Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles 2 Battle Nexus is more than just a step backward for this series
it's a step backward into a large chasm. When Konami released Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles last year for consoles and the PC, all we wanted was a spirited
beat 'em up in the vein of the classic Turtles arcade games. While Konami
managed to get the genre right, it unfortunately succeeded at little else,
turning in a rather prosaic effort that didn't have much going for it beyond
its cel shaded graphics.
While the story
aspect of the last Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 game wasn't a huge factor, it was at least
better than what Battle Nexus has to offer. The storyline of this game is
ripped largely out of the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series'
second season, and it consists of an overarching storyline that puts the four
heroic turtles--Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael--on a quest to
rescue their master, Splinter. At the beginning, you'll have a couple of story
paths available to you, as well as a couple of locked story paths. Each story
branches out into an episodic series of misadventures that you must play
through, and some of these missions even have multiple paths. What's weird is
that there's obviously a fairly linear plotline that the game follows, as
evidenced by the way the different animated cutscenes taken from the show play
out. So, even though you can choose from a couple of different missions, only
one of them actually starts in the proper place in the story.
Another weird
and annoying thing about Battle Nexus is its character management system. Each
time you start up the game, you'll be presented with a character select screen
for one to four players. If you're the only one playing, you'll still have to
select four characters from a pool including the turtles themselves and side
characters like Splinter and Casey Jones. You'll be able to have only one
character onscreen at a time, but you can switch between them on the fly. The
reason for this is simple at certain times during missions, specific
characters' abilities are needed to proceed. However, this is set up in the
cheapest way possible. For example, if you get to a door that has to be opened
via a control panel, you'll have to cycle through to get to Donatello, since
he's the smartest of the group, and logically is the one who can operate
electronics. Of course, all you actually have to do is press his weak attack
button in the vicinity of the control panel, and the door magically opens. For
everyone else, it's just as simple. One guy can move heavier blocks, another
can chop through certain objects, and that's about it. At times, you can
actually circumvent these ability specific objectives altogether. That's as
much character specific action as you're going to see in the game, which is
pretty underwhelming, to say the least.
Battle Nexus'
combat is just as bad. The enemies weren't very smart in the last Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 game, and they're
just as brain dead here. Only now, some of them are proficient at blocking, so
you have to suffer through trying to beat up an enemy who not only can't fight
properly, but who also knows how to turtle itself until you walk away for a
while. Most times, grunt enemies will just stand there, slowly walking around
in a circle until you get too close or attack. Enemies with projectile attacks
will attack more often, and are often the most difficult, mostly because the
game likes to put them together in significant numbers and tailor their attack
patterns so one will always attack right after the other. On the other hand,
you'll frequently find yourself without any enemies to beat up at all, as many
levels feature oddly vacant sections.
The game also
contains an unlockables system, in which you collect antiques throughout each
mission in an effort to unlock items in April's antiques store. Most of the
unlockables are just concept art and things of that nature, but the one thing
you can unlock that's actually pretty cool is the original Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles arcade game. Apart from the audio being totally different, this is the
same game you came to know and love in arcades, and, of course, it supports
four players. The messed up thing, however, is that you have to slog through
most of the main story mode to actually get to the game, which really isn't
worth it. What's interesting is that once you actually do get to it, it
basically shows you that a 15-year-old arcade port that's only a few hours long
can still be vastly superior to this mess of a game.
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