Turtle power strikes again in this sequel to last year's luke-warm received title. The Turtles may have pulled off a better comeback than Vanilla Ice (who performed the movie's theme song), but fans will wonder where the love is when developing quality titles for the consoles. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battlenexus does a good job fixing many of the problems of last year's title; adding a four player mode, longer quests, and less demanding difficulty, but a new slew of issues has found their way into this installment.

TMNT 2 visuals have not had a boastful upgrade. Using nearly the same engine with a pulled back camera, the game does not have the visual awe that one would hope for when duplicating a cartoon or anime title. Sure, the cel shading looks fine, and animations are decent, but it is the flawed transition between moves that makes the game look jerky. Even worse, the backdrops are even blander than its predecessor. This all leads to poor level design, unimaginative stages, and repetitive background patterns. Toss in a ton of repeating enemies, and the game feels old rather quick. There are some nice animated cut scenes that move the story along, complete with dialog and voiceovers straight from the cartoon, but are the mediocre game design worth it to find out the end of the story? Only if you are a diehard fan.

Audio has improved over the last one in a major way. While the Turtles will still toss out one liners and grunts, the tedious phrases spouted over and over again from the last title have all but been eliminated. No more, "Slice and Dice... errraah... Slice and Dice... .errraah!" The music is a pop symphony cut straight from the series, and some fans may recognize some of the tunes if you watch the show enough. Audio effects like the clanging of steel and cheeps from the chirper robots are all from the show as well. During the opening intro and cut scenes, voice acting is supplied from the actors of the series and done in sufficient fashion.

Gameplay, while trying to recapture the essence of the old school arcade game, is excruciating, dull, and repetitive. This holds especially true since the game's length is a good eight to ten hours long. For an old school beat'em up, that is too long without adding some variety to break up the sameness of the game play style. The A.I. this time around is dumb. Slashing your way through the game's non-aggressive enemies and poorly designed boss fights make for even less excitement. The only reason to suffer to the end is to unlock the original arcade classic, which just so happens to be a shoddy port considering the audio samples are a bit off. What happened? Did Konami lose the rights to their own game, or is this just a case of poor emulation? It is great to go through the arcade classic one again, but the twenty minutes it lasts only brings back the pain that you had to play the 3D version so long just to unlock it. Nevertheless, if you were looking for the best port available, and with four player game play too boot, you can find it here if you are willing and able. Lastly, each Turtle has their own unique abilities that are necessary to complete each mission. Some cannot throw switches; some are not agile enough, etc., so utilizing these abilities in a cooperative manner is the key to success. More too is the fact you can play as Casey Jones, April O'Neal, Splinter, and a few other cast members. The real bummer here is that you must share the same life bar with the other turtles, this includes multiplayer co-op play. If this was the idea to add a bit of challenge to the game, it was a bad one

Being a fan of the turtles, and sort of liking the version last year, it hurts me to see that after all the met promises, Konami still failed to get it right in the end. Fans will be interested in this one, if only to get the original arcade version in their collection. The rest of you should buy the GBA version if you need a turtle fix (Click Here for the review). It is a smarter, better playing title that is a lot more fun, and even ten bucks cheaper. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battlenexus is truly a disappointment and the result of a rush job.