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What's green, hard on the outside but soft and squishy on the inside, and can spin a nunchaku like nobody's business? A Teenage Mutant Hero Turtle, that's what. Those stars of comic book, small *and* big screen and even the Daily Mirror have at long last appeared on computer and, as usual, it's the dreaded Shredder and his obnoxious Foot Clan who are causing the heroes in a half-shell untold amounts of trouble.

In an attempt to catch the Turtles with their shells down, they've gone and kidnapped ace reporter April O'Neill from the TV studio where she works, and are hustling her around the city. So, after a brief talking-to from Master Splinter, the four go off in search of their friend. But even Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles don't have it easy all the time, especially in a city the size of New York. Sewers, streets and buildings form a complex maze for the Turtles to negotiate - and wherever they go, it's a sure bet that there'll be a Foot Clan posse waiting just around the corner.

The player controls the Turtles one character at a time through the city, which is displayed both in birds-eye view 3D when patrolling the city, and in a traditional horizontally scrolling forward when in the sewers or a building. If a Turtle's energy is completely depleted, he is captured by the Foot Clan, leaving the others to continue their task.

Energy is revitalised by picking up slices of the Turtles' favourite food - pizza! - which can be found throughout the city, along with extra weapons which the Foot Clan have absent-mindedly dropped.

If you've been expecting a straight conversion of the fabulous four-player coin-op, you may be disappointed to find out that Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles is, in fact, taken from the Nintendo console game. That disappointment soon fades away though, when you discover that this game is a lot more involved than its arcade counterpart, requiring not only lightning fact beat-'em-up skills, but a fair smattering of forward planning and mapping too.

Each Turtle has his own particular strengths and weaknesses, and if you choose the wrong dude for the job, it's quite likely that your character will get beaten. This can be frustrating in the early stages, but given time it becomes second nature as you being to learn each Turtle's characteristics.

Surprisingly, the game differs very little from the Nintendo version graphically; slightly blocky but generally well-drawn, sprites and backdrops. Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles could have been the worst game in the world and still would have sold like hot pizzas - luckily, it's not the case.

Instead, it's a challenging, addictive arcade adventure which fans of the Turtles (and who isn't?) should be more than happy with.