Ah. It's been way too long since I've written a proper article, never mind a whole two-pager. If you somehow got to this page first, I'm not sure
what the shell you did, but don't do it again. You're scaring me. Anyway, on the previous page, I summarized what makes the story mode go round. If I
had been reviewing the first TMNT game for the GBA, I'd be done by now, but Battle Nexus has a lot more going for it.
After you've had enough fooling around with the Story mode, there are still plenty of challenges for you, and possibly some of your friends to try
to accomplish. Firstly, if you haven't done so, you can go through all of the levels and collect every last crystal lying around. And if you're completist
like me, you'll even go so far as to finish every level with all four Turtles. That could take a long damn time, so I don't suggest trying it unless you
plan to have a lot of time on your hands. Or, you could just move on and start playing through one of the secondary game modes: Race Mode and Battle
Mode.
First up is Race Mode. It's probably not exactly what you're expecting. I bet you're thinking a crappy wannabe kart racer? No? Well, yes, it is back
to the Muta-boards for the boys in green. All it is is the four Turtles racing against each other for some sort of glory. Maybe it's what they do in
their free time. Maybe it's just something Konami thought would be fun. To their credit, it is pretty fun. Until about race 4 or so, where it starts
getting tough.
Yay. Look at all of that fun. But really, it's a simple game. No real attacking or anything. Just holding the "gas" and jumping when necessary. But
there are a couple little elements that can give you the edge or destroy you completely. And they take form of coloured ground panels. Basically what
happens is that when you drive over these panels, you can press down and get some sort of bonus thing. For example, blue makes you go real fast, and red
makes you kill any turtle who you come in contact with. Some are a little more complicated, like yellow which launches you over walls too high to leap
normally. This would be fine, but you need precise timing, or you'll just be flung into the side of the wall.
Reminds me of something blue... something about a hedgehog... But at least in this game you can go fast and not really have to worry about dying. There
are 15 courses available, and according to the manual, if you manage to tough it through them all you get to see an ending of some sort. Also, if you
manage to do well in the GCN version, you can get some passwords to unlock three bonus courses. It's not much, but it beats the hidden bike race mode
from the first game. That wasn't fun at all.
But if you don't like the racing too much, you can go to a seriously challenging mode: the Battle Mode. It's laid out exactly like Race Mode, in that
there are 15 levels, an ending, and three unlockable levels. Or arenas, or maps, or whatever they call them. The thing I'm most worried about right now
is the fact that they called it Battle Mode when in reality, there isn't much battling. In fact, in this mode you want to avoid battling as much as you
possibly can. Maybe it was named more for the multiplayer version. I don't know, I'm not a doctor. What I do know is that it's time for the next picture.
The goal of Battle Mode is to collect so many crystals in a short span of time. At first it's pretty easy, but then they throw in Triceratons and blocks
that need breaking. Some levels even just have a lot of springs that you need to find away to navigate around. And after you've finished a map or whatever,
they give you a second, harder challenge. I don't think the second rounds need to be completed, but it sure adds a lot of difficulty to the game. I've yet
to finish either the Battle Mode or Race mode yet, so I'm not sure what the caliber of these supposed endings are, but I'm going to guess that they won't
be much more than a picture that says "Congratulations!" or "You're the Race/Battle Champion!". Really,
they're just extra modes thrown in to add multiplayer
and a couple more hours to the game's life, so you can't really expect much. They are entertaining though, and sever well as an entertaining break from
having to find your weapon in every damn level.
Oh yes, I never yet mentioned that if you get to close to a Triceraton, he will grab you by the neck and bite off your face. At least I assume that's
what's going on. The animation makes it look so, and it takes off a pretty huge chunk of your life bar, so I'll stick with it for now. Ooh... And speaking of
right now, I think I had a little too much candy... It's time for me to take a little break from the old writing that I've been doing inconsistently all
day. I'll be back before you know it, because let's face it, no matter how long I'm gone, it's not like I can really make a commercial break happen as soon
as you're done reading this here paragraph.
(Returns 27 minutes later, having emptied the bowels and completed Battle Mode.)
Well, I finished Battle Mode, and I must say, I was definitely expecting too much from the "ending". All you get is character art of your chosen Turtle
over a background of his weapon and some pretty confetti. It didn't even say "Congratulations". I would normally say something along the lines of "That
was totally not worth it.", but indeed it was, as it provided me with material enough for an extra filler paragraph.
Because we all know that this second
page is definitely not going to be either as high or mighty as the first was. I suspect that Race Mode
will yield the exact same results, but perhaps with a
different character pose. Oh, right. I got a password too. Not sure what it does, but it had better be good. It's not on the code list at GameFAQs, so I
can only assume that I am the first person ever to finish Battle Mode.
So, now that we've seen all the game's content, it's time to do the actual review. I think I always start this part with that sentence or a paraphrase
of it. I mean, there has got to be something more original to say. Well, I'll figure that out if I ever review anything again. As usual, I'mma start with
the graphics. Just like the first game, they're fabulous. Character sprites are large and well animated. Each turtle has tons of original animations, (on
a side note, they all swim the same except for Donatello, who really gives 'er.) The bosses are huge, and tend to launch a lot of projectiles, and so
far I haven't noticed any slowdown at all. Backgrounds are good-looking and interactive, but even thought they take place in two different locations,
the first and second worlds look way too similar.
Sound-wise, the game is pretty good. The butchered intro is gone and replaced with a quaint recap of events leading up to the game, and is fully voiced
by all four Turtles and the Shredder. Of course, all the voices are the same actors from the show, and it manages to work out very well, with only the
slightest bit of fuzz. Of course, you also get the various Turtle voice samples throughout the game, and the stage clear "Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles!"
clip. Sound effects are where they should be, with metal-on-metal clangs, laser guns, and other assorted thwacking sounds. The music is decent enough,
but barely memorable. It all fits, but it's nothing you're going to be humming afterward. You're probably best just to turn down the sound and put on some
headphones.
The gameplay is the most important part, and there's a lot to cover. The mini-games come first, as they provide mostly backup and multiplayer. They're
pleasant distractions from the main game, but not much else. If they were a little more fleshed-out, they could probably last by themselves, but as it
stands, mini-games are what they were made for, and all they'll ever be. The main game has been slowed down a lot since last year's entry, with the emphasis
being mostly on stealth rather than fighting off scores of punks and ninjas. It's still fun, but it
doesn't feel like Ninja Turtles until you've gotten
the weapon. Plus, enemies are usually few, with no more than two ever attacking at a time. On the upside, these enemies are a lot more deadly than those
from the first game, so it evens out in the end. The vehicle levels are good fun, and serve the good purpose of keeping the game mostly action-oriented.
The game offers a significant challenge, and might be even too hard on hard mode. I've yet to give it a go.
Other things to note are that the controls are mostly spot-on, except sometimes it's hard to attack and run away before you get clobbered by a hammer
or get your face eaten off by a Triceraton. In the first three worlds, there is not a single mouser to be seen. It's kind of expected, but TMNT games,
since back in the NES days, have been all about clobbering hordes of mousers for me, so I'm slightly disappointed. There are still two worlds to go
though, so I've still got hope.
Overall, it's a great game. If you enjoyed the first game, you'll probably have a blast with this one too. The stealth aspect is annoying at first,
but MGS fans should get a kick out of it. I know it was totally worth my money, and the only thing I still yearn to see is more connectivity between
the GBA and GC versions besides the password trade-offs. There wasn't anything disappointing, so I'm not going to make up anything just so I can tack
something negative onto the conclusion. Straight up, it's a solid game and deserves a spot in the
libraries of any gamers who enjoy platformers and/or
beat 'em ups. And I'm under 200 words away from 2000 on this page, so I've gone and rambled enough to fill up two pages to my personal expectations. I
guess there's only one thing left to do. And that's knowledge that you just wasted (x) minutes/hours of your life reading this tripe. It's not so bad
I probably spent about 4 times that much writing it.
~Ryan
E-Mail:
Mr_Hotshot64v2[at]hotmail[dot]com
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