TMNT [GBA]

Next week, the first CG Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film, titled TMNT, hits theaters. Like any good "family flick" a publisher is right there to supply the videogame market with versions of the film to be played at home. Ubisoft has TMNT games to appease every videogamer: versions will hit every system from the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Wii, right down to the handhelds on the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS. After playing through each of these games, I have to say: the one TMNT release I'm most looking forward to is the Game Boy Advance one. Why? Read on.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been hacking and slashing their way across videogame systems since the days of the NES, but the one design everyone holds near and dear is the one Konami made for the arcades. In this game, players controlled one of the four turtles in a very Double Dragon-esque style brawler where they simply punched, kicked, and whacked their way through a seemingly endless onslaught of foot soldiers. This game is now available on the Xbox Live, just in case you missed it.

The Game Boy Advance game, developed by one of Ubisoft's internal studios, clearly used the arcade game as its foundation. The game dismisses any sort of platforming or puzzles that other Turtles games have had, in favor of one of the most satisfying combat systems seen in a brawler designs. Combos are key to kicking butt in this game -- if you're quick with the controls you can juggle an enemy into the air, and back-kick one of his cronies before the airborne guy comes back down for more. The higher the combo, the bigger the score, and the more experience you'll earn to upgrade your turtles' abilities. Money collected can be used to buy new moves, items and abilities between levels.

The game clearly lifts some of the best elements of games like River City Ransom, Double Dragon, and Final Fight for its gameplay. The only downside is that the game's only made for a single player. No link cable support on this one, so the idea of having all four players together in an all out brawl will have to remain in the arcade version.

If you don't believe me when I say this game's easily one of the top games in all of the TMNT games coming out next week, hit the screenshots and video link to see for yourself. Our review will be coming when the game ships in just a few days.

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