There is nothing more suitable quote for this game than this.
“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.” – Oscar Wilde
This game is a carbon copy of Hades to the point that a lawsuit is in order, and the only reason there hasn’t been one is that people playing this game doesn’t take away from people playing Hades. You can play both, and Hades will not have fewer sales because this game exists.
It is a rogue-lite where you start from a base. Here the story is progressing, you talk to characters, upgrade your arsenal before you head out for the next run. Then you go progressively through 4 stages, where each stage has a couple of rooms, a mini boss and a major boss at the end. You receive bonuses and health upgrades along the way, and for every time you die you will get a little further next time.
Many games work this way, but this game is like they’ve taken the source code for Hades and just shamefully replaced the graphics with the Turtles motif. Even the vendor is called Chairman (Charon in Hades) and is a mysterious hooded figure. One of the bosses is a girl that moves quickly over the map. One of the bosses are two, where one is more nimble and the other heavy. The last boss has two phases where you kill him and then he comes back stronger. Do you recognize it?
There are a few things that Turtles do that Hades don’t, and it’s not for the better. Turtles is in 3D graphics while Hades is 2D. This makes Turtles much harder, because the 3D elements are not as precise. It is not as clear what is happening on the screen. Sometimes you end up behind something so you cannot see what’s going on. The art style is antialiased so it’s kind of fuzzy which makes it harder to make out what you’re looking at.
Another main contribution to the formula is that Turtles is multiplayer. You can play up to 4 (?) players. I’ve only tried couch coop with 1 other player and it’s way too chaotic and since the turtles look almost the same you end up believing you are the other person all the time. There’s also so much going on at the screen when you’re two, that it is impossible to actually play well. It is just a flurry of motion.
Apart from that Turtles is like Hades but worse. It is not as balanced. Enemies are not as well animated. You cannot tell attacks apart the same way. You get attacked from off-screen all the time. Enemies have attacks I’m not sure you can dodge. The story is not as interesting, the music isn’t as great and the upgrades not as fun.
I didn’t finish this game. I got to the second phase of the last boss and then I decided that it wasn’t worth my time anymore.
I rate this game as OKAY.
Replay 