Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The GBA adaptation of TMNT delivers a solid side-scrolling beat ’em-up that will feel immediately familiar to fans of classics like River City Ransom. Each mission drops you into pixel-perfect city streets, sewers or hideouts swarming with Foot Soldiers, mousers and other baddies. You’ll punch, kick and juggle foes across multi-tiered environments, chaining combos and weaving in your turtle’s unique special moves.

Beyond the basic B-button flurry, the control scheme cleverly incorporates directional inputs and the A-button to unlock uppercuts, sweep kicks and soaring jump attacks. These nuances add depth to the combat, letting you strategize which move works best against shield-bearing ninjas or staggering big brutes. Enemies even drop money and weapon pickups, so you’re encouraged to keep up the pressure and clear stages efficiently.

Between missions, the game transitions to a hub screen where you spend your hard-earned cash on weapon upgrades, consumables or stat boosts. As you accumulate experience points, each turtle levels up, improving health, attack speed and special meter capacity. This RPG-lite progression system ties nicely to the movie’s theme of the turtles growing stronger together and provides a satisfying sense of advancement.

Additionally, mission variety helps keep the experience fresh: some stages task you with escorting kidnapped citizens, others require stealthy infiltration of Foot bases, and a handful even feature time-limit challenges. While the core loop is repeatable, this assortment of objectives ensures you’re never just button-mashing in the same environment.

Graphics

On the Game Boy Advance’s modest hardware, TMNT punches above its weight with colorful, hand-drawn sprites that capture each turtle’s personality. Leonardo’s poised stance and Michelangelo’s goofy wind-ups read crisply, even on the GBA’s small screen. Background layers scroll smoothly, showcasing detailed urban backdrops and neon-lit rooftops pulled straight from the CGI movie’s aesthetic.

Character animations mix fluidity with cartoon exaggeration: combos flow into air juggles without noticeable slowdown, and special move effects—like Donatello’s sweeping staff arc—feel impactful. The game occasionally pauses to display larger cut-in art and text bubbles, giving brief narrative flavor without disrupting the action.

Enemy design is equally varied, from standard Foot ninjas in dark hoods to robotic mousers that scuttle across the floor. Boss encounters feature oversized sprites and multi-stage patterns, pushing the hardware but rarely dipping in performance. The result is a polished look that honors the film’s theatrical style while maintaining crisp readability in the heat of combat.

Story

TMNT’s narrative faithfully follows the storyline of the 2007 CGI movie, weaving in the fractured relationships between the brothers and Raphael’s solo crusade as the Nightwatcher. Early missions spotlight Raph’s brooding independence, setting him apart from the group before reuniting the team in a showdown against the Foot.

Interlaced with missions are brief story interludes that introduce key villains such as the enigmatic Winters and highlight the turtles’ banter. These sequences use still-image panels and text captions to compress the film’s plot into a handheld format, ensuring newcomers aren’t lost in the details.

While the GBA can’t replicate the full cinematic spectacle, it does a commendable job of capturing the movie’s emotional beats. Raphael’s internal conflict resonates during stealth missions, and the sense of brotherly unity peaks in the climactic assault on the Foot’s underground headquarters. Fans of the film will appreciate these touches, which give context to each level’s objectives.

Overall Experience

TMNT on GBA delivers a thoroughly enjoyable beat ’em-up with enough depth to stand out from generic copies. The leveling system and weapon shop add strategic choices, while the varied missions keep the pace brisk. It’s easy to sink hours into maxing out each turtle or revisiting stages to collect hidden pickups.

Performance remains rock-solid throughout, with minimal slowdown even when multiple enemies and special effects fill the screen. The soundtrack blares energetic chiptune renditions of the film’s themes, and sound effects—sword clashes, nunchuck swings, musher squeaks—land with satisfying impact.

For handheld action fans or Turtlemania die-hards, TMNT for GBA offers a complete package: tight controls, faithful storytelling and a progression system that rewards replay. It may not rewrite the beat ’em-up formula, but it refines it nicely under a beloved license, making it a worthy addition to any portable collection.

Retro Replay Score

7.5/10