deKay's Gaming Diary

I powered up my 360 for the first time in what seems like forever just to download and play this yesterday. I didn’t play for very long, but then today I completed it.

Already.

Not that I really expected any less, though. I mean, it’s a pretty short game. I just didn’t expect it to be quite so easy, that’s all. Inly the final boss was any sort of challenge, and even he wasn’t too difficult.

But it looks amazing, and it plays great too. Like a slicker, quicker, prettier version of the arcade game. Which, of course, is what it is. Well worth the 800 points, I thought.

It seems I only had a few more levels left to do, and a couple of them were quite short. The final one, however… took ages. Like, almost an hour.

The reason? The SuckySuck(TM) bit at the end. Most of the bosses I’d fought previously all returned, one after another. Of course, the first time you come across them, they either run away after a bit, or you do. Not at the end though.

The sticking point was General Mono. I think that’s his name anyway. Big guy with a hammer. I could get his energy down to about half-way, then he did a super attack thing which I couldn’t dodge, jump over, block or survive. So I had to fight him again. And again. Until I realised that a tag-team attack could dodge it.

So I got his energy bar to zero, only to find he still didn’t die. But I did instead. Again, I had to fight him over and over again, eventually finding the single tag-team attack (Mikey flinging Donny around) that could lay in the killer blow.

All the other bosses were a cinch, so no issues there. Then it was all over!

I did return to the first level to try and get the “don’t get hit in a level” achievement, which was easy, and I picked up a shell along the way, which gave me the “get your first coin” achievement. But they’re shells, not coins. Tch.

That was the full 1000 gamerpoints for the game sorted though. I did “buy” a few extras, like big heads and Halloween baddies, but they don’t add much to the game. Tried a few challenge mode levels too, but they’re nothing special.

Overall then, a surprisingly good game, a bit short, very easy, but remarkably decent for a film tie-in.

Another two levels out of the way this evening. I quite like the graphical style of the Night Watcher levels – they’re all in black and white, with just some red bits and slight colouring on the baddies. It looks great!

I had a look at the achievements list too, and I wonder why it says I haven’t collected my “first coin” yet? I’ve picked up hundreds of them.

You know, this is actually quite good fun. It alternates between 3D platforming, fighting, and some almost-2D platforming. Completed another two levels today, another with Leonardo in the jungle, and then one back in the city (Manhattan, isn’t it?) with all the toitles available to cycle through in some sort of tag-team action.

Yeah, there are issues (some with the camera, some with the controls), but it’s not a bad game at all.

This arrived today. I wasn’t really expecting much, but I put it on anyway.

Four levels later (one for each turtle), and I’m mildly impressed. It looks OK, the speed and moves are pretty swish (even if there’s a lot of Prince of Persia theft), but there’s something niggly about it that makes me want to hate it.

Yeah, so there’s a few camera issues, and sometimes you do moves inadvertently, (like run along a wall instead of up it), but it’s not awful. Which was a surprise.