Teenage Mutant Prince of Persia

Ubisoft's Turtles offering comes from their Montreal studios, probably best known for their great reintroduction of Prince of Persia to the world of 3D. Turtles have always been nimble and acrobatic - duh, they are ninjas - but for this adventure, they have definitely been taking notes from the instruction manual of the Persian royalty. Running up the walls, crossing huge chasms with a single leap, swinging from flagpole to flagpole, abusing every available bit for a handhold, the new Turtles make their way across the urban jungle with style and breathtaking speed.

Just like the Prince of Persia, Turtles will swing from flagpole to flagpole...	...zoom over pits holding on where they can...
...leap over bottomless gaps...	...and even run up the walls if every other way is blocked.

Like with the Prince of Persia, large sections of the Turtles levels are completely devoid of any enemies, and instead the enemy is the level itself. However, instead of relying on complex room layouts and pixel-perfect jumps to figure out, Turtles takes a more action-oriented approach. This is like Prince of Persia but in fast forward... with too much coffee in the morning. There is hardly ever a need to stop and ponder how to proceed, you just run through the levels at breakneck speed, figuring out how to tackle the next obstacle just in time to avoid a deadly drop. The pacing is excellent and once you get the feel for the game, you can always keep half a jump ahead the character while planning out where to hop or what to grab next. Major component of the new style is the camera system. You can't move the camera, instead it moves automatically, in part to direct you smoothly towards the correct path. Collectable coins also act as nice indicators where to head next without the need to take breaks to examine the area. I've seen dozens of badly done automatic cameras, but in this case the camera Just Works, and once you get used to it, you almost never miss the ability to adjust it.