Turtles sequel scrolls forward

Fans of Konami's output were hardly left wanting at E3 this year (as you may have noticed), but enemies of the publisher's rather awful Turtles scrolling beat-'em-up will probably groan at news of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2, which is due out this October on every format under the sun.

In the interests of sounding vaguely fair, this one could be a fair bit better thanks to the addition of a four-player mode (bizarrely missing from the four-character original), souped up combat and some more platforming and obstacle-dodging action, but in general it looks and plays a lot like the original.

Still, we can look forward to unlocking the original arcade game at some point, and the prospect of sharing a health bar with other players ought to add to the multiplayer dynamic. It also looks like each turtle will be a bit more individual this time, and new characters created specifically for the game will be included in some capacity.

There's also a Battle Nexus mode in there somewhere geared towards head-to-head fisticuffs, and fans of the cel-shaded graphical style (one of the best things about the first game) will be pleased to hear it's been sharpened up a bit more.

Hopefully with all of that in mind Turtles 2 will be a bit of an improvement over Konami's lacklustre original, which despite annoying us far more than it entertained, certainly had the potential to deliver enjoyable old-school beat-'em-up half-shellery. We'll bring you more on TMNT2 later in the year.