Game: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist
Console: Sega Mega Drive
Developer: Konami
Release Date: 21st December 1992
Heavily based on Turtles In Time for the Super Nintendo which was also published by Konami, Hyperstone Heist was released around the same time also. Although in no way a direct port of the SNES game, the two games share a lot of characteristics and gameplay concepts which can be traced back through earlier installments in the series. With 9 stages in the SNES game, and 5 levels, each comprising of 3 mini-stages in the Mega Drive game there's many differences in storyline too (the turtles are spared the fate of being sent back in time, in Hyperstone Heist at least).
The plot of the game sees The Statue of Liberty as well as Manhattan Island being shrunk live on air as Shredder hijacks the airwaves to announce that he's in possession of the Hyperstone, and that this is only a small display of its power. With this broadcast, the turtles set off through the city of New York, its sewers, a mysterious ghost ship, Shredder's Hideout, the gauntlet and finally the Technodrome. Upon beating Shredder, the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan Island are returned to their correct size and location.
The game is in the style of a side scrolling beat 'em up, similar to that of the Streets of Rage series, however it features far more enemies, most of which are far easier to kill. Regular enemies are recolours of eachother (all working for the Foot Clan) with their outfits representing which weapons they are carrying. Aside from bosses and a few other special enemies, these are the only enemies that appear in the entire game. The AI is generally good with fast and reactive gameplay resulting in a good overall experience.
In the game's options it's possible to set the three buttons on the controller to any configuration you wish, which is a very nice feature. Personally I was pleased by this as I was able to set the game up to mirror the controls of Streets of Rage for jumping and attacking. Each turtle's special move is accessed by pressing the jump and attack buttons together, however it takes away 2 bars of health if it hits an enemy so it seems somewhat pointless, especially since the game can easily be completed without it.
Part of the second stage sees the turtles take to the seas in an enjoyable surfing level, and there's a good amount of variety in concepts throughout the game including environmental weapons and dangers such as laser beams and ice hazards. The bosses featured in the game can be fairly easily defeated once their pattern has been learned, but for beginners they may seem impossible with one mistake potentially taking a lot of health away.
The game doesn't really change between one and two player mode, no extra enemies or powerups are added and a second player may enter the game at any time. The bosses are certainly easier to defeat as in one player mode it can be harder to be in two places at once, but other than this there's no real change. That's not to say it isn't a fun two player experience though, with a nice difference in weapons between the turtles and no chance of damaging your team mate with your own moves, the game seems geared towards two players.
Graphically the game looks colourful and fairly impressive, even though Turtles in Time is generally regarded to be better looking. There's a choice as to whether the turtles appear in their comic book or animated series forms which is a nice addition and the backgrounds and overall detail is good. The soundtrack is decent as an accompaniment but nothing particularly special, but the real let-down in the audio department is the voice clips that are included as they are of poor quality. Hearing "Shell-shocked" as a muffled clip each time you die only adds to the frustration.
Overall Hyperstone Heist makes for an enjoyable Beat 'Em Up game to rival the likes of Streets Of Rage and Golden Axe in terms of gameplay at least. The bosses of the game are good and have a nice variety of moves, although the general enemies leave a lot to be desired even if they also have a range of moves. Best as a two player experience, the game boasts around an hour of fun for full completion, with lots and lots of foes to defeat. It's a definite classic even if its flaws mean that it's not quite up to the standard of the very best games of the time.
Rating: 84/100
Grade: B
Game: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Console: Sega Mega Drive
Developer: Banpresto
Release Date: 20th May 1994
Based on the television series of the same name, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is a tournament fighter (of sorts) featuring an arcade mode for single player action and a battle mode for two players. The story (if you can call it that) involves thwarting Rita Repulsa's plans to take back the Earth from the human race by sending a number of beasts down to fight the Power Rangers. It follows the same progression as the arcade mode of a tournament fighter, containing cutscenes between each battle.
Featuring 6 different colours of power ranger in total with slightly different move sets as well as the ability to control the Megazord and Dragonzord which are the transformer like robots which the Power Rangers morph into. With just 4 enemies to defeat there's a definite lack of characters you can battle, to add to the lack of playable fighters.
Controlwise things don't get much better, A is used for a normal attack, B for a fierce attack and C for dashing. The d-pad controls movement as you'd expect and there's a couple of executable combos but not as much as you'd expect for a fighting game. The fighting itself is pretty mediocre, there's no real feeling of satisfaction from beating an opponent and on the whole everything feels rather clumsy. It's possible to change the game difficulty from the options screen between level 1 and 8. The first difficulty level is incredibly easy, with 2 and 3 the most enjoyable before anything above 4 becomes impossible.
The cutscenes in the game are repeated between each battle; before the battle Rita is shown sending an enemy down to battle the Power Rangers, then she says you'll have trouble beating it when it's big, the Power Rangers team up and beat it, and the cycle begins again. This seems incredibly lazy when you consider that there are only 7 battles in arcade mode anyway, and the storyline was pretty simple to start with.
Graphically the game is fairly impressive and this is probably its strongest point; all of the fighters and enemies look good and the cutscenes feature some nice graphics. The music of the game isn't particularly special and doesn't feature anything related to the television show which is a little disappointing. The voice clips used in the game are the worst feature soundwise, as they are muffled and of very low quality.
Overall Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is an extremely disappointing tournament fighter with a limited selection of fighters, opponents and moves. Arcade mode's story is lazy and repetitive and the difficulty settings for it ensure that it's either far too easy or far too hard to complete. Two player mode is probably the most enjoyable feature of the game behind its graphics, but even these two positive points aren't enough to save it from being a completely mediocre experience.
Rating: 48/100
Grade: D
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