Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time

"Cowabunga!"

Licensed games have always been a special case - either they end up being surprisingly good and worth of bearing the name of the cartoon/movie/book/show they´re based on, or they fail miserably. And in the early days of the 16-Bit era, Konami belonged to the group of developers that were indeed able to provide fans of certain franchises with some worthy video game adaptations, like the Tiny Toon Jump & Runs on Genesis and Super Nintendo, or the Turtles series. Having been a huge phenomenon back in the days, a video game based on the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles was not really a surprise, and instead of a cheap and sloppy game that merely dwells from its big name, Konami really delivered some great arcade-style games, with the best of the bunch being "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time".

Gameplay-wise, TMNT IV is a rather typical 2D side-scrolling Beat´em Up, much like the legendary Final Fight by Capcom. You take control of Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael or Donatello and fight your way through several levels. Each of the 4 main protagonists has his advantages, like Donatello having a long range weapon but rather slow speed, or Raphael and Michelangelo being very fast but having short range weapons, and with Leonardo being the all-round Turtle. So, choosing the character to play as really is quite important here, and it makes playing through the game several times with the different characters even more addicting than it already is. There are also several ways of defeating your enemies: you can simply beat them until they´re finished, of course, but you can also grab them and beat other enemies with him, too, or you can throw him directly toward the screen (which provides you with a neat mode-7 effect, by the way). However, you´re not just walking through the scrolling levels all the time, though, as there are also some exceptional levels with fresh concepts, like a race through the sewers on a Turtles-board - a very cool idea in my opinion. The best aspect in this regard, though is the multiplayer mode. Beating your way through the game together with a friend is fun as hell, and no matter how simplistic the game might be per say, the multiplayer mode will keep you hooked for a long while. So, while the game might be slightly repetitive and somewhat simplistic, the game is still a lot of fun to play for sure, and the fair difficulty level makes it playable for almost everyone.

In terms of visuals, all I can say is that this is what a Turtles game is supposed to look like in 2D. Konami was able to capture the look of the cartoon and transport it into the 2D realm, featuring some very colorful characters and stages as well some very decent animations. In fact, they´re not only fluid, but also quite funny at times, for example when you lose a life or when you hit certain enemies. The character sprites themselves have enough details to make them stay true to the original, and the frame rate is constantly high, with little to no slowdowns appearing despite the fast action and the tons of enemies you´re fighting at the same time. Turtles in Time also makes use of the mode-7 feature of the Super Nintendo in quite an impressive way. One stage near the end, for example, features an F-Zero like racing stage where you have to reach your destination and get rid of your opponents at the same time, and the 3D effect there is very well done thanks to the detailed characters in combination with the fluid scrolling. There is also a boss fight involving mode-7, and not only does it look very good, the mode 7 effect has also been cleverly implemented into the gameplay here, making it not just some technical gimmick, but much rather a great device to pep up the gameplay as well as the visuals in general. Graphically, Konami did it a magnificent job, treating Turtles fans with the best possible 2D visuals in a TMNT game.

Equally good is the audio featured in this game. The soundtrack is very fitting, emphasizing on the Turtles-atmosphere with some really cool and hummable tunes, most notably the main Turtles theme, and the music certainly won´t annoy you while you´re playing. The sound effects are pretty good and comic-like, which means that they are spot-on for this game, but even more impressively, the game also features some snippets of voice acting. For example, each level name is being announced by a surprisingly clear sounding voice, and each time you beat a boss and complete a level, you can listen to your Turtle yelling the famous "Cowabunga!" in triumph. All this adds a lot to the great Turtles atmosphere, and fans of the series will feel right at home in terms of audio.

One thing´s for sure: if you´re a Turtles fan, then you MUST have this game under any circumstances. You just won´t find a better TMNT based game on any other console, as Konami has done almost everything right here, making it one of the best licensed games of the 16-Bit era, if not of all time.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/13/06