TMNT Ninja Tribunal

Unless you’ve been in a coma for the best part of 20 years or quite simply never seen a television, computer or movie screen ever before (so would probably not be reading this then?) you’ll have probably heard of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Not that I’m going to show you just how much of a boffin I am about these amphibious mutant martial artists, but you may also know them as the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles and only had the name changed for the silver screen debut!

Leonardo, Donatello, Michaelangelo and Raphael return for another action adventure under their careful guidance of their Master Splinter (a rat in a smokers jacket). The game starts as all good ones do, with quite a bit of a plot which unfolds further as the mystery unravels. Kidnapped and shipped to Japan, your mission starts in earnest when you land and get to meet the different Ninja Masters who are trained in the various areas of the arts who will train you in these skills – so you start as a young grasshopper and leave as a grand master!

You have two styles of gameplay to this title – which you will probably see a close similarity between Final Fantasy on the Playstation(s) and Garfield 2: The Royal Adventure for the mobile market (who also produced this game). By this I mean, you have a top-down view of the map and your turtles merge into one for ease of control whilst exploring. When you stumble upon an opponent, the screen zooms into the action and you take it in turns to strike or defend from the enemy.

In battle mode, your turtles stand in a neat row, making it easy to view and a pleasure to control. The actions are pre-defined, so you get to pick who hits who, which will make all the difference in a fight as all the different weapons the characters are armed with effect the opponents in different ways – so you may find the swords of Leonardo are more effective against one type of enemy than Donatello’s wooden staff.

As the action is pre-defined, you must be careful not to over-do the attack on weak enemies. For example, the opponent may die after one hit, leaving the other three attacks unable to be completed – which leaves you open to attack from the remaining forces. In terms of your characters’ strength, they are measured in two ways – the hit-points (HP) and chi-power.

The appearance of the game is a nice balance and I’m personally quite surprised by the level of detail available. The sound effects are quite strong throughout and the controls are straightforward (i.e. up, down, left, right when exploring the map and choosing to attack, use chi, defend or flee!). Another nice feature is being able to scroll through your team’s personal information e.g. health, attack/defence stats and even how long you’ve been playing.

As you move around the screen you get to see most of the enemies which allows you to avoid them if you so choose, or go toe-to-toe with them should you wish to improve your skills (at the risk of being beaten). However, there are some which must be fought and will ambush you no matter what.

Don’t worry if you think fighting’s the be all and end all of this game, it’s not, in fact it’s a careful balance between battles and mini-games which will test your puzzle solving and timing skills decently too.

All in all then, this game gives anyone who likes the TMNT a very enjoyable thrill, and for those who aren’t sure who these guys are, a comprehensive battle and puzzling mini-game fuelled frenzy. This game is definitely a good addition for you to include in your collection and while away the hours with.

Rating 96%

Positives

Easy controls

Good little story and plenty of action and mini-games

Addictive

Negatives

May put off non-TMNT fans

It follows a set game route – no ability to change the course of action to influence the results