Konami have held the licence to produce the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles videogame series since the dawn-of-time and, with releases spanning the NES, SNES, Mega Drive, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation2, Xbox and GameCube, it’s now time for the NintendoDS to get a release. Each of the previous titles shelled-out from the series have been consistently good – never quite achieving greatness, but always managing to convince the player it’s been money well spent. The home console versions have generally revolved around the fighting aspect of the franchise, with either Scrolling or One-On-One Beat-‘Em-Ups being the order of the day, while the handheld versions have generally been well-founded Platformers with a heavy Beat-‘Em-Up influence – and it’s here where the NintendoDS version takes its place.

            In continuation of the original Game Boy series (gameplay-wise) the title takes the form of a Platformer, with minor Scrolling Beat-‘Em-Up influence. Restricted to a 2D left-to-right movement plan only, the Levels generally consist of a small amount of walking, followed by fending off twenty or so enemies, followed by a puzzle, followed by a small amount of walking… There are occasional Levels which breakdown the rather generic formula of the title, such as Levels in which you are mounted on a flying craft in an R-Type-esque fashion.

            The title’s combat is poor at best. Selecting from one of the four turtles (with each failing to really make much of a difference); you will enter the first Level to find your first fleet of enemies. Pressing the B Button executes your basic attack, with a special on the Y Button and often, the chance to use a tag-attack by touching the icon representing another turtle on the Touch Screen. While the formula sounds a-typical for the genre, the resulting gameplay in no-way relates to that benefited by the title’s inspiration, with enemies doing little more than standing and waiting for you to hit them or trapping you to a point were their combat animation loops don’t give you a chance to either move nor retaliate.

            The Level design isn’t exactly a selling-point for the title either. Each Level generally consists of four or five areas – each three to four screen widths long – including a couple unessential for progress. Each area will generally feature a puzzle, ranging from a simple system of spikes and moving platforms to faucets which need to be turned, using the Touch Screen, for progression. With the title featuring around twenty Levels, each of which can be played as all four turtles, it certainly not going to be finished over night. In addition, a Battle Mode is featured in the title. However, the Battle Mode also features very little to write home about. Consisting of a set of arenas in which to have to collect a predetermined amount of Jewels, there’s really very little in the way of challenge involved.

            Graphically, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Mutant Nightmare reflects the title very well – the quality is low. Very crisply drawn, but featuring animation of a lower grade than that executed by the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles title on the Game Boy. The backgrounds fluctuate between well-balanced 3D structures to poor repetition of 2D textures that would make the SNES baulk. The sound quality is about the only redeeming feature for the title, but even this borders' on little above average.

            With the previous Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games offering such a clear-cut degree of quality, it’s a real shame the series’ downfall appears to have begun with the dawning of new technology – technology that would be right at home with the franchise should it ever be given the time to work on. No doubt, however, this will probably be the only type of game, if not the only game to feature the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the NintendoDS, due to that fact that Konami will deem the title’s sales too low, regardless of the quality of the title reflecting this. However, there are many, many Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles titles of consistently high-quality on the Game Boy, and my advice would be to dig out Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Back From The Sewers in order to see the progression of a classic game at the pinnacle of it’s genre. For a NintendoDS comparison, all you’ll have in the mean-time to beat-off the onslaught of amphibians is Spider-Man 2, which offers a much more complete exercise despite it’s clearly more experimental nature.