Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

"Perhaps the most difficult in the NES series"

Back in the late 80's and early 90's, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles phenomenon was peaking. Ninja Turtle cartoons, movies, action figures, and tons of other merchandise was made, and eager kids watched and played with it all. Of course, every big phenomenon usually had to have some kind of Nintendo game go along with it. The Ninja Turtles were no exception. Konami/Ultra were big hit-makers for the NES, and they decided to capitalize on the Turtles' popularity by creating the Turtles very first Nintendo game.


Story: 4.0

The plot is practically non-existent, your basic Turtles-Must-Stop-Shredder routine, but it doesn't really matter since this is an action game.


Gameplay: 7.0

The first Turtles game turned out to be a very different type of action game than the ones that would follow it on the NES and later the Super NES. Those games would be arcade-style beat-em-'ups and fighting games, but this one is a regular side-scrolling game. You get to control all four Turtles, one at a time, and can switch between them by pressing Start and accessing the status screen. You'll find quickly that certain turtles are better at different situations than others.

Leonardo is the best all-around turtle with his far-reaching katana and fast attack speed. Raphael's sais have very short range, and although they are the fastest weapon, it's too impractical to use him for long periods of time. Michelangelo has a similar problem with his short nunchakus. Finally, Donatello is the most powerful turtle and also has the longest range, but compensates for this with slow attack speed. He's probably the best boss-killer.

There are a total of six levels within the game, and each level has many different areas within them. Most of these areas are entered by going down manholes or entering doors. It turns out that many areas are dead ends or lead to one another, so it will take some trial-and-error to find the correct way to proceed.

Within each level there are tons of different enemies, from weak flies and mousers to Foot Soldiers to chainsaw wielders, pyromaniacs, lasers, and much more. In some levels there are dangerous traps which can severely hurt or even take a turtle down in one hit. The last few levels ramp up the difficulty heavily, with many powerful enemies that deal tons of damage.

To help even the odds a little, the Turtles can pick up pizza (their favorite food) to replenish some or all of their life meters. There are also various auxiliary weapons to pick up, ranging from throwing stars to boomerangs to the most powerful one of all, the Scroll, a weapon that shoots a beam which does huge damage. You'll encounter a bit of inventory management here as picking up a weapon replaces the one the Turtle previously had, so you'll end up probably assigning weapons to each turtle.

Finally, if a turtle loses all of his life then he gets captured. But you can save one turtle per level by finding the spot where he's captured. If all four turtles get captured, obviously, the game is over. You only get 2 continues as well, further adding to the game's challenge.


Graphics: 6.5

Konami/Ultra's NES games usually had very good graphics, and the Turtles game is no exception, but there are some problems. The turtles are all big sprites and can be recognized individually by their equipment color. The enemies are also big sprites, and the animation for everyone is pretty good. However there tends to be lots of flicker and slowdown when several enemies or traps are on the screen. A good example of this is in the fourth level with its fire pits. Since the pits are animated too, it tends to slow everything else down, which gets annoying when you need to precisely control the turtles.


Sound: 6.0

The soundtrack is your standard driving rock beat that Konami/Ultra put in most of their NES games. It doesn't really have much to do with the turtles, but it sets the atmosphere for the action. The sound effects are pretty standard and don't really stand out.


Control: 5.5

A few control problems emerge as you play the game. You'll find that the turtles aren't quite as precise as you would like, which is very problematic during sequences with lots of action and/or tricky jumps. The turtles have three different jump heights depending on how long you press the A button. Although you can control the turtles in the air, their jumping inertia is somewhat difficult. They'll keep moving in the horizontal direction that you pressed when you jump, but if you press the opposite direction while still in the air they'll suddenly turn around and start moving the other way. In other words, they'll always fully moving in one direction or the other, making it difficult to land on tiny platforms, which can cause you to fall off a building and have to replay an area all over again. It can also be difficult to fall through small gaps, which can be very dangerous when spiked walls are rushing towards you. So the controls can get frustrating in an already hard game.


Challenge: 9.0

So what you end up with is one of the hardest Nintendo games around. Very few continues, deadly traps, powerful enemies, and imperfect controls adds up to a huge challenge. Despite that there are only six levels, each of them is very large with many areas that end up being red herrings and costing your turtles' precious life as they fight through the constantly regenerating enemies. Some of the bosses are also very difficult. So if you think action games are too easy, give this one a shot.


Replay Value: 4.0

The game is annoying enough that you probably won't want to play through it too many times more after completing it once. It's just a standard linear action game with no secrets, hidden levels, or randomness.


Overall: 6.0

The first Ninja Turtles game ends up being a good action game with some annoying parts and a very high challenge. For kids (like I was when I first played it), they may enjoy playing as their favorite sewer heroes and attempt dozens of times to complete this hard game. If you have a low frustation threshold, however, you'll probably give up on this game pretty quickly.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 09/01/00, Updated 09/01/00