Pandora's Box: The Ultimate GameCube Tier List

#89: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus

Rating: T

Players: 1-4

Price Range: ~$40 USD

The second Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game based on the 2003 series.

Now this is an improvement over the first one in my opinion.

Based on the second season of the show, hence the name, this is actually one of the lower reviewed games on the system.

Honestly, it actually isn't half bad.

For starters, the 2003 cartoon has a certain nostalgia amongst my siblings, even if I personally don't remember much from it, as it is probably one of the better series about the Ninja Turtles, so I'll instantly give some points there. They even have rather large clips directly from the cartoon, even if they look rather poor due to the lower resolution and appear quite pixelated.

Next, the gameplay has been vastly improved.

Now allowing for four players as opposed to only two, the game is now a 3D action platformer with beat-em-up elements.

While there are definitely flaws that I'll go into later, even though the combat is a little slow, fighting through monsters and enemies from the show is pretty fun.

With unlockable characters, the Turtles each have their own attacks along with a situation ability and a charge attack.

Leonardo can cut through bars with his katanas, Raphael can push boxes and such, Donatello can hack devices to open doors, and Michaelangelo can...hover with his nunchakus, somehow...

And...that's it.

Even by that merit, their special abilities are so unbelievably situational, that you would forget that they even exist, and their charge attacks have so little range and are so slow, that it is better to just use light and heavy attacks on enemies instead.

Then we have the overarching issues of this game despite some good memories.

For one, all players share one health bar, which is frankly stupid. That means that each of the players have at least above average skill at video games as a whole for the entire squad to survive until the end, which is just plain ridiculous.

The game also has rather bizarre controls at a first glance, as the jump button is...the X button, which...isn't the worst thing in the world I guess?

However, what many people neglect to mention or understand about this control choice is that you can just simply change the button setup in the options.

You see, this is why I look deep into the games I have a lot to talk about on this list. When I dive into the weeds, I really dive into the weeds.

However, there is also a flaw with the game that is so bizarre and yet is so unforgivable that I've never seen in any video game besides this one.

You see, in one of the first levels after the Turtles teleport from Earth and into outer space to the alien planet beyond, there is a necessary stage where you must carry a character known as the Fugitoid to the end of the level under a time limit.

However, you will quickly realize that there is an insurmountable issue with all of this.

The game does not tell you how to pick up things.

In the very first level of the entire game, it just says something along the lines of "Here, you can grab boxes and oils drums and such" without telling the player as to how to do such a thing. And because the input is not of a singular button, it isn't displayed in the button settings.

This ultimately means that the only way the player could ever know how to execute this button command is to either read the instruction booklet, which I don't have, or look it up on the internet.

This is objectively bad game design. Such seemingly mandatory systems should be explicitly explained to the player so they may execute such vital button inputs to progress through the game.

The jet ski sections also hold absolutely no bearing on the game whatsoever, as they serve to only be played once to get to the next level as it is impossible to die, even if they are admittedly fun and actually kind of goofy and charming as to how little they matter in the grand scheme of things.

Also, the fact that you could actually unlock a version of Turtles in Time game later in the campaign is also a bit of a plus.

Overall, not a perfect, in fact, it isn't even all that good, but if you have some people around who like Ninja Turtles like I do, then this is right up your alley.