Topic: IMPRESSIONS: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash Up

[TheYoungerPlumber]

It looks like Smash Bros., but something just felt odd about the demoÂ….
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/impressionsArt.cfm?artid=18777

 As everyone, including Ubisoft, has said, TMNT: Smash Up strongly resembles Super Smash Bros. The game focuses on four-player mayhem in dynamic, interactive, side-scrolling environments.    

Of course, this release draws on the Ninja Turtles cast and settings, such as sewers and dojos. Some of the stages on display had multiple settings they progressed through, not unlike the Fire Emblem Castle Seige stage from Brawl. The game looks fairly impressive—with the right setup. The footage shown during the Ubisoft press conference looked very muddy, as did the game in action when I first played it on the showroom floor. However, this seems to have been due to poor television settings and/or cables, as others in the booth looked as beautiful as you would expect from members of the Super Smash Bros. Brawl team.    

The gameplay, however, is a tad disorienting. Granted, a fast-paced, four-player fighting game isnÂ’t easy to fully understand on the showroom floor, but I found myself far more disoriented playing this game than I did playing Melee at E3 back in 2001. Turtles is somewhere between Brawl and a traditional fighter, in which you can die by getting knocked off the stage or by losing all of your health. Part of my confusion might have come from poor character balance in the demo. Some of the characters, such as Leo, felt surprisingly sluggish, and I was unable to respond and defend myself. Meanwhile, Raphael was quick, precise, and agile, and I was able to hold my own. There were other things, though—the items you could pick up in the demo were nondescript balls with ambiguous benefits, and the move sets seemed less intuitive (although I am admittedly less familiar with the Turtles than Nintendo characters).    

But there were other design choices that left me scratching my head. They only had a handful of characters on display, and since the turtles look so similar, it was very easy to confuse which character you were. They had color-coded auras to help distinguish the flagship characters, but it just wasnÂ’t enough.It didnÂ’t help that the game prominently displays your current rank next to your character, which can easily be confused with your player number. (From the looks of it, youÂ’ll be able to enter your name and have it displayed next to this rank in the final game, though.)  Many of the levels on display were uncomfortably close quarters. At least with the control schemes on display (Remote and Remote + Nunchuk), there were little bits of annoying waggle, such as to shake yourself off when grabbed. Ubisoft confirmed to me that the GameCube Controller and Classic Controller will be supported, though, so this may not be a big issue. Also, game also requires you to double-tap to run—even if youÂ’re using a control scheme with an analog stick, like the Remote + Nunchuk configuration—which I found annoying.    

Overall, I was left underwhelmed by the TMNT: Smash Up demo. It had all the trimmings, but it didnÂ’t  retain the accessibility and fun of Brawl, the game Ubisoft is pushing as this titleÂ’s sibling.    

 

   
TYP and others avoid crocodiles.  

[Halbred]

I liked it alright, probably because I used Raphael (my favorite turtle). I thought the graphics were mixed--environments were questionable, but the character models themselves were quite good.

What I did NOT like is that the game seems to take its character design exclusively from the new film (although Shredder is from the most recent animated show). As a 25th anniversary game, I'd hope the developers delve a little farther back into the series' rich history.

[ShyGuy]

I have the feeling that this is going to be ignored unless it is tied into a new cartoon or movie or something.

[Nick DiMola]

I fully agree with TYP's impressions. I was just about to start writing some of my own, but after reading these, I have no need.

The game just didn't seem to have the fluidity and charm of Smash Bros. A decreasing health bar is enough to easily set the game apart from Brawl, and unfortunately did not seem to change the game for the better.

I left the booth feeling extremely underwhelmed as well, however, I'll probably rent it at launch and see if it is better in a more suitable environment.

[Mesu]

I have the feeling that this is going to be ignored unless it is tied into a new cartoon or movie or something.

I disagree.

Do you realize that for this only needs to sell to around 2% of SSBB owners to outsell the last TMNT game on Wii?
The last TMNT game that was based on the last movie? Ubisoft realizes this, that's why they put Smash up in the title.

If they game turns out to be good and people know about this it will easily outsell the last TMNT Wii game by a big margin.

Anyways I was disappointed to hear about having to shake off attacks because I heard from another site that when you use to gamecube controller you need to shake the analog to recover. That wears down controllers until the are useless eventually. Hopefully they change it so you can recover by tapping a button or D-pad also. I might have to learn to use the remote option to avoid this.

(edited to change SMBB into SSBB)

[Penguin_Of_Thyme]

I just added some video of TYP playing the game to go along with his impressions.

[Mesu]

I just added some video of TYP playing the game to go along with his impressions.

At :27 and 1:27 Michaelangelo breaths fire similar to a move he has in Turtles Tournament Fighters for SNES. I liked that game so I'm glad the developers played it.

This game looks fun and not confusing to me. But compared to Smash Bros. I can see how people would feel that way. I heard that they changed how attacks worked so that there are 8 attacks per button using the diagonals for extra attacks instead of allowing you to tilt some attacks at an angle(like Link's boomerang). That would make the game less accessible. Also Smash Bros. naturally has more diverse characters to get a variety of attacks from(also more diverse stages).