TMNT: Smash-Up

[MrDizzyDEE]

you have to beat 100 characters, if you play on (I think) normal or higher, you'll get to see on the alt. cos. towards the end.

[CyberCubed]

So I have to beat 100 characters with only one lifebar?

Really?

[Ninjinister]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Does Survival mode have an end? On gamefaqs it says to unlock things you must clear Survival mode. I killed about 44 characters with Shredder before I lost and it kept going.

How long is it?

Edit: Disregard... didn't see an entire 'nother page after the previous one.

[CyberCubed]

well then I can't do it then. Even on easy mode I only got up to about the 70th fighter.

They expect me to do this with all the characters?

[ToTheNines]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

So I have to beat 100 characters with only one lifebar?

Really?

Do tag team mode, that way you'll have two life bars with two different characters.

[CyberCubed]

Well I just about completed everything there is to do in the game, except beating Survival mode with every single character just to unlock a trailer of the 4th movie, which really isn't worth my time.

If they just said this game was based on the 4th movie, instead of billing it as a 25th anniversary game, there probably wouldn't have been as much backlash about the roster.

Every TMNT character was based off the 4th movie except for only Fugitoid and Utrominator, and some of the alternate costumes like Cyber Shredder.

Overall its a decent game for what it is, but the small roster hurt it more than anything else. If they ever make a sequel, there needs to be at least 10+ new characters in addition to keeping everyone in this game.

[GreasyBoi]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

well then I can't do it then. Even on easy mode I only got up to about the 70th fighter.

They expect me to do this with all the characters?

I finished in normal. What's very helpful is the wall attack. That usually knocks them out, 1/2 knocks them out, or 1/3 knock them out. (With Shredder it'll take 4 of these mostly but be quick and you'll win.

[Tuxedo Moroboshi]

Originally Posted by ToTheNines

Do tag team mode, that way you'll have two life bars with two different characters.

Wow, really? I got all the way to 97 before I died, so I think if I had two lifebars, I can definitely do it! But, now I'm curious... does the tag-team thing work if you're trying to unlock an alternate costume (like Foot Soldier or Karai), and if so, would it only unlock the alternate costume of the fighter you beat the mode with or both of them?

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by Clown Prince of Crime

Wow, really? I got all the way to 97 before I died, so I think if I had two lifebars, I can definitely do it! But, now I'm curious... does the tag-team thing work if you're trying to unlock an alternate costume (like Foot Soldier or Karai), and if so, would it only unlock the alternate costume of the fighter you beat the mode with or both of them?

No, you get both. I did a tag team of Karai and Foot Ninja, and after I finished both costumes were unlocked.

Its also a quicker way to do Survival mode, you get two characters done each time and it counts for both.

[Tuxedo Moroboshi]

Awesome! I'll definitely give that a try!

[Spitfire]

Here's a Smash-Up review I did tonight. Thought I'd share it.

25 Years in the Making my "Foot"

So Turtles Smash-Up was set to be the be all end all of TMNT based fighting games. Well it wouldn't be a stretch to say they literately did everything wrong. Let's see where do I start?

Roster:
25 years of TMNT characters and this is what they come up with? I know this is the biggest complaint the game has but it needs to be said. This roster is a complete disgrace. They couldn't even manage to please the mainstream fans by putting in characters from the old toon. Let's replace Krang with the Utrominator. Okay great but does anyone know who that is? I've been following turtles for 25 years myself and I sure don't. I know he's based off the evil Utroms who were in SAINW but they seriously were on screen for like 10 seconds. We got the basics but that's it. We also got Rabbids but I won't get into that. Fugitoid is the only toss back character and he's only in there because Laird requested him. I've heard Laird and Mirage picked the whole roster so maybe they're to blame, either way the roster is insulting.

Character Designs:
The TMNT movie? Really? They had to use that as their base? Those are probably my all time least favorite designs for the turtles. They look like geckos. Why they couldn't use the cartoon or the comic style they liked to throw around is beyond me. I mean why make the game for the fans? Let's make it for ourselves based off a movie that hardly anyone liked. The reason this style was chosen was because most of the creative team hadn't seen anything turtles since the old toon, they didn't even know of the comic. So when they saw TMNT they were amazed at how much it had matured since the OT. Well that's all fine and dandy but that's hardly a reason to model the whole game based on that style. This is especially considering the director of this game was a turtles fan himself. There was no excuse for this.

Costumes:
Here was their chance to redeem themselves. If anyone was mad about the overall look of the game they had costumes to switch to. So what do they do? Make them suck because why make any element of this game good? So for Raph and Mikey we have costumes based on a failed toyline Playmates pitched called "Music Turtles". It was supposed to be like their music turtles line from the 90's expect these sucked hard. They lacked any creativity and weren't even funny like the original line. They might have worked if they weren't still trying to milk the movie look. The fans hated them so much they just never released them even after telling us our opinions mean nothing to them. Don gets his cyber gear from the horrid Back To The Sewers episodes. This exact version however is based on the equally horrid toys Playmates did. They used the movie models because they were too lazy to sculpt anything new. To put it bluntly he looks like he's dressed to appear at a Tron convention. For Leo we have some random ninja garb. Some may argue it's supposed to be his outfit from the Usagi crossover episode “The Real World”. This however has a metal face plate so I have no idea.

For Splinter we have something we've never seen him in before, an ugly blue kimono. Unless there's an episode of turtles where Splinter goes to a kabuki theater I missed this was a wasted costume. April and Casey get their 2K3 outfits, how exciting. I can't complain though this was more along the lines of what I was looking for. Karai gets the look of a gold blade bot from the episode “New Blood” as hers. It doesn't translate well and she looks like some weird anime character. Also again what obscure crap is this? Why not use her iconic look that was used in both the cartoon and the comic? The Foot Ninja and Shredder sport their cyber look from BTTS. I think these look cool so I won't complain too much but still why not use a Mirage look or even OT. The Foot ninja I will complain about though because he looks too much like Grey Fox from Metal Gear Solid. That's it, they didn't even bother with costumes for the others.

Know what annoyed me the most about this though? People spent hours, not me though I'd shoot myself before doing so, beating everything on all kinds of modes and playing hundreds of VS matches trying to unlock these costumes with no luck. Then Ubi comes along with codes and starts sending them out online. Like gee thanks for making the costumes only unlockable by putting in a code. That is an asshole move in my book. Just an attempt to span the life of the game. Like you wanna complete the game 100%? Well you gotta wait till we say you can.

[Spitfire]

Graphics:
This is a good segway into graphics. I know it's the Wii but the overall graphical performance is poor. With all the big names they were throwing around on this game you'd expect better. Everything is pixelated. Sorry but the PS2 days are over can we upgrade now please? I mean RE4 on GC looked better then this game. They're just bad. The images you can look at after you unlock costumes aren't even high quality. I have no idea what happened here. They tossed around all these fancy graphics in the trailers and totally failed to deliver. I even have the component cables, which are supposed to up the quality but really just make it impossible to play Virtual Console games, and it still doesn't look very good.

Cut Scenes:
Jim Lawson is a great man, he's a nice guy, and not a bad artist but the cut scenes in this game are simply bad. His art looks terrible animated and the crappy story doesn't help things along either, I'll get to that later. I see nothing appealing about them. They claim they're in black and white as a toss back to the original comics but I think they just got lazy. It looks like they spent 5 minutes in After Effects doing amateur puppet tool animation. Lip syncing isn't even attempted. I also just hate the character designs. If you're going to plague the game with the terrible CGI style then stick with it. Instead we have to switch between that and Lawson's unappealing drawings. Like I said I love Lawson and I respect him but most fans will agree his style in the recent years is the worst of all turtle artists. I might add this is another section where they lured us in. The Trailer showed us a well animated scene from "Return To New York" done in Eastman and Laird's classic style. Way to deliver...

The Story:
What the hell happened? I honestly don't remember or know if I truly care. Some might not consider this a flaw but if the story is that forgettable it's bad. I've had this game since it came out, beat it with everyone and haven't had any urge to play story mode again. It had something to do with the Time Scepter and Shredder taking over the world. I just remember it being totally stock. I remember stories from games I played 5 years ago so the fact I can't even summarize what happens proves how forgettable it is. Also it was supposedly written by the Mirage guys just for us fans. Thanks guys we can really tell how much you care.

The Levels:
Again 25 years of lore and we get a bunch of levels that have nothing to do with turtles. Enemy Base, whose enemy base? I've never seen it before. You know Shredder from the OT had a base, it was called the Technodrome. Why didn't we fight inside that? Instead we have to unlock it using a code that Ubisoft gave us. All that level had was the TD spazing out in the background while you fight. Better then nothing I guess. We also get a Western level, Cruise Ship, Burning Japanese Tower, Junk Yard, and Jungle. Yeah I remember that time old Shredder went back to the old west and the turtles had to...wait. I mean the junk yard and train are forgivable, I'll even give them the jungle because it's in TMNT, if even for only a few minutes. These other levels though I don't know what they were thinking. There's also so few of them. The ones they do have aren't very good and some are just annoying to play. I'd like the sewer if it wasn't for the annoying hazard crocodile that you can't turn off.

Controls:
The controls in this game are hit and miss, mostly miss. I tried using the Wiimote, that's like trying to move a brick wall with your face, I tried the SNES controller, that had a similar outcome, the only thing that works, sorta, is the Gamecube controller. I don't know if I should blame Nintendo for having bad controllers or what but I really shouldn't still have to play games with the GC controller. Anyways everything is stiff and the moves work when they want to. Dodging seems to be the only way to face your opponent without getting damaged. That's the huge problem, turning to face who you're fighting. Half the time you end up facing the opposite direction only to soon find yourself getting pounded.

The moves have a huge delay on them as well. The computers don't of course so the second you mess up prepare for a beating. Grab moves work when they feel like it and I don't even use them half the time as the delay is so bad. With the GC controller I can get them to work 90% of the time but there is that 10% where they don't and it's always at a very inconvenient time. Also the jump is annoying. Since there's really not much to do in the air you float around like a moron waiting to get hit. The wall jumping moves are pretty pointless to. I mean I see how it would sound cool as a concept but it just doesn't work.

Now mind you I am battle hardened from years of Smash Brothers Melee experience. I understand this games different but comparing the control response and flow is like night and day. Smash-Up is just stiff and unresponsive. Melee being the older game should be worse then Smash-Up. If you can't even top a game that came out 8 years ago you're doing a pretty bad job.

Balance:
This game has no balance. Almost all the characters are capable of rape depending on the distance but some are worse then others. Donatello, Karai, Mikey, Nightwatcher, and the Foot Ninja can destroy you. Don can be especially annoying as his bo moves are easy to do and can hit you from a distance. He's my favorite turtle but even I feel wrong using him online because he's so cheap. If you time hits right your opponent won't even be able to get in a move edge wise. The others I mentioned because if you give them a micro second to get a hit in your life bar will drop to half or less in a matter of seconds. Some characters seem like they don't even stand a chance. Shredder is useless, so is Splinter. Unless I want to fly around like I'm on the freaking moon there's no point to Splinter. Shredder is the big strong one but he's so damn slow good luck getting a hit in. Everyone is fast enough to be able to smack him around with ease. Ganondorf was slow in Melee but he could still hold his own. He was even my main because his speed wasn't a virtual handicap.

I'm sure one can argue that in the hands of more skilled players all characters can be potentially dangerous but from playing against the computer this is what I see. I look at playing against the computer as how those characters were meant to be played and these are the trends I've noticed. Though no matter who you are you can spam wall grabs and kill your opponent in no time. That plays into the balance factor, at least in my book. The difficulty level is way off too. Easy can turn into hard depending on who you're fighting and hard can be way too easy.

[Spitfire]

Mini Games/Mission Mode:
Screw mission 35. Ring out 5 Foot Ninjas in the time limit. Yeah sounds easy enough but these guys have been drinking magic moon juice and can fly back onto ledges like it's nothing. Even characters with long throws have little chance. Fugitoid is the best option but he's not unlocked until after you beat this mission. I used Casey Jones, as his throw works best, and I still almost broke my controller. You have a few minutes of grace time to knock them off the side of the building before the roof caves in. If you don't get most of or all of them here then forget it. I got 4 all in the first go and spent the remaining 5 minutes, almost all the way up till the timer ran out, trying to kick the last one off the building. It's just insanely hard even on easy. The game has no mercy either, they just keep coming. The way to do it is toss them off the edge and then grab it so they can't but the control sucks so hard it's near impossible to accomplish this. I'm just gonna stop now cause just remembering this makes me angry.

The other missions are meh. I don't remember most of them as they weren't very fun. None of them were more annoying then 35 thankfully either. As for the Mini games, well their mini games. I fail to see the point to them. I mean you gain shells by doing them but why can't I gain shells by doing fights like in Melee? There's a run one, which is just like the one in Melee, collect pizzas, hit special crates, jump on platforms to avoid sharks, dodge throwing knives, and an annoying jump one that's just like Melee only broken. You can beat them all, usually with a score of 30, but there's no point to it. You get that many shells and that's it. Nothing is unlocked so unless you're shell hunting so you can get all the trophies it's a waste of time.

Online:
Online isn't bad for the most part. It's a bit glitchy now and again but that's up to the internet connection of your opponent. If their connection sucks you usually have to pay for it by the game slowing down. They decided it was a good idea to name everyone you fight TMNT1, 2, 3 unless they're on you're friend list. How stupid is that? I guess it's so people aren't battling for names but I doubt enough people play this game for that to matter. There's some customization stuff you can do like making trophies but I could careless. I can't see myself playing long enough to get the shells required to make one after unlocking everything else. Let alone fighting a bunch of people online.

Music:
Like The Ramones? Well I hope so because you gotta hear a crappy remix of “Blitzkrieg Bop” play over and over again. The rest of the music is totally forgettable. I mean why not use iconic music, besides music that's never been associated with turtles? Is it that hard to at least try? Use the movie theme or hell the turtles theme for that matter. I have the guide which claims you can unlock more songs but it never tells you when you do so in game so I have no idea if it's true. Bottom line the music is pretty bad. Some of it is okay but nothing to get excited over. Another missed opportunity.

Extras:
The extras are terrible. One of them is seriously a commercial for the Season 7 DVDs of the OT. Yeah great unlockable. I guess if I'm wasting my time playing the game to begin with I shouldn't care. Some of the production art is neat I'll admit but nothing to rave about, also nothing I haven't seen online. The "never before seen" 4th movie promo pictures are far from never being seen. For one Laird posted them on his blog and they're in Eastman's turtle book. That's the problem with this game it over hyped itself. It kept telling us how much the true turtle fan was kept in mind during the creation process. Well I find that hard to believe when the trailer for the CGI movie that came out 2 years ago is an unlockable.

That's all I'm going to say. I could say more and I realize I left out some stuff like items and overall sound but I'm just done talking about this game. It's time to wrap this thing up.

To be honest I really wanted to like this game. I was ready to say “Despite it's flaws I'm going to try and love this game.” Well it's so bad I can't even do that. It has no redeeming qualities. They screwed up everything from the roster to the gameplay. I'm not surprised, being a turtles fan is kinda like letting someone spit in your face all the time. We are constantly getting disrespected by the companies we so willingly toss our money at. We hunger for turtles and since all that comes out is crap we have no choice but to accept it. Well I might accept bad action figures or lack of collected books but I won't accept a bad game. A toy I can buy and look at. A game requires a time commitment and I just don't have it.

So from a fan of the turtles 25 years in the making I warn you to steer clear of this game. Not even a hardcore fan like myself can enjoy it. Hell I don't know maybe that makes me hate it even more because I expected more. I think even casual fans will find this game forgettable or won't bother with it at all due to lack of any interesting characters. I doubt anyone wants to play a turtles game with 3 rabbids and two characters only hardcore fans have heard of and aren't really that interesting. This is especially true as that is pretty much half the roster right there. Let alone a completely broken turtles game with a horrible story, control, and bad graphics. Maybe super hardcore fight fans will want to put up with this game but I'm not about to.

[Blade Raider]

Originally Posted by ToTheNines

Do tag team mode, that way you'll have two life bars with two different characters.

...You just made me like that mode.

Finally got it on sell at Target for a price I was willing to pay ($27). I'm currently hating the way to unlock things. I may never get to play Fugitoid because there are some missions that are just un-fun and annoying. Btw, WTF is point?! The insturtions aren't even worth the paper their printed on. Would've rather have insturtions that tells me what things do and how to do them than that ugly ass comic. Speaking of, I've already said I dislike Lawson's art, but this takes the cake. This is some of the worst art I've ever seen. Free comics that come with toys that have multiple languages in the bubbles because their to cheap to make 3 different ones have better art than this crap. Seriously, after watching those cutscenes and reading that comic, the Rabbids don't seem that bad anymore.

On the good side, the characters that are there are fun to play. I'm liking Karai, Nightwatcher, and Shredder most. Still trying to get the hang of specials. Also have to give them credit for the tag team, custom controls (their default is all f'ed up), and a better online then SSB (though I only spent a few mins. on it).

[MrDizzyDEE]

haha, i just thought about it. The utrominator does have an alternate costume.....Shredder.

[GreasyBoi]

Sorry if this has been posted before but the Ninja Rabbid and Technodrome level code has been spilled by Ubisoft!
Go to Bonus Content and press the directional buttons in this order:
Up,Up,Down,Down,Down,Right,Up,Left,Right,Left

You should hear a sound, that is the sign that you have done it right.
I'm playing it right now.

[Blade Raider]

Mission 43 is evil! I'd have Fugitoid right now if it'd just let me use Utrominator. Any suggestions?

[TurtleGuy]

I bought the game today at the Gamestop and it was on sale for $30.

So far I like it and I agree with Ninjinister's review. It's really fun to play despite the lacking roster and whoever IS there is fun to play as. It doesn't feel stiff or sluggish to me at all.

I think if Ubisoft makes a sequel to this game with a more diverse roster, we'd have a winner.

[Zachatello00]

We actually just dropped the price of it officially to 30 dollars today. Make the game a lot better at that price point.

[oldmanwinters]

Well, I got Smash-up for Christmas. I haven't played too much of it. Just unlocked the Technodrome stage right away and then beat it with Raph on normal mode. I watched development of this game as a non-Wii-owner and was disappointed that no Old Toon characters were represented, but I do enjoy playing it, especially on a widescreen HD TV. Those lazers in the Technodrome stage make my eyes bleed.