The year was 1989, arcades were hot, and quarters were flying out of my pockets like there was no tomorrow. Konami released an arcade title called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) and it was a four-player battle machine that was one of (and still is) the most popular arcade games ever released. As of right now the actual arcade unit is still going for around one thousand dollars on eBay and can also still be found in some pizza joints around town. Ever since the announcement and implementation of Xbox Live Arcade gamers have been waiting with baited-breath for this one game, among others – the Turtles arcade game. Ubisoft finally made everyone’s’ dreams come true with the release of the arcade game this week via Xbox Live for the insanely cheap price of five dollars.
If you have never played TMNT here is a little background; you play as one of the four mutant ninja turtles: Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, or Raphael. Each one uses a different type of weapon: sword, nun chucks, wooden staff, or sais’. The basic storyline is that bad guys kidnap the girl and attempt to take over the world. As the heroes of the story you need only play through the side-scrolling action levels beating the crap out of ninja soldiers and each level’s boss. The levels in the game consist of streets, buildings, sewers, and other normal type settings. Each boss battle is one of the main bad guys from the comic book, or television show, or movie series. A few of the more memorable ones are Bee-Bop, Rocksteady and Shredder.
Overall TMNT is quite short, maybe one of the reasons for the low price tag; the other being the upcoming release of the CG movie by the same name. There is only one mode and it can be beaten fairly quickly, especially with the help of some friends over Xbox Live. The game is basically the exact same thing that was released over 15 years ago but with “stretched” out graphics and online multiplayer. Something that is instantly noticeable as being missing is the ability to play with a friend/s on the same Xbox 360 unit. The only way to play with your buddies is through an internet connection and separate game units. I am not sure if this had something to do with developer coding but whatever the reason is it should have been included no matter what the costs. Control wise there are only 2 buttons for your use plus the d-pad, one button jumps, another attacks, and the d-pad controls direction of course. Simple enough right? Well arcade games of the late 90’s were made to be simple so besides attacking, jumping, throwing enemies, and hitting props (fire hydrants, parking meters, etc.) there is nothing else to do in the game.
Don’t get me wrong, it is a blast playing with your friends or random people over the internet, but there is something that’s just better when playing with a few friends sitting on the same couch as you’re eating some New York style pizza. Graphically TMNT is easily one of the more “aged” games available on the Xbox Live Arcade. If the developers did any sort of upgrading it is not noticeable with the naked eye. One nice feature is being able to stretch out the screen so it fits nicely on any size widescreen television. This feature alone made me happy but it would have been nice to see some HD capabilities or character model / background graphical upgrades to this version.
