Teen Titans (GBA)

"Teen Titans!" I suppose if you're they're only going to include one clip of vocals from the theme tune, it might as well be them yelling the title.

Hand pixelled artwork! That's a good sign for a GBA game. The animation is pretty great too. The music fits. So far so good.

And I can switch to any of the characters at any time. Though not all of them at once, which would perhaps make more sense for a superhero team. Each of them has their own set of attacks and special abilities.

Though only Starfire on the left gets to have a neck on her portrait for some reason.

Cool, I think I can remember that. I just need to learn how to pull off the timing.

Oh, it seems I can trigger the combo just by hammering the B button, and I have only one punch attack (I can't even duck to do a low punch), so I'm pretty much going to be combo attacking every enemy.

Hey, they put his R logo on the wrong side of his tunic. And then forgot to put an R on it.

I have no idea who Hive Soldiers are supposed to be, but they go down in one attack combo so I'm not overly concerned.

Well I could jump and do a flying kick, or use my special attack button, but there's no need when I can just keep pressing B. Combo punch! Again!

Suddenly, platformer time is over! The music gets dramatic, "FIGHT!" flashes up on screen, and I'm locked in to this area just slightly wider than the screen. Then enemies start wandering into my fists from both sides.

I can handle them pretty easily as long as I don't let them surround me.

Crap, robot spiders! Four legged mechanical arachnids! Uh, I mean quadrupeds... uh, never mind. The point is that they're swarming me and I can't duck and kick them. Though weirdly my combo punch uppercut seems to hit them just fine.

Screw it, I'm calling in air support. Starfire can hover safely above the spiders indefinitely, and fire off energy balls until her blue special power bar is depleted.

And just as suddenly as it began, Fight! time is over, and it's back to Go! time. The music calms down and I'm allowed to go explore and jump on platforms again.

But first I will eat this delicious life restoring pizza!

Uh, I guess this is a dead end for now then? I'll just go and find a switch or a key or whatever.

The advantage of having flying characters is that I can skip right to the next door or FIGHT! scene without having to fight anyone along the way.

Assuming that these guys don't somehow get hold of jetpacks and homing missiles.

'FIGHT!' This time I think I'll just drop bricks on them from the sky.

Foolish spiders, I'm ready for you this time. Or at least I will be when my power bar recharges. It's okay, there's no time limit, I can wait.

You're going to have to shoot faster than that if you're planning on hitting me, mate.

I can save at any time? That's awesome. I'm definitely a fan of that feature.

Oh, it puts me back at the start of the level when I load my game. Well, it's still a step up from passwords.

Beast Boy has some nice looking shapeshifting special attacks. This is just his combo finisher.

Rhino charge!

 

Tiger leap! Yeah, robot spiders do not like having a tiger dropped on them.

Wait, I've just had a thought...

Son of a bitch... I could have just jumped on the things at any time! Why did it not occur to me to do that?

The mastermind behind this breach of Teen Titan Tower security is revealed!

It was a baby with a jetpack. Right.

Aww now they're giving out jetpacks to everyone? The second level is very similar to the first. Jump on platforms, fight a group of enemies dressed dressed like insects, jump on more platforms...

It's not a bad game at all, it's just very repetitive and dull. It's a shame there isn't much depth to the combat, because it's a nice looking game and very slick and I'd want to keep playing except it's boring the hell out of me.

Next game.