|
|
Game Information
|
Preview
|
Review |
Screenshots
|
Forum |
»Teen Titans 2
"The review says it all."
Teen Titans is a DC Comics cartoon that airs on Cartoon Network. And
while the new management of CN deemed Teen Titans – ...too successful, I
guess? – and cancelled it in the end, the developers of the video games
just can’t get enough of new Teen Titans video games. This one in
particular is a sequel to an earlier Teen Titans video game, and from
what I’ve played of them, it’s somewhat better, but it would have been
keen for it to be a ton better, eh?
The plot follows Robin, who is the only Teen Titan not kidnapped. When
he gets Cyborg’s signal, he goes and rescues him, eventually learning
that the conspirator of the kidnappings was Brother Blood, a villain in
the Teen Titans series. As Robin progresses through the game, he fights
several familiar villains, rescues his comrades – Cyborg, Raven, Beast
Boy, and Starfire, meet up with other allies such as Aqualad, and
battle a plethora of the same enemies over and over again.
The game mechanics are simple in the beginning. You can play as five
different characters – the main Titans (Robin, Cyborg, Raven, Beast
Boy, Starfire), which you unlock by rescuing them. Each character plays
noticeably differently. Robin is capable of mostly short-ranged
attacks, and can do double jumps and wall jumps. Robin can also crack
computers to open doors. However, a more complicated character is
Raven, who has indefinite flight, and uses long-ranged techniques such
as using her powers to throw objects & enemies around, can
disappear for a couple of seconds, and can create a force field to go
through electric barriers. Each character has a certain weight,
strength, and health level. Robin has higher strength and health, but
Raven is more capable of attacking from a safe distance and reaching
any unrestricted height. The vast differences between the characters
really helps to make the game feel fresh.
Teen Titans 2 plays like a platforming/beat ‘em up game. The Titans
explore several different levels, which are littered with enemies. Each
level contains several chapters, and at the end of them is usually a
boss battle. The most common enemies that you will find in these levels
are soldiers, flying dome things, and laser turrets. The soldiers come
in several colors – the initial batch isn’t that dangerous, but the red
ones are capable of shooting a gun. All enemies have alternate forms,
some of which have different features (like the above mentioned red
soldier). With most characters, beating an enemy is done most easily by
mashing the attack button – specifically, mashing down + B, which will
keep certain powerful enemies from fighting back. However, sometimes it
doesn’t work so well. This most commonly happens when multiple enemies
surround the character and have gun weapons. You cannot focus on all of
them, so you just have to slowly defeat them all while taking much
damage. I wish they did add more villains than they did instead of just
using palette swaps.
I wish lack of variety was the worst thing about this game. However,
it’s cursed with much worse problems. First is the action – it’s not
quite fast-paced enough to be great. Not only that, but the hit
detection could have been better. But the biggest problem is the level
design. It’s not very inspired – for a good part of the game, I had to
deal with levels that were a bunch of corridors, and I practically went
crazy. Also, Teen Titans 2 is difficult – somewhat because of
legitimate challenge, but mostly because of cheap deaths,
unfortunately. This adds some “fake length” to the game.
The graphics are decent. I like how they designed the sprite with a
very cartoony feeling; even enemies have had decent effort put into
them, although the animation could be better. However, that’s the only
part of the game’s visuals that could be described as good. The level
designs are okay at best, bad at worst. The level designs are
particularly boring for the most part, especially for Cyborg’s arcs.
There are no voice clips of any Teen Titans, or even sound effects that
could resemble voices. When a character receives damage, you just hear
a generic “received damage” noise. The intro music is taken from the
intro of the Teen Titans cartoon, but unfortunately, the developers
didn’t have the sense to use other songs from the cartoon. However, the
songs aren’t terrible.
The longevity seems good to the naked eye. But when you look at it more
closely, it’s not THAT long – it’s just added longevity, thanks to a
lot of cheap deaths forcing you to start over from the beginning of a
chapter over and over until you get the hang of that chapter. However,
cheap deaths not withstanding, the game isn’t short by any means – it’s
just not long and doesn’t have the most replay value in a game.
Overall, Teen Titans 2 is a good game despite its bothersome flaws. If
they really wanted to, I think that the developers could hunker down
and make a really good Teen Titans game – just hire some more
experienced developers and put more effort into level designs.
Article by: Alttp
Posted on: Mar. 15th, 2007 |
|
|
|
Review Recap |
| Gameplay |
| A good action beat-‘em-up with okay level designs and platforming. |
 |
|
|
Graphics |
| Good sprites, but lame back/foregrounds. |
 |
|
|
Sound |
| Good intro song, average-okay level songs, but the level songs lack any association to the TT cartoon. |
|
|
|
Replay Value |
| Seems to have a good amount of longevity, but it’s not quite as long as it looks when you take away the cheap deaths. |
|
|
|
Comments |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
