Cowabunga dudes! It's a new TMNT game, and it's pretty good.
I hate to bring up Smash Bros. again, but how can you not? It's a dead ringer for those games. 1-4 player battles on interactive arenas with traps, power ups and the last person, or team standing wins. Simple as that, I've played countless hours of SB, so everything felt familiar right from the get go. No wonder, some of the staff behind SB are the developers behind Smash Up. There are a couple of differences though. The main objective is obviously defeating your enemies, but it's not primarily done through punching, or throwing them off the screen. Yes, you can do that, but it's very difficult to do. Instead you're supposed to focus on depleting their health bar. It becomes sort of a more traditional fighting game then. But of course the SB elements are still there. So it's a lot of fun. Best thing about this game? Same thing as in SB, the arenas. Many of them are really creative and are filled with hazards and match-changing opportunities. It's a shame then that there aren't nearly as many as in SB. In fact, that's my main gripe about it. Simply not enough arenas.
The characters are great, each with unique attacks. But again, same as with the arenas, the characters roster is too limited. And 3 rabbid characters seem completely out of place. Okay, the Ninja Rabbid is cool, but the rest could've been dropped. Where's the characters from the 80's show? Where's the Rat-King, Rocksteady, Krang and such? The characters look like they did in the recent CG movie, with a few characters from the 2k3 series available as well. The characters all take too long to turn direction, and when they get knocked down, man, do they take their time to get up.
As with SB there are many different modes available. Arcade mode is just you vs. a bunch of enemies after another and then you win. Mission mode varies between fun and somewhat frustrating. Survival mode is really boring. You'll want to play through these and other modes in order to unlock characters, costumes and stages. Battle Royale is basic multiplayer and there's an online option available too.
For TMNT fans, or SB fans waiting for the next installment, this is a great game.