Teen Titans
Score: 90% ESRB: Everyone 10+ Publisher: Majesco Developer: A2M Media: Cartridge/1 Players: 1 Genre: Action/ Adventure
Graphics & Sound: Teen Titans takes the action-packed anime cartoon based on the younger DC heroes and puts it all into the palm of your hand. From the digital version's smart aleck one-liners to their various powers and looks, this game is taken straight from the TV series. Graphically, the game is a nice, side-scrolling rendition of the show. The levels are huge and each screen is fairly well detailed. The characters' sprites, as well as their attacks do the show justice and everyone, from the enemies to the heroes, are large and dominate the screen, making it easy to tell just what's going on and who is attacking who. Audio-wise, the characters don't speak, but the music comes through loud and clear. Every score, from the show's theme song to the generic background music that plays as you fight through the city, sounds great and never gets tiring. Well, the theme song might get a bit repetitive after a while, but you only really have to deal with that on the Menu screen. Though there is no voice work in this game, each characters' quirky personality comes through when the action pauses and large stills of the characters appear and talk via word bubbles. Everything from Beast Boy's comedic relief to Starfire's slight naivete and Robin's business-only attitude shine through the conversations that the team members have with each other.
Gameplay: For those who aren't familiar with the Cartoon Network series, Teen Titans follows some of the younger DC super heroes as they defend a city against various villains in a semi-slapstick manner. Led by Robin, the Titans also include Cyborg, Beast Boy, Starfire and Raven. Each of these heroes have their own special moves that will help you in the heat of battle. The Teen Titans game starts off with some bad guys breaking into their large T-shaped headquarters. The story continues from there as you find out that Gizmo, a member of The Hive, has made copies of all of the Titans and because of that, throughout the game you will have to face copies of yourself. Each Titan has a wide array of attacks at his/her disposal. Robin can use his staff, or if he is in the air, throw a few of his bombs. Cyborg can shoot missiles or a constant laser beam. Beast Boy has a clawing tiger attack, a gorilla form and a bird form to complement the charging rhino attack. Both Starfire and Raven can fly around, while they shoot energy balls or other similar attacks. Each level is pretty long, so not only is there typically a lot of ground that you will need to cover, but you can also use your flying characters to fly pretty high and nab various collectibles. There are also a lot of rooms and corridors that only certain characters will be able to get the team through. Small areas like duct work require Beast Boy to turn into a bird and fly through the passageway, steel doors can only be gotten through with Cyborg's powerful punch, Raven's shield gets her past electrical currents and so on. This goes a long way in keeping you from sticking to any one character, since you will have to switch between the various heroes to not only grab hidden extras, but progress in the level itself. All-in-all, the game consists of you running and gunning your way through a level, occasionally being forced to stop and fight a horde of enemies and continuing on when you've defeated all the bad guys from that area.
Difficulty: Teen Titans ups the difficulty by locking you into a particular screen and forcing you to fight wave after wave of grunts, robots and other enemies. There isn't really any A.I. involved and as long as you switch between healthy characters when one of your team members starts to get weak, you won't have much of a problem getting past these attacks. The hardest part (and even these weren't really tough) was facing off against the various bosses. Typically, the bosses have an easy to identify pattern or gimmick, and once you pick up on their attack strategies, it shouldn't take much longer to do them in.
Game Mechanics: Most action games that are put onto the GBA are restricted to jumping with the A button and attacking with the B, and maybe something else with one of the shoulder buttons. This isn't the case with Teen Titans. Here, the game makes some context-sensitive decisions to add a few more attacks to your arsenal, giving each Titan four or five different attacks. When you think about it, four different moves for five different characters adds up to a nice array of ways to beat your opponents. Your current Titan's basic attack, typically a punch, is executed with the B button. Tap the button several times and the final attack in the short combo will be more powerful. This stronger attack includes Cyborg shooting a missile, Beast Boy turning into a gorilla or Starfire shooting an energy ball at her enemy. Tapping the R button activates the characters' special power. Here Beast Boy becomes a charging rhino and plows through pretty much anything, Robin pulls out his bo for some fancy stick work, Starfire shoots lasers out her eyes, Cyborg fires a large energy blast and Raven pulls up a shield. But wait, that's not all. If the character is in the air, either from flying or jumping, these special attacks change. For instance, Cybrog's beam becomes about six or seven missiles that fly in different directions, Robin throws bombs or Raven brings the roof down on her enemies. The L button is used to switch between the various Titans on the fly. Just hold it down and use the D-Pad to choose which of the five fighters you want to switch to. Teen Titans is one of those games that anybody can pick up and play. It's good for pretty much any group and fans of the TV series will not be disappointed.
-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications AKA Chris Meyer
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