If you grew up with the Turtles and a fan, this will bring back nostalgia. For everyone else there's not much appeal.
The story is you and your brotherly turtles are minding your own business with setting up your new lair in the sewer. All of a sudden you are attacked by a group of Mousers that crash through the walls and end up destroying your comfy little bungalow under the gritty streets of Manhatten. Not only do they succeed in destroying your new home but they also cause a cave-in which causes you and your brothers to become separated from your Sensei, Splinter. And thus the story begins. With your chosen turtle you must navigate through sewer tunnels to find and ultimately re-join with Master Splinter. Upon being reunited you take to the streets and learn that there is a new street gang in town called the Purple Dragons causing all kinds of trouble and dastardly deeds. One thing leads to another and you eventually find out that you are not the only ninjas on the block as you encounter a renegade band of ninjas that are apparently running the real show behind the street gang.
Gameplay is straightforward: Pick your favorite turtle and then progress through different levels dishing out some shell shocking justice to unruly street thugs while unraveling the plot to find out what’s going on. At the end of each level you are pitted against a boss. Unfortunately the AI of your opponents doesn't prove too challenging the more they prove frustrating. Enemies resort to surrounding you and attacking in groups forcing you to jump away to be able to attack with any clarity or efficiency or you risk getting pummeled quite unfairly. Combat consists of pulling off simple combos of two or three moves, but stringing together combos is the key.
Along the way you'll find power ups ranging from pizza to sushi to replenish your health. There are also secret scrolls (called "makimonos" in the game) which unlock goodies in the Turtle Database. You’ll be engaging street thugs and ninjas in different environments from crawling around the sewers to leaping across rooftops. You can also use parts of the environment to help you dispatch some baddies should you find yourself overwhelmed. Combustible oil drums, fire hydrants and even cars on the street are available at your disposal to use against street hoodlums. The game also has magic crystals you can find strewn throughout the levels that help boost specific combat attributes. Red helps your attacking power. Blue helps increase your speed. Yellow increases your turtle’s durability against attacks, and purple grants you extra gembus. Gembus are a special attack that summons the rest of your turtle brothers to unleash some tag team fury. Use sparingly, though, as you can only use this special feature three times during any stage.
The game also has the Turtle Database. Here you can find information about each turtle as well as other characters in the game. As you collect scrolls throughout the game you unlock special surprises which can be found in the database as well. Some of the information might help your turtle during your adventure through the game, so be sure to check back in periodically with the database as you never know what pertinent info you may find.
TMNT is brought to life through cel-shading which serves to really bring a stylized comic/cartoon feel to the game. This style also emulates the new cartoon series perfectly. Adhering to true comic book form, big hits or explosions are accompanied with an on-screen text sound effect such as “BAM!” and “THOK!” It’s an entertaining novelty at best, and you have the option to toggle this effect on or off if you find it becomes obnoxious. The animations of the Turtles are great as they kick, jump and punch across the screen. The enemies are equally animated smoothly. Speech is presented through a combination of audio and text. A text bar will appear at the bottom of the screen with the accompanying Turtle’s picture that is speaking. This just seems to be a cheap way of getting around to having to animate lip synching, and I believe the Turtles could have been rendered more authentically if they actually moved their mouths when they spoke. This only applies to in-game cut scenes, though. It’s a minor quibble, but a quibble all the same. The cut scenes are neither FMVs or in-game cinematic sequences, but rather scenes straight from the actual animated episodes in an apparent attempt to tie-in the animated series further with the game. The cast from the animated show makes their appearance voicing their respective characters. During gameplay each turtle will shout out some one-liner, and they have a habit of shouting out the same lines a little too frequently. Which can tend to get tedious if you make a conscious effort to pay attention, but you can usually block them out to where you won’t even notice them after a while. The cut scenes are plucked straight from the animated episodes so there is no issue when authenticity there. You basically get treated to a clip from a show which ties in with the overall story.
After tackling the single-player aspect with one turtle there is not much incentive to go back and play as the remaining three turtles, which, aside from their chosen weapon proficiencies, control the same. If you have another buddy then you can both fly through the game in a two player co-op mode. It would have been nice to have a four player co-op which would have possibly made this game a great party title. A versus mode is included so if you're really bored you can square off against computer opponents, or get a friend to fight, but it's pretty much anitclimatic. The versus mode features other characters from the game but these are available as unlockables.
Konami’s effort in bringing back a well-known license for some old school gameplay was a noble one and appreciated by the many Turtle fans out there (and yes, we are still out there). However, the experience could have been better. With its lackluster and simplistic combat, boring AI opponents and no four-player co-op when you have four characters available really serve to bring this game down from what it had potential to be. You are best off remembering the Turtles as they were rather than try to relive their greatness through this mediocre game.