If you were alive in the 90s and owned a Super Nintendo (or went to the arcade), you probably played Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time, Konami’s awesome side scrolling, action beat’em up that starred iconic characters from the popular Ninja Turtles cartoon, comic and movie series.
Turtles in Time is not only one of the best games for the Super Nintendo (right alongside with other must haves like Link to the Past, Earthbound, Earthworm Jim etc) but a prime example of a side scrolling, beat ‘em up done right.
Fortunately, Ubisoft figured this out too because they decided to remake Turtles in Time (now with the added ”Re-Shelled” suffix) with new, fancy 3D graphics and a few other minor modifications to help usher this classic brawler onto next-gen consoles.
And it’s only going to cost you $10 on Xbox Live Arcade!
The core game is a perfect representation of the beat ‘em genre, and Re-Shelled is a great example of a remake done right. However, it’s worth mentioning that this version is a remake of the arcade version of Turtles in Time, not the SNES version. More on that later…
You (and up to three additional friends online or offline) play as the Ninja Turtles who are searching for the Statue of Liberty that Shredder and Krang stole. As the title of the game suggests, players also be traveling through time (sacre bleu!), visiting levels from the prehistoric all the way to the futuristic space stations on the moon.
Why does this happen? I don’t know, but seeing as how Krang is a brain monster from Dimension X (complete with a rocking Technodrome), I guess time travel doesn’t retard the Ninja Turtles canon that badly.
Each turtle wields a different weapon (from Leonard’s katanas to Michelangelo’s nunchucks) but, aside from some very minor differences, they’re practically the same. Of course, deciding who plays as what turtle is probably going to be the source of heated arguments anyhow because who the hell wants to play as Donatello instead of Raphael anyway?
There’s a number of levels for you to progress through, and each unique stage is populated by armies of Foot soldiers for you to beat up on. After you’re done hacking and slashing your way through the robotic legions of the Foot clan, you’ll square off against one of many classic Ninja Turtles bad guys.
Whether you’re fighting the evil fly scientists Baxter Stockman or the robot turtle Metalhead, you’ll need to learn their attack patterns and adapt an appropriate strategy.
Not to say there’s a whole lot of thinking involved in the game. There’s not. It’s a hack-and-slash. You walk around beating the crud out of robots and whatever bad guy happens to be standing in your way.
Depending on the difficulty setting, you can blow through Re-Shelled about as quickly as the original --in about thirty minutes to an hour. Fortunately, the Xbox 360 version has achievements to unlock, and, like the old-school original, Re-Shelled is a fun enough of a game to warrant casually playing through over and over again.
Gameplay wise, Re-Shelled is pretty similar to the original. At the very least, there’s no drastic changes, though the fact that this is a remake of the arcade version instead of the Super Nintendo version will definitely frustrate fans more familiar with its 16-bit iteration.
For instance, a lot of the bosses that were available in the Super Nintendo version (but weren’t in the arcade) are absent from the remake, which really makes no sense. At all.
The gameplay is still the same hack-and-slash that gamers grew up with and loved, and the graphics admittedly are sharp, polished and look very sweet. The inclusion of four-player co-op over the Super Nintendo’s two players is another welcomed addition, and the ability to play online relatively lag free is also nice.
What more is there to say? For $10, this game is an absolute steal. If you loved Ninja Turtles when you were a kid, you’ll love this game. If you like side-scrolling beat-em ups, you’ll love this game. If even have any sort of recollection of the early 90’s, you’ll love this game.
Final Score: 8.5/10
