BYTE-SIZE REVIEW
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled
By Shaun Hatton - August 6th, 2009
As a Turtle fan, I gotta tell you it doesn’t get much better than a classic TMNT beat-’em-up game. TMNT Turtles in Time was a game I rented several times back in the SNES-era, and one I beat on single play-throughs repeatedly. Now that the game has been given the HD treatment in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled, I’ve once again come under the influence of Turtle Mania.
Two things you must know if you’re considering purchasing this game: The first, you have to really like TMNT. The second, this is a button masher. Some skill is required to avoid enemy attacks and find the right time to strike, especially with the bosses, but in the end it comes down to a war of attrition. You pound away at the Foot Clan until you are victorious. That’s it. It’s still lots of fun, but I don’t see why anyone who isn’t a big Turtle fan would be into it.
The game is based on the original Turtles in Time, and that original arcade edition is supposedly what has been re-vamped here. So some things from the SNES game aren’t in here. It’s been a while since I’ve played the SNES edition, but I recall distinctly that Roadkill Rodneys were in the game – they don’t appear to be in this one. I’ve played through the whole thing but didn’t notice them. Also missing is the end battle with Krang wherein you toss Foot Soldiers at the screen to defeat him (or am I just remembering things really wrong?).
While the 3D visual makeover is nice, there are some setbacks. For instance, character models have changed quite a bit, especially the bosses and the Aliens-like sewer, er, aliens. So it strays away a bit from the conventions used by the goofy 80s cartoon but it’s a forgivable offense as the feel of the characters remains unchanged. The visual makeover has slightly changed the control aspect – with the pixel art it was easier to judge distances and therefore evade attacks. Things feel a little more haphazard now. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s a noticeable thing.
There’s minor voice acting, as with the original version. However now it’s really easy to draw comparisons between Krang and Gollum from Lord of the Rings. The music is also jazzed up a bit but the departure from chip tunes makes the score a little less memorable.
In the end, you’ve probably already made up your mind about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled. Again, Turtle fans will not want to miss this one, and the more friends you can get together to kick some shell with, the better. It doesn’t take long to play through, but the title is a good mix of old, new, and some obvious fan service. One thing is for certain: I prefer this brawling style for my TMNT games and hope to see some more like this (and the excellent GBA TMNT movie game from a few years ago) in the future.
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I only played the demo, but was impressed. I’ve played so much of the SNES version that I thought I’d hold off, but they did do a good job.
I was really impressed with the animation. It’s extremely smooth. I just wish they included the original arcade and SNES versions for nostalgia’s sake. If they included those, I would have paid the original $15 price. I love that R-Type and Monkey Island both allow you to switch on the fly…
I would love to see them update more of these games. TMNT3: The Manhattan Project on the NES would be awesome… Seems like many people forgot that game.
Or how about The Simpsons Arcade Game?
A button to switch between graphic styles on the fly would have been sweet. Still, the games a lot of fun. Not sure if that came across in the review here. I really do love it lots.
Throwing the Foot soldiers at the screen was just a normal move you could do, if I recall correctly. A fun one, though.
@Phil - yeah that move is still in the game. I just recall that also being tied into defeating one of the many iterations of Krang in the SNES version.
It was Shredder that you defeated by throwing the Foot Soldiers in the SNES version, and the whole level leading up to that boss fight (the Technodrome, after the sewer level and before time traveling) is also missing (as it was never in the arcade version).
Also in the SNES version but not the arcade or Reshelled versions are Slash (replaced Cement Man in Prehistoric Turttlesaurus), Bebop and Rocksteady (replaced Tokka and Rahzar in Skull & Crossbones, as they were moved to the earlier-mentioned Technodrome level), the Rat King (boss of the SNES’s more bonus-level-like version of the Sewer Surfing level), and Super Shredder (who replaced the original Shredder bossfight at the end of the game for no apparent reason).
Turns out that was the way to beat an incarnation of The Shredder, not Krang. Looks like I’ll be revisiting the original tonight.
@JDavis - thanks for the clarification. We posted at the exact same time there. Makes sense. I knew about those other boss replacements already. At the time of the SNES title those characters being in the game made total sense.
Yeah, it was the Shredder. Doing that on Hard is a BITCH. The Foot are all those red guys with the shield items.
people forgot about TMNT3? I actually liked that one more than TMNT2.
I only played the XBLA demo but I am intimately familiar with the SNES version as I still own the original cartridge. The SNES is still way better in terms of gameplay. Granted, its a button masher, but the SNES version had perfect control over the turtles. You can execute a screen throw or body slam on cue. In Re-shelled, like the arcade version its based on, is extremely random on the resulting attack. And what happened to the flip you can do when running? Or the 3 types of aerial attacks vs the 1 in Re-shelled? Did the arcade version really need to be simplified even further?
A lot of the TMNT games have a great soundtrack. Thank the lord for BGM menu selections. I vote for a Gameboy TMNT Fall Of The Foot Clan re-dux-shelled!
very recently re-played Turtles IV, Turtles in Time on my SNES. Beat the game. Total button masher, totally repetitive, but I still love the imagination & mash-up of styles and ideals the Turtles brought with them. Also, I can still hum the music for the first 3 levels of TMNT 1 on the NES