by Niel de la Rouviere

Created on: January 20, 2009   Last Updated: September 21, 2011

Turtix is sent by his magician master on a rescue adventure to save the other turtle students when his master accidentally got the recipe wrong for a protection elixir. Turtix travels through magic forests, underground caves and barren deserts on his adventure to save the young students. The students have to make their way past pits, gates and creatures to be saved; similar to Lemmings.

Game play:

The controls are extremely simplistic. This aides to the casual game atmosphere the game portrays. Turtix can jump, carry crates and toggle switches and get keys by using the keyboard, mouse or joystick. However, the simple control scheme is hampered by the overly repetitive goals. Thus, the game play is similar to most platform games, but with this game you are stuck with no sense of progression. The goals just increase in amount and not variety. The difficulty levels are also ridiculous: casual is like god-mode and hardcore is like a normal game albeit more frustrating.

Graphics:

The game's graphics are very well done: 2-D animation at its cutest. It's bright, clear, has a slight cartoony feel and is very animated. The animation is definitely a plus point. Small additions such as when Turtix is standing still for a while he starts to read a comic or starts playing some video games. The graphics does not get dull and there are no bland spots or signs of laziness.

Sound:

The sound is fairly average. The sound effects are sparse and does not add to the atmosphere. Some of the sounds, such as jumping on the red button is just hilarious; anything could have sounded better than that. The music, luckily is set at a low volume, otherwise it would put anyone to sleep. It needs to be more lively and animated just like the graphics.

Creativity:

The is a mixed bag. The motivation for Turtix is fairly weak thus the creativity in the storyline could have been better. The areas' names he explores is also void of any creativity: magic forest, underground caves and barren deserts. C'mon! The animation however is very creative. The game play however lacks creativity. The obstacles in the turtles' paths are just variations of the same concept.

Innovation:

So far I have seen no innovation in this game whatsoever. Nothing new has been brought to the forefront that makes me sit up and take notice.

Conclusion:

This game has great artwork and its graphics and style is definitely a great plus point. However, its repetitive and simplistic goals are too shallow to sustain it. Small things such as the secret areas that are not at all secret, takes away from the games achievement. One should feel rewarded for finishing goals, but saving those students rather felt like a chore than a casual gaming experience. For some this game might be fun, but I'm not buying it.

2/5 - Only for its artistic merit.

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