Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows Preview

Raphael, Donatello, Leonardo and Michelangelo are back and ready to kick some ass in their new, grown-up video game. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, is a third-person brawler, taking the famous four to a more adult audience. Stepping back from the cartoony graphics that we have perhaps become used to with TMNT, we are presented with a darker, more sinister, and realistic 3D environment, one that tastes similar to Batman: Arkham Asylum.

The graphics are already very nice for a game that will be available only on XBLA and PSN, and this is based on experiencing it in its baby, alpha, stages. There are plenty of areas ready for your exploration - the sort you would expect; like the shady back lanes of The Big Apple, and the dark dingy sewers, and the sort that might take you by surprise; like the lair of an evil inventor who, along with his robot minions, you must defeat!

The game is fairly open-world too, with your surroundings providing you with a plethora of interactive resources and opportunities to enrich your combat experience. Enemy chasing you down a dead-end alley? Get Leonardo to run up and back-flip off a wall, surprising your foes and turning the odds in your favour.

There are four modes in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, each one offering something a bit different to your mutated reptile plate. There is the Campaign mode, which as you probably expect, gets you travelling through different levels, following the story, each one needing completion before advancing to the next. Then there are Side missions, which are complementary to the campaign, little titbits on top of your main course if you will.

There is also a Challenge mode, which (you guessed it) presents you with unique challenges to best, which unlock as you progress through the Campaign, providing lots of nice replay value. Finally, if you feel like you need some time to get to grips with the controls, and maybe practice those all important combos, then head to the Dojo Training, where you can obliterate enemies safe in the knowledge that you cannot die. By giving you the option to train alone, or with the rest of the team too, it really helps you get a feel for how they work as a unit, with some super cool combined moves, although it does get a bit chaotic with everyone in one room.

The controls themselves are again quite similar to Arkham Asylum, stringing together your attacks results in some nice combo effects, with your melee, kick and counter moves fluidly merging into an impressive display of skill. Everything looks simple yet visually very effective, with the focus being more on defeating numerous opponents over a fast-paced period of time, rather than on one, requiring more extensive tactical thinking.

All of your weapons, (which look freakin' sweet by the way) can be upscaled in Donatello's workshop, so if you thought that nunchucks can't really get any cooler, think again.

Your four main stats are upgradable too, with speed automatically improving over time as you play with each character, and your health, damage and toughness increasing through the choice of talent-like improvements, which you earn and unlock.

To be honest, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows could easily have been a disaster, purely because the fanbase is a large and judgemental one, but Red Fly Studios don't seem to have put a foot wrong with this. It will appeal to those who, like me, grew up with the original cartoons and like the idea of a more adult TMNT world. The online co-op and multiplayer features, will encourage folks to play with their mates and have a bloody good time whilst they're at it. Even if you don't have any mates to join you, you'll always have all four turtles on screen, so really you're never alone! The release date is still TBC, but keep your eyes peeled for it this summer!