Teen Titans for Game Boy Adv Reviews & Ratings by IGN

Teen Titans, developed by Artificial Movement and Motion, is a classic example of strong design crippled by weak execution. Players take control of all five of the Teen Titans in an attempt to stop Brother Blood's in his attempt at world domination. Fighting through the city is no easy task, however, as all five of the Titans must be used to battle the plethora of enemies that stand in their way, as well as evil clones of themselves.

The game's design is fairly strong, giving control to each of the Titans at any time. Depending on the Titan selected, various combo moves can be pulled off, as well as special moves that range from huge melee attacks to projectile blasts. Though the ability to change characters does add a bit of needed depth, it still boils down to mashing on either the B or R buttons. A color system is also used to show which Titan is stronger against any given enemy. If a baddie jumps on-screen and is yellow, for example, he is weak against Starfire's attacks. In this way, each of the five Titans can be used strategically to deal the most damage possible.

Unfortunately the game's design is plagued by poor gameplay. Teen Titans has every symptom of a rush job, something that Game Boy fans see far too much of. Major errors in gameplay can be found virtually everywhere. When landing on an angled floor from a jump, for example, the player will risk a chance of falling through the collision. This is amazingly frustrating since so much of the game deals with platforming and brawling at the same time. Titans also suffers from bad collision detection, giving some enemies added height that makes it impossible to jump them. Walking on platforms above these enemies will also stop the player on invisible walls, though the enemy will still register hits when swinging from the area below. Flaws like these simply can't go unnoticed and really take players out of the action.

Unfortunately, the lack of overall polish doesn't end with the collision detection. Enemy AI is also very weak. Enemies will simply run to the player and begin hitting, or even run in place without actually moving. During the second encounter with Raven's clone, the boss got in a loop and would simply fly above the main character's head like a shadow. The lack of strong enemy AI really hurts the overall feeling, making Teen Titans both a frustrating brawler, and a sloppy platformer.

The presentation Titans offers to fans is a grab bag of quality as well. On the one hand, with all five characters playable -- each containing their own unique special moves -- Titans is visually entertaining. Beast Boy is especially interesting, turning from his normal form into a gorilla, rhino, hawk or lion depending on the attack used. On the other, interface is basic and seems very rushed, as does the generic sound effects and music composition. Teen Titan's presentation is simply hit and miss.

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