Review- Turtles in Time Re-Shelled
Article by Toby Jones
A remake of TMNT: Turtles in Time sounded downright heaven-sent when it was announced a few months ago, but I'm not really sure what to make of the thing now that I've played it. The iconic self-titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game and Turtles in Time were simple, cartoony brawlers meant to be played in the company of your excited eight-year-old friends, and they performed this task exceptionally. The two games are still very enjoyable to revisit, their repetitive nature and lack of depth obscured by the rosy haze of nostalgia. To this day, I still am amused to hear (or say) “Big Apple, 3am” or “Prehistoric Turtlesaurus” in that distinctively muffled voice.
Re-shelled is somehow less fun, despite being virtually the same game with (quite attractive) updated graphics. Well, there is one thing that has definitely been changed for the worse: the music. Just listen to the music from the first level in the original and compare it to the new version. I was really excited to hear new arrangements of those fantastic songs, and Re-shelled makes a huge mistake by replacing them with generic fodder. It's really peculiar to see a game that so slavishly follows its original incarnation make such a foolish oversight.
To illustrate just how much they biffed it, here is the music from the first level of the original:
and here's the music from the same level in Re-Shelled. (starts at about 0:18)
Comparing the songs in later levels there seems to occasionally be a vague association between the two, but the "updated" tunes remain wholly unsatisfying and unmemorable.
Outside of the music, though, it isn't easy to figure out exactly where Turtles in Time Re-shelled misses the point- the “point” being the intangible thing that makes some retro revivals revelatory and others a disappointment. Perhaps the mindless nature of the gameplay and the shiny 3D graphics are out of sync, neither really servicing the other- a graphical tune-up doesn't really add any value to a game as shallow and simple as this.
What sort of new-old TMNT content would have more effectively hit the retro-revival sweet spot, then? My first thought was something like Mega Man 9, a brand new side scrolling beat-em-up adventure with classic 2D sprite graphics. Unfortunately, while that's a great idea on paper (much like Re-Shelled, really) I have doubts that it would be particularly great in practice. It comes down to the expectations of a “new” game vs. an “old” one. In the original game the simplistic gameplay is forgivable because we hold it to the standards of its time, but in a new game (even if it looked like an old one) it just isn't enough.
Perhaps if the old TMNT games were as complex and nuanced as Mega Man 2 there would be more to mine for this sort of thing. They're not, and at the end of the day I might have been happier to spend a few less dollars and get the original version. Actually, the asking price would have been fine if t he ability to play the original was included. Another missed opportunity. I commend the developers for going the extra mile and giving fans a gorgeous update of a nostalgic favorite, it's just a shame that the source material doesn't really call for it.
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A remake of TMNT: Turtles in Time sounded downright heaven-sent when it was announced a few months ago, but I'm not really sure what to make of the thing now that I've played it. The iconic self-titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game and Turtles in Time were simple, cartoony brawlers meant to be played in the company of your excited eight-year-old friends, and they performed this task exceptionally. The two games are still very enjoyable to revisit, their repetitive nature and lack of depth obscured by the rosy haze of nostalgia. To this day, I still am amused to hear (or say) “Big Apple, 3am” or “Prehistoric Turtlesaurus” in that distinctively muffled voice.
Re-shelled is somehow less fun, despite being virtually the same game with (quite attractive) updated graphics. Well, there is one thing that has definitely been changed for the worse: the music. Just listen to the music from the first level in the original and compare it to the new version. I was really excited to hear new arrangements of those fantastic songs, and Re-shelled makes a huge mistake by replacing them with generic fodder. It's really peculiar to see a game that so slavishly follows its original incarnation make such a foolish oversight.
To illustrate just how much they biffed it, here is the music from the first level of the original:
and here's the music from the same level in Re-Shelled. (starts at about 0:18)
Comparing the songs in later levels there seems to occasionally be a vague association between the two, but the "updated" tunes remain wholly unsatisfying and unmemorable.
Outside of the music, though, it isn't easy to figure out exactly where Turtles in Time Re-shelled misses the point- the “point” being the intangible thing that makes some retro revivals revelatory and others a disappointment. Perhaps the mindless nature of the gameplay and the shiny 3D graphics are out of sync, neither really servicing the other- a graphical tune-up doesn't really add any value to a game as shallow and simple as this.
What sort of new-old TMNT content would have more effectively hit the retro-revival sweet spot, then? My first thought was something like Mega Man 9, a brand new side scrolling beat-em-up adventure with classic 2D sprite graphics. Unfortunately, while that's a great idea on paper (much like Re-Shelled, really) I have doubts that it would be particularly great in practice. It comes down to the expectations of a “new” game vs. an “old” one. In the original game the simplistic gameplay is forgivable because we hold it to the standards of its time, but in a new game (even if it looked like an old one) it just isn't enough.
Perhaps if the old TMNT games were as complex and nuanced as Mega Man 2 there would be more to mine for this sort of thing. They're not, and at the end of the day I might have been happier to spend a few less dollars and get the original version. Actually, the asking price would have been fine if t he ability to play the original was included. Another missed opportunity. I commend the developers for going the extra mile and giving fans a gorgeous update of a nostalgic favorite, it's just a shame that the source material doesn't really call for it.
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