Compared to other popular licensed characters, the Ninja Turtles have had it pretty good in the video game industry. Their first game from Konami is well-remembered if not necessarily loved, though at the very least it taught many an elementary school kid that turtles can’t breathe underwater. After that slight misfire, it didn’t take long for Konami to put the TMNT into a few of the most beloved belt-scrolling beat-em-ups of all-time, along with a couple of less-successful one-on-one fighters. After their initial popularity waned and the license left Konami, the Ninja Turtles have had a handful of decent, if not spectacular, outings based on their various revivals, most recently seen on iOS in TMNT: Rooftop Run ($3.99). Sure, their star may have faded over the years, but they headlined two games that are still considered among the best in their genre, something you can’t say for those smug Power Rangers.
There were a lot of high-quality licensed games in that period of gaming’s history, and one of the secrets behind that is that the companies producing those games actually put strong talent behind them and gave them the resources to succeed. The industry moved away from that for a long time, but it seems to be coming back around of late, with Nickelodeon’s latest iOS game, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ($2.99), proving a fine example. No disrespect to Rooftop Run, because it was very fun for what it was, but I think most people want to see the turtles fighting, not running. If you’re looking to make a mobile game based around fighting, Combo Crew (Free) creators The Game Bakers are probably one of the first teams you should be calling up. Luckily for us, that’s just what Nickelodeon did, resulting in a far better game than one might have imagined from a summer movie license.
As usual, the brothers are up against the Foot Clan of ninjas and a bunch of other mutants, with the story of the game revolving around a plot to take over all of the city’s pizza restaurants for reasons. The Turtles obviously aren’t going to stand for that, so you’ve got to take them through 35 stages of beat-em-up action. Like Combo Crew, this is an arena-based beat-em-up, so don’t expect to be walking through any stages. The enemies come in waves, and you have to clear them all out to move on to the next stage. On the way, you’ll face three bosses who should all be quite familiar to fans of the classic Saturday morning cartoon. It should also be mentioned that this is a single-player affair, but you can choose your favorite turtle to fight as, with the remaining brothers jumping in for super moves.
The action very closely resembles that of Combo Crew, with some minor changes to the controls to simplify things. You have no direct control over your turtle, instead directing him towards enemies using swipes and taps. Tapping on an enemy will unleash a basic attack, while swiping in various directions across the enemy will unleash one of your set combos. You can counter an enemy’s attack by tapping anywhere on the screen when they have a lightning symbol above their head, and if you rack up a big enough combo without getting hit, you can unleash a super move that calls in one or more of your brothers. The charge attack returns, but is no longer a default move. Each of the turtles starts with at least one combo that can break an enemy’s guard, as well as a launcher and a ground attack.
I’m pretty happy with these refined controls. It makes a lot of sense to have basic attacks come out from a simple tap, and getting rid of two-fingered swipes is always a good thing in my books. The only part of the controls I had any issues with involved the super move. Specifically, for Leonardo’s part of the move, you have to swipe a number of arrows a bit too precisely. It’s not a big issue when there are only three or four arrows to swipe, but when there are five arrows, the window of time is a bit too short and the accuracy required is a little too high. Sadly, if you flub any part of of the super move, it stops right there. Building up the gauge to summon all of the turtles is tricky enough, and not getting to see every character come out because I screwed up Leonardo’s part yet again is disappointing.
As in Combo Crew, you can upgrade each character using the currency you earn by playing. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has two different currencies. Coins are earned by completing stages and can be spent on one-time boosts and training that permanently increases your stats. Gems are earned by getting three stars on a stage or by clearing special goals. They’re used to buy new combos and weapons. Both currencies flow fairly well, at least enough to fully deck out one of the turtles as you make your way through the game, but the gems are just stingy enough that you can’t really spread the love around among the four. You can naturally buy both currencies via IAP, as well as full unlocks for all of the things you would normally spend those currencies on. Granted, you don’t have to max out every turtle to play through the game, but it feels like bad form for a relatively premium-priced game to set up its economy this way. It’s easily the biggest negative point of this game, and while I don’t like to play Nostradamus, it makes it feel like the game is built to go free at some point.
The graphics and sound are both excellent, a clear step up from Combo Crew. Of course, since this is based on the new Michael Bay movie, we’re stuck with the unique character designs from the movie, which I can take or leave. I would absolutely love to see other versions of the characters come to the game at some point as downloadable content, but I won’t hold my breath on that one. The game has a really strong cel-shaded look to it, and the animations are superb, as you would expect from this developer. Oddly, the game sometimes suffers from heavy graphical stutters on my iPhone 5S unless I manually shut down a bunch of other apps. The characters are all voiced, though of the movie’s cast, only Splinter joins. The rest of the cast is made up of veteran voice actors with no previous TMNT connections, save one special treat: Cam Clarke reprising the role of Leonardo from the 1987 series. My only complaint about the voice acting is that Splinter talks way too frequently during fights. He repeats himself a lot, and I wish there was an option to turn him off. I love that they managed to sneak a bit of the classic theme into the music, though.
In addition to the game’s relatively brief story mode, there’s also a survival mode where you have to clear multiple stages with just one life bar. There are gems to be earned here, and coins flow just the same as they do in the story mode, so this is a nice place to practice and power-up your character if you get stuck in the main game. The story mode gets pretty tough near the end, with enemies completely shredding your lifebar if they hit you, so you really need to get the hang of the game’s rhythm if you want to see it through. There are several different enemy types with their own behaviors who will come at you in mixed groups, so you also need to learn their various tricks if you want to make it through. If you get into the game’s flow, or already understand it thanks to Combo Crew, you can finish the game off in a couple of hours or less. Still, there are plenty of extra goals and achievements to work towards after that, and trying to rack up higher combos and scores never loses its appeal.
Taken as its own thing, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a pretty cool game that fans of the characters should enjoy. The combat is fun, the upgrades flow frequently, and it has just the right amount of fanservice and humor a TMNT game should. The premium currency and IAP make me very suspicious about this game’s future, but I think a Ninja Turtles fan will get their money’s worth out of this even at the current price. Looked at as a follow-up to Combo Crew, I love the way the controls have been simplified without sacrificing depth, and the game looks fantastic. If you really got into the fighting system in that game like I did, you’ll definitely want to take a look at this game. It’s another strong licensed effort for the Ninja Turtles, even if it probably won’t be one for the history books.
I..... Can't...... Wait
ME...NEITHER...
I just had an eye-gasm reading this article... This has definitely made my day...
O___O
Hdodcoalanshdsiaonshdd (Can't control myself)
Wooow...really...waiting...
Looks really promising, wonder if it will work on iPad Mini and 4S. Considering the bundle, since starting iOS 8, app bundles will be an option, a possibility that this game could be bundled with the other Chaos Rings games?
Good call on the bundle.
About time chaos rings 3
Interesting approach. Color palette so vibrant this time round. I personally welcome the change.
Can't wait, CR 2 is the best in the in the trilogy, hopefully 3 will be just as amazing.
Chaos ring likes original final fantasy series on mobile
What happened to my favorite IOS game series, this looks to bubbly for my taste :(
Square-Enix has the original CR artist working on FF15, so I'm guessing he wasn't available this time.
Ow that's why, I really like the style of the original.
Would still play this though.
Im pretty somebody (presumably more than one) will die in this despite the new art style/mood.
Your'e pretty?
WOAH! Gunblade!
Oh my god!!!!! I loved Chaos rings 1 and 2. I want this game
No love for Chaos Rings Omega?
One and Two were good. Still playing Two, which rarely was updated. Don't think I'd buy Three at that price. I'm sure I'd get a bigger iphone and it would never get optimized for the new screen size just like Two hasn't for the iphone 5. That kind of support will get maybe $15-20 from me, but no more. The games are good, but without anything revolutionary, if you've played one, you've played them all. Hopefully, that F2P CR got scrapped. I am thankful that this is premium, though.
One screenshot shows two types of currency, so it might not be IAP-free.
http://ecx.images-amazon.co...
Are you sure? Considering this will be in in the Vita I doubt this game will have iAPs. Why? There are many other games out there with 2 currency. The best example is Ys: The Oath in Felghana. Gold and Raval. Think about it Square Enix will be an idiot if they released it on a portable CONSOLE with full price plus iAPs.
You underestimate them.
Also, SE, try making this one Universal this time around. I'm not buying it twice.
I think most of their recent games/ports have been universal. I'd say there's a good chance this will be too.
This is the best news everrrrrr! Going to be a terrible wait though. :-)
I never played a chaos rings game. Are they good?
If u liked any of the final fantasy games you will probably like it,lots of videos of gameplay to look at to decide
I like older FF games. The last FF game that I enjoyed at all was 12.
If you can look past the Japanese dialogue and don't mind paying a premium price for games that I haven't been updated with widescreen support then I'd say buy all 3 now. Chaos rings omega (it's a symbol) is a prequel it chaos rings, then comes CR2. Very good stories and gameplay but all 3 will run you about $50, I believe. Totally worth it though IMO.
I'm all for premium games!!! I prefer them. I may check it out. Will I be lost if I just get Chaos Rings 2? I just don't think I'll have time for all of them. Lol
Not really. A few connections and references here and there but nothing game breaking...
Cool! Thanks:)
Omega is a prequel to the original Chaos Rings, 2 on the other hand has a different story so I think it's okay to just try Chaos Rings 2.
What's wrong with the dialogue? From reading the description they hired extremely well known VA and pretty good ones.
It looks like it's all in Japanese with English subtitles.
Better then pulling a Gameloft and having crappy English VA.
Chaos rings was one of the first full length RPGs for ios. Unfortunately a lot of that length came from you having to play through the same game three or four times with minor differences in order to get the full story. I kinda got burned out. I bought chaos rings omega and 2 on sale and started omega but it's so similar to the first that I ended up putting it aside. I hear 2 is better, but these days there's a lot of options.
Added to watch list really good series of games,wonder if we will get it end of this year
Instabuy.
Yup, instabuy.
omg.....i was so inlove with all the other ones even past then twice each so glad this is happening its about time
Whoa, an actual, native Vita release? Not just PS Mobile? All the more reason for me to grab one, despite having the first and...Omega? Yeah, would that midquel be included in the tri-set?
I haven't played 1 or 2 but have always been curious. Hopefully they release the bundle on the App Store or vita!
The CR 1,2 n 3 bundle will be released for Vita Only and I think this the reason why the Vita didn't get the FF type-0 HD
Did anyone click on the screen shot link and see the main menu screen? It looks like in app currency... God I hope not, thoughts?
CR2 had both currency and skill points as spoils from battle. Although the SP was used instantly. Perhaps in this version it can be collected and spent as wanted?
I find that the weakest part about Chaos Rings was the 2 player battle SYSTEM. Looks like the 3 player FF battle system has return. Now if SE can make a full fledged original RPG with overworld and towns on mobile. I will be a very happy man!
Yeah a proper overworld and towns is all CR2 really lacked, for me. I'm not a big fan of the idea of a single hub area.
FF7. Get on it, Square!
I will buy this shit!! 😜
Shut up and take my money! From the screenshots, it looks like they've ditched the top-down exploration view in favor of a traditional 3rd person camera in 3D environments, and it looks awesome.
Does anyone know if this will be a direct sequel from chaos rings 2? And is chaos rings 2 a direct sequel from 1? Never played the series, I don't really want to start from the first game
It's about damn time.
The trailer on YouTube was different. There were 2 new characters that looked nothing like these 3 and all the other characters were in the game.
The trailer is for Chaos Rings Sigma. Not Chaos Rings 3.