"Cowabunga dude!" Many people my age remember this battle cry with fondness. Many moons ago, a little known black and white comic strip by Eastman and Laird hit the big time and before you could 'shell' out for a pizza, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were known around the globe. This was largely thanks to the successful films and cartoons but there was the obligatory merchandise and a rather good arcade four player beat 'em up too. Well, Turtle Power is poking out its head again and a new generation of children are enjoying their mutant ninja prowess, albeit without some of the old catchphrases.

Of course, with every new generation comes new opportunities to shift some gear and Konami has taken up the mantle of putting out a new game with quite a diverse story onto the Gameboy Advance. Each turtle has a tale to tell and very familiar they will be to long term fans. For example, Michaelangelo's tale is one of mutant monsters invented in a secret underground lab by the Foot Clan, whereas Leonardo's tale is about the rescue of Raphael after his kidnapping by new super-powered Clan footmen. Another tells of the first meeting with April and the dreaded mousers and another the clash of personalities between Raphael and Casey, the psychotic hockey masked vigilante. However, it ultimately boils down to the usual 'let's all beat Shredder up' type ending. The story is told with the trademark Turtle bickering and odd flashes of dry humour, but can detract from the gameplay somewhat, as the text sections are a little long.

The gameplay itself is a bit of a mixed bag, being a bit of side-scrolling beat 'em up action followed by third person driving action. The action in both modes is frantic but it's the ninja moves that really shine through. Each turtle has his own weapon, be it the sai (spinning/throwing knives), the bo (a large staff) or the nunchaku (rice flails), and have their own moves to complement them. Exploring their various styles is great fun and is helped by an intuitive combat system. A double tap in a direction allows your turtle to run and hitting a button at the right moment results in a fast moving flying kick, sai strike or move from the staff, and so on. Holding the strike button down allows each turtle to build up power for a super move, depending on a bar at the top of the screen. Releasing the button when the charge hits the three different colours results in three different strikes, one more powerful than the previous. However, hold the button down too long and your green-shelled fighter wears himself out, leaving him open to some nasty counterattacks.

The enemies pile in thick and fast and there are a great many of them. If you find yourself overcome by Shredder's foot soldiers, you can tap one of the shoulder buttons. This provokes a move in your turtle that eliminates adversaries on both sides but at the expense of your health. However, there are others to worry about besides enemy martial artists; there are also those with laser guns that can hit you from a distance and jumping towards them over their blasts is the order of the day. Then there are the street gangs, mutated monsters, the giant robots and the small but deadly mousers. These last type run at you dozens at a time, often surprising you by tearing through walls to get you. In fact, all have quite distinct moves and often require different strategies to beat, something quite impressive on the GBA.

All this is set in a strictly two dimensional landscape; there's no walking up and down an area of land, only left and right. However, you can jump up and down different levels, such as onto platforms in the factory section or onto roofs in the urban area. While it lacks the depth of field of other side-scrolling beat 'em ups, such as Gekido or Double Dragon, the platforms and various obstacles around them are used well and help keep the gameplay interesting. It's just a pity that only one turtle goes into action at a time though. I felt Konami really missed the opportunity to inject fun into the game by having all four flying into combat at the same time, even if you only end up controlling one of them.

Unfortunately, between levels you'll often come across vehicular action that attempts to vary the gameplay and add a little something extra. However, it rarely does that. One such example sees a turtle skateboarding down the inside of a sewer tube, viewed from behind, the object being to collect crystals and avoid pipes. It's a bit like that old arcade game Tempest but not as much fun. Another part has one of the green dudes on a glider, which turns into a rather weak left to right scrolling shoot 'em up. This particular area struck me as an incredibly bad conversion of R-Type.

However, that's not to say it's all bad. A side scrolling chase on a motorbike, going up ramps, hitting speed boosts and avoiding road works is quite good fun, as is the one where you head down a rather large sewer tunnel in a specially designed tank, taking out hordes of mousers that come flying through the air at you. Regardless of these additions, they still affect the gameplay, as they distract you from the rather fancy fighting action each individual turtle provides.

As well as this distraction from gameplay, with the exception of the motorbike driving, the graphics on the vehicular sections aren't that great. The background skyline of nighttime New York is quite good during the hang-glider moments but the foreground graphics are completely uninspiring. The missiles look pathetic, as do the explosions when they hit you. The tunnel effects on the skateboard and tank are reasonable but just a bit too plain, although the sight of mousers flying at you is quite chilling.

Fortunately, the graphics do redeem themselves during the fighting sections. I was a little non-plussed at first, as the sewers look wholly unremarkable. However, soon I was fighting in an urban environment with some well-realised park and street areas. One of the landscapes that particularly impressed me is the mouser factory. One of the turtles infiltrates it and while he's taking on all and sundry your eye can't help but be dragged to what's happening through the big glass windows in each corridor; there are loads of moving conveyor belts with thousands of mousers in various stages of construction, which all look chilling in the cold blue glare of the factory's neon lights.

The moves of all the characters involved are well drawn, nicely animated and expressive too, be they the bog-standard foot soldiers, the massive mutated monsters or the tiny inexorable robot mousers. The end of level bad guys are equally impressive, combining great design with detail and threatening animation. The real coup de grace of the eye candy in this game rests with the turtles though; each one has brilliant and instantly recognised trademark moves. Even when one is knocked to the floor, the little leg spin they use to leap back up is expertly realised, as are all their various jumps, strikes and kicks. Although each one is rather small they've also managed to capture their character through their facial expressions and other physical nuances, rather than just leaving you to recognise each turtle by the colour of his bandana. This care and attention to detail will impress all turtle fans and quite a lot of beat 'em up addicts too.

I was a little disappointed with the sound in comparison, particularly with the in-game music. The themes are fairly non-descript and bland but that did have the benefit of not distracting me from the action. The combat sound effects are reasonable, being the bashes and slashes of various bits of wood and metal crunching thick foot soldier skulls. I particularly liked the whirring sound of the spinning nunchaku and the snap of the mouser jaws. There are various voice samples throughout the game, including victory cries at the end of each level, which is a nice touch and gives the feeling of a job well done. Other than that, there isn't anything particularly remarkable that stretches the capabilities of the Gameboy Advance.

I was also a little disappointed by the length too. Although each mighty shelled character has their own story and levels to work through, you get through them very quickly on easy mode. There are two other difficulty levels to keep you entertained and on the hardest level it became so tough I almost threw my Gameboy against the wall in frustration, which is unusual for me. Hardcore beat 'em fans will like this extra difficulty though. Unfortunately, most other people will be shaking their heads at the missed opportunity for some multiplayer action. There are four turtles after all, so why wasn't there even the sniff of a multiplayer? It's a crying shame and such lost potential from such a great license. This omission makes the package seem very incomplete.

Fans of the new TV series and even older fans of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will enjoy this title, provided they can ignore the skateboarding and other driving sections of the game. The graphics capture the essence of the Turtles very well, and the beat 'em up sections will have you smiling. However, there are much better titles of this genre available for those not a fan of the shelled ones, such as the superb Gekido. I'd love to say "the game totally rocks dude!" but this is sadly best left to the diehard Cowabunga! criers amongst us.

Reviewed by Dave Wynn for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).