Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

"*sigh* The more I think about it, the more I want to find and beat it one more time. But.........."

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was an arcade game from Ultra (Konami's maiden name) that actually had two versions- one was 2-player simultaneous, and the other was 4-player. The original 4-player version was from 1989 while the more compact machine was from 1990. I believe TMNT was only the second multiplayer arcade beat-em-up game, right on the heel's of 1989's Crime Fighter also by Konami, and preceding MANY other Komani 4/6-player beat-em-ups (like The Simpsons, Bucky O'hare, X-Men, etcetera) that came out about twice a year from there, so this was obviously a very successful game.

Konami made a very smart move nabbing the franchise. Of course, instead of the comic, this game was based off of the then IMMENSELY popular cartoon series- in fact, it was the most most money-making and profitable cartoon at the time. They even had Pizza Hut as a sponsor and a free large pizza with purchase of the 1990 NES version. If you're over 12 (as of 2001), chances are you've heard of the Ninja Turtles (if not, the premise sounds incredibly stupid, which it is, but...). Either in the the comic form (Archie or Mirage), the action figures (about 100 of those things are in my basement) the three movies, in the original cartoon form or the cheesy CBS cartoon that added useless ******* like Carter and Lord Dregg and st- never mind.

Most know of the story of four normal turtles that were inadvertently mutated by the evil Shredder, then taken into the care of the half-human rat sensei, Splinter. He eventually trained them into- well- teenaged mutant ninja turtles! Leonardo, the charismatic twin sword wielder, Donatello, the inventive master of the bo stick, Rapheal, the twin sai sporting satirical turtle and Michalangelo, the ''wild'' turtle that uses a bunch of dead buzz-words. They quickly started fighting evil- mainly Shredder, his living brain partner Krang, and his clan of over 1000 Foot Soldiers (robotic ninja) and soon met reporter April O'Neal and used her mainly as the connection to life outside of their sewer and news of crime. But if you're younger, the concept doesn't exactly match up to those of modern cartoons. But in terms of popularity, just think of this as an 80's equivalent to those tiny gibberish-talking freaks you're watching now.

When this game first came out, I was either 5 or at early 6. I had finally learned to PLAY games instead of simply mash on buttons. All I had ever touched were Commodore64 games and maybe Pac-man and Donkey Kong in the arcade. Whenever I saw something resembling a beat-em-up (we called them fighting games back then), I wouldn't be very excited since I had known that genre from crap like the home versions of Double Dragon and other C64 games that I'm glad I don't remember. I simply wasn't prepared for what I was about to see- the characters actually had frames for walking, there were the largest sprites I'd ever seen, I couldn't believe that I saw game characters talking withoutlaryngitis! It was also the first game that had characters I was already familiar with (from the cartoon and toy line). I was completely mesmerized by it all. The only thing I didn't like about what I saw was that I had I to sit on a stool just to reach the ******* controller (and I COULDN'T reach the ''start'' button)!

(Finally!) here's how the gameplay goes: simply beat anything and everything that EVER moves on the screen other than April, yourselves (don't worry- you can't) and Splinter. All four turtles have the same attacks, but do them in different ways. Every turtle has a a jump (which go high as Mario's) a normal strike (which changes on the second hit), a jumping kick which can be done at any part of a jump and a powerful swinging strike that's done by pushing the jump and attack buttons (almost) simultaneously. It's as powerful as three of any other normal attack.

OVERVIEW I

PLOT/DIALOGUE (just what I need- a new category!): 9+

The plot is brilliant because it actually progresses.And no, I don't mean like progression on Strider through it's cheesy text scenes that make no sense or like Zero Wing's (''ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US!''- couldn't resist). The plot starts with April's apartment burning, so the turtles jump in to save her after beating the mutant rhino Rocksteady only to have Shredder capture her to use as turtle bait so he can put the Foot up their @$$es (get it? The Foot? HAHAHA...ha...ha...bah). Unlike I was expecting, the game goes on WAY after you save April, and it has renditions of certain episodes of the cartoon, like destroying a machine that causes blizzards in the spring, which isn't connected to ANY other level in any way. It's basically going through four or five episodes.

As I've said before, I'd never seen anything like the this. In fact, I think this is the very first (or at least one of the very first) games with verbal communication between the characters. I can remember a lot of the dialogue in exact words, although I haven't played it in over ten years (I stopped touching it ever since the Street Fighter era in 91'). At the end of the first level, you can hear April scream and Shredder laugh maniacally before he says, ''Tonight I dine on turtle soup!''. Equally impressive is the turtle line ''they ain't gettin' prettier'' before Bebop's ''shut your mouth, slimeball!'' entrance that's always followed by an uppercut and another 25 or 50 cents.

GAMEPLAY: 9+

The control is near-perfect; the only thing you may have problems with is jump-kicking the right way in the right place at the right time. The gameplay is very fast-paced but not to a point of inconvenience. I like the idea of deflecting enemy shurikens and missiles by jump-kicking them (don't try that at home). However, the engine leaves a something to be desired- whenever you hit an enemy (aside from a boss), you have to wait about three danged seconds before you can hit him again. In other words, the characters have no individual punching combos although they have animations looking like it. But if two players zone a soldier, you can hit it two times in a half of a second! but that doesn't mean that a solo-gaming player gets the very short end of a stick (other than fun-wise) because the more of you that play, the higher the amount of jabronies that pop up at once.

DESIGN: 10+!

Now, you may be thinking- ''what the- are you saying that I have to fight over ONE THOUSAND of the exact same *****?''. Yes and no. While you do fight over 1000 foot soldiers by the end of the game, there are many different types that have completely different attacks. That includes soldiers holding swords, throwing boomerangs, attacking with sledgehammers and riding motorbikes just to name a few. On top of that, you've got many other robotic rivals to fight like the small chompers that try to gnaw on you and even cybernetic snowmen that shoot heat-seeking missiles at you!

The levels are never too straightforward either- they're always kept interesting with many obstacles that help and hinder. No matter if they're wrecking balls rolling down stairways, laser fields that go on and off every few seconds in the Technodrome, or cars that cruise around on the bridge roads that can make you roadkill. Some of the more assisting items include fire hydrates and oil drums- both of which you can use to waste four or five soldiers at once! I also like the bosses, whether it's Rocksteady's old-school tommy gun, Bebop's ray gun and Baxter Stockman the Fly's- er- whatever the heck that was.

GRAPHICS: 9+

This department is the #1 reason why I'm not that happy with the NES version. This version hardly has any breakup and probably no slowdown. You could see nearly a dozen characters on-screen at once! The fighting was severely decreased and toned down on the NES version as was the character size, and many other things. But this isn't about the NES version. I love the burning apartment at the beginning and how it looks, and the snow level is even more vivid with snow-covered trees and a perfectly shaped city in the backgrounds. This game even has unnecessary albeit appreciated graphics down to the books in April's apartment room and a fridge behind it's open door.

SOUND: 9

The grunting of the Foot Soldiers when you hit them is nice and all, but I would've liked the sai to sound at least a little bit different from the bo stick. Aside from that minor quibble, all of the sounds are crisp, clear and satisfactory. Especially when enemies jump out of windows and such. While the voices are a lot more than just fine- they go perfectly with the characters and their cartoon counterparts, from Baxter's infamous ''HELP MEEEEE!'' (my brother and I used to love that line so much that we accidentally stumbled across the Castlevania 3 code) to the electronic sound of the guard robot's ''do not resist''.

MUSIC: 8+

Okay, so it's nowhere near on par with the music of the Genesis TMNT- Tournament Fighters, but it's still the second best Turtle game for music. It's pretty upbeat, and half of the tracks are just renditions of the TMNT original theme song. It's never too goofy but never takes itself too seriously either. It's extremely fitting for the levels, but not just atmospheric, and never to a point of being slow and boring. I haven't played it in over a decade yet I can STILL remember the more classic tunes no matter HOW much the NES version screwed them up after that.

CHALLENGE: 8/COOLNESS IN CHALLENGE: 9

It's too hard to make collisions even here, so you have to place your hits perfectly now so you won't run out of lives no matter what arcade you use! If you jump-kick for almost every second, the arcade players will be impressed in it's lasting so long. Some of the bosses were unfairly easy compared to others like Bebop to Baxter, but I like how none of them had set, 100% monotonous and predictable patterns. The super-strike might be a bit tooeffective, at least when compared to their other attacks! Sometimes one super-strike can destroy about three Foot Soldiers at once! It may be a little cheap, but hey- people need SOMETHING as an equalizer (or unequalizer)! If four players have a buck each, you should be able to beat it.

REPLAY VALUE: 9+

For a game where every character only has the same four and a half moves and probably makes you fight a good 400 of the same normal enemies, it's pretty amazing that it doesn't ever get very boring. That means that there's a very good job done on the level design (among many other things), and I don't just mean by putting cliffs and other one-hit wonders all over. While I do wish that the characters were a bit more distinct from one another, at least that prevents ''hey! You picked the best character and I have this loser!''- with most people anyway (except those like me- I ALWAYS want Donatello, no matter what TMNT game!).

OVERVIEW II

COWABUNGA!

*FOUR-PLAYER!!!
*fast gameplay
*excellent design always keeps you on your feet
*great voices and dialogue
*eight stages is pretty long for an old arcade beat-em-up
*fine graphics
*the shifting plot
*it holds a lot on the screen at once

BOGUS!

*there's not enough character distinction
*the sometimes cheesy engine
*they tend to overdo the normal Foot Soldiers at times

WORD TO THE WISE

When jabronies are running at you in a line, wait for them and super-strike them one at a time as they come to you. It's most important if you play with less than two people.

KEY MOMENT

Probably the surfing level. I also like that part on the intro where Mike busts his @$$ while springing into action.

SAY WHAT?

In Europe, the censors decided that ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' was too violent, so with all the action figures, comics, games and cartoons there, they made them change it to ''Teenage Mutant HeroTurtles''. Riiight.

OVERALL: 10!

In 1989 in 1990, this wasn't my favorite arcade game- this game WAS the arcade! Why even bother with anything else? I had never seen anything like this TMNT game before back then. Come to think of it- it has no equal NOW! Maybe Turtles in Time did, but I didn't get into the arcade version because SF2 was already out. I bet there isn't any game that I've gone through this long without playing that I remember this much of. This game is probably the only non-fighting arcade game I've ever finished. This is simply the zenith of beat-em-ups (followed closely by X-Men).

GRRRRRR! WHY WON'T THESE FREAKIN' 32-BIT SYSTEMS STOP RELEASING ALL THAT ******** AND PUT OUT A 4-PLAYER BEAT-EM-UP ALREADY?!?!?!?!?

---
TMNT for arcade rates #12 in fekkot's top 25 games of all time

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 02/18/01, Updated 02/18/01