Taking a Break from AAA Titles for Some Achievement Whoring

JudoChinX

June 3, 2010

If you're anything like me, sometimes you have to take a break from the flood of AAA titles that months like May throw at us. Not every game can be of the same quality as Red Dead Redemption and Alan Wake, and occasionally, I find that I need to cleanse my palette. After all, you can't know the best unless you've experienced everything else, right? This week I set aside some of the newer games in my collection to play through a game requiring a little less thought and effort than I'd normally have to give: TMNT for the Xbox 360.

tmnt (12K) So why this game? Well, to be honest, it all started with the fact that I'm a bit of an achievement whore, and TMNT hands them out like you wouldn't believe. Sure, it might not be the most honorable way to boost my numbers, but it works. I completed the game in less than 5 hours, and by the end of that, I had 900 points. 5 minutes after that I had 950. I'm guessing if I put another 10 minutes into the game, I could get the last 50. It's just not that the achievements were easy. Not having to actually look around for them, or really do anything but play the game in a straightforward manner was also appealing.

Another reason I chose to give this game a whirl is that I've always loved the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games, starting all the way back from the original arcade and NES iterations. I was curious to see what had happened with the license after so many years. Was TMNT a great game? Absolutely not. Did I have fun playing through it? Definitely. A game doesn't have to be a technical achievement to be fun. It doesn't have to do anything new or even particularly well. It only has to be a way to entertain yourself, and that's something I personally find TMNT to do pretty well. The game world is bland, the characters haven't changed a bit over the years, and the story isn't something that I chose to follow. That probably means that it also wasn't very good. The real charm came in the platforming and fighting parts of the game. The fighting is pretty mindless. Your characters are extremely overpowered, which is arguably the point of a super hero game. Tap the attack button indefinitely, and you should be good to go. It may not be flashy, but combat in the game is fun. Then there's the platforming. A couple levels into the game, I couldn't help shake the feeling that the game played just like Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Your turtle swings from pole to pole, runs along walls, and even climbs just like the prince. It was uncanny. I then realized that Ubisoft's name was on the box, and then looked up some more information on TMNT. It is indeed running on the same engine that Prince of Persia used, so if you're looking for some cheap action and platforming, this is built on solid technology.

This probably sounds like I'm trying to justify my gaming choices, but that's not really the case. The real point I'm trying to make is that if you find yourself burnt out on videogames, and let's face it, we've all been there, then you might want to try to get back into the groove by playing something a little more simple. Though it only took me a couple of sittings to get through TMNT, I feel refreshed and ready to continue on with my seemingly never ending backlog of 'real' games. As for TMNT, I'll probably wind up dumping it on Goozex or something like that. It's not a game I plan on touching again, but the time that we did have together proved to be rewarding.

So, I leave you with this question: what are some games that you've played just to burn some time or to get out of a rut? Don't worry. I promise to not mock you.