Parents' Guide to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Arcade Attack

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Common Sense Media Review

Christopher Healy By Christopher Healy , based on child development research. How do we rate?

age 11+

Repetitive hack-and-slash doesn't excite much.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 11+?

Any Positive Content?

Parent and Kid Reviews

age 9+

Based on 2 kid reviews

What's It About?

The story behind TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: ARCADE ATTACK revolves around the villanous Shredder setting off \"temporal surges\" and upsetting the electric grid in New York City. Criminals take advantage of the disturbance and start a crime spree. The ninja turtles run through town and beat people up to save the day.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say : Not yet rated
Kids say ( 2 ):

As the title implies, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Arcade Attack is set up to play like the old hack-and-slash button-mashing games that would often be found in arcades of old. The basic gist of these games is that two heroes walk through a series of streets, alleys, and hallways, beating up anyone who comes along. Real thinking or strategy isn't needed, just pounding buttons at the right times. As a recreation of those kinds of games, TMNT: Arcade Attack is, for better or worse, a success. The repetitive action can grow boring rather quickly, and would have at least been helped by some variety in the bad guys -- but instead you face the same few template villains over and over. When the comic-book panel story scenes that occur between levels are more exciting than the gameplay, that's a problem.

Online interaction: The game can't be played online, but two kids who own the game can play cooperatively through the DS's wireless connection.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about violence in video games. Even thought the ninja turtles are very unrealistic cartoon characters, does their fighting still send a bad message to kids? Is there a difference between cartoon violence and realistic violence?

Game Details

  • Platforms : Nintendo DS , Nintendo DSi
  • Pricing structure :
  • Available online? : Not available online
  • Publisher : UbiSoft
  • Release date : November 10, 2009
  • Genre : Action/Adventure
  • ESRB rating : E10+ for Cartoon Violence
  • Last updated : February 15, 2023

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