Heroes in a half shell, Turtle Power! Hugely popular cartoons, such as Transformers and He-Man, and their over-priced action figures were all the rage in the '80s, and rising from the toxic ashes of this craze came the phenomenally successful Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Four escaped baby turtles that found their way into the sewers, swam through some radioactive ooze, then met an equally mutated rat who instructed them in the ways of the ninja so they could avenge the death of his former master who died at the hands of arch enemy Shredder. Kids will swallow anything, eh?

If you enjoyed the Turtles arcade game back in the early '90s, you'll be relieved to see that TMNT is pretty much the exact same deal. You don't get too many cel-shaded, side-scrolling beat 'em ups on Xbox, but TMNT holds its bandana-clad head high to shun any thought-provoking gameplay in exchange for good old-fashioned mindless action. Simply pop this in the tray and switch your brain off for a couple of hours. After a lengthy cutscene intro (just like an episode of the TV show), it's straight into some slicing 'n' dicing. Story mode follows one of the four Turtles (each with an individual opener) as players work their way through the invisible-walled, railed stages in pursuit of the elusive Shredder. Each character - Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo - has their own distinctive colour, weapons, attributes and fighting moves. Attacks are carried out via A, X and the Right trigger, though more often than not you'll just utilise the quick attacks (A) due to the large number of enemies involved at any one time, as the slower (albeit more powerful) moves leave you particularly vulnerable.

After hacking your way through wave after wave of generic bad guys (men with clubs, harder men with clubs, robots and harder robots, which bizarrely materialise from the ground), in true arcade fashion you'll face a boss at the end of each stage, usually comprising of a big hard man or big hard robot. The action is accompanied by comic book-style onomatopoeic sound effects, but as well as looking like an episode of the original Batman, they sometimes get in the way of - and detract from - the fighting. Additional items, such as shuriken throwing stars and health replenishment (junk food) are collected by smashing those discarded crates which seem to litter every beat-'em-up out there.

Because of the limited gameplay, repetition sets in early, and the unimaginative level design makes it feel like you're playing the same stage over and over again with different backdrops. Some relief is provided in Versus mode, where you can battle a CPU or human opponent turtle one on one, but the very limited moves make this a dull and uninvolving experience. And while we're on the subject of multiplayer, what the hell happened to the four-way fun of the arcade game? I haven't had as much fun with three mates since the time a group of us spent all afternoon (and £2 each) finishing the coin-op. Criminally, TMNT only allows two players to work through the game co-op.

Other irritants, like the way exploding barrels do minimal damage to enemies but wipe out more than half of your health, or the fact that you can only save whole levels and not individual stages (forcing numerous, irritating level replays), don't help either. Plus, in an age when a moveable camera is expected in games, frustration is compounded by its distinct absence. But TMNT isn't a total failure, as it does exactly what it sets out to do - namely be a fun beat 'em up that requires absolutely no thought whatsoever. However, gamers over 12 years of age and those who enjoy a bit of a challenge shouldn't really come looking here. For them, Turtle Power is like, so last decade, dude.

Power
Cel-shaded graphics are a doddle for the Xbox to run, but the action always stays fast and frantic, dude.

Style
Perfectly captures the feel of the cartoon, complete with totally radical voiceovers, dude.

Immersion
Easy to get into - simple combat system means you'll learn all the moves in minutes, dude.

Lifespan
Tough difficulty curve so it take a while to finish, but replayability is increased with unlockables, dude.

Summary
Not very cerebral, but a decent button-bashing beat-'em-up. Two-player co-op is fun, but four-way would've been great.

1. Captures the feel of the TV show
2. Tons of baddies

1. Very repetitive gameplay
2. Pretty limited combat moves
3. Poor save options