Teen Titans

Written by Kyle Williams  on July 28, 2006

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They've gone from sidekicks to full-fledged superheroes, these here Titans have. With a long-standing comic series (though it is on-again, off-again), The Teen Titans have been through it all. From Crisis to Armageddon, they have stuck together. But what has pushed them over the top and into the limelight is that newfangled cartoon series that they star in. It sure has them kiddies happy. So, what do you do with a successful cartoon franchise? You make a videogame based on it.

What started as a Majesco venture was recently released as a THQ title. In fact, it was such a late change that Majesco still shows up in the intro screen. Regardless of who published it, Teen Titans has turned out to be a decent, if underachieving, adaptation of the animated series. Most accurately translated is the series' visual style. Though not as polished as it could be, the cel-shading captures the look of your favorite Titan while grabbing the voice-actors from the show may be the best move for a videogame ever. Even if all else were to fail, at least the fans would be happy with the presentation of the Teen Titans videogame.

Fortunately, despite a few flaws Teen Titans holds its own in the gameplay department. It doesn't excel, but it holds its own. Especially in light of the $20 budget price that it was released at. The biggest things that Teen Titans has going for it are 1.) a great multiplayer co-op mode and 2.) a variety of attack combos. Unfortunately, the variety of moves is limited by the fact that each character uses the exact same button-combination to trigger their unique combo. This is a simple mechanic that would have added tons of replay to this otherwise light title. On the other hand, the simple controls makes it extremely easy for anyone to pick up a controller and join in with the fun. Fortunately, the multiplayer action is just so darn accessible that it makes up for the slack. You and a couple of friends can swap between the five Titans on the fly, crushing wave after wave of enemy and mixing up the action as you see fit.

However, there are a couple of things that could have been polished up a little bit in Teen Titans. The first thing is that the action is continually interrupted with having to reload mid-level. A minor annoyance on its own but just another piece of kindling in the bonfire of annoyance. The second is that the game is just a bit too easy and, when combined with a healthy number of lives, relatively plentiful health & extra-life power-ups and the repetitive action, you get a menagerie of mediocrity. Don't get me wrong, you are likely to have a good time with Teen Titans. You just get what you pay for it.