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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan |OT| Heroes in a Bargain Bin

K

KORNdoggy

Member
once that first gameplay was shown i knew this was going to be a stinker. what is it with devs shitting out games based on this franchise. it's like spider-man. give it someone who gives a shit about the IP next time. and do the turtles justice, becasue platinum clearly phoned this in.
 
E

echoshifting

Banned
I can't even stand to watch JoeFenix's stream anymore. Completing this game on very hard seems like an exercise in tedium and pure masochism.
 
J

Jashobeam

Member
honestly im not surprised, this was obviously a cash grab that was rushed out to coincide with the new movie, the game was only announced last January and it's already out.
 
L

LoveAndBeer

Member
I had to post just to compliment the OT, that is amazing.

Have the game POed at BB for $42 with a $10 Movie cash for the film next month which is kinda like $32... kinda. Haven't decided if I'm going to pick up or return. Could be a fun game to blow through this holiday weekend with my daughter watching (why no local co-op.. WHY?!?).
 
M

Manny Calavera

Member
Jashobeam said:
honestly im not surprised, this was obviously a cash grab that was rushed out to coincide with the new movie, the game was only announced last January and it's already out.
Click to expand...

So it would seem and that's really disappointing. I've just now read some more impressions and kinda lost my enthusiasms towards the game.
 
DryvBy

DryvBy

Member
These impressions sound so bad. Even the more optimistic impressions are, "Meh, it's TMNT.". I'll be playing with my brother tonight. I just hope it lives up to some sort of old school arcade.
 
M

matrix-cat

Member
Up to the fifth level, and they're already reusing assets. The fifth level is the same as the third level (sewers), only now water is flowing through them that you can surf on to get through it more quickly.
 
R

Raitaro

Member
KingBroly said:
As a big Turtles fan, this makes me sad.
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Me too, especially because of how (imo) cool the game looks in terms of character designs and cell shading. The voice work sounds very good as well and watching the cutscenes almost feels like an actual TMNT cartoon.

Sigh...
 
S

superNESjoe

Member
This is really disappointing to hear, but it's not like the writing wasn't on the wall. I don't think many of us wanted to believe it though.

Has there been a good TMNT game since Turtles in Time?
 
TwiztidElf

TwiztidElf

Member
So, I went in the store today, and they had Overwatch everywhere. I asked for a PS4 copy of TMNT, and the woman said it's not out today it's out on Thursday. I assured her it is out today. She rolled her eyes and picked up the phone to the games section.
She agreed it is out today and 'someone out back' unpacked it from the boxes and brought it to the front.

So, the first two levels are confusing as all hell. By level 3 and fighting Slash, something 'clicked' with me, and I'm really starting to like it. Unlike matrix-cat, I beat Slash on my third attempt on normal, and I got better on each attempt. Looking forwards to playing more.
 
N

NinjamicWZ

Banned
superNESjoe said:
This is really disappointing to hear, but it's not like the writing wasn't on the wall. I don't think many of us wanted to believe it though.

Has there been a good TMNT game since Turtles in Time?
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Everything has been downhill since Turtles In Time and the first movie... but, I remember liking a PS2 TMNT game I had. Battle Nexus I think it was. Great co-op with my little cousin at the time.

"good" is a hard word to measure up to when it comes to SNES memories, though.
 
P

Peff

Member
superNESjoe said:
Has there been a good TMNT game since Turtles in Time?
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g2mCkDs.jpg
 
L

Llyranor

Member
matrix-cat said:
Just got my PS4, playing through the tutorial. Can confirm it's 30FPS. Huge disappointment. It's still responsive enough but, y'know, a 30FPS action game from Platinum?

Combat is just like Korra, with musou style combos; you press Square as many times as you feel like, then Triangle for a finisher. Square Square Square Triangle is a launcher, Square x4 Triangle is a charge forward thing, etc. A perfectly timed dodge has you scoot around behind an enemy, rather than activating Witch Time. An interesting new mechanic is that you can hold the dodge button to spin around inside your shell, and if you release with perfect timing you'll parry the enemy. It seems like a nice twist on Platinum's usual mechanics. You can't spin forever, though; it's the same thing Bayonetta has where you can't dodge five times in a row.

I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and play through it, at least.
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matrix-cat said:
I can only assume it's because the four turtles are on screen at all times. The best you can do is tell them to 'Wait', but they'll still fight alongside you; I've tried to find a way to just play as a single turtle but it doesn't seem to be possible. It's messy. You'll be trying to combo a dude and the other guys will come in and screw things up.

Dodge Offset is in, though now with the meter that governs how long you can dodge it seems like you can only get three dodges in before you trigger the dizzy animation.

EDIT - At 30FPS you'd think they could have turned on a little anti-aliasing :p
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matrix-cat said:
Just fought Bebop, and that really wasn't fun. It feels more like an MMO than an action game. There's no back and forth that you'd expect from a Platinum bossfight, dodging attacks and getting hits in when you've got an opening. You kind of just wail away at him in this inscrutable melee of four turtles all attacking at once and soundbytes playing over eachother, and the boss does his own thing and attacks whenever he feels like it. Meanwhile you've got special attacks on cooldown timers that feel like the only way to do any significant damage, since plugging away with Square and Triangle combos doesn't really do a whole lot.

Bebop fires this laser gun around with no discernible pattern, and it just fucks you up on Normal difficulty. You don't have much health and I didn't feel like I could reliably dodge the attack, so I ended up hanging back waiting for my healing power's cooldown timer to finish.

EDIT - FUCK, the guys who throw bolos that tie you up are back from Korra.
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matrix-cat said:
OK, there's more to this than I thought. Rocksteady (second boss) does those random laser fire patterns, too, and I think you're supposed to hold the dodge button (to spin around in your shell) to avoid them. You can move around while spinning, so it's a free opportunity to get into a better position.

There's also some fun in learning to parry properly. It seems like you can do it to pretty much any enemy, though the timing is tricky because you need to kind of 'charge' the parry by holding dodge for a moment and releasing at just the right time. Hitting a perfect dodge will make you automatically scoot around behind the enemy, and if you hit Circle quickly enough you can jump onto their shoulders and clobber their heads for a while.

Mission design seems awful so far, though. You do a certain number of busywork tasks, then you fight a boss. Last mission I had to defend a pizza stand for three minutes, then hack a bunch of terminals (which consisted of me holding the Circle button on a thing for 26 seconds, three times. I counted). I really can't see myself ever wanting to replay the missions because they just aren't enjoyable, so if the game is really only a few hours long that'll be a killer.
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matrix-cat said:
Welp, I think I'm out. You get three continues per level, and if you use them all you have to start the level over from the beginning. I've been playing on Normal, fighting Slash (the third boss), and when you get him down to 2 of 7 health bars he goes nuts and kills everyone almost immediately. I tried the fight four times, and it happened every time. Bebop and Rocksteady did it, too, but at least you could get some hits in; Slash just does such insane damage, is so aggressive you basically never get a window, and the AI doesn't really seem to bother dodging so they all eat it straight away.

I don't feel motivated to git gud and beat him, like I would with a good Platinum boss. This just feels like he's a badly-designed damage sponge, and now if I want to try again I'll have to do that whole shitty level over again. Maybe tomorrow I'll bump it down to Easy and try again, but right now I really can't be bothered. Combat in this game is such a chaotic visual mess that most of the time I can't even tell which turtle I am, so precision blocking and attacking is all but impossible.
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matrix-cat said:
The basic combat system is totally competent and fun. It feels like a Platinum action game; tight, responsive, with the usual slew of Platinum's mechanics and a few new twists. Like Korra it's a little on the mashy side, but totally enjoyable. The new Parry system is probably the highlight; I think you could really dominate if you got a feel for it. If you dumped one of the Ninja Turtles straight into any other Platinum game you'd have a great time.

Unfortunately, the game itself just doesn't hold up its end of the bargain. Imagine trying to play Revengeance, but there are three AI controlled Raidens running around at all times getting in the way, filling the screen with particle effects, and looking pretty much exactly like your Raiden so you regularly lose track of which one you're playing as. There's no way to play as a single turtle; the best you can do is tell them to 'Wait', which just makes them slightly less aggressive, but they'll still fight alongside you. On the rare occasion you get a few moments to yourself, it becomes clear that the game is balanced around having four turtles mashing away at once, because your individual damage output is pretty low.

Mission design and bosses are genuinely trash. Imagine Korra's empty corridors, only instead of just fighting enemies you're doing awful co-op bullshit like slowly carrying a heavy object to a waypoint while your buddies protect you from waves of guys, or holding Circle on an interactable object until a timer ticks down while your buddies protect you from waves of guys. Maybe all four of you will protect a thing from waves of guys, just to spice things up. Bosses are just big damage sponges that hit hard, and when they get to low health they get super aggressive. Forget phases, interesting attack patterns, any other Platinum-ness. Your AI buddies are terrible during these fights, and you only get three Continues per level. Lose them all and you have to start the level all over again.

Anyway, I'm going to drop the difficulty to Easy and at least finish the game. Platinum is my favourite dev, so I tried to stay positive even when the messy-looking gameplay videos started coming out, but so far this game is a big disappointment. I fucking loved Transformers, and I think Korra is at least totally decent, but this game is a real stinker so far.

EDIT - Though, I mean, maybe you'd get something more out of it if you played co-op? I'm just not a multiplayer guy, and I don't even have PS+ at the moment so I can't check, but it couldn't be worse.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the impressions, matrix cat. The combat mechanics seem solid.

I'm still hopeful coop is the redeeming factor. Some of your troubles seem to be due to playing singleplayer (not dealing enough damage, dumb allied AI, limited continues since you can't reliably get rez'ed), so fingers crossed! Plus, I tend to be more tolerant of mission/enemy design if the combat and coop are still fun.

It better be 60+ fps on PC, though.
 
S

Sanjuro

Member
After reading all the great positive impressions, absolutely pumped for this game! It's going to be terrific.

Getting it a little later on and playing co-op on PS4. With some pizza of course!

aF6aay2.gif
 
S

Shin-chan

Member
I fully expect this game to plummet in price even faster than Transformers did.

I got that game at full price and was disappointed due to repetitive environments and shitty RPG mechanics, despite the game being great mechanically.

I'll hang on for this one. It just doesn't look as fun.

Hopefully Nier and Scalebound can get Platinum out of their Bayonetta copy-paste job rut.
 
G

grandwizard

Member
Watching JoeFenix's stream I think the coop looks pretty good especially against boss fights. There was one level where the enemies seemed to just infinitely spawn in the lightning area and that was lame, but for the most part these fights look smooth and like they require coordination.
 
S

Sanjuro

Member
Shin-chan said:
I fully expect this game to plummet in price even faster than Transformers did.

I got that game at full price and was disappointed due to repetitive environments and shitty RPG mechanics, despite the game being great mechanically.

I'll hang on for this one. It just doesn't look as fun.

Hopefully Nier and Scalebound can get Platinum out of their Bayonetta copy-paste job rut.
Click to expand...

Except the game isn't full price...
 
P

Peff

Member
The JoeFenix four player stream is making the game look a lot better. It's definitely built for hardest difficulty and co-op with people who know what they're doing, but that's an extremely limited audience to cater your niche action game to. Odd.
 
L

Llyranor

Member
grandwizard said:
Watching JoeFenix's stream I think the coop looks pretty good especially against boss fights. There was one level where the enemies seemed to just infinitely spawn in the lightning area and that was lame, but for the most part these fights look smooth and like they require coordination.
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Peff said:
The JoeFenix four player stream is making the game look a lot better. It's definitely built for hardest difficulty and co-op with people who know what they're doing, but that's an extremely limited audience to cater your niche action game to. Odd.
Click to expand...
Oooh, that's sounding more promising. Gice us your impressions, JoeFenix!
 
G

grandwizard

Member
Yeah I can see them leaning hard into the TMNT thing being 4 fighters all together and focusing their game design on that. Watching the boss fights in this stream really make it obvious its made for people to be cooperating to take them down.
 
V

Volcynika

Member
Got it for $40 thanks to Prime and probably going to just play with friends. Any comments on the netcode or how it looks via stream?
 
P

Peff

Member
Yeah, i can totally see how the game would not be fun with three AIs as bad as that one. It's getting knocked out every five seconds.
 
RPGCrazied

RPGCrazied

Member
So its a bad game? When will the Turtles get a recent good/awesome game? Someone like Rocksteady did with Arkham Asylum.
 
Y

Yazuka

Member
Great OT.
After reading a bunch of comments here, I'm going to cancel my preorder.
I'll wait to the price goes down.
 
M

matrix-cat

Member
k, just finished it. Probably 3-4 hours all up. It caught me by surprise doing the DMC3 thing where you have to fight enemies while the credits roll :p

All said and done, I really wouldn't recommend the game if you're just looking for a standard Platinum action game. Basic mechanics are solid, but I just didn't find the game enjoyable playing on my own. Bosses are grindy, mission design isn't fun. I've played every Platinum game, and I love them all to varying degrees, but this is the first game of theirs that I'm just not interested in replaying. Hell, I feel like I've already half-replayed it because of all the asset reuse in the main missions.

There aren't any Challenges to unlock after you finish the game. It seems like you pretty much just hunt down collectibles and replay missions on higher difficulties. Transformers was short and repetitive, but that game's combat is far, far deeper than this one's. The Autobots all feel different to play as, there are enough enemies to keep things interesting, the bosses are great; it's a meaty game when you really dig into it. I don't think TMNT has that depth. The turtles all feel much the same (in fact I'd kind of say the other three just feel like inferior versions of Leo), the bosses are all pretty much the same (a couple of the later ones are slightly above mediocre, maybe). There just isn't much to it.

The worst thing is that the game won't really get any better on replays due to the way its designed. You get dumped into a level, then you sit around scratching your butt until April tells you she's found some busywork for you to do (protect a thing, carry a thing to a waypoint, fight guys), then you do it, and repeat until you're allowed to go and fight the boss. This, along with the limited Continues, makes it pretty reminiscent of Madworld, at least in gameplay design. There's no way to just run through the levels to get to the fun stuff, because you're always going to have to do the menial tasks. Oh, but you get Trophies for doing each of them 30 times, though.

So, yeah. I don't know, a couple of the later levels are pretty cool and the writing seemed fairly authentically TMNT-ish (though I'm nowhere near an expert). The art style is nice, but it's the kind of art style that a developer goes with when they're aiming for 60FPS... and this is a 30FPS game. If you're going to be playing it co-op you'll probably have some fun with it. It's not the worst game I've ever played, but it is definitely my least favourite Platinum game. I enjoyed Korra quite a bit more.
 
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