Review by: Andrew Webster

It's hard to talk about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash-Up without mentioning Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Not only was Smash-Up developed by Game Arts, who previously worked on Brawl, but it features near identical gameplay. But instead of watching a heap of Nintendo characters duke it out, players are treated to the heroes in a half shell.

If you've played any Smash Bros. game you'll feel right at home. Smash-Up is a 2.5D fighter with up to four players on screen at once, and features loose, high-flying, frantic action. There's a decent number of play modes, including Arcade, Mission, Survival, Battle Royal, Swap Out, and Practice. As far as single-player play goes, Arcade is the main draw. You'll make your way through a series of fights, interspersed with comic book pages that provide the back story for the game.

Disappointingly, though Smash-Up boasts that it's story was written by TMNT co-creator Peter Laird, the actual narrative is paper-thin. What starts out as a friendly sparring tournament between the turtles and company, is interrupted by the Shredder, and, well, you can guess the rest. Like most fighting games, the plot serves as nothing more than an excuse to see these characters beat the crap out of each other.

The rest of the game modes provide some welcome variety: Mission tasks the player with completing stages while adhering to increasingly difficult stipulations, like fighting in the dark or only being able to attack with throws; Survival, as you'd expect, has players fighting a never-ending wave of enemies in an attempt to last as long as possible before dying; meanwhile Battle Royal, Swap Out, and the game's online mode provide ample opportunity for multiplayer pugilism.

The action itself holds few surprises, focusing on speed and unpredictability. It plays nearly identically to Smash Bros., although in places the action feels less polished than Nintendo's fighting series. The jumping feels very floaty, the power-ups are near useless, and the variety in the move sets leaves much to be desired. But the most frustrating aspect is how similar all of the characters look. This makes determining who you're controlling at any given time very annoying. It's not enough to completely ruin the experience, but in a match with four turtles it can get a little much.

But the real star of the show in Smash-Up is the stages.