues, for sure, especially when the camera decides to go haywire on you, but for a quarter of the price of a retail game, its money well spent.

Here's a look at a guy racking up a 100 hit combo in the game's survival mode.

[lcarus]

I got it for PC and liked the idea of the game, but it was executed poorly as hell. I thought it was garbage unfortunately. They're on the right track though. I like games like that. They'll still never beat Turtles In Time.

[Bump]

I bought it because I'm a TMNT fan. Really disappointed. It's another example of activision forcing a release way before it's finished.

[Gravedigger]

Why do they keep doing the same beat em up for TMNT. How about another genre of game? It's not the 90's anymore, come up with something more clever.

[ThaVirus]

Originally Posted by Gravedigger

Why do they keep doing the same beat em up for TMNT. How about another genre of game? It's not the 90's anymore, come up with something more clever.

What more can they do with ninja turtles? I'm not even trying to be douchey; that's a legit question. I feel like they're kind of limited in the source material.

[Gravedigger]

Originally Posted by ThaVirus

What more can they do with ninja turtles? I'm not even trying to be douchey; that's a legit question. I feel like they're kind of limited in the source material.

Make the game more story driven. Don't just have a four player beat em up, take each of the four turtles and give them an origin story. Introduce bad guys through chapters of their lives, start from scratch. The reason these games are mindless fun is because its alot of button mashing. If you incorporated a story about the maturation of each of the turtles from the ooze to a cohesive unit, you would sell more copies at a higher price. In the gaming world nowadays you get what you put into your product, whether it be money or passion for the source material or all of the above. They need to put a bigger budget into these games so they're worth more than $15 on Steam.