Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Flying Attack review

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will be very big in 2014. In addition to the cartoon on television the rebooted movie comes out and you’ll be hard pressed to not see a ninja turtle on a 7 year old boy.  You’ll also see a flurry of games including the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Flying Attack! that we were sent for review purposes.

Ninja Turtles Flying Attack! is a combination ‘Angry Bird’ style play, mixed in with cards that you play.  Flying Attack! is essentially two games in one.  One is simpler where you launch the Ninja Turtles at the tower trying to knock off Shredder’s Foot Soldiers.  The person who captures the most Foot Soldiers- when there are 3 of them remaining on the tower wins the game.

The more advanced version of the game allows player to pick a side, either be with Shredder or one of the Ninja Turtles.  The turtles are launched at the tower trying to knock down the Foot Soldiers, just like in the easier version of the game.   However, now the player who is Shredder pulls the cards that allow the Foot Soldiers to move and also give them other powers over the turtles.  The cards also have pictures that build a device that will allow Shredder to ultimately win.  If Shredder gets all of those cards they win, if the turtles knock down seven foot soldiers they win.

For adults it’s important to know that the tower that you assemble will wobble.  Assembling the tower was a bit frustrating for us until we realized that it is not stable and wobbles from side to side with ease.  Basically, read the directions and don’t try to assemble it with 3 children yelling at you to put it together quicker.

Once we got it put together the children liked the game.  The 8 year old figured out the game very quickly.  The 6 year old had a bit of a struggle aiming the turtles at the tower.  Between the two of them they liked the target practice mode better.  If I would’ve read the instructions (I’m seeing a theme here….) then I could’ve better explained the more advanced game play to them better.

There is a little skill that kids will learn from playing the game regarding distance and strength.  Let us not forget that at its root, Angry Birds is about physics.  The more advanced game play will teach a little bit of strategy and of course the ups and downs of luck.

Kids 6 and up will like Flying Attack!  On the box it says for ages 5 and up, but that age is probably too young for them to do the game on their own.