Review: TMNT (X360)

The latest trend these days is to bring back nostalgia memories from the 80’s and early 90’s. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are the latest in old school characters to be brought back in to the mainstream view.
TMNT is the game based on the movie which is not based on the old cartoon.

The game was designed by Ubisoft Montreal and you can tell that a mile away in the gameplay as this game plays out as a lousy unpolished Prince of Persia clone.
In the game you can use any one of the four turtles Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michalangelo. Each turtle has there own special moves to use to move through the game enviroments and all play differently in combat.
Each level is full of platforms to be jumped, walls to be run and enemies to be dealt with. The first few levels are nice and fast and have a really good flow to them. Then however by the time the five level comes around TMNT turns into a mess.
The first four levels introduce the turtles one by one and then all the turtles come together as one force.
The reason the game becomes a mess when all the turtles are together is the fact that there is really no point in having their unique abilities. Once in a blue moon will a level will require one specific power. The game manages to dilute itself into such simplicity that it becomes a total bore.
The only challenge stems from the beyond terrible camera. This thing is out to kill you at any interval. It is constantly stuck on the player in ways that don’t allow the area to be scouted to figure out what path ways to take in the levels.

What doesnt help is the horrendous combat. There is never a visceral feel that enemies are being hit and the sound effects are so pathetic. Most of the time the enemies will fall without giving any damage to the player.
The combat is so simple but Ubisoft somehow thought that there was a requirement for team combo moves for the turtles. That is great and all but doing these moves are never fully explained. All the game states is push X. In this day and age of good in game tutorials this is just pitiful. There is barely any direction for anything in this game and it shows.

TMNT could have been a really good game. It showed promise with some good fast platforming but the easyness of difficulty and lackluster combat just drags this game down. Seeing as the engine for the game seems to be directly taken from Prince of Persia this game should have been way better.
These turtles better just stay in their shells.

Score 2/5

Sega presents Border Break

After the failure of the Dreamcast, Sega has never really got back into a groove. However the year is 2009 and Sega has really begun its path on redemption. The recently announced Border Break for the Arcade has to be one of the most impressive looking games I have seen in a while.

Border Break is a 20 player mecha combat game with 10 players on each side. There is a choice between many different classes much like Valves mega hit Team Fortress 2.
An interesting thing to note is the fact the game is running on Segas new RingEdge system which is based on the PC. Could there be a PC port? Such thought is wishful thinking at this point. However the game does have a very interesting control system. Not only does it use a mouse and joystick but there is also a touch screen. It will be very interesting to see how these all work together.

From the trailer the game resembles Segas Virtua On which is no bad thing indeed. The mech design looks outstanding as do the graphics. All in all this is a very impressive looking game from Sega.

Look for more news on Border Break as new details emerge.

Lost Planet 2 Announced

This past week Capcom announced a sequel to its impressive game Lost Planet. Lost Planet 2 is set on the same planet but this time due to a bit of global warming(ripped from the headlines of today) the world is no longer completely frozen over. That is right some of the snow and ice has melted pathing way to an awesome and lush looking jungle setting.

The trailer hit Xbox Live this past week and it is impressive to say the least. As opposed to the original game it looks like Lost Planet 2 will work with the player in a squad instead of working solo. The first thing to say about the trailer is wow those graphics are impressive. Much like the first game Capcom is setting a high standard with its graphics. We can also see that mechs return but this time with the ability to have upto three people on board which should make mech combat a bit more interesting. The love for big epic boss battles also seems to return as seen with the huge creature at the end of the trailer.

Lost Planet 2 has already made its way to the top of my most looked forward games. It will be interesting to see if this game will have co-op play which will definately send this game way higher in my estimations.
Lost Planet 2 is announced for the Xbox 360 only at the moment.