As a child growing up in the 80’s, the appeal of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was hard to deny. The stories of crime-fighting mutant brothers who used martial arts and ate pizza captured the hearts of many young viewers at the time. I spent many afternoons after school watching their cartoon and then pumping several dollars worth of quarters into the local K-mart’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game.

With a successful new cartoon, TMNT the movie coming out, and TMNT the game hitting store shelves, the artistically named mutant brothers appear to be establishing a connection with old and new fans alike. I was looking forward to playing TMNT, assuming it would be a delightful trip down memory lane. While it did bring back many pleasant memories, once the nostalgia began to fade, I wasn’t very satisfied with what was left.

TMNT is an incredibly short (about five hours), completely linear, and mind numbingly repetitive experience. It mixes platforming game play with several combat sequence interludes. In some levels, you will control a specific turtle, while in others, you will be able to freely switch between all four of the brothers. In these levels, the turtle you choose to use will virtually have no effect on the game play besides their slightly unique fighting style and some minor puzzle elements.

Each level has the player reliving a story segment that is being told by one or all of the turtles. Throughout the course of the game, players will be able to help Leonardo train to become the turtle’s leader, fight crime with Raphael as the Night watcher, as well as many other familiar stories. It just so happens that all of these stories/levels seem to consist of constant platform jumping and fighting through hundreds of similar and uninspiring enemies. The platforming portions of the game actually do a fairly admirable job of being entertaining.