Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled is Almost Here

Oh God yes!

To celebrate the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ 25th anniversary, Ubisoft will resurrect the old school Konami classic, Turtles in Time.  Except instead of porting it to Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, the publisher revamped the visuals and tweaked the controls to make the experience somewhat fresh.  To that we say, cowabunga!

Aside from the visual boost, Turtles in Time: Re-Shelled feels exactly like its predecessor. You still choose from all four turtles and use their signature weapons (we call dibs on Donatello).  In addition, the game follows the same story, with Shredder capturing the Statue of Liberty and the turtles chasing after him.  Eventually, Shred Head sends them back in time, and our heroes battle through a series of imaginative stages that include a pirate ship and the Wild West.  They’ll also run into familiar villains from the series, including Leatherhead, Krang and Baxter Stockman. 

Thus far, the game plays similar to the prequel, as you move from left to right across each stage and mash the attack buttons to tear through enemies; yes, you can still chuck Foot Soldiers at the TV screen.  We’re also fans of grabbing hold of a bad guy and repeatedly smashing him on the ground.  We just wish Ubisoft added analog stick control, since maneuvering with the Xbox 360’s d-pad pales in comparison to using an arcade knob; if you despise the 360’s d-pad, the PS3 DualShock 3 is a good alternative.

In addition to the main quest, you also have Survival (beat the game with a single life) and Quick Play (battle with 99 lives).  Sadly, the developers failed to include the original arcade game or come up with unique modes.

That concerns us, since skilled players can run through the original Turtles in Time in less than 45 minutes.  That’d be fine if the remake cost $5-$10, but Ubisoft wants a whopping 15 bones.  That’s a lot of cheddar to spend on such an old game, even with snazzier graphics.  On the other hand, getting together with friends to re-experience an arcade favorite (and unlock more achievement points/trophies) sounds like fun.  Our advice: wait for reviews to drop before burning the cash.  If it sucks, you can always buy a large pizza and dust off the Super Nintendo.

Turtles in Time Re-Shelled hits Xbox Live August 5th and will hopefully arrive on PSN the following day.  We’ll post our review as soon as we remove our pepperoni-covered hands from the controllers.