TMNT: The Hyperstone Heist
Sega Genesis
Nostalgia Factor:
I first played this game back in the early 90s. I was a big TMNT fan at the time, and normally I would buy every Turtles game that came out and add it to my collection. But not this time. I think I was turned off by how repetitive TMNT II and III were for the NES. I liked these games, sure, but once I beat them they didn't give me much of a reason to come back to them. My assumption was that Hyperstone Heist would be more of the same.
And it absolutely was. I rented this game from Blockbuster for a weekend, beat it, returned it, and have never come back to play it again - until now. Would my initial reaction to the game still hold true? Let's dive in.
Story:
We all know that these TMNT beat 'em ups aren't known for their deep storylines. The Hyperstone Heist is no exception. What it boils down to is that Shredder has gotten his hands on the titular Hyperstone. I think of the Hyperstone as being similar to an Infinity Stone from the Marvel movies. He uses this stone to shrink the Statue of Liberty and steal it. He then challenges the Turtles to come find him.
You know the drill. The Turtles then proceed to kick and punch their way through a series of levels until they find Shredder, defeat him, and put the threat of the Hyperstone to rest once and for all.
Gameplay:
I've played and reviewed four different TMNT beat 'em ups for this blog over the years, and I don't really know what there is to say about this game that hasn't been said already. You control one of the four ninja turtles. You have a jump and an attack button. You fight through stages full of Foot Soldiers, beating a boss character at the end of the stage. You pick up pizza to refill your health. Your points add up and give you extra lives to work with. At the end you beat Shredder and the game ends.
The Hyperstone Heist rigidly sticks to this formula. I guess an exception to the rule is that there is a "boss rush" stage where you fight all of the game's bosses before moving onto the final stage of the game.
As far as the gameplay itself goes, Hyperstone Heist is almost indistinguishable from the other TMNT beat 'em ups. You might notice subtle changes in the gameplay (for example, you can't throw enemies at the camera like you can in Turtles in Time), but for the most part if you've played one of these TMNT games you've played them all.
One interesting thing I've noticed is that this game shares a lot of set pieces with Turtles in Time (like the elevator fight, and the final Shredder boss battle). I wonder if this game was supposed to be a port of Turtles in Time, but they decided to change things to make it an original title during the production cycle.
Graphics:
The Hyperstone Heist is noticeably less vibrant than the Super Nintendo's Turtles in Time, or any of the arcade TMNT beat 'em ups for that matter. The characters have a slightly more pixelated edge to them. The colors are a bit muted. While you could say that the other TMNT games are like a cartoon come to life, I don't know if you can say the same here. Not that the game looks bad, but it has a very distinct "Genesis" look to its graphics.
Just like with the graphics, Hyperstone Heist's music isn't quite up to snuff with the precedent set by the SNES and arcade TMNT games. The music is good, sure, but to me it doesn't quite capture that exciting and fun spirit of the cartoon. Don't get me wrong, the game has good music and sound effects. Just not as good as I know they can be.
Overall:
If you are a fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and you like beat 'em ups, I don't see any reason why you wouldn't like this game. I know it seems like all I've been doing is saying how this isn't as good as other games in the TMNT series, but really you can't go wrong with this title. Especially if this was 1992 and the only console you owned was a Sega Genesis.
If I got a group of friends together and we decided to play through a bunch of old TMNT games, this wouldn't be the first game we'd pick. But it wouldn't be the last one either. This is a perfectly fun and competent TMNT game. It may not be my favorite in the series, but that certainly doesn't mean I don't like it.
Am I going to come back to this game every few years to play through its single player mode? Probably not. In fact, I'm not certain I see a need to come back to this game at all, unless it is with friends. I know that isn't exactly a glowing endorsement, but when you've got a bunch of TMNT games and they all kinda do the same thing, it does make this one a bit redundant.
That said, it's still a fun game. Am I making sense here? I feel like I'm not making any sense. Hopefully you catch my drift. Good game, yes. Groundbreaking game, no.
THE GRADE:
B-
Check out the following links for some of my past TMNT reviews!
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