Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

"As long as I don't die a million times, experience violent control problems or play with Raphael, this game rocks"

Say the word "Turtles" to anyone who is 20+, and it is a guarantee that they will get nostalgic tears in their eyes and give you a free class of "how tv-shows in the old days were so much better than now". Indeed, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was a worldwide phenomenon and a multi-selling franchise. All the young boys, and now i mean ALL, adored the four green mutants and their fights against the evil Shredder and his gang. In the footsteps of the cartoon came all the extra products that sold tons, and with them came a few video games, which all had different approach and gameplay value, but all were equally important for the video gaming children back then.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, nicknamed "Turtles 1" or "the first Turtle game", was made by Konami in 1989. It got shipped to the European market in 1990, and immediately started a hurricane among the young turtle fans. This sort of makes the game a classic right away, and it is no need to debate whether this game is important or not for the NES history or NES gamers. But this review will focus on the more important aspect: is the game good or not?

To begin with, I will have to admit that I am a big Turtles fan myself. Therefore, it is no surprise that I smile happily like a 7-year old whenever I play this game. This doesn't mean that I am unaware of its low points of course. Many times I find myself frustrated when I die and fail. And I do quite a few times. This game has quite a few loose bricks that make the battle against Shredder a heavy challenge.

The Turtles game is an action platform game. You walk around on a top view map in the city, scattered with various enemies, entrances and manholes leading into the sewers. Whenever you enter a manhole or a building, the view changes into platform view, and you will face an action level. The mission is to make your way through the area of each act, and finally locate the lair of the Karate boss and eliminate him. On your journey, you can choose freely between any of the four Turtle brothers: Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo and Donatello. You can also pick up a lot of extra weapons on your way, such as boomerangs, shurikens and missiles (yep! we're international here, folks!).

The whole idea of the concept is very nice. Being able to choose freely between the turtles is a great idea, and the whole basic layout of the stages, with sewers, rivers, buildings, rooftops and aircraft bases is neat. Some of the side/top views of the city are actually quite nice looking. The only problem is that there are many small parts that wreck this fine concept. One of these belong to the turtles themselves. The player can choose between the four turtles freely. Great. The four turtles have their different weapons with different abilities. Great. What is not so great however, is that the only thing that differs between them is the actual length of their weapons. In other words, Donatello's bo staff is extremely long, and Raphael's sai blades are extremely short.

"Okay", you say now, "but of course that means Raphael has got other abilities, such as being faster or physically better?". The unfortunate answer is "no!". The only thing that differs between Raph and Don is the length of the weapon. Oh, and that Don's bo is about twice as powerful as Raph's sai. "but...", you say, your face beginning to look pale, "that means Raph must suck big time!". And yes, that's the awful truth! Raphael can't do anything more than to wave around his tiny sai like a feather duster, while Don can slash more than twice his length with his bo staff. A really fair system, eh? That means the player is more likely to play with the guys with the longer weapons, I.E. Leo and Don. This is a stupid and worthless idea that takes away the glory of Turtles. The whole deal with the show was to pick your favourite turtle and see him being equally as great to the others. What you instead will do, is to use Raph whenever you run low on energy or are walking through a dangerous area where you might need to risk a life. Now what does this make your fav Turtle look like? Imagine if the guys on the show had said: "Hey Raph! There is a dangerous mine field there! You go out and see if it is safe!". Raphael: "But guys, I might get killed!". The others: "So what? Your Sai are so short anyway, so you are totally worthless in all other aspects". Bah!

I could have accepted this if the rest of the game had been a real arcade action feast (maybe this is just because Don was my favourite turtle from the show), but unfortunately, it is not. Turtles 1 is an extremely difficult game. It is in fact so difficult that I have never completed it. I have managed to get to Area 4 at best. Most of this is because of the pathetic control. Controlling your turtle is very annoying, and timing their jumps between small platforms are even more irritating. There are many places in the game where one misstep can make you lose one of your turtles, or have to do the whole building over and over again. Add to this the frustration if you suddenly lose Donatello, your best turtle. What will you do then? Start over, of course! Do you think you can beat the game, with Raphael? Hahaha! No chance!

Furthermore, it is disappointing that there are so few true Turtles elements. Sure, the four guys are there, April, Splinter, pizza, Bebop, Rocksteady and Shredder too, but what about the rest? Where is the footclan? Where is Krang? Where are the stone soldiers? Nowhere! The game doesn't even have the classic Turtles theme! What is this!? Why do you make a Turtles game without the main theme? Get a grip of yourself!

Sure, the retro nostalgia vibes take their toll of me. I do enjoy playing this game in short amounts, and I like smashing enemies with Don's staff, but in the long run, all the bad stuff catches up on me. We small boys back in the early '90:s played this game all day long without thinking twice (of course!), but older people, and especially people who are unfamiliar or unhappy with Turtles will probably laugh their heads of when they hear so many people like this game.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has a high retro value and action attitude, and it is undoubtedly an important game in the NES collection and youth culture history, but it is nowhere near a worthy game of its own. I would like to recommend this game for anyone who is into Turtles, but all of you have probably already played it. You others probably won't either, so I'll just leave it at that. Cowabunga to y'all!

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 09/13/06