Your favourite TMNT game?

[D-ray]

I know that there is not too much people who followed or atleast tried the TMNT videogames, but I'm curious anyway.
I'm a big fan of the Ps2 versions and some of the Arcade games (TMNT 2 Battle Nexus, TMNT 3 Mutant Nightmare, TMNT Turtles in Time, TMNT Manhattam Project).
If you have never played anyone of them, you didn't miss anything special tho. They are simple beat em ups usually in co-op.

But I think that the best thing of these games is, in fact, the cooperativity and the simple yet fun gameplay. Sometimes it's even the level of challenge some of them gives you!
What about you guys? There is atleast one game that you liked?

[Panther10]

Out of the Shadows is usually fun. I could play all three gameplay modes for hours on end. And the classic games all the way from the TMNT arcade, turtles in time, the 2k3 games and TMNT (2k7) were always fun

[pferreira]

The Snes version of Turtles in Time.

[D-ray]

Out of the Shadows is usually fun. I could play all three gameplay modes for hours on end. And the classic games all the way from the TMNT arcade, turtles in time, the 2k3 games and TMNT (2k7) were always fun
Wow, a connoisseur I see!
The arcade games were pretty neat, but easily repetitive. The NES games were pretty fun! Like playing Castlevania with the TMNT (even tho Castelvania was a little easier in some parts). The 2003 Ps2 games were gold! Except for the first, downright boring and really repetitive. The other two had atleast some platforming, more combos, interesting bosses etc. Mutant Melee was good, but the characters choice was... eugh?

Sadly, the only 2007 TMNT game I played is Mutant Melee, which is a GREAT fighting game! Even tho the Ps2 version lacked of some special characters and online multyplayer.
Out of the Shadows is the only one I've never played, for the simple reason that didn't have local co-op (I used to play the TMNT games with my brother). I'm just abit afraid that I might have lost a nice game.

[D-ray]

The Snes version of Turtles in Time.
I like Turtles in Time too, but I slightly prefer the Ps2 porting on TMNT 3 Mutant Nightmare, just because it has a great OST.
Other than that, Arcade, Ps2 or Snes are all kinda the same so it's still a good game.

[frank_one]

My all-time favourite is Turtles 3: Radical rescue for the original Game boy. A tmnt metroidvania, nothing can top that.

[D-ray]

My all-time favourite is Turtles 3: Radical rescue for the original Game boy. A tmnt metroidvania, nothing can top that.
Never seen it.
Mind if I...

*downloads emulator*

[Icebot]

My favorites of all time are TMNT 2003 for game boy advance and TMNT 2 Battle Nexus for GameCube.

I also like the NES games TMNT 1 and 2 and I like the Beatles song Come Together because of the 5th stage in the first game. I also like TMNT 3 Mutant Nightmare on all systems and TMNT 2007 on game boy advance.

I like the SNES game Turtles in Time and I really like the Neon Night Riders stage due to the fact that we’re in 2020.

[D-ray]

My favorites of all time are TMNT 2003 for game boy advance and TMNT 2 Battle Nexus for GameCube.

I also like the NES games TMNT 1 and 2 and I like the Beatles song Come Together because of the 5th stage in the first game. I also like TMNT 3 Mutant Nightmare on all systems and TMNT 2007 on game boy advance.

I like the SNES game Turtles in Time and I really like the Neon Night Riders stage due to the fact that we’re in 2020.

Battle Nexus is still on my desktop, since I like to play it sometimes on my PC! Even tho the best memories and saves are on the Ps2 original disk. I'd like to buy TMNT 3 Mutant Nightmare for PC but it's soooo hard to find in good conditions on Ebay!

By the way, Icebot, the best thing of the 2003 trilogy is their OST. I loved how they "recycled" the show themes and adapted them for some of the game's!
And these things...
https://i.redd.it/wf55d2z6v1p41.png

[pferreira]

My favorites of all time are TMNT 2003 for game boy advance and TMNT 2 Battle Nexus for GameCube.Battle Nexus is a means of torture (shudders). :(

[D-ray]

Battle Nexus is a means of torture (shudders). :(
If you mean "I'll take them all". I feel ya.

[Leo656]

Hmm. I'd have a tough time picking a favorite, but I think Battle Nexus would be in last place, for sure. I liked the first and third game in that series just fine, but I don't have as fond memories of the second one. For one thing, some of the levels were designed so that it made more sense to avoid enemies and race to the end of the level, and that's just not a good way to do a "beat-'em-up" type of game. For another thing, and this is a personal problem but it doesn't help my opinion towards the game, my copy is glitched and impossible to finish, apparently, so eventually I just put it aside and never went back to it.

In advance of anyone asking, the Hun fight on my copy is glitched. Instead of going back and forth between being invincible and not, once he gets down to very low health, he just stays red and invincible permanently. Last time I bothered to play it, I managed to drag the fight out for over 15 minutes, most of which was trying (and failing) to get that last sliver of health off. Pretty sure, based on everything I've read, that's not supposed to happen. And I haven't been inclined to try and pick up another copy because frankly I didn't think it was that great to start with. Maybe if I find one super cheap one day.

I would not say that it's necessarily a bad game - I've almost never heard of the glitch happening to anyone else, so I assume it's super-rare and I just got "lucky" - but I think it needed work. But between the glitch and the level design, it was the least fun I've had with any TMNT game, easily.

Second worst would probably be Smash-Up, just because there's only like an hour of gameplay to it and very little replay value. Again, not "bad", but it barely felt like a complete game, and that's a shame.

Mutant Melee didn't thrill me much, but I didn't play it a whole lot. Just didn't grab me for some reason.

As far as "best", I really couldn't pick one (thus why it's easier for me to pick out the lower-tier, first; generally, most of the TMNT games I've played have been pretty good, which is why the ones that are sub-par stand out from the pack). Most peoples' default answer is "Turtles In Time", and I kind of agree - no TMNT game has probably given me MORE hours of pure fun, pound-for-pound - but at the same time... it's a 25-minute game, even on Hard. It'll probably always be my sentimental favorite, but is it really "The Best"? I don't know. There's nothing wrong with what there is, but there definitely could be a lot more of it.

Someone could certainly make a strong case for the SNES version of Tournament Fighters. It's definitely one of the best SFII clones, of which there were many. I can only assume that it doesn't get more love because a lot of TMNT fans aren't necessarily fans of fighting games. It's also notoriously cheap on higher difficulty setting, but still beatable. But the graphics, sounds, roster, music and gameplay are all superb. It's not perfect but it's arguably the closest any TMNT game got for what it was trying to be. AND, it'll keep you busy for more than 25 minutes. So there's that.

At the time it came out, I would have said the first game based on the 2K/4Kids cartoon was easily the best TMNT game all-around. I still kind of feel that way. There's quite a lot about it that isn't great, but as 3D beat-'em-ups go it's not bad at all, and I still prefer it over either of its sequels, although I liked a lot of the new ideas they came up with for those. I just feel like the first one was the most balanced overall. And beating the game with each of the Turtles to unlock the final level and get the real ending is something that we all take for granted now, but was a pretty big deal in 2003 and unprecedented for a TMNT game. Again, I don't know if it's still that high on my list because I haven't played it in a while, but objectively I still think it's one of the best they've done.

Frankly, I kinda think both "Out of the Shadows" and "Mutants In Manhattan" deserve to be in the conversation more than they generally are. No, they're not perfect, but they definitely provide more gameplay than a lot of the other games people often mention, and I feel like they're more the victim of peoples' expectations for them, rather than anything they fail at doing specifically. I, personally, didn't encounter any bugs or glitches in my copy of OOTS, and many peoples' complaints were based on that more than anything. I had a good time with it. Not really sure what people's issue was with MiM, but those 5 and 6 out of 10 review scores are a joke. Granted, it does play a lot better once you put a few hours into it and start unlocking new abilities, attacks, etc; I'd hazard a guess that most people simply didn't do that and dismissed it as a shallow and pointless game. The worst thing I can say about it, is that it suffers from the same flaws as every beat-'em-up: "Mash X to win". No, it doesn't push the genre forward in any way, but I don't know why anyone expected that. Not everything is gonna be "Arkham", and you can't just blast a game for not living up to that standard.

If I HAD to pick a "favorite", though... right now, it would probably be Mutants In Manhattan, honestly. I really like the gameplay, the randomization of challenges during the levels, the level-up system of special abilities, the ability to mix-and-match those special abilities, the way you can switch between Turtles on the fly (pretty essential on higher difficulties), the Secret Bosses... there's really not much I don't like about it, and I find most of the criticisms rather nitpicky. It's not a particularly long game to beat, but will take many hours to unlock everything and level-up all the Special attacks. Based on that, along with the fact that it came out at a more mid-range price point, it definitely gives a lot of hours of gameplay for a "budget" title. There's really not much "wrong" with it, and they give you a lot, so I really can't complain.

I know a lot of people were disappointed with not having any local co-op for that game, and I guess I kind of agree, but I mostly play solo, anyway. I will say that the game's camera, while not bad, isn't great, and I feel like co-cop really would have been a problem with that game's engine. So while I agree it's a flaw, it doesn't hurt the game for me, personally. The only other thing I would change, is a way to choose to play the Secret Boss versions of a level, once you've beaten it already. As it is, whether you get a Secret Boss is apparently mostly-random (based partly on your score, but not entirely); I would like to play against those Secret Bosses more often, and would probably choose to play them every time, honestly. I'm pretty disappointed when I have an awesome run-through on a level but don't get a Secret Boss fight, so I wish that they could be "unlocked" and selectable once you've already beaten them once, rather than random chance.

So yeah, I rank MiM, Turtles In Time, OOTS and the first 4Kids game all pretty highly, with an Honorable Mention for Tournament Fighters. Any of those could objectively be "the best" for different reasons, and I'd probably call whichever of them I played most recently my favorite. Although it's always gonna bother me how short Turtles In Time is. Pretty unforgivable, really. Although given the fact that developers wouldn't really "master" the trick of porting arcade games to home consoles until the late-90s, it's a small miracle the SNES version turned out as good as it did. They didn't add a ton, but at least they did in fact add stuff.

[Andrew NDB]

Deja vu, as I feel I've posted in many threads about this. But TMNT 1 on NES. It was "Vice Project Doom" for NES before that was even a thing (anyone remember that? the whole "3 games in 1" thing?). Incredibly original, surprisingly large scale (there is top down, side scrolling, drive the Turtle Van and run over Foot Soldiers, swimming stages, you can pick your Turtle). It's not a perfect game as it's probably harder than it needed to be (I only finally beat it in like 2001 after I had it on an emulator that enabled me to constantly save and reload to certain points), but you have to respect what it tried to do. It copied no formulas and just tried to be a straight up great, original TMNT game.

As opposed to the 5 or 6 Final Fight clones that would follow, ending the bunch with a literal Street Fighter clone. But I can't fault Tournament Fighters as that was at least trying something new after everything that had come before it.

Can't speak to anything that came after that as I haven't played anything. Maybe there's good stuff, I have no clue.

[D-ray]

For another thing, and this is a personal problem but it doesn't help my opinion towards the game, my copy is glitched and impossible to finish, apparently, so eventually I just put it aside and never went back to it.

In advance of anyone asking, the Hun fight on my copy is glitched. Instead of going back and forth between being invincible and not, once he gets down to very low health, he just stays red and invincible permanently. Last time I bothered to play it, I managed to drag the fight out for over 15 minutes, most of which was trying (and failing) to get that last sliver of health off. Pretty sure, based on everything I've read, that's not supposed to happen. And I haven't been inclined to try and pick up another copy because frankly I didn't think it was that great to start with. Maybe if I find one super cheap one day.
What the hell. Call an exorcist!
Jokes apart, the only "BUG" I've encountered so far in over a 1000 hours total, is when you are fighting against Feudal Japan Shredder. Normally, you can break the barriers around the arena to reach a secret item (Antique) but you can also use the enourmous hole that surrounds the level to one shot Shredder if you manage to push him down there. But I think it's intentional, not a real bug.

For one thing, some of the levels were designed so that it made more sense to avoid enemies and race to the end of the level, and that's just not a good way to do a "beat-'em-up" type of game.
I think that is a good thing. As you later said some TMNT fans are not necessarly fans of beat em' up games, so I find pretty good the possibility to rush to the end of the level without fighting anyone. From my personal experience, when I was younger, I used to skip some parts of the game, just because I didn't want to fight the enemies and risk to loose.
Yes, it kinda ruins the sense of beat em' up, but I think is well thought.

Second worst would probably be Smash-Up, just because there's only like an hour of gameplay to it and very little replay value. Again, not "bad", but it barely felt like a complete game, and that's a shame.

Mutant Melee didn't thrill me much, but I didn't play it a whole lot. Just didn't grab me for some reason.

Can't blame you, those games are MADE to be played with someone. I used to play the TMNT games with my older brother, that's why I almost enjoyed them all.

At the time it came out, I would have said the first game based on the 2K/4Kids cartoon was easily the best TMNT game all-around. I still kind of feel that way. There's quite a lot about it that isn't great, but as 3D beat-'em-ups go it's not bad at all, and I still prefer it over either of its sequels, although I liked a lot of the new ideas they came up with for those. I just feel like the first one was the most balanced overall. And beating the game with each of the Turtles to unlock the final level and get the real ending is something that we all take for granted now, but was a pretty big deal in 2003 and unprecedented for a TMNT game. Again, I don't know if it's still that high on my list because I haven't played it in a while, but objectively I still think it's one of the best they've done.
I played it recently, and it was a punch in the stomach. Not because it was not good, but because it was downright boring. The levels were too long, and too repetitive. The bosses maybe were ok, but for me it was really difficult to finish, just because you loose the will to continue. The only thing I really liked, was the 1 vs 1 mode, a thing that never came back into the various 2003 games.

If I HAD to pick a "favorite", though... right now, it would probably be Mutants In Manhattan, honestly. I really like the gameplay, the randomization of challenges during the levels, the level-up system of special abilities, the ability to mix-and-match those special abilities, the way you can switch between Turtles on the fly (pretty essential on higher difficulties), the Secret Bosses... there's really not much I don't like about it, and I find most of the criticisms rather nitpicky. It's not a particularly long game to beat, but will take many hours to unlock everything and level-up all the Special attacks. Based on that, along with the fact that it came out at a more mid-range price point, it definitely gives a lot of hours of gameplay for a "budget" title. There's really not much "wrong" with it, and they give you a lot, so I really can't complain.

Sadly, I've never played it...
We never had a good internet connection, so playing co-op online was... probably impossible.
Also, as you mentioned, I never played it due to the fact it didn't have local co-op feature.
I should really try it.

[D-ray]

Deja vu, as I feel I've posted in many threads about this. But TMNT 1 on NES. It was "Vice Project Doom" for NES before that was even a thing (anyone remember that? the whole "3 games in 1" thing?). Incredibly original, surprisingly large scale (there is top down, side scrolling, drive the Turtle Van and run over Foot Soldiers, swimming stages, you can pick your Turtle). It's not a perfect game as it's probably harder than it needed to be (I only finally beat it in like 2001 after I had it on an emulator that enabled me to constantly save and reload to certain points), but you have to respect what it tried to do. It copied no formulas and just tried to be a straight up great, original TMNT game.

As opposed to the 5 or 6 Final Fight clones that would follow, ending the bunch with a literal Street Fighter clone. But I can't fault Tournament Fighters as that was at least trying something new after everything that had come before it.

Can't speak to anything that came after that as I haven't played anything. Maybe there's good stuff, I have no clue.
Sorry!
I'm kinda new to the forum, that's why I may open threads similar to the older ones.
It's just a way for me to know how things are going now.

[Leo656]

We've definitely had this conversation before, Andrew. :trazz:

Also, "Probably" harder than it needed to be? :lol:

That's the biggest factor against that game, and why the follow-up games did so much better at satisfying the audience. The first game could be as "original" and whatever as it wanted, but it was absolutely, positively NOT the video game the franchise required at the time it was released, which was why the arcade game got such an overwhelmingly positive response and was ported to the NES so quickly. It was a very blatant "We're Sorry, you guys" after the first game. Credit to Konami for actually paying attention and being willing to give people what they wanted. Yeah, the sequels weren't very groundbreaking, BUT, it's what people wanted. They'd have been stupid to do anything else. It's a business. Supply and Demand.

There weren't even a ton of genres to choose from back in 1989-1994, anyway, especially for licensed games. "Genre-mixing" wasn't a thing yet, you were pretty much locked in. You could have a beat-'em-up, a platformer, a fighting game, a top-down shooter, a scrolling shooter, or a turn-based RPG, and that's it. Anything else was a sports game. Given that, I'm hard-pressed to determine exactly what they could have done for a TMNT game during that time period that wasn't "Final Fight clone". That was the only existing gameplay style that made any SENSE for the property. Turn-based RPG? I'd play it now, but maybe not back then, and I promise you it wouldn't have worked. They did the absolute best they could, "original" or not. If someone in 1991 WAS inclined to "break the mold" and mash some genres together, they certainly wouldn't try it with an expensive license like TMNT.

I do give the first NES game credit for what it was - or rather, what it tried to do - but I think the fact that most people have the same story about it speaks volumes. "I beat it, finally... using Save states/cheat codes/etc." Kinda tells the tale, doesn't it? Every kid I knew had that game back in the day, but most of them only played it in short bursts and then put it back in the closet. It needed to be a completely different game than what it was, because what it was simply was not satisfying to the larger audience. Not a "bad" game - it mostly works, and the music is good - but it's just blatantly, infuriatingly unfair most of the time. And I as a rule don't love any game where you can feasibly waste entire hours of time (and all of your characters) going through levels which are in no way getting you any closer to the end of the game, but are instead only there to trick and kill you.

That's really my biggest problem; not even the general difficulty, but the fact that most of the game is just a maze designed to waste your time and make you lose all your Turtles, who are a big pain in the ass to recover. Without a guide, it's borderline unplayable after the first few levels, and that's just ridiculous. This was ostensibly a kids' game; there was no reason to be so cheap and unfair. The game still takes plenty of time and effort to beat even when you know exactly what you're doing and where to go, so there was no reason to "pad" it with all the rooms that are only there to kill you. As it is, you can conceivably get to a point where it's like, "Dammit, I can't go any farther past this point, because I need the Rope," so you have to backtrack aaaaalllll the way to where the Rope might be, probably dying at least once on the way there and back... requiring a side-quest to go try and rescue them, hoping you don't lose someone ELSE on the way there... it's needlessly complicated, and a chore.

I don't HATE it, but... middle of the pack, for me, towards the bottom. I'm never gonna beat it, I know that, so I don't even really mess with it anymore. I give it all the credit in the world for its ambition, and there's definitely fun to be had, but I only really like the first few levels, and I think their ambition was more than their ability to execute.

One of the Nick games was very, very similar. "Danger of the Ooze", I think. Not too bad, felt mostly like a "proper" execution of what the first NES game tried to be, with a lot of the frustration neutralized. It's fine, and it shows how a lot of those same ideas could work out well with better execution. It's just not altogether a very memorable experience. But I do recommend it, especially for those who like the NES original. It's not "the same", but once you play it you'll see and feel the similarities.

[Leo656]

What the hell. Call an exorcist!
Jokes apart, the only "BUG" I've encountered so far in over a 1000 hours total, is when you are fighting against Feudal Japan Shredder. Normally, you can break the barriers around the arena to reach a secret item (Antique) but you can also use the enourmous hole that surrounds the level to one shot Shredder if you manage to push him down there. But I think it's intentional, not a real bug.


I think that is a good thing. As you later said some TMNT fans are not necessarly fans of beat em' up games, so I find pretty good the possibility to rush to the end of the level without fighting anyone. From my personal experience, when I was younger, I used to skip some parts of the game, just because I didn't want to fight the enemies and risk to loose.
Yes, it kinda ruins the sense of beat em' up, but I think is well thought.


Can't blame you, those games are MADE to be played with someone. I used to play the TMNT games with my older brother, that's why I almost enjoyed them all.


I played it recently, and it was a punch in the stomach. Not because it was not good, but because it was downright boring. The levels were too long, and too repetitive. The bosses maybe were ok, but for me it was really difficult to finish, just because you loose the will to continue. The only thing I really liked, was the 1 vs 1 mode, a thing that never came back into the various 2003 games.



Sadly, I've never played it...
We never had a good internet connection, so playing co-op online was... probably impossible.
Also, as you mentioned, I never played it due to the fact it didn't have local co-op feature.
I should really try it.

- I mean, I can understand not having to fight and kill EVERY enemy, but you should at least have to fight MOST of 'em, or else why even do a beat-'em-up? If all you're doing is avoiding enemies, then it's an obstacle course, not a beat-'em-up. Back in those days, especially, it was customary to have to fight every enemy in most of those games, so being able to skip most of them was very strange. It made that particular game feel unfinished. I remember in the magazines that was the biggest thing the critics complained about.

It's a bit more common nowadays. Like in Mutants In Manhattan, there are several levels where you definitely are NOT supposed to even try to fight every single enemy (although a few still require it). But back in 2004-ish it definitely wasn't the standard. And I still feel like they could have tweaked the balance just a bit. They had some good ideas in there, though.

- I haven't played the first 4Kids game in a couple of years, but yeah, I do remember the levels being a little bit long. Didn't bother me a ton back then, though; all beat-'em-up/hack-'n-slash games are by definition very repetitive. One of these days I'll hook up the Gamecube and see what I think now. I'm generally pretty forgiving.

- If nothing else, Smash-Up needed a bigger roster. Even if I was playing against someone else, I'd only be able to get so much out of such a small number of playable characters. I liked the basic idea, and what there IS of the game is fine, but... they could have done a lot better all the same. It just wasn't up to the fighting game standards of the day, not even for a licensed game. I feel like the developers just said "good enough" halfway through. But again, what there IS of the game is fine for what it is. It simply wasn't enough of that.

- Mutants In Manhattan is a good "average" single-player beat-'em'up. I say "average" as in, "It's not Arkham-level". Anyone expecting that level of depth would be disappointed. Anyone else who doesn't mind a single-player "keep hitting X and Y" game would likely find a lot to do. It easily has the best selection of Bosses in any TMNT game, ever. And it's not very difficult, and never feels like it's cheap or unfair. You can definitely find it cheap, so I definitely recommend giving it a look. You'll likely be pleasantly surprised.

[D-ray]

I mean, I can understand not having to fight and kill EVERY enemy, but you should at least have to fight MOST of 'em, or else why even do a beat-'em-up? If all you're doing is avoiding enemies, then it's an obstacle course, not a beat-'em-up. Back in those days, especially, it was customary to have to fight every enemy in most of those games, so being able to skip most of them was very strange. It made that particular game feel unfinished. I remember in the magazines that was the biggest thing the critics complained about.

It's a bit more common nowadays. Like in Mutants In Manhattan, there are several levels where you definitely are NOT supposed to even try to fight every single enemy (although a few still require it). But back in 2004-ish it definitely wasn't the standard. And I still feel like they could have tweaked the balance just a bit. They had some good ideas in there, though.
Some levels of Battle Nexus actually requires you to beat every enemy, but they are something like 50% of the game. The most of it can be a skippable course, or you just have to beat a couple of enemies.

If nothing else, Smash-Up needed a bigger roster. Even if I was playing against someone else, I'd only be able to get so much out of such a small number of playable characters. I liked the basic idea, and what there IS of the game is fine, but... they could have done a lot better all the same. It just wasn't up to the fighting game standards of the day, not even for a licensed game. I feel like the developers just said "good enough" halfway through. But again, what there IS of the game is fine for what it is. It simply wasn't enough of that.
Yeah...
Both Smash-Up and Mutant Melee had a bad roaster of characters. Mutant Melee has Slegh; a character that, since this game, never received an official name.
Who thought: "Ah yeah everybody loves him, he is damn important."

There is also commander Mozar in the game files and in some of the game's missions, but for some reasons, he is not playable... uff...
And don't get me started on the "reskins"...
Who cares about 2 variants of Casey and April as characters?

Smash-Up didn't have "bad" characters, but as you said it was very little...
They added Professor Honeycutt and some Rabbids in the Wii version, but still just one more character and 4 crossovers.

[Leo656]

See, those Rabbids were bullsh*t. That kinda sh*t right there infuriates me when they easily could have given those spots to literally ANY thing else.

For all its flaws, Tournament Fighters had an amazing roster, back in the day. Could've been better - jealous that the Genesis version had April and Casey - but it was pretty well fleshed-out. I can easily name another dozen characters that "deserved" to be there and Aska was kinda pointless, but aside from maaaaybe her, nobody felt like a wasted spot.

Smash-Up had a small roster and TWO of the spots were completely wasted. Given the year it came out, I can't do anything but shake my head at that decision. F*ck those developers for making the inclusion of Rabbids dependent on their making the game. Shame on them. Such a tone-deaf and boneheaded decision.

It's too bad TMNT isn't very popular at the moment. After seeing how well they were handled in Injustice 2, I'd honestly love to see a "real" TMNT fighting game with a decent engine and a beefy roster. Like a natural evolution of Tournament Fighters. That would be awesome. I'm not a huge fighting game guy, but I played the hell out of Tournament Fighters and I'd definitely play the hell out of a modern fighter, done well.

My preferred style of TMNT game is, was, and always will be "beat-'em-up", but as Andrew said, they've done a bunch of those in every flavor. So if the next TMNT game wasn't a beefed-up version of Mutants In Manhattan, I'd settle for a really decent fighting game.

I mean, someone can go ahead and do an RPG if they wanna, I'd be perfectly fine with that. :lol: They won't, though.

[Wesley]

I’ve lost interest in videogames, but my favourite TMNT game was the first one for the Game Boy Advance, even though I wasn’t a beat-em up fan could never beat it. Never cared much for the others I played tbh.

[Leo656]

The 4Kids one for GBA? I just recently acquired and finished that one. Pretty good! Do you remember what part you got stuck on? I managed to get through it rather quickly. It's rather short, that was my only nitpick.

I liked a lot of what they came up with for that game. I liked that you're required to play as each of the Turtles and that they each have their own unique levels designed around their own gameplay style, since each Turtle has unique abilities, but I wish they'd managed to let you "free play" all of the levels with whichever Turtle you wanted after completing the main game. Would have added greatly to the replay value. I'm not sure if they could have, since each level pretty much required that specific Turtle's abilities to navigate and complete it, but they could've figured it out.

But on the whole, not a bad piece of business! I definitely regret overlooking it when it came out, and I feel bad that apparently a lot of people did. The beat-'em'up sections definitely brought back fond memories of the good ol' days and felt like a natural evolution of Turtles In Time. The rest of the game tried some new things and I feel they mostly turned out well.

[D-ray]

See, those Rabbids were bullsh*t. That kinda sh*t right there infuriates me when they easily could have given those spots to literally ANY thing else.

Bahahahaha! It's so damn true!

I’ve lost interest in videogames, but my favourite TMNT game was the first one for the Game Boy Advance, even though I wasn’t a beat-em up fan could never beat it. Never cared much for the others I played tbh.
I'm the exact opposite: hardcore maniac gamer.

[D-ray]

The 4Kids one for GBA? I just recently acquired and finished that one. Pretty good! Do you remember what part you got stuck on? I managed to get through it rather quickly. It's rather short, that was my only nitpick.

I liked a lot of what they came up with for that game. I liked that you're required to play as each of the Turtles and that they each have their own unique levels designed around their own gameplay style, since each Turtle has unique abilities, but I wish they'd managed to let you "free play" all of the levels with whichever Turtle you wanted after completing the main game. Would have added greatly to the replay value. I'm not sure if they could have, since each level pretty much required that specific Turtle's abilities to navigate and complete it, but they could've figured it out.

But on the whole, not a bad piece of business! I definitely regret overlooking it when it came out, and I feel bad that apparently a lot of people did. The beat-'em'up sections definitely brought back fond memories of the good ol' days and felt like a natural evolution of Turtles In Time. The rest of the game tried some new things and I feel they mostly turned out well.
Sadly I barely played them...
But I remember that they were pretty good!

I remember remaining stucked in that level with Donatello where you had to destroy four targets (I think) with Donatello's long range attack! I didn't knew you could actually do such move. After that, I don't remember even finishing one...

[Leo656]

I generally make it a point to finish at least most of the games I play. I get some real guilt and anxiety otherwise. For example, even though Battle Nexus was by default the worst of the ones I've played - more simply because the others were so much better by comparison than anything - I still had every intention of finishing it, and I've given it several tries over the years, I just can't get past the glitch near the end, and that's a shame.

I haven't managed to "100%" every TMNT game, far from it, but I at least manage to beat the main game repeatedly, most times. The only one I've played and didn't beat was the original NES game, and I'm pretty sure that's one I just have to forget about.

Just for the hell of it, the TMNT games I own are:

- NES original
- TMNT 2: The Arcade Game (NES)
- TMNT III: The Manhattan Project (NES)
- TMNT: Fall of the Foot Clan (Game Boy)
- TMNT: Back From The Sewer (Game Boy)
- Turtles In Time (SNES)
- Tournament Fighters (SNES)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2004, Gamecube)
- TMNT 2: Battle Nexus (Gamecube)
- TMNT 3: Mutant Nightmare (Xbox)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Game Boy Advance)
- TMNT (2007 movie game, PS2)
- TMNT 1989 Arcade Game (Xbox 360, digital)
- TMNT: Turtles In Time Re-Shelled (Xbox 360, digital)
- TMNT Smash-Up (Wii)
- Nickelodeon's TMNT (Xbox 360)
- Nickelodeon's TMNT: Danger of the Ooze (PS3)
- TMNT: Out of the Shadows (Xbox 360, digital)
- TMNT: Mutants In Manhattan (Xbox One)

Of that list, the only ones I haven't at least beaten the main game on are the first NES game, and the first Nick TMNT game, which I only bought recently and simply haven't played yet. I *think* I'm only really missing the third Game Boy game, and the handheld versions of Battle Nexus, Mutant Nightmare, and the 2007 movie game. I just don't really prioritize collecting handheld games, so those have slipped by me until recently.

I didn't factor Game Boy games in when I was talking about my least-favorites, but at least one of those would probably be worse than Battle Nexus if I were to do so. They were alright for their time but objectively not great.

I never hear anyone talk about Danger of the Ooze, like, at all, which is strange. It's fine. Just... I'unno, I don't wanna say "boring", because that doesn't quite fit. But it doesn't really stick with you once you're done with it. It's fun, though. I'm sure some folks could make a case for it being among the best of the TMNT games. There's certainly not much "wrong" with it, it's just kinda... "Eh."

I also thought the game based on the 2007 movie was really cool for what it was. The "problem" with most of the TMNT games, including that one, isn't really that they're bad or do anything wrong, but simply that they don't do a whole lot to stand out or blow your mind. That's also why it can be tough to pick a "favorite"; they're all pretty good in different ways but few of them really excel in any area. Even Turtles In Time, as much fun as it is, is pretty pedestrian by beat-'em-up standards. Plenty of other games by that point gave you a lot more moves and stuff to do, although throwing bad guys at the screen was a fun novelty that never, ever gets old. But without the TMNT license, it's entirely average. Especially that damn short length. I wrote it down and lost it but I think my record is like 23 minutes and change on the hardest difficulty. :lol: How did we not riot, back in the day? :trazz: I still love it, though.

[Wesley]

The 4Kids one for GBA? I just recently acquired and finished that one. Pretty good! Do you remember what part you got stuck on? I managed to get through it rather quickly. It's rather short, that was my only nitpick.

I liked a lot of what they came up with for that game. I liked that you're required to play as each of the Turtles and that they each have their own unique levels designed around their own gameplay style, since each Turtle has unique abilities, but I wish they'd managed to let you "free play" all of the levels with whichever Turtle you wanted after completing the main game. Would have added greatly to the replay value. I'm not sure if they could have, since each level pretty much required that specific Turtle's abilities to navigate and complete it, but they could've figured it out.

But on the whole, not a bad piece of business! I definitely regret overlooking it when it came out, and I feel bad that apparently a lot of people did. The beat-'em'up sections definitely brought back fond memories of the good ol' days and felt like a natural evolution of Turtles In Time. The rest of the game tried some new things and I feel they mostly turned out well.

It’s the 4Kids one alright. I got stuck about halfway through the last level (the point where there is a lot of enemies to fight in the elevator with lasers). I agree it’s a pretty good game, though. I also liked the cutscenes in the game. Thought they were well done.

[D-ray]

I also thought the game based on the 2007 movie was really cool for what it was.
I never tried the Ps2 version, but the DS version was very interesting!
It had a peculiar game mechanic based on parkour/beat-em-up.
If you have never seen that game, it basically have sections were you fight normally the enemies (bosses too), and other sections were the turtle just have to pass a certain obstacle course.
It's very speedrun-like and the controls are damn fun!
The only bad thing was effectively the beat-em-up part, which was too simple and easy in my opinion. Mashing button basically.

The "parkour" levels required great skill to finish in little time!
I suggest you to watch some videos on it because I don't think I gave the right idea.

[Leo656]

I did take a look at some videos of the PS2 and DS games (I honestly haven't played the PS2 game in forever); they look both fairly similar and yet entirely different from each other. I don't have a DS but I always planned to get that version of the game if/when I ever procured one.

I've been wanting to play the console version again for a while but my PS2 has been broken for a long time. One of these days I'll have to pick up a copy on Gamecube if I find it cheap enough.

[pferreira]

If you mean "I'll take them all". I feel ya.More who thought it was a good idea to include platforming in a 3D side-scrolling beat'em up especially keeping the same game engine.

I played it recently, and it was a punch in the stomach. Not because it was not good, but because it was downright boring. The levels were too long, and too repetitive. The bosses maybe were ok, but for me it was really difficult to finish, just because you loose the will to continue. The only thing I really liked, was the 1 vs 1 mode, a thing that never came back into the various 2003 games.Quite enjoyed the first game. I don't feel they improved over it. Sure it's repetitive but it's fun, can be challenging, there's stuff to unlock (that isn't censored) and it's not overly complex so anyone can get into it.

I’ve lost interest in videogames, but my favourite TMNT game was the first one for the Game Boy Advance, even though I wasn’t a beat-em up fan could never beat it. Never cared much for the others I played tbh.I tried that one recently and it was too bad at all. My only complaint is that the hit detection is a little wonky.

I never tried the Ps2 version, but the DS version was very interesting!Is Portal Power good?

[D-ray]

More who thought it was a good idea to include platforming in a 3D side-scrolling beat'em up especially keeping the same game engine.
I found it pretty fun! Even if the platforming aspect were very very very simple.

Quite enjoyed the first game. I don't feel they improved over it. Sure it's repetitive but it's fun, can be challenging, there's stuff to unlock (that isn't censored) and it's not overly complex so anyone can get into it.

Well, TMNT 3 Mutant Nightmare is basically the first but WAY more interesting. You can buy abilities, combo, use the scrolls for a strategical gameplay, and it has alot of different levels. Yes it's mainly focused on the beating all the enemies, but with bigger maps, challenging bosses and there are all of the turtles togheter.

Is Portal Power good?
I'm not into the mobile games, so I never tried it.

[Leo656]

I got my NES up and running (YES! :tgrin:) so a couple'a days ago I took a swing at TMNT 2: The Arcade Game and TMNT 3: The Manhattan Project for the first time in, I'unno, maybe 15 years. More than ten, for sure. Really been looking forward to it, glad I finally got the chance. TO clarify, I do have the actual arcade game (or rather, its Xbox Live counterpart) on my Xbox 360 and have played that one several times in recent years, it's specifically my NES games I haven't had a chance to get to for a long time.

I still like both games a lot, but it's an interesting perspective given how much time has passed but also how many other games I've played since then. As beat-'em-ups go, they are decidedly kinda average, although definitely upper-tier compared to what was available on the NES at that time. TMNT 2 is more iconic, mostly due to that awesome opening level, but the gameplay itself is rather busted. Basically, doing anything except the jump kick is a waste of time and you're going to take a hit. I'm used to busting out multi-hit combos in these types of games now, so it was quite an adjustment going back to the second TMNT game and discovering that trying to hit anyone more than once in a row was a huge mistake. You'd assume that you'd have a reach advantage, but no; if you try and hit anyone twice in a row, they'll get a hit in on you while your second shot goes right through them harmlessly. Pretty annoying. I was able to adjust to it again, but I'd forgotten just how over-reliant on the jump kick that game was. You can pretty much go through the entire game without getting hit if that's the ONLY move you do, but that's pretty wack.

Manhattan Project isn't as fondly remembered - I assume it's because, unlike TMNT 2 or Turtles In Time it never had an arcade release - but it does quite a bit better than either of those other games. First and foremost, they fixed the gameplay by a ton so that ALL your moves are useful, and most of all they fixed the problem of trying to get multiple hits in without taking one yourself. That alone, along with the new flip move, improves the entire experience tremendously. It just plays SO much better than the second game. Adding mid-level bosses and much longer levels also made it a lot of fun and gives it some decent length. It doesn't overstay its welcome but it gives you a lot of "meat" compared to the other two TMNT beat-'em-ups in that series.

Altogether, it's like, TMNT 2 has some of the more memorable levels and moments, but the gameplay is sort of busted. Turtles In Time has the best graphics and gameplay by far, but is frustratingly short compared to 2 or 3. And then 3 has the best overall design as far as length, lots of bosses, enemy variety, etc., and sits right in the middle as far as gameplay - better than 2, but not as smooth as IV.

This is how I felt a few years ago, too, but it's nice to have it confirmed. :lol: They're all good games but I feel like people only really remember 2 so fondly because of nostalgia. Neither the NES or actual arcade version were fantastic as far as gameplay, but the arcade game specifically had incredible presentation that I feel is what people remember more than actually playing it.

Really wish they'd like, maybe added a few more levels borrowed from or "inspired by" Manhattan Project to the first half of Turtles In Time and back-loaded the time travel levels. Then it would at least feel like a complete game. I think it took me an hour and a half or so to finish Manhattan Project, compared to 23 minutes for TMNT IV. That's just f*cking goofy no matter how good the game is. But if they'd taken some of those levels from TMNT 3 (or similar) and stuck 'em on TMNT IV, then it's a whole different conversation.

I also played the NES version of Bad Dudes for laughs, and yeah, the TMNT beat-'em-ups on NES were light years ahead of most. :lol:

I also don't think I'm gonna try the first NES game again because f*ck that f*cking game. :lol:

[DonatelloDomeHead31]

Favorite TMNT game? There's actually a tie:

(1) Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time SNES--graphics were good, level music enjoyable, and the storyline.

(2) Ninja Turtles 2: Back from the Sewer for the Gameboy...again, good music and the levels were alright. I miss the classics...

I also liked Tournament Fighters but for the SNES, not so much the Genesis version.

[Garfield]

My favorite is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters (Super Nintendo)

Been playing it for years, I love fighting games from the 90's. I love the characters, the music, everything about it really.

[oldmanwinters]

The original NES release. It teaches boys to become men.

[Xav]

I mean, someone can go ahead and do an RPG if they wanna, I'd be perfectly fine with that. :lol: They won't, though.There already have been a few RPGs. There's TMNT: Legends, there's also those mobile games based off of the 4Kids series.

[Leo656]

Well, I don't pay attention to mobile games and I'm one of those assholes who doesn't count them on the list. :trazz: So obviously I wouldn't know about that.

The original NES release. It teaches boys to become men.

Also, how to violently curse. :tgrin:

[PizzaPower1985]

For me the only TMNT games that are worth a damn are the old ones, though I love the gameplay of Out of the Shadows...

My tops:

TMNT The Arcade game - 1989 (The NES Version was okay too)
Turtles In Time: The Arcade game - 1991
TMNT 3: The Manhattan Project - NES - 1991
Hyperstone Heist - 1992
TOURNAMENT FIGHTERS - But I can't remember which version is better, THE NES or GENESIS version.

I like The first 2K3 game on Gamecube. The sequel, Battle Nexus I found DIFFICULT AS ALL HELL.


Out of the Shadows was fun to play but they reminded me of The Bay Turtles and I don't know, it just seemed goofy.

[Leo656]

I can't say I've actually ever heard anything positive about the Genesis Tournament Fighters. I still actually haven't played it, but I remember when it was new the reviews were mediocre-to-lousy, and especially in recent years the opinion has turned pretty sharply against it. Sega Lord X was particularly vicious in a recent appraisal of it. I still plan to get it one day, but everything I've seen suggests that the Genesis version simply wasn't a very well-made game. Which is a shame, because there's some characters in it I wish were in the SNES version, and the SNES version is pretty damn sweet on its own.

I only played the NES version once, as I recall, so I can't much speak to that one, either. Wish it wasn't so rare and expensive. Really kicking myself for not buying it cheap when I had the chance.

[PizzaPower1985]

I can't say I've actually ever heard anything positive about the Genesis Tournament Fighters. I still actually haven't played it, but I remember when it was new the reviews were mediocre-to-lousy, and especially in recent years the opinion has turned pretty sharply against it. Sega Lord X was particularly vicious in a recent appraisal of it. I still plan to get it one day, but everything I've seen suggests that the Genesis version simply wasn't a very well-made game. Which is a shame, because there's some characters in it I wish were in the SNES version, and the SNES version is pretty damn sweet on its own.

I only played the NES version once, as I recall, so I can't much speak to that one, either. Wish it wasn't so rare and expensive. Really kicking myself for not buying it cheap when I had the chance.

Oh man, yeah, haha... It was the SNES version of Tournament Fighters I was thinking of. Yeah, that's a great game. The Genesis version is probably the weakest of that particular game. I remember, for its time Tournament Fighters had the most realistic sprites for TMNT characters of any TMNT game up to that point. Weren't they more based on the live action movie appearances? I kinda think so. I remember Shredder having the purplish red outfit/armor and always thought those characters looked cool.

[Leo656]

SNES Tournament Fighters is one of my all-time favorite "Games I'm Not Terrific At." :lol: I've beaten Karai several times but the game always hands me my ass a lot, first. Armaggon and Cyber-Shredder, particularly, aren't so bad once you remember the specific pattern for either but they're unforgiving as hell sometimes otherwise.

It's always a blast to play regardless, though. Looks great, sounds great, plays great. As I've said elsewhere and elsewhen, if someone ever said "SNES Tournament Fighters is my favorite TMNT game of all time", I might not fully agree but I wouldn't bat an eye, either. A very, very strong case can be made for it.

[PizzaPower1985]

I recently discovered TMNT Rescuepalooza, essentially an update of early arcade and console TMNT games... classic beat-em-ups, but the difference in this game is more levels/stages and you can unlock like 60+ characters or something. It's the most fun I've had gaming in a long time.

[Drose18]

mutant melee gives me the best memories so thats my answer

[D-ray]

mutant melee gives me the best memories so thats my answer
If my CD started to work again, I would definitely try to play it again.
Now I only play Smash Up as the PLayer vs Player TMNT Game.

[Leo656]

Well, after watching Season 1 of the 2K3 series again, I was inspired to go back and give the first two Gamecube TMNT games a spin and see how they hold up. I hadn't played either in a long time but have played the first more often and more recently.

The first one is okay but really nothing special, it's a passable beat-em'up. I remember it feeling pretty cutting-edge in 2003 but a hundred better beat-'em-ups have come out since then so it definitely feels like a relic. I still had fun with it, but again, it's impossible to ignore how simplistic and "bare-bones" it is compared to just about everything else that's come along in the genre since then. Run right, clear the screen, run right, sometimes you fight a Boss and sometimes the level just ends. And it's pretty short. I did like how they encouraged replay value by making you beat it with all for Turtles, to unlock hidden characters and also get the real final stage and Boss Fight; I'd already completed it ages ago, so I just did a quick run-through with Leo and found it a lot shorter and easier than I remembered it being. Not a bad game at all but it probably would feel comparatively ancient to most people giving it a try now. I can say it's worth a look but mileage will definitely vary on it because it's very dated and simplistic.

I don't have a ton to say about this one, because it's Just Fine and nothing more or less than that. I've beaten it several times and I'll continue to play it again every few years since it's something you can get through in a day or so without investing too much energy.

(Cont.)

[Leo656]

TMNT 2: Battle Nexus... oof. I'm not gonna lie, it's a little bit better than I remembered, kind of, but I remembered it being terrible and I wasn't altogether wrong. It's a very flawed, pretty much broken, and regularly frustrating experience and one of the least fun times I've ever had playing a video game.

Just to get it out of the way, there ARE some improvements over the first game which I appreciate: The 3D cinematic cutscenes that occur between some levels are much better than the flat, static, poory-rendered ones from the first game, even if they are very blurry and washed-out. Being able to switch between each Turtle on the fly is cool, and some areas needing a certain Turtle's unique skills is a nice idea but they do almost nothing with it at all. It's a much, much bigger game than the first, with lots of levels and some decent level variety, and even a rare few hidden paths to find. There's a Tournament mini-game and hidden collectibles to find and a few "vehicle" levels that switch the gameplay up a bit by putting you on a hoverboard or something; oddly enough, those levels end up being some of the most fun and least-annoying things in the entire game. There's even more Boss fights, something the first game was pretty lacking in. So there's some nice improvements and you can tell that there was a real effort to improve the overall experience.

The thing is, it's just a "bigger, but worse" game than the first one. It really starts with two major problems: The gameplay is broken, and the controls are also kinda broken. I've talked about this before, but in Battle Nexus, despite it ostensibly being a beat-'em-up, you spend about 90% of your time avoiding every enemy on screen at all costs to try and save as much health as possible for the Boss fights. You're literally an idiot if you ever stop to actually fight anyone in this game, and that's just a bad decision for this type of game. On the other hand, it's good that you can get through most of the game by simply running away, because the AI enemies in this game are some of the most frustrating I've ever dealt with. EVERY enemy you encounter takes way too many hits to kill, and some of them block almost constantly. There's very little "difficulty curve", outside of the last few Boss fights being really hard; the enemies you face on the first level are just as irritating as the ones you fight near the end, and some of the earlier levels are somehow much harder than the later ones. In a lot of ways, this game feels like an overreaction to the last game; one of the complaints about the first one was that it was a bit easy, so in this one they make the enemies way too hard to kill and overwhelm you with numbers of them who love to surround you. There's a Block button, but like most of the controls, it takes your input as a mere suggestion, so you spend most "fights" getting triple-teamed or running away. You can fight, but... it doesn't make any sense to. Very, VERY rarely do you have to kill all, or even most, or even ANY enemies to beat the level, and the enemies are irritatingly cheap anyway, so why bother? So you can play on the "honor system" and fight, but lose lots of health for no reason and thus die against the Boss, OR, you can run away from everything. Neither option feels satisfying. You feel weak as hell and severely under-powered in this game and it never gets any better. You find "crystals" that are supposed to increase your stats and abilities but I never felt any difference.

The Boss fights aren't too bad, but they're a little annoying. Once you figure out that they're all vulnerable to the same one move, though, it's a snooze. Like every other enemy, they're super-cheap, blocking too much and taking way too much damage, but like everything else in the game, they're weak against Leo's Running L-Trigger Attack. Sure, you can TRY other moves that actually do more than 1% damage, BUT, you'll get Blocked and countered almost every time, ending the fight in about three hits. So what do you do? Run at them and hit the L-Trigger. It does sh*t damage, but every single enemy and boss is weak against that move and ONLY that move, or at least, it's the one move they almost never bother to block. So every single Boss fight takes a goddamn half hour as you run in circles and cheese the hell out of the L-Trigger attack. It is NOT fun. Not one single enemy encounter in this game is "fun", they're a chore. Because if you play it fair, they just block you and counter or surround you, so you have to run away and use the L-Trigger attack to clear a path, anyway.

Basically, you can beat the entire game doing nothing but running away from bad guys and occasionally spamming L-Trigger. Nothing else works consistently, so if you deviate from this "strategy" at all you're kind of stupid. Broken, broken game.

The controls being broken is part of the issue as well. They're simply not as responsive as the first game's controls, with a very noticeable lag and sometimes they just don't respond. The "Weak-Weak-Strong Attack" combo that was invaluable in the first game often simply does not work, here. It's IN there, it just doesn't respond to your inputs. There's a "charge-up" attack you can do by holding down Strong Attack, but it's pointless because it leaves you vulnerable to attack and you're usually being attacked by a group, so you'll never pull it off. Also, the game takes the Block button as a complete suggestion at best because the lag is so terrible. Leo's jumping attack is totally useless, while Mikey's is the only one that works even a little against flying enemies; I like that they have their own strengths but it makes certain areas frustrating. OH, and to pick things up, you have to hold down two buttons, one of them being Strong Attack. If you think, "Boy, I bet that most of the time you just blow yourself up trying to pick up an explosive barrel", you damn well guessed right. The levels are filthy with things you CAN in theory pick up and toss at your enemy, but most often you just end up using it on yourself.

NO LOCK-ON and the camera is terrible in spots. Forget trying to focus on one enemy in a crowd, or even just throw your shuriken where you want them to go. You can be standing right next to a guy, and unless you're pressing the control stick exactly at them, your attacks will go right past them. TERRIBLE. Since you can't move the camera, you get hit constantly by off-screen enemies. The camera issue only hurts much when there's a godawful platforming section; in those, it swings around to the least-helpful angle possible, making it near-impossible to line up or gauge your jump with any accuracy. You can't jump as high as you should anyway, even with double-jump, so the platform sections are a mess.

It's like the entire game was trying to hit as many boxes on the Bad Game Design checklist as it possibly could:
- Annoying enemies that take too much work to kill
- One "life" per level, die and it's back to the menu screen
- Lots of platforming, with an awful camera on top of it
- Boring, repetitive "combat"
- Over-long Boss fights
- "Kill Every Enemy Within A Time Limit" levels, filled with enemies who constantly block
- Unresponsive, laggy controls that cripple the combat
- Jumping that feels like an invisible hand is pressing down on your character
- A "beat-'em-up" where the entire point of 90% of the game is to avoid fighting at all costs. There's not even a "stealth" component, it's just a running away simulator.

I have to be honest... I really do appreciate the things they TRIED to improve, but the bad controls and annoying enemies and awful platforming just overwhelm everything else. TMNT 2: Battle Nexus is one of the least-fun games I've ever played, and if I've ever played a worse beat-'em-up, I cannot recall. I've never seen one that punishes you so much for actually trying to play the game properly, and rewards you for trying to just race through it instead.

The good news is, I finally beat the damn thing. So I never have any obligation to play it again. :lol:

I still think the first one, while bare-bones by comparison, is simply more fun overall because the controls work better and it's less frustrating to play, and those two things are related. Battle Nexus had a lot of ambition but they utterly failed to execute in any satisfying way because the controls are busted and the enemies swarm you. It really doesn't matter what they tried to improve or add because the game simply isn't fun. I really had a bad time playing this one, and I almost never have a bad time playing games.

I remember the third game, "Mutant Nightmare", being much better. I can't check for myself at the moment but I can't imagine it being as bad or worse, no way in hell.

As of now, I maintain that "Mutants In Manhattan" is probably the best 3D TMNT game by a substantially wide margin. And Battle Nexus is probably the worst TMNT game, period. I gave it a shot, and I finished it, and I'm glad I can finally cross it off my list, but damn, I didn't enjoy the experience at all. Not the worst game I've played, but the worst TMNT game I can remember off the top of my head.

[Whatswiththeheadbands?]

Peblak Alley is probably the worst level in video game history

[PizzaPower1985]

I gotta say, even though it's an unofficial fan creation that gets nearly its entire structure from the first Nintendo game, I am really loving Rescuepalooza. It took me 5 weeks to beat it cause I hadn't played on a PC in years, and half the characters are blinkin' useless, but it's fun. I definitely think that man needs to add some kind of infinite life feature or some way to make 1 ups (extra lives) easier to get. But it's a great arcade experience from the comfort of your PC.
My preferred characters to play with are Jones, Spilinter and the Shonen Boss, whose floating head special move is awesome..

[Leo656]

Peblak Alley is probably the worst level in video game history

Is that the one where you have to carry Fugitoid? Yeah, I'unno about all THAT but it's pretty crummy. It's easy enough if you just run ahead and kill all the enemies real quick first - the entire level is literally "Walk three feet, make a left turn, walk down a short hall, make another left turn, walk to the Finish line" - but it's annoying all the same. They stick some enemies with laser rifles in the far right-hand corner just past the beginning but unless you go near them they just stand there watching you like idiots and don't do anything. That's another thing with this game, the AI is either bloodthirsty or brick stupid. If you go near them, they swarm you, but unless you go within their "sphere" they can be looking right at you but they'll stand there jerking it instead of doing anything.

Frankly I don't think this thing was even any good by 2004 standards. I genuinely, really don't like to compare games to other games and try to give everything a fair shake based on what it does and not what it doesn't do that other games do, because I feel like that's only fair. But at some point, a little voice whispered to me that I could be playing one of the early God of War games instead, and I almost started crying. :lol: I NEVER get like that, seriously, but this game was such a slog.

[D-ray]

TMNT 2: Battle Nexus... oof. I'm not gonna lie, it's a little bit better than I remembered, kind of, but I remembered it being terrible and I wasn't altogether wrong. It's a very flawed, pretty much broken, and regularly frustrating experience and one of the least fun times I've ever had playing a video game...

...

(can't quote the whole post or I reach character limit)


I took some time to read carefully everything, and I can definitely say that Battle Nexus is NOT a real masterpiece in any means.
I due joke about it, because it's one of my favourite games, but it's far from a great game. Also, keep in mind that I played the PS2 version, not the Gamecube one, maybe there is a slight difference in performance or things like that.

But I have to say that some of the problems you encountered are really weird from my perspective. I mean, the whole "enemies are useless to attack" is true don't get me wrong, I mean more tecnical and gameplay problems.
Like, how did you find the game's enemies too strong? They have a pretty dumb AI, and their "constant blocking" can be easily punished by picking up the enemy and throw it away for example. Yes, the long range enemies are abit of a cancer, since most of them use to spam their attacks, but they are way weaker than the normal ones, so you can easily waste them by avoiding one or two shots by dashing in the right position.

The crystals not only give a nice upgrade to the turtle, but some of them even give you combos, that can be freaking overpowered (just saying, the charged combo can instakill some bosses). Also, there is even a "parry" ability, not only the "block", and can be unlocked pretty early in the game. And you might say "I'm sure that the game never gives you the option to parry certain attacks". I played this game countless of times, and from Hun, to Traxiums, to even freaking Shredder you can parry.

Another thing you mentioned are the controls, but again, I never had any problem with them, they were responsive for me. I heard about alot of complains from Gamecube users, so it must be like that. I even have the PC version of this game and it's completely fine with them.
About the camera, I got nothing to say. It's pretty limited in some levels, but again, I never had any problem with it in platforming parts, and I still play the game to this day sometimes.

The bosses are rather fun for me! Except the Spasmosaurous, that is just annoying as a boss, but due to it's design. I guess I see this game so good just because I had so much time put into it to appreciate even the smallest things of it. That's probably because I like it.

But in the end, as I said in the beginning, is absolutely not even close from being a great game, it's "MEH".
One of the biggest problems of it, is the "I don't get it" feeling. ALOT of the game's mechanics are very poorly explained (or maybe it's just the translation), for instance how to do the combos (I took years to understand the the double punch symbol meant that you had to use both heavy and light attack at the same time).
Another things for instance, can be the Fugitoid thing as Whatswiththeheadbands? said, just because the game NEVER explains to you, that you can do a guaranteed critical attack to the enemies if you take them from behind, resulting in you trying to pick up Fugitoid but seing the turtles only flipping it instead.

The only thing I can't complain for sure, are the "I take them all" levels as I call them (the "vehicle" levels with coins), the little features like the Antique Shop and the Bonus Materials, and the freaking soundtrack (I just love it).
The rest can be seen from alot of different perspectives, but sure never lead to thinking into a completely great game design.
Mutant Nightmare is actually pretty good considering for what you are looking for, and I do like it alot! Except the dumb behaviour of the bots helping you sometimes.

[Leo656]

Some of it certainly could be related in part to simply being on the Gamecube. But the issues I spoke of are real, regardless. I played the first and second game on the same day and the clunkiness of the second game was immediately noticeable and irritating. There's a lag when you attack that simply was not present in the first game. The Combo system is useless because it mostly only reads the first two inputs. It doesn't matter that there are Combos and Blocks and Parry moves - I know full well that they're in there, it's not like I didn't use them when they bothered to work - if the game "decides" that you didn't hit the button when you well and clearly did, then it's busted. If all your best moves only work "In Theory" most times, and thus you spend more than half the game spamming Running Strike just to force through it, then it's a busted game.

I can only speak from my own experience, after all. I can only recount the hundreds of times I relied on the "Weak-Weak-Strong" combo to get me out of a tight spot - a move that got me out of countless spots in the first game - only to have it actually go like, "Weak Strike, Weak Strike, Stand There Like A Doofus And Take A Free Hit Because The Game Decided That I Did NOT Hit Strong When Yes I Freaking Did, You Dumb Game!" By far, the best, most foolproof strategy in the game is to ignore all regular moves and just spam Running Strike with Leo. You can get through the entire game and barely take a single hit that way. Which is ridiculous and boring, but anything else is too much of a gamble to even try. The success rate of actually getting the attacks you want to work is too random.

Like Yes, you can parry... but why bother attempting it? It's not very likely that it'll work, and if it decides not to, you lose 1/3 of your health (if it's a Boss) when they counter. It's not even worth attempting. Or "simply" picking up Blocking enemies; that assumes that picking them up even works. Picking up ANYTHING in this game doesn't work, because you have to press R-Trigger (Block) and Strong Attack to pick anything up, which the game itself just reads as "Strong Attack OR Block" but almost never reads it as you pressing both at the same time. SO AGAIN... you can TRY and throw them, and take a hit for no reason, OR, you can take five steps back, and do a Running Strike that works 100% of the time, does almost no damage but WILL eventually kill every enemy with you taking 0 damage.

Again, there's certainly the possibility that the controls work better on other systems, but that's neither my problem nor my priority to investigate. And if the controls are actually responsive on other systems, I would wager that the "spam Running Strike" flaw also exists as well, along with the "Just run away from everyone, it's easier" problem. So that means that even if all the control/lag problems I had were related to the Gamecube... that makes the other versions, what, 2% better? You can still beat the game with no effort (as long as you're very patient) and running away is still the best option no matter what platform you play it on. It just sounds like the controls work slightly better elsewhere. Okay. I believe that's most likely true. That's still not the whole problem or even half of it. The problem is it's just poorly designed.

Fact is, when I tried to play the game The Right Way, it was annoying, frustrating, and I died far too often because the game refused to accept my button presses, and so I took tons of hits when I should have been murdering the other guy. And again, I never, ever, EVER had any of those problems playing the first game, not even once. In that game, if I hit a button, the game responded accordingly. Battle Nexus? Pssssssssh, anything except Weak Strike-Weak Strike and Running Strike was a goddamn waste of time and got you killed. When I switched to Running Strike and nothing else, I became unstoppable, it just took forever to kill anything, but I never took damage that way. Again: Broken Game. It punishes you for trying to play it the right way and rewards you for cheesing it.

The enemies are "tough" in that they take too many hits to kill, even at the very beginning. Yes, the projectile enemies are weaker, but they still should die faster. Lots of games have that problem but this one was especially bad. And there's no curve at all; the very first bad guys you face take ten or more hits to kill - too much for ANY Random Grunt but especially for First Level fodder enemies - so do the guys you fight near the end. Purple Dragons are just as strong and do just as much damage as Foot Ninja, and take as many hits to kill. So NOW there's no difference at all between fodder enemies except what they look like, they're all fundamentally the same. It all just felt like an overreaction to the first game; the first game's enemies were mostly pretty easy, at least in the first half, so for this one it felt like they decided to just make every single enemy Too Tough To Kill and left it at that.

The enemies are definitely stupid, I'm pretty sure I mentioned that. Most of the time, they can be looking straight at you but won't even move unless you go within a certain distance of them. There's definitely a ton of Idiot AI happening, sure. BUT, there's too many spots where they put you in a spot where you'll get swarmed by ten at once, all taking like twenty hits to kill, with guys just offscreen shooting at you, and in those moments you feel impotent as hell. As opposed to something like "God of War" where moments like that are what you play the game for, to feel like a Supreme Badass as you wipe the floor with those guys. Here, even the grunts take a million hits to kill, so you're gonna take more damage than you dish out UNLESS you just cheese it.

I also was replaying everything on my old Save file from 15 years ago so I already had almost all the Crystals and everything from the start. I can't imagine playing this game on a "weaker" level if it was already annoying me this much. :lol:

There's just too many problems for me to overlook. A 3D game with so many enemy swarms needed a targeting or lock-on feature so you could at least hit the guy you wanted to; it's not like other games by then weren't commonly doing it. Or even if there's just ONE guy on the screen; in MOST games, even then, if there's only one enemy on the screen and you were standing close to them, the game knew that if you threw Shuriken or whatever, you meant to hit THE BAD GUY and not just fling them randomly into space, but this game doesn't know that, this game just makes you waste all your stars. Aiming helps a TINY bit but God help you if you press Up to aim and the enemy is very slightly at Up/Left by a step. UGH. Again, just adding a proper lock-on or aiming system eliminates so many problems in this crummy game, but they couldn't be bothered.

I'unno man, I know a lot of people had fun with this one but I only liked very small bits of it. At least I know that my bad memories of it weren't in vain; I always remembered it as, First Game Good, Second Game Bad, Third Game Pretty Good, and I definitely still like the first game and definitely don't like the second one. Most games I revisit, they're honestly better than I remembered. This game and Sonic Adventure 2, on the other hand, were a lot worse than I remembered.

I do like that they tried to add some Extras and stuff. I will say, I never put any time into the Tournament side-stuff so I plan to mess with that a little bit, just because it's there and I never bothered with it. But after that I don't think I'll ever mess with it again. I can only call what I see. My opinion still remains that the first game in the series was mediocre but fine by the standards of its day but pushed no boundaries whatsoever, and that the second game had some good ideas but was poorly executed.

That's my story an' I'm stickin' to it! :lol: I just wish that Mutant Nightmare wasn't like $80 right now because I wouldn't mind giving that one another spin one of these days.

[Leo656]

I decided to mess with the Tournament mode since I didn't remember ever doing so, but I apparently must have because all the different Tournaments were unlocked.

Ripped through the first 9 rounds with ease. Round 10, a bunch of guys with laser rifles all shoot me at once, corner me, and continue to shoot me unrelentingly every time I get up. Died without landing a single non-shuriken attack in less than 30 seconds. No chance to dodge or even move whatsoever, once they shot me they just kept shooting me until I was dead. :roll: That's fun.

F*ck this stupid game, it's terrible. :lol: I'm sorry, sincerely, I know some people like it and anyone who knows me knows for a fact that I am VERY forgiving and I almost never say any game is "terrible" or even bad. So I'm sorry, but this is seriously one of the worst games I've ever played. There's literally no point in ever, ever playing it for any reason unless you hate yourself or just don't own any other video games. And if that's the case, a deck of cards is like, two dollars. Losing at Solitaire is a lot more fun than "winning" at TMNT Battle Nexus. :lol:

I'll be moving on to Mutant Melee shortly, a game I do believe I played exactly one time. So I hope that's not terrible. It has to be a step up from this... thing.

EDIT: I won the same Tournament quite easily on my second try. Whereas the first time they cornered me immediately and shot at me unrelentingly until I was dead, THIS time they all just refused to look at or attack me, so I just picked them off one at a time. If one of them saw me approach, they'd immediately turn and give me their back. I picked off the entire lot and took like two hits. They refused to even look at me.

This game is terrible. :lol:

[D-ray]

I decided to mess with the Tournament mode since I didn't remember ever doing so, but I apparently must have because all the different Tournaments were unlocked.

Ripped through the first 9 rounds with ease. Round 10, a bunch of guys with laser rifles all shoot me at once, corner me, and continue to shoot me unrelentingly every time I get up. Died without landing a single non-shuriken attack in less than 30 seconds. No chance to dodge or even move whatsoever, once they shot me they just kept shooting me until I was dead. :roll: That's fun.

F*ck this stupid game, it's terrible. :lol: I'm sorry, sincerely, I know some people like it and anyone who knows me knows for a fact that I am VERY forgiving and I almost never say any game is "terrible" or even bad. So I'm sorry, but this is seriously one of the worst games I've ever played. There's literally no point in ever, ever playing it for any reason unless you hate yourself or just don't own any other video games. And if that's the case, a deck of cards is like, two dollars. Losing at Solitaire is a lot more fun than "winning" at TMNT Battle Nexus. :lol:

I'll be moving on to Mutant Melee shortly, a game I do believe I played exactly one time. So I hope that's not terrible. It has to be a step up from this... thing.

EDIT: I won the same Tournament quite easily on my second try. Whereas the first time they cornered me immediately and shot at me unrelentingly until I was dead, THIS time they all just refused to look at or attack me, so I just picked them off one at a time. If one of them saw me approach, they'd immediately turn and give me their back. I picked off the entire lot and took like two hits. They refused to even look at me.

This game is terrible. :lol:
Ok ok I got it, NOW don't go any further with the arena.
If you hated the first 2 tournaments, don't even play Foot Fight.
It will probably make you run to Konami headquarters and make a genocide.

By the way, I still like the game and play it (I might be insane, but that's true), and I'm sorry for your experience. If I could, I would give you my copy of TMNT3 to try out just to see another review from you.
Seriously they are hilarious and well made!

About Mutant Melee, it's been a long time since I played it (my CD has more scratches than a scratching post for cats) but I don't remember it being bad.
Yeah, maybe excluding the poor character choices.

[Leo656]

I remember liking Mutant Nightmare a LOT more than Battle Nexus. It's just that I don't have it for Gamecube and my Xbox is broken.

I messed with the Tournaments for a bit but then went and collected a few Antiques in the main game. I don't have the patience for how busted the AI is in Tournament Modes, the enemies either attack relentlessly and kill you without letting you get any hits in, or completely ignore you, and it's all seemingly at random, like the game itself decides if you're "allowed" to Win or Lose any round. It's just no fun. Collecting chests is tedious as hell, too, but I only need a few more and I've already beaten all the levels so it's not that big a deal to pick them up.

Looking at my old Save and when I unlocked everything originally, I apparently played 99% of it in two days shortly after it came out, then never touched it again until last week. :lol: Sounds about right.

I had to switch to the original NES Castlevania for a palate cleanser. :lol: That's a frustrating game, too, but at least in that game things happen when you push buttons. That's kind of a huge deal.

I don't remember why I only played Mutant Melee once. I think I just had other games to play and it just didn't hold my interest for long. I don't remember disliking it, the fact is I simply don't remember anything about it at all, other than, I know I played it once. Totally drawing a blank, otherwise.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

You always had great control over the characters in the original games. Compare to other fighting games (like Double Dragon and River City Ransom?Street Gangs).

Konami quickly became one of my favourite video game developing studios, with NES and Super NES titles like Castlevania, Contra?Probotector and Tiny Toons.

[PizzaPower1985]

You always had great control over the characters in the original games. Compare to other fighting games (like Double Dragon and River City Ransom?Street Gangs).

Konami quickly became one of my favourite video game developing studios, with NES and Super NES titles like Castlevania, Contra?Probotector and Tiny Toons.

https://www.memesmonkey.com/images/memesmonkey/s_07/07a4d232f8c86222dda791e5689631b5.jpeg

[Leo656]

Konami was definitely on fire back in the day.

I still can't beat Castlevania - although I can get to the Reaper, and last time I played it as a 6-year old or whatever I could barely beat the Bat, so that's some nice improvement :lol: - but at least most times when I get f*cked up on THAT game, it feels like my own fault or at least a situation I had control over. I might never beat it, but it's more fun than frustrating and that's really all I ask for.

[Ninjinister]

You always had great control over the characters in the original games. Compare to other fighting games (like Double Dragon and River City Ransom?Street Gangs).

Konami quickly became one of my favourite video game developing studios, with NES and Super NES titles like Castlevania, Contra?Probotector and Tiny Toons.

Literally zero of those are fighting games, bruh.

[D-ray]

Konami was definitely on fire back in the day.

I still can't beat Castlevania - although I can get to the Reaper, and last time I played it as a 6-year old or whatever I could barely beat the Bat, so that's some nice improvement :lol: - but at least most times when I get f*cked up on THAT game, it feels like my own fault or at least a situation I had control over. I might never beat it, but it's more fun than frustrating and that's really all I ask for.
The Reaper is a freaking nightmare, but nothing is compared to Frankenstein.
The fact that is hard as hell until you understand that the Holy Water is OP, always made me rage.

Dracula was just a freaking great boss! Not because it was hard, but because it was 100% skill based. Kinda like the rest of them, but I always preferred him.
Ah yes, consider in keeping the Holy Water if you struggle in finishing the game, it's great for everything (except Reaper; you need some specific movements to beat him).

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

I still can't beat Castlevania

The problem with Castlevania is that each time you're hit by the enemies, you fall backwards.

[Leo656]

My two biggest problems are, I keep accidentally losing the Holy Water even though I know better, I just spaz when there's a lot of stuff on the screen, and secondly, that long hallway before the Reaper with the Ax Knights and Medusa heads always chips me down to more than half my health gone. So by the time I even get to the Boss I have zero chance anyway.

I'unno, if I never beat it I'm not overly concerned. I can say that Castlevania is a FUN challenging game while Battle Nexus is just "challenging" because it's poorly-made and not very fun at all. I can go back to Castlevania over and over forever just to mess with it even though I might never beat it; Battle Nexus, I can beat it just fine but every second of it is too frustrating to make me even want to. Night and Day.

[D-ray]

My two biggest problems are, I keep accidentally losing the Holy Water even though I know better, I just spaz when there's a lot of stuff on the screen, and secondly, that long hallway before the Reaper with the Ax Knights and Medusa heads always chips me down to more than half my health gone. So by the time I even get to the Boss I have zero chance anyway.

I'unno, if I never beat it I'm not overly concerned. I can say that Castlevania is a FUN challenging game while Battle Nexus is just "challenging" because it's poorly-made and not very fun at all. I can go back to Castlevania over and over forever just to mess with it even though I might never beat it; Battle Nexus, I can beat it just fine but every second of it is too frustrating to make me even want to. Night and Day.
If memory doesn't betray me (and it alway betray me by the way), those knights could be damaged ONLY when they throw the axe.
The heads are just a pattern; easy to avoid once you got it.

The problem with Castlevania is that each time you're hit by the enemies, you fall backwards.
You definitely never played Ninja Gaiden then...
I hate that game so much, just for the fact that it had alot of great mechanics, but horribly managed.

[Leo656]

If memory doesn't betray me (and it alway betray me by the way), those knights could be damaged ONLY when they throw the axe.
The heads are just a pattern; easy to avoid once you got it.



I knowwwwww, I'm just not a very patient man and stuff like that hallway section get my goat and spaz me out. :lol: I was also pretty tired when I hit that scene so maybe I'll do better next time. My focus was not at its peak last time I played it.

Still farther than I'd ever gotten in my life. :lol: So there's that! Then again I don't think I played it in 30 years. Can't remember on account of I never owned it until like two weeks ago. :trazz: The SNES one was the one I played to death. What a fantastic game! Back in the day when I only owned, like, three SNES games, I banged on that for months. Good times.

[nylemon]

I am not in video games anymore but I was once crazy about it.

TMNT Battle Nexus 2 occupy a good weight in my memory and it is definitely kill my tons of times. I thought it is the best tmnt game back in the day and I still have good memories on it.

I never had a console in 90s and early 00s, but I do played some nes tmnt games, due to my poor skills, I am not very in to stage level games(I can remember "?????" and "The Manhattan Project), in fact, I have a good time on tournament fighter, if I remember right, unique skill have different strenghth, different ranges. And Raphael "suck blood" while others just "Spinebuster". Besides back in the day we bother have japanese version and english version of games, and I don't know them neither.

When I have the conditions I tried those old games(2d games) on emulator, I thought the game boy advance games are the most great ones. (This maybe because 2003 series is the one really brought me into tmnt universe)

Back in the day what makes me feel Battle Nexus(2004) is batter than the first 2003 game is because BN has rich combo styles, rich collections materials, more interactive objects, stage levels are stereoscopic(high paltform, moving platform, lava, etc), and you have one life every level, so you don't have to restart game and never finish it when you consume your lives again. Also there is downside, the most obvious is the angel of the view due to the complicated terrain. By the way when I played them on PC with my keyboard, It's hard to press varies combos right, plus I didn't know English back in the day so I remember how desperate I don't know how to lift Fugitoid to the end of level(I throw him and his lift bar can not stand to end). I did find I have improved my skill and had a couple of joysticks in later years, and level looks easier, I never finished the game again.

I have a copy of 2007 movie game but I never finished it. I have a lot of choices of games since than and I hate playing games on keyboard (PC version have no joystick support if I remember?).

Then I moved to xbox360 and PS3 and play COD on steam(That's my Jurassic time of my gaming career), no decent tmnt games except digital games. And just like dinosaur era finished, I stopped playing games. 30 hours in recent 5 years maybe(I broken my arm one time so I stayed home and played some games when healing).

[D-ray]

I am not in video games anymore but I was once crazy about it.

TMNT Battle Nexus 2 occupy a good weight in my memory and it is definitely kill my tons of times. I thought it is the best tmnt game back in the day and I still have good memories on it.

I never had a console in 90s and early 00s, but I do played some nes tmnt games, due to my poor skills, I am not very in to stage level games(I can remember "?????" and "The Manhattan Project), in fact, I have a good time on tournament fighter, if I remember right, unique skill have different strenghth, different ranges. And Raphael "suck blood" while others just "Spinebuster". Besides back in the day we bother have japanese version and english version of games, and I don't know them neither.

When I have the conditions I tried those old games(2d games) on emulator, I thought the game boy advance games are the most great ones. (This maybe because 2003 series is the one really brought me into tmnt universe)

Back in the day what makes me feel Battle Nexus(2004) is batter than the first 2003 game is because BN has rich combo styles, rich collections materials, more interactive objects, stage levels are stereoscopic(high paltform, moving platform, lava, etc), and you have one life every level, so you don't have to restart game and never finish it when you consume your lives again. Also there is downside, the most obvious is the angel of the view due to the complicated terrain. By the way when I played them on PC with my keyboard, It's hard to press varies combos right, plus I didn't know English back in the day so I remember how desperate I don't know how to lift Fugitoid to the end of level(I throw him and his lift bar can not stand to end). I did find I have improved my skill and had a couple of joysticks in later years, and level looks easier, I never finished the game again.

I have a copy of 2007 movie game but I never finished it. I have a lot of choices of games since than and I hate playing games on keyboard (PC version have no joystick support if I remember?).

Then I moved to xbox360 and PS3 and play COD on steam(That's my Jurassic time of my gaming career), no decent tmnt games except digital games. And just like dinosaur era finished, I stopped playing games. 30 hours in recent 5 years maybe(I broken my arm one time so I stayed home and played some games when healing).
Battle Nexus is weird.
Alot of people loved it, and alot didn't.

Sure I agree on the fact that is way better than the first 2003 Ps2 game.
That game was freaking boring. It was like playing Tutles in Time for 2 hours straight in the story modes...