Nerd Mentality

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus

Posted by Dan Biersdorf.

Growing up in the late 80's and early 90's, like many other kids I was hit with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle craze. The witty, mutated reptiles that lived in the sewers of New York City to conceal their identity to the outside world, but fought crime at the same time – for the children and teens it was genius; you couldn't help but fall in love. Each turtle had their own unique personality that set them apart from the others: Leonardo, with his ability to keep the pack in line was a natural born leader. Donatello, the brains of the group, always discovering new gadgets to help beat the baddies. Then there was Raphael, the big-mouthed fellow with a bad attitude. And of course the group wouldn't be complete without the goofball Michaelangelo, the lazy, comedic lad who could lighten any situation. To teach and train them was Splinter, a mutated human-shaped rat who was wise with age. Full of cosmic discipline and possessing the art of butt-kicking kung fu, he took in the four turtles and taught them his ways.

After years on hiatus as the buzz around the TMNT franchise died down, word spread of the resurrection of the clan. After more than 10 years of hibernation, the heroes in a half-shell were back in full force: a TV show, action figures, and of course video games. Yet these were not the turtles we had once grown to love. They had gone through a major face lift since we had last seen them, and vanished were the free-spirited, "Cowabunga" yelling dudes of the past. Their new image was scary enough to make a little kid cry, but what do you expect? Trends have changed since then, and with the generation gap getting ever wider, it is only natural to become undistinguishable from the older era, thus the turtles are now paraded as fierce looking ninja's.

Just about a year ago, the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game since 1993 was released, done by none other than Konami, the company that had been creating the TMNT titles since the beginning. Before last year's release many gamers, including myself, dreamed of another classic side scrolling beat 'em up featuring our pizza eating heroes, and Konami brought these fantasies into reality. With the series sticking to its Genesis/Super NES roots, the game was the linear action adventure we had known and loved, albiet in the 3D realm. Sadly however, the debut was nothing short of average, with only two players, a boring story, and repetitive gameplay that dashed our hopes into the coastal shores of disappointment.

Luckily enough Konami wasn't going to give up like that. The developer promised next year's sequel to be bigger and better, which was good because there was quite some room to grow. So along with thousands of fans I waited, and here I am today with the game in-hand, and I'm still waiting. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus is not a bad game, however nobody told me that one of its features was to present the exact same problems the original TMNT had. The older turtle titles were able to captivate anyone who played them with basic yet engrossing gameplay. And while Konami has really tried its best to bring back that spark of simplicity the series once had, it has failed to reach its own benchmark once again.

I have to give it up to Konami for not falling into the mainstream approach by releasing some boring action game, and instead sticking with the franchise formula, which in all respects is virtually a dead one. The problem is it's just not any fun to play; you move through various levels, pummeling an onslaught of enemies while picking up power-ups along the way. Soon enough the gameplay style acts like a chore, as I felt forced to keep going through the same boring levels, with very little to no environment interaction. Instead, I was wrecking havoc on the same mindless enemies over and over again. Each level was vaguely different from the ones before it, sprinkled with a few jumping puzzles to perform here and there. The environments themselves did look different, but since they actually had no impact on the gameplay, it didn't help to bring any variety to the video game. As an example, you would expect when reaching the snow levels that the snow would actually alter your movement with less traction. But sure enough those turtle toes act like snowshoes. It was little things like this that made each level even more boring than the last, until the game became an absolute drag to play, let alone enjoy.

I'm still baffled by the reason why the game follows the TV show as its story line. If you're buying the game, odds are you watch the TV show, and if you watch the TV show, you don't need another re-enactment of it in the video game. It wouldn't kill the developers to, in the very least, give fans something new to feed on. Even worse, though the game consists of snippets from the show, you'll be lucky to find scenes showing anything of interest. It doesn't help that the game follows a large number of episodes and often does not connect properly. You know it's bad when you've seen it before, and you still can't figure out what's going on. Throughout your journey you will encounter dozens of friends and foes that tend to show up once, only to be never seen again. This clutter makes it hard to grow any sort of attachment to the supporting characters as you fear you may never see them again, with the exception of April, Casey Jones and Splinter.

Ever since the gang's return there have been some major flaws in the design and concept of the series, however I can't get over how much I love the art style. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for the big-eyed turtles from the past, but these guys just look so tough that it's too much not to think they're freaking sweet. No wonder crooks are so shaken up over the turtles, they look like they give out cans of whoop ass on a daily basis. The game takes the cel-shaded perspective into the 3D world, which in a sense seems odd, but it works out very well. It's a faithful transition from cartoon to cartoon video game. The environments themselves show little detail, but are overall good in appearance. The character models are looking as crisp as ever and is one of the high points of the graphic quality to the game.

Another big step in the game was implementing a four-player mode, since for unknown reasons last years version only included a fun time for two. Lameness. However, Konami realized its mistakes and finally delivered with a high quality multiplayer mode that'll bring back a nostalgic feeling from those great arcade days. You'll also be pleased to know that Battle Nexus comes packed with the original TMNT2 game from the arcades in all its glory; which is labeled pretty heavily on the box itself. That makes me think Konami really wanted to push older gamers to buy it, which probably won't work but it's a good bonus regardless. Will we ever see a true transition of Turtles in Time, complete with four player action? Hopefully in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3.

This game gets an N-Philes score of C-.

TMNT 2 is one of the best revivals of the arcade scene that I've seen in awhile. The gameplay remains intact, but the question you have to ask yourself is: does this kind of gameplay appeal to me anymore? From extremely cheap computer AI, lack of combo attacks, and boring same old, same old gameplay, in a way I have to say this title is just too old school. It takes a formula from the 16-bit era and doesn't build on it. I look at Viewtiful Joe, which was also a side-scrolling brawler, yet it added interesting gameplay changes to revitalize the genre to keep it fun and addictive. Battle Nexus fails to deliver anything new and lacks in the fun factor. The big highlights of the game, if any, are the new multiplayer mode and the extremely long story mode. In the end there is a lot to be done with the franchise, which could easily be adjusted to boost the quality of the game. Hopefully we'll see some of that in Konami's next installment.

Posted in: Reviews

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