108 in 2008 Completion: Part 5

And now we conclude our week-long look into a large number of games beaten in a relatively short amount of time. It comes out to about one game for every three days of the year. That's pretty schweet.

And now, I present to you, friends, the final game in the 108 in 2008 arsenal.

If you guessed that my last game would be a Mario game, you were WRONG! But if you guessed Ninja Turtles, then you hit it right on the head.

The final game I beat this year was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time for SNES. I figured it would be an appropriate title to end the year on. It's fun, it's exciting, and it's TMNT. That's about as good as it gets.

TMNT IV takes everything that was great about TMNT 2 and 3 for NES, adds new moves and enemies, and throws in an extra dose of awesome. It's just as fun as its predecessors.

There are plenty of new moves in this game. For example, you can do a sort of donkey-kick-while launching-into-the-air type thing, which kills standard foot soldiers in one hit, but takes one slice of energy. There are also a few moves that happen semi-randomly. Sometimes your turtle will grab an enemy and then slam him on the ground back and forth, which is nice because it also kills any foot soldiers you slam him into. Also, sometimes the turtle will either launch the foot soldier way into the air, never to be seen again, or launch him at the screen, which is pretty cool.

Of course, you will see some of your standard issue TMNT bosses along the way. Baxter Stockman is back, The Rat King has a bone pick, and of course you'll see plenty of multi-colored and multi-talented foot grunts.

As per usual, you'll see pizzas lying around, which replenish your health. And of course, in 2-player, you'll be fighting to see who gets it. Also, there are pizza-box shaped bomb items, which make your turtle go into a crazy frenzy and kill everything in their path. Sweet!

Now, don't go thinking that this game left out the best part of the NES stages: the moving ones. In TMNT, I always loved playing level 7 because you were on rocket powered skateboards, which followed your every move. TMNT IV is no different. One level has you on a rocket powered surfboard, ripping it up in the sewers. Plus, there's a cool F-Zero-esque level that has you on another rocket powered board-type thingy. You don't have to steer or anything, but it looks cool.

In short, the game is loads of fun. It has great multiplayer, the sound and graphics are (mostly) well-done and the enemies are varied and plentiful. It makes a fitting end to this journey of 108 in 2008, and most importantly, it's a fun video game.

Pros:

• Classic TMNT beat-em-up action
• Cool new bosses and levels
• New moves

Cons:

• If you don't like TMNT, it may get monotonous*

This game has earned a Blatantly Biased:






So there you go. The end of the goal. Hooray!

Here are some interesting statistics about this year's journey:

• There were 14 Mario games
• There were 7 Sonic games
  
• There were 5 Ninja Turtles games
• There were 21 games beaten in March
• There were only 2 games beaten in each of April, May, July and December (ouch!)
  
• The system with the least games beaten: Game Boy Color: 1
• The system with the most games beaten: Nintendo DS: 26
• I was ahead of schedule more than twice as long as I was behind schedule (71%)
  
• I was right on track clear up until June
• 9 of the 11 SNES games were beaten in Q4
• All 7 Virtual Boy games were beaten in September
• The longest time I went without beating a game was 24 days
• The most games I beat in one day was 5 (done twice, on March 20th and June 24th)

So there you have it. The end of a journey. Will 2009 hold any type of similar quest? Only time will tell...

Oh, and by the way... Merry Christmas!

-benjamines

Currently Playing: Line Rider 2 Unbound, WarioLand Shake It!, Trauma Center: New Blood



* If you don't like TMNT, there's something wrong with you.