Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

"An average game"

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is an arcade game made back in 1989. But it is it fun? Read the review to find out!

Graphics: 10/10

The graphics are spectacular for an arcade game made in 1989. The levels are highly detailed, with nice touches like furniture in the background, and grafitii on the sides of buildings. The backgrounds are very detailed. The character design is somewhat worse than the backgrounds, however. The four turtles are different only by the color of their masks and by the weapons that they are carrying. The enemies are just different colored ninjas that can do different attacks based on their color. The animation is so-so. When the turtles walk, they look like they're lazily walking down the street for pizza, instead of fighting for their lives. There are some good looking cutscenes though.

Sound: 5/10
There are only two music pieces in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a level tune, and a boss tune. The boss tune is fairly catchy, but the level tune sounds like elevator music, not like you're in a life-risking situation.

Gameplay: 8/10
The gameplay is very simple. You can jump, and you can preform a combo by repeatedly pressing the attack button. If you attack in midair, you can do up to three attacks depending on your height. The gameplay consists of little more than button-mashing, but it's still fun. The one disadvantage is that there is no block button. No block button means no way to defend yourself. Oh well.

Difficulty: 9/10
This game will eat up quarters like a hungry pig. There are lots of enemies and traps during the levels, and the fact that there's no block button means it's hard to defend yourself against being swarmed. The bosses are extremely cheap and difficult.

Conclusion:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a fun, old-school game. It is very hard to find in a real arcade, but the game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus contains an unlockable port of the arcade game. This game, while not a classic, is still fun.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/05/04