As many of you may remember, I mentioned Turtles in Time: Reshelled in my PlayStation Store update this last week. Well, I got a chance to purchase and play through the game, and I will have to say this right now. Nostalgia definitely worked against this game.

Turtles in Time: Reshelled is a remake of Turtles in Time for the SNES, and is regarded by many as the best Ninja Turtles game of all time. The graphics in this reiteration are sub par at best and were quite a disappointment. The game looked like it could have been released on a last generation console. One redeeming factor is that I encountered little to no frame rate lag, even when multiple characters were on the screen.

The story for this game is definitely a bit lacking. For some reason, Shredder decides to steal the Statue of Liberty, and the turtles have to go chase him down and retrieve it. I know Shredder is the villain, but there is no back story AT ALL. I guess he just stole the Statue of Liberty because he is a dick. For what it is, I guess the story wasn't the real driving force behind the original game, so you can't really blame Ubisoft for that. However, Ubisoft is to blame for the bastardization of the game.

***Spoiler Alert: Only read if you want to see what changes to the story were made.***

The "Technodrome: Let's Kick Shell" level was absent from the remake. Instead, the Sewer Surfing stage ends without the Rat King boss fight and a Shredder hologram sends you into the past. Also, at the end of Prehistoric Turtlesaurus level, Slash is replaced by Cement Man. (What the hell, is that a Mega Man reject boss?) In the Skull and Crossbones level, you fight Tokka and Rahzar instead of Bebop and Rocksteady. The dates for Neon Night Riders was changed from 2020 to 2021, and Star Base was changed from 2100 to 2130. Lastly, you end the game by fighting Shredder, but in the original you fight Super Shredder, which was a much cooler final boss fight. This shows how the nostalgia factor really left me unable to enjoy the game.

***Resume***

In the modern age of gaming, this game is definitely flawed. The gameplay feels extremely antiquated and I found myself wishing for modern gameplay features. Although it seems Ubisoft wanted to keep the game vanilla, I feel that a game like this should include some sort of targeting system. Also, the lack of depth to combat is a huge detractor. You just bash enemies with your weapons, sometimes throwing them or slamming them about. There is no system of blocking and the mob mentality of the AI leads to you getting swarmed at times. Also, the ability to move diagonally opens up more avenues of attack for the enemies to beat on you. The controls feel a little too loose and come off feeling awkward. Sometimes the jumping feels delayed and leads to a fair deal of frustration. I think the remake actually controls worse than the original.

If you were thinking about buying this game, I would not recommend it, at least not for $9.99. It is very short in duration and is not worth it unless you intend on playing online with friends and reliving part of your childhood. The poor graphics, paired with antiquated gameplay and frustrating controls is a recipe for disaster, and it is a recipe that Ubisoft followed.

  • Title: TMNT Turtles In Time: Re-Shelled
  • Platform Reviewed: PS3
  • Developer: Ubisoft Singapore
  • Publisher: Ubisoft
  • Release Date: Fall