[360] Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game (TURTLE POWER!)

Okay, confession time. I was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles kid. Through and through. I'm 26 now so it fell RIGHT into my adolescence. Sure, I watched Transformers when I was tiny, and GI Joe. Sure, I watched some Voltron and Hercules. But the Turtles were mine. All mine. And Raphael was my favorite.



I had the toys. I saw the movies. I even ate the cereal.



And sure enough, the local arcade in our mall had the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles four-player arcade machine. THE game. And because the Turtles were so popular, this machine was constantly full of people, especially on the Saturdays I would spend there while my mom shopped. So it was this great community atmosphere, as people would run out of tokens and drop out, with someone always happy to take their place. It was like a ride that you just jumped into at any time. I remember seeing the game in different chunks from different parts. Sometimes I'd catch in at the beginning, sometimes I'd jump in to help fight Krang. But it was always a blast. Especially for us Turtle fans.




And a few months ago, it hit me as I pondered XBLA games: What would be the best old arcade game they could put on XBLA? I swam through my memories of Aliens vs. Predator, Afterburner, Primal Rage, and The Simpsons. And then I realized how cool it would be to have that old nostalgic experience from years and years ago. To just jump in with three other strangers and take down Shredder together.

This Wednesday, that dream comes true. In a remarkable turn around of announcement to release, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game comes to Xbox Live! Arcade. Four-player co-op, offline OR online. With voice chat even. For a pittance of 400 points. Video here if you want to see it in action.




Turtles fight with honor. It's cowabunga time. Who's with me?

How ya doing, buddy?

Woof. So far I've had tons of problems with this game.

1. Whenever I try to connect to an online game, 9 out of 10 times, I get booted back because "The Host left the game."
2. The three times we've actually gotten a game going, it has froze up and quit twice on the second level and once on the fourth level (for those counting at home, that means it's booted us every time I've played).
3. When it experiences trouble and boots you back, you have to start the whole game over again.
4. There doesn't appear to be a way to join a game already in progress, only from the beginning. *cries*

I'm starting to worry this was rushed. Contemplate the fact that most games are announced for XBLA months before we actually get them and are up on partnernet for at least a month before release. This game materialized out of nowhere two weeks ago and is already out.

I'm hoping to complete a game online later, but right now, ironically, I'm stopping to eat pizza.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Yeah, I finally went the distance with a group and ran out of lives first, somewhere in the Technodrome. Watched a guy playing Raphael and he had to absolutely choose his swings and be VERY careful to beat Krang. Then got his ass handed to him by the dual Shredders. And then it boots you back to the lobby very unceremoniously.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.