TMNT: Mutants in Manhattan
 

I'm not sure if anyone cares, but I picked up TMNT: Mutants in Manhattan for Xbox 360 today from Target. It was on clearance for $11.98. If you're still rocking a last-gen console like me and you're interested in the game, it may be worth a trip to Target.

I was really disappointed in this, I really wanted my idw videogame. it was only idw in asthetic only.

I was really disappointed too, but only because my expectations were set too high and that's probably got to do with the way the trailers presented the game. I was hoping for something in the vein of Batman: Arkham City, with an open-world design and awesome linear story, but unfortunately, it was just another turtles beat 'em up.

However, what's there isn't really bad either. As far as TMNT games go, this one is pretty good. Combat is good even if not too deep, the more open-levels are a lot of fun to traverse, and the bosses are extremely fun. They got the charm of the franchise down and the Turtles' personalities are on point. The randomized objectives also give the game a lot of replay value as you'll constantly be doing different things in each stage during different playthroughs.

Though, had it not been rushed, I think it could have been really amazing. It would have definitely benefited from more levels, more level and enemy variety (purple dragons and triceratons come to mind), vehicular combat stages, and cool extras like a Mirage comics filter, unlockable playable characters, and alternate skins from different eras. Only then would it have been worthy of full retail price. It just sucks that we'll never see anything special done with this franchise as a video game. It's always gotta be tied to something else and ends up falling short because of it. Platinum is a great developer and given what they did with the little they had to work with, I think they could make a great TMNT game. If we're not gonna get something like the Batman games, at least make the beat 'em up formula work to its fullest potential.

how?!
 

How?! Tom waltz wrote the damn thing!!

Well it wasn't actually part of IDW continuity, just loosely based on it. Same reason Armaggon and Wingnut were bosses in this game whereas they have no real appearances in IDW, Wingnut only a small cameo in the comic.

Yeah, I would have bought it if it was presented as at least like an alternate universe IDW TMNT, where instead of the events of the comics the events of the games happened. Maybe Shredder and Krang actually teaming up, something. I don't know why they would use the IDW art style but then include Armaggon and Wingnut

They really did rush the F out of this game honestly. I think the biggest letdown I keep hearing from a lot of people from the beginning (aside from how short it is) is there was no true multiplayer, just a online version of it. It really limits the replay value some because of it too.
FYI I bought this when it came out, no ragrats.

Same ... I mean, I liked it ... but it had SO MUCH MORE potential to be better than it actually was.

I know some people might bawk at this idea ... but I really wish that the TMNT games would return to a traditional 2D, beat-em-up style of game play. Falling in love with Sonic Mania this week made me really yearn for classic TMNT style of video games.

The FW series does get a lot of attention (some would say too much) but I would love for a new TMNT game to be such a nostalgia trip within that world. I think it would make more sense to do FW in a retro style since it would capture more attention possibly ... but give us different downloadable skins (1990 film, 2003 series, Mirage, 2012) and possibly different levels to play in that represent those eras.

Hopefully Activision doesn't renew the license (if they already dropped it by now) and TMNT falls in the hands of people who actually want to make something just a little bit more substantial.

Terrible idea. We can balk at it or not, but no one is going to buy such a thing in 2017. Super tiny business model consisting of maybe 1,000 nostalgiacs and hipsters.

Ha ... speak of the devil!

Count me in that number then of the nostalgic hipsters. I just think most attempts to transfer TMNT over into new styles of gaming haven't really payed off in their favor, is it a matter of the wrong teams behind them ... or rushing development? Probably a combination of both, but returning to a winning formula isn't as horrible of an idea as some might suggest.

Guess the important thing is to look towards the future ... since MIM bombed as much as it did, I don't see another TMNT game hitting consoles for awhile.

Neither, really. They start production on these kinds of games, banking on there being a ton of pre-orders to finish the production. The pre-orders never really happen (in TMNT's case, probably because the last slew of games have been back-to-back terrible) so they just quickly wrap up what they have somehow and throw it out there, cutting their losses.

Not that any TMNT game really, well, ever has been a passion project for anyone involved. At least MIM bothered to hire Tom Waltz, for whatever he was allowed to inject.

A "winning formula" from 1992 is only going to win with people who remember being Final Fight-clone crazy in 1992 (and even then, maybe for only 5 minutes, when the nostalgia wears off and they remember how mind-numbingly repetitive those games were). Those games will not register with any new fans.

Yeah, it's not really a coveted license right now.

All completely solid points. To me though ... those older games never felt mind-numbingly repetitive, but I see your point. Did you ever get your hands on that Transformers: Devastation game from Platinum? The two feel similar to an extent, but T : D has FAR more re-playable value in it that MIM barely scratched. I never really considered the pre-order factor into the gaming development process.

A retro-styled beat 'em up with 2D sprites a'la Turtles In Time WOULD be a hit, as an indie download title. Fact.

This just proves how out of the loop you really are, you just live in your own little world and have no clue of what's going on in the video game scene, retro is the all the rage in the industry right now, even more so now that Sonic Mania managed to break the Sonic curse and the Crash trilogy being the best selling game for weeks in a row.

Yeah, I can totally see a new TMNT game done in the same retro style, I know a lot of people including myself, are fans of the original Konami games, so it would be cool if someone did a new TMNT game in those styles.

Y'know, as long as it wasn't a borefest like that recent Power Rangers title. I had such high hopes for that....

What was this? Was it branded with the ol' Mighty Morphin' designation?

Yeah, that's the one. I couldn't remember the name.

It has some cool ideas, but it is like the developers had never played a brawler before and didn't know what made them appealing.

Well, to be fair, the original MMPR games back in the 90s weren't great brawlers either! :tcool:

I didn't even know this came out.....

It would be a "hit" in a niche market of aging gamers. It wouldn't move the needle in the way a new modern console installment would meaningfully, not even remotely.

Where are the numbers? These retro hipster "I'm in my 30s or 40s and I miss when games were 8 bit and side-scrolling" games are cornering a niche market. They're super cheap to make so any of them being a "hit" is a relative term with them. There's no way, say, "Mega Man 10" is doing the latest "Assassin's Creed" numbers, or anything. There is 0 appeal to anyone outside of our approximate generation.

Could be a reason why a lot of old franchises are dying off honestly.....personally I think a lot of consoles are sort of dying off bit by bit honestly. A lot of people are playing on their smart-phones anyway.

I'd say the Genesis movie one was decent. Not great, but certainly better than this and say like... Batman Forever arcade and TMNT Arcade Attack.

My personal thinking is that as graphics and gaming technology has gotten to a point where it's all so intensive, there is soooo many people involved, it's taking longer and longer to offer new installments at a reasonable pace more and more as time goes on.

I mean, sh*t. 7 years between Final Fantasy XIV and Final Fantasy XV? 7 years between Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Odyssey? 10 years between Metroid Prime 3 and 4? It's been over 3 years since the last CastleVania game, and no new game is on the horizon? This is insanity.

When I was a kid it was like 1-2 years tops between games and that felt like forever. I don't know how young/new gamers are able to get hooked into any of this anymore.

In between those good and awesome games nowadays are a lot of flops honestly....it's probably better to wait these days IMO. Plus online multiplayer I hear ties a lot of stuff over.

You need to get over this odd line of thinking; the last main Mario game was 3D World.

Wasn't a bad game either

Not just not bad, it was probably my second favorite Wii U game after Smash, and probably one of my top 5 favorites in the last 5 years.

Definitely a game to have in the short WiiU library :tlol:

And there you go again, seriously, if you have no idea what you're talking about then just don't, or at least try to educate yourself before you do it.

Just go look at the best selling games on XBOX Live/Steam/PSN, most of the weeks it's a retro/retro style game as the top seller, like I said the Crash Trilogy has been number one ever since it came out, Sonic Mania is selling really well and it's the best rated Sonic game in 15 years. And Mega Man 10 just sucks, no one wants that, and FYI, not doing crazy numbers doesn't = flop.

Really?

There has been 7 brand new Mario games since Galaxy (not counting non platform ones) including Galaxy 2.

FF XIV got trough a revamp that made it a brand new game, not only that but FFXV suffered a lot trough development so it took longer to come out, also, a lot of other non numbered FF games where released during those years.

Metroid like Mario had other released, 3 brand new ones between Prime 3 and 4.

Castlevania like every other Konami property that's not PES is dead and nothing will ever come out ever again (unless you count that horrible NOT-MGS game.

And games like COD, AC, and countless others are released on a yearly basis, it's like you don't know WTH you're talking about.... :trolleye:

That would be great. They should make a new beat'em but tie it into the FW series explicitly. I'd love to see a faithful recreation of the FW series as a game.

The way you talk it's almost like Sonic Mania, Shovel Knight, Super Meatboy etc never happened. As Mikey might say "get with the program dude!" :lol:

Retro games do really well, yes Andrew doesn't make much sense when he says they don't sell.

The first Snes game based of MMPR was good, the Mega Drive game based off the movie was pretty good as well.

Assassin's Creed was at the height of it's popularity when MM 10 came out and from what I understand it wasn't that great a game. You've unintentionally raised a really good point which is that games like AC and COD are slowly doing poorly due to saturation. No one really wants more of those games either judging by sales and reviews.

What I don't understand, is why is a world where we have games like God of war, Dynasty Warriors or Batman Arkham, we can't have a properly 3D beat-them-all TMNT game.

MIM is good, but not great enough to remains in memories.

Of course, critics could say "This is a God of War rip-off" but... so what? (and I'm not talking about the blood and gore, but more about the gameplay mechanics)

I heard the studio in charge reproduced Crash Bandicoot games for PS4 trilogy from scratch, so don't tell me a studio can't properly reproduce gameplay fighting mechanics.

PS: Ok, Batman isn't a beat-them-all, but there is still a lot of fights in the game.

Because TMNT is a licensed property, and those always get low budgets, you need big money to create something really good, that and for better and for worse TMNT is a kid's property, they won't waste huge budgets on something that sells on name alone...

And you already have a Batman Arkham TMNT clone, not as good but there's no denying the similarities between Out of the Shadows and Batman...

To be fair Batman is a licenced property as well.

Batman is a license property too, but the thing is, the developers working on those games respect the source material, since its a very well known property that requires a lot of attention.

TMNT is a license property, but has the stigma that its a kids property, which is why they don't pay much attention to the source material, since there are so many different incarnations of it, they just come up with there own, Mutants in Manhattan is its own thing, even though the art looks inspired by IDW.

There are more incarnations of Batman and Telltale is doing there own take on the origin. It's more so the specifics that are different.

OK, shut me up... show me the numbers, man. I want to see where Mega Man 9 or 10 or Double Dragon 4 outsold the latest Assassin's Creed or Arkham Knight or whatever.

They definitely never did, but games like that are equivalent to indie comics. It's foolish to compare them to the big 2, but in their class they perform very well. I dunno why you insist there isn't a market for them, you're outta yer element! :tlol: