Will this classic remake have you yelling COWABUNGA, or WTFUNGA?
Everyone’s four favorite giant green turtles named after artists are back, but are they really better than ever? Turtles in Time was originally an arcade game that was then ported with added levels and music to the immortal SNES. Re-shelled is a remake of the arcade game with 3D graphics, but the ’same’ gameplay.
WHAT YOU’LL LIKE:
Familiar Faces and Locations
True to the original you will see all the characters and locations that were in the arcade. You’ll fight Shredder in front of the Statue of Liberty’s face, you’ll fight the Foot Clan and of course, Krang. You’ll also fight through The Big Apple, on a train, in prehistoric times, in the sewer and even in the future.
Familiar Faces....get it?
Turtle Power!
The game features local and online Co-op for up to four players. Kicking Foot Clan butt with 3 other players is just as satisfying as it was in the arcade version only now you don’t have to use quarters nor leave the house!
I know how he feels...
WHAT YOU WON’T LIKE:
If it isn’t broke, DON’T FIX IT!
Whenever I play remakes I expect a few specific things, such as the original graphics updated, the original music remade and the original gameplay intact. Unfortunately Re-Shelled is not just a remake, as it changes things that should have stayed the same.
The music in Turtles in Time was classic, if not a masterpiece, and for some reason they completely changed it. In early trailers for the game you could hear that the original music had been updated for the game, but the final version has all new original bland boring music. Then there are the horrid voices, instead of the classic voices and phrases you are used to, the developers have used the voices from the newer cartoons, and have repetitive boring phrases. Krang is easily the most annoying thing I’ve ever heard in my life, and will make you want to mute your TV.
The graphics, while updated to 3D feel less colorful and more bland than the original. Metalhead, the bionic turtle boss of the second level, is especially ugly and bland. The levels just don’t feel as energetic or as lively as the originals either. The original had backgrounds you cared to look at, but Re-Shelled has cookie cutter backgrounds of cities, country side etc.
I demand more live action TMNT!
No Old School
Most recent remakes let you switch between the classic graphics and music, sadly Turtles in Time doesn’t have this option and it really is a shame. If Ubisoft would have included this option it could have possibly saved this game. Maybe they didn’t have the rights to do this, but it would have easily made my opinion of the game much better. Possibly they will fix this later with free download content, but I’m guessing it’s highly unlikely.
Who Let That Fly In Here?
The hit detection in Re-Shelled for flying enemies and bosses, is horrid. At times it will appear as if you go right through the enemies, and many bosses will only let your hits connect when they aren’t doing any moves at the time. This leads to frustrating patterns of waiting, then quick attacks. I realize this was in the original game, but it seems even worse in Re-Shelled.
Dancing queen only 17...
Over Too Fast
While the game is the same length it was when released in arcades, the package all together doesn’t add enough to keep you coming back once you have all the achievements. The game includes a survival mode that has you trying to complete the game with a single life, but couldn’t you just do this in the normal story mode yourself? While you can play Survival mode Co-op locally and on Live, it just feels tacked on to try to get more out of the game. Some of the achievements are guilty of this as well, such as beating the game with each turtle. This is not the way to go about extending the longevity of your game.
RECOMMENDATION:
TMNT: Turtles in Time: Re-Shelled may be geared towards a new generation of TMNT fans, having the voices and character designs from the newer cartoons, but they lured all of my generation in with nostalgia. When you are promoting a game as a remake and know people are nostalgic over it, DON’T CHANGE THE THINGS THAT MADE IT GOOD! The combat is essentially still there, but the heart and soul has been ripped out of this game, and been replaced with bland music, bland graphics, bland cut scenes that screen tear and feature Ninja Turtles that look more like a sickly Pillsbury Doughboy then the turtles we know and love. If you can stream music to your Xbox 360, have the original soundtrack and can look past the voice actors and bland graphics, then I can recommend this game to you. Otherwise, I wouldn’t pick this up for more than 400 MS Points ($5). Can you believe they originally had this priced at 1200 MS Points? What were they thinking? You can’t remake Mario games without mustaches, and you can’t remake TNMT games without the music!
My feelings exactly
TMNT: Turtles In Time: Re-Shelled
Systems: Xbox Live Arcade
Developer: Ubisoft Singapore
Publisher: Ubisoft
Find: Goozex - Xbox Live Marketplace
All reviews are based on final retail code unless otherwise noted.
Want to know more about the game? Just ask! We love to hear ourselves type, and might even say something vaguely resembling an answer to your question(s)…
August 11th, 2009 at 1:53 am
I definitely appreciate the lowered price point and the grand effort that went into this remake, but I would have been a bit happier with a more nostalgic port of the original. And goddamn some of these bosses are cheap!
August 11th, 2009 at 3:37 am
This is probably the only XBLA game this summer I’m just not feelin. Mixed up music and hit detection problems (I HATE this…) have put me off even more.
August 11th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
This makes me sad. I must have played the original game 100 times over when I was a kid. Some people just don’t get the idea behind a remake unfortunately.
August 11th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
The problem is when they’re developing the remake. You get these arrogant programmers who feel they can improve over the original, oh this is how it should have been and I’m sure they’ll thank me for the improving it. You end up not with a remake, but a reimagining. Which is just a shame.
August 12th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Thanks for the heads on of this. I thought the only thing bad about it was the sloppy looking HUD. I don’t know if the industry is getting very lazy with these half-baked remakes, but they should have at least kept the full experience of it. But we don’t know if they had copyright problems with the old music.