Previous Next

I warn you now, there are gonna be none of the usual cliches so commonly used when writing a Turtles review - OK, dudes? This will be a totally bodacious piece of writing, most awesome in a small kinda way, that'll make your mates cry, "Cowabunga, man! This dude really knows what he's talking about!"

Ok, Ok, I digress, you can't talk about our bold and fearless buddies without mentioning one of 'those' words - after all, the Turtles are an institution in their own right, as the mega-success of their coin-op proved.

The plot is that April O'Neil, journalist extraordinaire (rather like myself) has been taken hostage and hidden inside a burning New York tower block. Unlike the coin-op the Mean Green Dudes are too busy to all turn up together, only two can party and even then they have to take turns fighting through the multi-loads. But at least the Turtle Selection Screen is nifty with some great portraits of our heroes.

Each of ten levels is a horizontally-scrolling affair, but as soon as three or so baddies comes on-screen, the scroll goes for a teabreak until you bash the nasties into the ground. Unusually for a beat-'em-up, your combat moves aren't that complex, there's only a few different ones and in reality they're just graphical effects - you can't choose whether to perform a flying kick or punch someone. It's purely random. This makes the game easy to get into, and the turtles' moves are very impressively animated, but over the long term it becomes rather repetitive!

In each part of the building you have to kill off every last baddie before a wee 'Hurry up!' message appears on screen, warning you that there's even more evilness lying in wait just around the corner. In the first level, be wary of lift doors suddenly opening to reveal even more nasty beings, and don't loiter at the bottom of stairways for too long, 'cause humongous cannon balls have a habit of racing down and knocking you flat!

The fire is a bit of a hindrance, as are the wheelie robots that appear from nowhere later on in the level. They have this fetish for electrocuting turtles, and are pretty hard to get rid of at that. Listen to the clang of metal as your weapon hits their sturdy casing.

At each level's end, you have to tackle a big whacking fiend, who'll take some hammering before he'll surrender. It could be Rock Steady. It could be Be Bop, but one thing's for sure, the further you go through the levels, the harder the opponents get!

It's just as well that the odd pizza can be eaten to replenish lost energy - or provide an extra life if you already have ull energy. Plenty of pizza guzzling is needed for Level Two, methinks, as you find yourself in a flame-scorched room. The smoke slows you down as it's not as easy to see the adversaries, who now have guns. Later levels see you down in the sewers, in an underground car park and avoiding robot dogs and exploding brrels in a local factory! The enemy start to throw manhole coves and boomerangs, there are falling posters, skateboarders and laser beams to dodge. Strewth! Is April really worth all this? Course she is - she's a journalist extraordinaire!

Save Ms O'Neil from the perils of hard-nose journalism and it's time to find the Turtles' mentor, Splinter, who's been nabbed by Mr. Evil himself, Shredder. If the formidable Foot Clan can be overcome and Splinter finally rescued, there's a meeting with old Shreddy himself in the Technodrome.

Getting there is not a leisurely stroll, I have to say, you never get a moment to yourself in Turtles II. It's action-packed to the fullest! Those henchmen never let up! Even when the next level's loading, there's hardly time to dial your friendly pizza parlour!

When the level has loaded, you can admire the animation of the characters. The main sprites duck and dive with speed and grace with no flickering to be seen anywhere. The backdrops are all nicely drawn and extremely colourful. The flames are so lifelike, Mother, I could almost feel the heat from them!

Sound is fab and groovy. The title tune is bottom wiggling and the sound effects, such as the swishing of swords and clanking of metal are incredibly realistic. My only gripe, and it does alter my feelings towards the game a little, is that all the levels follow the same arrangement: i.e. move left and right, duck and dive, biff and bash. However, I reckon the game's speed and variety of graphics makes up for this.

I have to confess, before I played this I did think: "Oh no! Not the Turtles again! Boring!" However, gameplay is fast and furious without a doubt, but maybe just a little samey. Perhaps the whole Turtles theme is a bit long in the tooth now, see what you think. Plenty of pizza for me then, Jeeves, and don't spare the pepperoni!

Er, wow! I must confess that I never really liked the coin-op, so it came as no surprise when I found I wasn't too stuck on the Commodore version either. Even so, it's one helluva game! The title and incidental music is incredible, and those effects - er, wow! The sprites are well drawn and brilliantly animated, and even when they all come together they're still crystal clear.

A couple of criticisms: there is very little skill involved, as the game relies heavily on joystick waggling and button bashing (but then, so did the coin-op). More seriously the two-player mode does not allow simultaneously play. Considering that the coin-op allowed four, this is a serious omission.

Even so, Turtles 2 is still a fun game, which will appeal to Turtles' fans without insulting them like last year!

Presentation 84%
Nice opening pics and end sequence, three lives, no continue plays.

Graphics 79%
Colourful backgrounds, nicely animated sprites.

Sound 86%
Stompingly good title tune, fair in-game ditties.

Hookability 73%
Simple moves make it easy to get into, not altogether addictive.

Lastability 75%
Ten levels provide a certain amount of variety.

Overall 74%
A good game, but its appeal may wear off after a while.