November 23, 2004 - After the last Ninja Turtles outing, you'd think the posse of face-stomping turtles would have preferred to stay in the sewer. Several issues kept the last game from succeeding. The first (and most important) reason was that it simply lacked the kind of fun expected from a title featuring mutated turtles with deadly weaponry.

The AI needed an overhaul and each level suffered from an abysmal lack of variety. Aesthetically, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles did an ok job transplanting the look of the new television show, but alone that just wasn't enough.

The latest turtle outing from Konami, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus, improves the formula somewhat. Like the first title though, it suffers from dumb enemies, bland gameplay and shoddy control. Although, Battle Nexus does in fact try to shake things up in a number of ways.

First, it lets you swap characters on the fly, with each turtle claiming a unique ability. Second, you can now play the main campaign through four player co-op, up from only two players in the last game. Third, Battle Nexus features collectible artifacts and includes the classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game. First, we'll dissect the on-the-fly character swapping.

Initially, this sounded like a groovy addition. After all, each turtle possesses his own unique personality and abilities in the show, so why not in a game? While Battle Nexus makes use of the feature, it feels rather shallow most of the time.

Donatello, the smartest of the bunch, operates computer consoles and switches, letting him disable security lasers and open doors. And that's all he does. Donatello could have had far cooler abilities, such as the ability to hack into and control robotic enemies, for one. And where are all those cool gadgets he invented in the show?



The other turtles claim equally handy, yet altogether disappointing, abilities and talents. Leonardo uses his Katanas to slice through certain barriers and Raphael's intrinsic rage helps him move heavy boxes and crates. The game affords you plenty of opportunities to use each power, but each is a simple matter of calling Donatello to flip a switch or Raphael to move a box. Nothing terribly exciting, but it works well enough. A roster of unique abilities per character would have been cooler. Not to mention more strategic ways to use them to solve challenges in the game.

In addition to different abilities, each turtle boasts unique attacks. As stated in earlier coverage, each turtle features a basic set of moves. Each has two primary attacks: light and strong. The strong attack causes heavy damage but is slow, where the light attack delivers two consecutive blows that don't deliver much damage. Each turtle also performs one aerial attack and one charge attack. Raphael's charge attack unleashes a ring of fire called "Turtle Flame" while Leonardo emits a short-distance projectile called "Turtle Slash." Michelangelo throws a long-distance energy ball called "Turtle Blast."