Ninjas + Reptiles = Easy Game

TMNT, based on the CGI-fueled film of the same name, involves you playing as four different yet almost identical turtles who have been graced with the freak mutant powers of walking upright and speaking and have been trained in the ways of martial arts by a freak mutant rat who was apparently a big fan of Mr. Miyagi from the Karate Kid movies.  Given the fact that they look identical, they've been given colored headbands and different weapons to tell them apart.  They also each have their own two-dimensional personality trait to further define them.  Unless you randomly clicked this review because of your intense love of acronyms, you probably already know the differences, so I will skip the in-depth profiles.

The gameplay is like a hybrid of Crash Bandicoot and Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.  For the first few levels you alternate through the turtles, giving screen time to each and learning their special moves.  Later it gives you the ability to switch between turtles on the fly and perform special combos with two turtles at once.  The game has you running, jumping and flipping through one highly linear level after another with intermittent breaks to punch and kick street hoodlums and foot soldiers.  Every once in a while you have the requisite boss fight.

The storyline pretty much follows the movie and basically acts to fill in a couple of gaps *as if anyone was wondering how exactly Ralph got from the bottom floor to the top floor of some building.  The whole game is also in flashback, narrated by the turtles, so you are fully aware than none of them suffer any undue consequences of recklessly parading through the city with deadly weapons.

Complaint number one: why do we play through 11 levels before we ever actually play as Raphael instead of his stupid Batman ripoff character?  Complaint number two: the camera is a fool.  It succumbs to the 3rd-person platformer syndrome pretty early.  I found it really irritating not being able to see exactly where I needed to go because the forced camera perspective wouldn't let me.  Far too many times did I find myself leaping randomly into space, hoping a platform was somewhere ahead that I could grab onto.  At least they put a lot of checkpoints everywhere.

Now a few comments that some may find positive and others negative.  First off, the game is incredibly easy and can be beaten in less than five hours.  I'm sure many out there prefer more of a challenge, but if you just want some really easy achievements, this is the game for you.  Also, I mentioned earlier that the game is extremely linear.  Did you notice I compared it to Crash Bandicoot earlier?  THAT is how linear it is.  There is NO deviation from the path the game wants you to follow.  Some people may actually like this so they can focus on speed runs (the game does indeed time you and score you based on how fast you get through the levels).  Any sandbox fans will find it very restrictive and probably lose interest quickly.

I personally found the game to be a pleasant diversion while recovering from surgery and therefore will hesitantly recommend it to people looking for a break between tougher games or for achievement whores.