Ninja Turtles are part of the childhood of many of us. In addition to growing with them in various entertainment formats, they became a benchmark of the beat’em up of the nineties from several fronts. The legendary recreational Konami, Turtles in
Time for SNES or even the more than worthy version of NES are recorded to fires in our retina. So, when it was announced that Platinum Games (Bayonetta, Vanquish, Metal Gear Rising) would be responsible for a title edited by Activision and starring Leonardo,
Donatello, Michellangelo and Raphael, expectations skyrocketed. Unfortunately, the final result is quite far from what is expected of the Japanese company and what we could wish for with the premiere of TMNT in this generation.
And the bad looking game did not have. It is true that there was always a glimpse of simplicity in its visual finish, but it was not worrisome considering that the same had happened with Transformers Devastation to some extent, although the title had a special
charm for remembering the eighties Transformers as what graphics do you mean? Four turtles with their different fighting styles and the online cooperative option were attractive enough to attack the evil
Clan of the Foot in their umpteenth attempt to dominate the world. What happened then? The reasons why TMNT Mutantes in Manhattan has not set as expected are diverse, but it is clear that the game becomes part of that batch of low-budget titles, and who knows
if excessive haste on the part of the editor, that Platinum Games has already taken sometime. As for example The Legend of Korra.
The concept of the game is quite simple. After a recommendable tutorial we went to choose if we want to play in the story mode for a player or in the online multiplayer for four users at the same time. Whatever our path, the plot invites us to know the latest plan of Krang and Shredder to dominate the world. The turtles, who are so at ease in their home with Master
Splinter and journalist April O’Neil, quickly get to work. Already in the first measures we see that the identity of the four protagonists is maintained. The leadership and nobility of Leonardo, the technical contributions and “smartass” of Donatello, the
sarcastic comments of Raphael or the unconcern -except for eating- exasperating of Michellangelo. In the cinematics that we will see we will be shown everything we expect from this point of view,
The excuse, in short, ends up being overcome 9 levels that have as a crown a final boss taken from the universe of the Ninja Turtles while we are revealing more details about the plan of the archenemies of the mutants. Everything is in order, therefore, to jump into t
he ring and finish all the minions of the Foot Clan. But then, when we shout, Cowabunga! That the game starts to fail on several fronts. And some of them are not exactly trivial.
Attack and defense
Those who have played the titles of Platinum Games will know the controls of the turtles at the moment. We have two attack buttons, loose and strong, we have a third button to jump and a fourth to interact with objects that can be drums, turrets and others.
All this does not lack the ninja stars that we can throw at a distance, automatically if we have an enemy marking or pointing with the triggers. The problem with these controls is what they offer in combat. Let no one expect great combinations between normal
attacks because there are none. To this is added another setback: the basic attacks end up in the background in several confrontations, and not only with the bosses.
This happens because the offensive power of the Turtles happens especially for the special attacks. Each of them has four actions that once used need a recovery time to be reused (can not be abused). There are of all kinds: rotating attacks that dozens of enemies, attacks,
combo attacks with another turtle do devastating damage … and also support: some recover the lives of colleagues, others -like one of Mike- retrieves all the
special attacks spent, another slows the enemy movement. In the end, the game bases its offensive potential very much on launching special attacks one after the other and holding on while we do not have them.
We can customize the attacks we want, so that Donnie can use specials that we have seen in Raphael and vice versa. Also unlock others and improve them so they do more damage or take less to be able to use again. The system of specials is quite interesting because
we can create a very offensive turtle, a more balanced one or simply serve as a support. And that in the cooperative with friends can be really devastating if we assign roles to each of the players. At the level of equipment we can also
use amulets (more difficult, more amulets) that enhance elements such as strength, vitality or the use of certain attacks. An RPG component
that has its substance even in the single player mode, since in high difficulties having controlled each of the contributions of the four turtles is,
On the other side of the fight we have defensive movements, which may seem complicated at first but are necessary.
We have the option to dodge with an evasion, to hold with a blockade, to make a parry that disarms the enemy defense or to make a kind of counterattack if we block at the right time they attack us, being able to assault the enemy immediately in the back .
The depth and requirement of these mechanics is clearly superior to what the attacks require, much simpler and shallower when using them.
