Review: Rooftop Run TMNT game

With so much coming out for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles it’s hard to keep up.  In some areas I’ve been doing okay, with at least seeing and trying to get reviews going.  From toys, cartoons and comics I try to keep the know going.  My weak link as of recently is games.  When “Rooftop Run” came out it was only for Apple Products so I did not touch that, as I use Android.  When “Out of the Shadows” came out, it was only for PCs and XBox, I don’t have an XBox and my PC won’t handle games.  So that’s been out of the question.  When the Wii game came out, I got my hands on it, to play only once so far before life got busy with always being on the run.  I truly was feeling like the idea of playing the new games was getting to be farfetched for me.  Until I recently learned that Rooftop Run is now for Androids.  I got it on both my phone and my tablet.  Being able to play the game when I leave home has made it so this is one game I can play.  So here’s my beginners review of “Rooftop Run”.

When I say beginners, I do mean beginner.  I do not play many video games.  Games on my phone is normally easy things like Sudoku and Candy Crush.  When it’s solving puzzles.  Every now and then I’d play Robot Unicorn Attacks on Miki’s Ipad.  I have not played through a video game since 2009 when the last real TMNT game came out.  Making Rooftop Run the most action packed game I’ve played in awhile.  Not that there’s really a lot of action to it.

The first thing you need to know about Roof Top Run is that the controls are to simple.  There’s only one control, touch the screen.  Depending where your character is, that touch will either make them jump or attack.  You do not always get to decide, unless your timing is perfect.  I have played the first three boards, beat the first boss battle and played through the first board after beating the boss.  Which has got me working a lot on timing. 

Rooftop Run starts off with the Turtles relaxing at home, Michelangelo is playing a video game with Raphael by his side.  Donatello is annoyed by the old school game as Leonardo confirms that he likes these type of games.  Just then April comes running into the lair, letting them know that the Kraang are attacking.  The Turtles join forces with April to go after the Kraang and save New York City. 

Once the game is starting you choose your first Turtle.  As soon as you choose your Turtle, the others are locked until you can afford to get to them.  I personally start off with Michelangelo.  You earn your money in the game by taking out bad guys.  Right away I thought I had to upgrade his costume, to make him faster and stronger.  Though for some reason it did not change the game play much for me.  That is when I found the boost and started to buy those.  These are what made the first few levels too easy.  And with in time I was able to unlock all six playable characters.

The four Turtles are easy to buy, though Dogpound is 18,000 coins and April is about 23,000 coins.  Both of which took awhile to build up too.  I can’t stress how disappointed I was to find that there are no boosts for them.  Not even to up the coin return that you get for defeating a villain.  Dogpound is strong enough that you don’t have to worry about boosting him in most other areas.  And it is totally understandable that April has the weakest stats.  I just think a boost in the coin area would be nice seeing how much these characters take from your coins just to unlock them. 

The goal in the game is to get as much energy as you can.  These are the green dots that you’re running at.  There is a bar at the top of the page showing you your energy level.  The green in that bar will keep being used, if all the green disappears you are caught by the Kraang ship.  If you get a full green bar you go into Turtle Time battle.  Turtle Time gives you a handful battles where you have to hit the targets to win.  The targets go in a pattern.

Turtle Time patterns go, first two fights get two targets to hit.  Next two fights have 3 targets to hit.  Then you get one fight with four targets and one fight with five targets.  If you miss any of the targets during the fight, you are thrown out of Turtle Time and have to work to fill your energy bar back up.  If you hit every target you are brought to the next level.

There are three main boards.  Each board has different roof top patterns.  These get mixed up everytime you play and can go on and on.  Once you learn the boards, you have an easier time not falling and finding the pizzas.  The first board you fight Foot Soldiers, Second board is Mutant bugs and the last of these main boards is battling Kraang droids.  Each time you beat a board the “Turtle Time” battles get harder, as the targets disappear faster.  This makes playing the game on a smaller screen a lot easier than a larger screen.  Phones are a better platform than tablets.

Once you get pass the Kraang Level and beat the Turtle Time against the Kraang, you go into “Kraang Attack” where the battle field is now a flat surface, no worries about falling anymore.  Now you got a ship chasing you.  The green bar is your health, it no longer disappears as you’re running, only when you’re hurt.  The Kraang has a purple bar at the bottom of the screen as it’s health.  You hurt the Kraang ship by taking out the droids in your path.  This will send them flying into the ship, causing damage.  The ship will shoot it’s own weapons at you, making it a challenging run.

If you defeat the Kraang war ship you find yourself back in the first world fighting the Foot again, now you have Kraang there fighting you as well.  This is as far as I’ve made it in the game so far, but I find myself hooked to playing the game when ever I get some down time while out.  Between both my tablet and the phone.  I have maxed out the boosts on all four Turtles, I have got over 100 pizzas only using them when my favorite gadget appears as a prize.

In this game pizza has it’s own purpose.  You collect the pizzas to get a chance to spin for a prize.  From coins to gadgets.  My personal favorite is the coin gadget which gets you more coins while you fight.  They also have Turtle savers, energy collectors, shields and more.  Every time you get the prize wheel it is different, if you press skip it saves your pizzas that you have till you use them.  It is a good way of collecting on useful items without spending your hard earned coins.

I am sorry that it took me so long to get into this game.  At the same time, I am glad that they have finally made it for Droid.  I would of bought it when it came out.  At $3.99 I have got my money worth of entertainment out of playing it.  I have spent more on the arcade and pinball machines.  I recommend this for someone who likes to keep their hands busy, without having to think about the game all the time.  It helps me burn energy, while waiting for stuff.  Takes just that amount of focus to move a few fingers.

I recommend this game to anyone who likes playing small games which they don’t mind spending a few dollars.  This is not game  of the year, but it is totally fun.  There are faults, as I’ve had the game shut down and freeze on me a good number of times.  Not enough to where I don’t like it.  The funny problem I bumped into once is when the board just seemed to disappear and my poor Turtle just kept falling in mid air… there was another time I got stuck in a wall as my character just kept running in place.  There are bugs that need to be worked out.  For the most part the game works great.