Price Drop: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled costs less than initially announced. It is actually 800 Microsoft Spacebucks ($10 US), a welcome decrease from the original 1200 price tag.

The wait for this game has been a rollercoaster for me, as I remember the original arcade and Super Nintendo releases with some warmth but was confused by a lot of the decisions Ubisoft made during the development of this remake. For those unfamiliar with this title, it’s a modern update to a classic 2D side-scrolling brawler; Final Fight is the obvious comparison, or if that’s too old you might think of it as a much simpler version of games like Castle Crashers. That is to say you take control of one of the titular Ninja Turtles and proceed to the right on a 3D stage, beating up generic enemies from the old comic and cartoon series followed by a boss, then repeating this cycle through a few more stages. It’s a simple formula, but it worked back then and it’s still decent today.

The most obvious change to this game is that it now has a truly 3D combat system, letting you attack in directions you couldn’t in the original version. While some enemies can do this as well, it nonetheless gives you a great advantage and makes things easier. With the 3D combat comes 3D graphics, and they do a decent enough job of conveying the colorful world of the Ninja Turtles though I’ll grant they could be better. Despite these changes, the core of the game remains similar, and features you may remember are still here so you’ll still be able to fling enemies into the screen, bash them against the floor, and so on. And you can still use the occasional piece of the environment (fire hydrants, wrecking balls, explosive barrels, etc.) to take out enemies, you have to be careful of traps, and learn a boss’ pattern to safely beat them.

Admittedly, this sort of experience is very boring if you’re playing alone. Turtles in Time is a simple game, and is really meant to be played with friends; everyone can quickly learn how to play, and it usually becomes a social experience where most of you are talking trash to the game and/or each other. This is the real draw of these kinds of games; you can go through them quickly, and get friends involved to make it a fine way to pass some time. This sort of thing works best in local multiplayer, but my experiences on Xbox Live ranged from being okay with a few bursts of lag teleporting, to being just fine. Combined with decent voice chat support, you can get more or less the same experience online as off. A few new modes of play have been added, namely a survival mode and the ability to quickly replay any previously beaten stage, but I do not think they will be the main draw here.

In the end, Reshelled is a decent game if you accept it for its niche. It is not meant to be a stunning 40 hour epic, and it is admittedly very simple in design. A typical play-through will last you about 15 to 30 minutes, and in theory that’s a pretty bad amount of game play for your 800 Points/$10. But if you expect to be going through it a few times with friends, it is an excellent time-killer that just about everyone can agree on. While I remain disappointed that they did not simply release the Super Nintendo version with online play and charge 400 Points, this is an acceptable version of the game. Its value as a ’social game’ with friends is what I like about it, and while it obviously can’t go head to head with Castle Crashers, Reshelled also isn’t as expensive. Turtles in Time is 800 points, making it a tad more affordable than its most obvious competitor and worth considering.