Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled (PS3) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
504A playthrough of Ubisoft's 2009 license-based beat 'em up for the Sony PlayStation 3, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled.
Played through the arcade mode as Michaelangelo.
I think most people would agree that Turtles in Time is one of those rare games that helped define its era. Then and now, very few seem to have had the gall to harshly criticize it, and rightly so. It's one of the best games of its time.
Unfortunately, after the 1992 SNES port (that in many ways actually improved on the coin-op), the game hasn't had much luck being ported in the time since. The first time saw Konami do unholy things to it as a hidden bonus with TMNT3 on the PS2/GC/Xbox. The game was intact, but was close to ruined by the miserable excuse for a soundtrack it was given.
Does the 2009 attempt do any better? Absotively posolutely . . . not.
The graphic update - I guess I should say remake - now using 3D models looks modern and has lots of bright colors, and it closely mirrors the structure and layout of the original stages, but it's pretty fugly. Everything has a weirdly muted, soft look to it, and the general tone set by the color palette choices feels pretty wrong in most spots. It's not particularly impressive on a technical level, either - I don't know about the 360 version, but on the PS3 there's a fair amount of heavy screen shearing present. That doesn't usually bode well.
The audio is not from the original or the SNES games. It's original, with some hooks and motifs repeated from the original songs, and while by itself it's not bad, it doesn't really suit the game, and it lacks the energy and punch of the awesome Konami soundtrack.
If those were TiT Reshelled's worst offenses, I'd cut it some slack. I could even forgive using the arcade version as the basis rather than the SNES one (meaning different bosses and fewer levels) if it got the gameplay right, but this is where it makes it's worst mistake. The controls now work in 8 directions, instead of the more intuitive standard style where no matter how you move, you can only face and attack left or right. There's a reason why this is standard - it's because it works. Beyond getting nailed from diagonals now, you also have to aim in all 8 directions to do anything, making lining up attacks WAY harder than it should be. And since half of your attacks will miss because of this, your combos often send you sailing right past an enemy, letting him turn around and nail you in the back. Even better, you can be hit as your getting up, so the enemy can juggle you endlessly if you are really unlucky. Fun!
I'm sure you noticed that I'm playing it on easy. I didn't have the patience to tolerate the control issues with twice the enemies on screen, nor did I have the desire to stretch the playtime out by fighting enemies with twice the life. I don't believe the difficulty level has any bearing on which ending you see, so there you go.
If this was some indie-developers first try at making a game with an original IP, I'd be far more tolerant. But, as a "remake" of an undisputed classic fan-favorite, this is an utter disgrace, and I hate it for everything that it represents. And yet they still got my $10. Next time you have an idea, Ubisoft Singapore, please don't. Go for a drive, play some basketball, or go out to dinner instead. Any distraction so that you just stay the hell away from video games, please.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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