Out Of The Shadows Analysis

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles played a big role in my childhood and while I haven’t checked out their Nickelodeon series I remain a fan of the four brothers to this day. Suffice to say I was quite chuffed when I heard about Out Of The Shadows as a decent Ninja Turtles game has been long overdue. There have been some nice attempts over the years but I was hoping that this game would finally capture the elements that have made the turtles such a timeless franchise.

The story predictably follows the exploits of the turtles as they investigate the doings of arch nemesis Shredder. Along the way gangsters and foot soldiers are beaten up with some Kraang aliens also making an appearance. Their reporter friend April ‘O Neil is also kidnapped along the way so as far as plot is concerned there is nothing here that we haven’t already seen before from the turtles.

The first thing you notice about this game is the visuals. I was under the

I suspect that the budget price might also have resulted in less funding which could have had an impact on the final release. I was impressed with the “Partners in Kryme” track from the original movie playing on the menu screen but during gameplay sound effects frequently dropped out and speech samples played over each other. The voice acting is quite good and Mickey’s quips about pizza topics and raising children had me in stitches but the comments repeat way too frequently which quickly becomes annoying. The hacking mini-games are also way too basic to provide any kind of challenge and only serve to pad out the game artificially. The final chapter in particular is littered with doors that have to be “hacked” first to open. You can employ stealth to take down enemies but it is not implemented very well and you can practically run up to an enemy and kill them with a stealth move provided they don’t turn