Arcade Beat 'em Up Mega Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Turtles in Time

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time was the second, and arguably, the best, arcade game by Konami to feature the pizza-eating ninja turtles.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles features a wacky plot that fits right into the 80s iteration of the franchise. The mutant from Dimension-X, Krang, stole the Statue of Liberty and the nemesis of the turtles, Shredder, mocked them on live television to get them to come after them. Once the turtles get there, they are sent through a time vortex. The turtles get flung back and forth through time as they fight their way through the past, present, and future until they get back to their own time and stop Shredder's crazy plot.

The turtles have to go through nine levels, or ten in the Super Nintendo Entertainment System version since the first visit to the Technodrome was omitted in the other versions. The levels range from the sewers, alleys, and New York City streets in the present, to prehistoric times with stone warriors and dinosaurs, to a pirate ship in the golden age of piracy, to the western United States in the Wild West era, to hover transport areas in the future, and then finally to a space station and the Technodrome for the final fight.

Konami was the leader when it came to arcade beat 'em ups in the 1990s, and this game shows that in spades. The game has satisfying kicking, punching, and jumping moves and items that can be interacted with in the environment. It has excellent animation, from the turtles, to the foot soldiers, to all of the enemies throughout time. The backgrounds are probably the best two-dimensional art that Konami has ever produced, which is saying something for a company that was so prolific in the golden age of arcade games. The art really gets you invested in the game, as each location is highly detailed and makes you feel like you are really in those time periods.

The arcade version of Konami's original arcade game was the best version with the Nintendo Entertainment System version being only for those who were interested in the extra levels. It's harder to say this time around. The Super Nintendo Entertainment System version only supported two players rather than four, and lacked some animations and voice samples compared to the arcade version. The SNES version also has an exclusive Technodrome level and a fun battle where the object is to chuck foot soldiers toward the screen. Both versions have the Neon Night Riders level, but the arcade version has a straight-forward horizontal battle on hovercraft whereas the SNES version makes extensive use of the mode 7 effects of the system to make the level an over-the-shoulder battle. The arcade version has nine bosses. The SNES version has those bosses as well, with the exception of Cement Man who is replaced with the Rat King. However, the SNES version also has Slash, fan favorites Bebop and Rocksteady, and a stronger iteration of their main foe that goes by the name Super Shredder.

There are also no-longer-available variations of the arcade version of the game through emulation as a stripped-down bonus in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Mutant Nightmare for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox, as well as a remake titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Turtles in Time Reshelled. The remake isn't worth tracking down, as it lacks the SNES extras and the three-dimensional graphics don't bring across the fun animations as well as the original two-dimensional pixel graphics. 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time is a seminal arcade game. Great, responsive combat, excellent animation, fun enemies, and enjoyable boss levels make the game still fun to play thirty years after its original release. Both the SNES and arcade versions have their own qualities that make which version to play a matter of personal preference. Personally, I'd pick the SNES version for the extra bosses, the replacement of Cement Man with the more recognizable Rat King, the great use of mode 7 effects, the extra level, and especially the fun boss fight that has turtles chucking foot soldiers towards the screen. The best way to play this game is in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Cowabunga Collection as it has both the arcade and SNES versions of the game so you can decide for yourself which is your preferred version to play.

Final Verdict:
5 out of 5

Fall of the Foot Clan Review

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II Review Coming Soon

Platform Game Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan was the first game to feature the shelled ninjas on a portable cartridge-based system. It was released in 1990, at a time when both the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the Game Boy were immensely popular. As Konami had the rights to the franchise and produced Turtles games for the home systems and the arcade, a Game Boy adaptation seemed like a no-brainer. 

The end result feels like it was rushed to the market. It’s not actually a terrible game, it just doesn’t feel like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game. Some video games feel like a popular franchise was jammed into a pre-existing prototype. This is one of those games. It does have all four ninja turtles and they do have their signature weapons. When one turtle is out of health, they are captured and a new turtle has to be selected. However, unlike the other Konami Turtles games released in the same time period, the turtles don’t seem any different outside of their weapon animations. They all have the same reach, and the striking power is identical. Even the animations, especially Donatello’s bo staff, seem like they have been shrunk in order to strike within the hit distance of the others. This leads to some animations looking weird, and all of them just don’t look right. 

On the plus side, the game does have all of the expected aspects of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game. There are basic enemies such as Foot Clan ninjas and Mousers to defeat. Plus, the boss characters consist of staples of the 1987 television series, including Bebop, Rocksteady, and Baxter Stockman. The final battles, of course, are with Shredder and Krang.

Another positive is that the underlying game mechanics are actually quite good. The jumping feels tight and precise and the weapons hit their targets as they should. It’s obvious a lot of work went into the platform game engine. 

What makes the game feel rushed, besides the squished animations, is the slowdown. This was common with many games of the time, as developers pushed games beyond the limits of the platform. That doesn’t seem like this is the case here, as the next Game Boy game in the franchise featured much more detailed sprites and innovative fighting scenarios. In fact, both of Konami's other Game Boy Ninja Turtles games don’t suffer from the slowdown problem, despite them offering much more in every aspect, pointing towards the slowdown being a problem with the game’s code rather than the Game Boy system. Granted, the slowdown isn’t constant, and it isn’t game-breaking, but it is distracting. 

Unfortunately, even the Cowabunga Collection, which provided options to remove most of the slowdown in Konami’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games for the Nintendo Entertainment System, doesn’t offer an option to reduce the slowdown for this game. 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan would be a decent game if the weapon range and slowdown issues were addressed. As it stands, it is a mediocre platform game from the 1990s among a sea of mediocre platform games from the 1990s. On the plus side, the game did work well as a learning experience for the staff at Konami. Luckily, the next Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles platform game for the Game Boy was much better. This game is one I can't recommend unless you really love the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or if you want to get the achievement for completing it in the Cowabunga Collection. 

Final Verdict: 

2½ out of 5

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Review

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Review

Action-Adventure Mega Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was the first game based on the quartet of pizza-loving sewer dwellers. It was also Konami's first game based on the property. The end result missed the mark in nearly every aspect, but it did lay the groundwork for the much more beloved games that followed.

If there was ever a game that I wondered how on earth I managed to complete as a child, this was it. The game starts out on an overhead map. You can change between turtles whenever you like by hitting the start button. These are the best parts of the game. The game goes downhill from there. Once you enter the sewer, the game switches to an action platformer. The problem is that jumping feels off and the level design is hit-or-miss. When it misses, it really misses. You can control the height of your jump with light button taps, but often the level will put a ceiling between where the turtle is and the platform to which he has to jump. This leads to infuriating sessions where the current area has to be completed again since the enemies respawn. The Cowabunga Collection minimizes hair-pulling as it has a rewind button. This is definitely the preferred way to play, as even seasoned platformer players will fail to make a jump at least once in the game.

The other infuriating thing is that Donatello and Leonardo are the only useful turtles. Michaelangelo and Raphael have a very small range compared to the two aforementioned ninja-practicing testudines. The best thing to do is to leave Raphael and Michaelangelo for areas where it is nearly impossible to not lose health. 

This brings us to the worst part of the game, the dam section. Without the save function of the Cowabunga Collection, I would not blame anyone who rage quit after trying this level. Heck, I wouldn't blame anyone who rage quit even with the save function. The turtles have to swim through a maze to disarm eight bombs in only eight minutes. Impeding them are electric beams and electrified seaweed. The latter is the worst part as it is nearly impossible to make it through without hitting seaweed since the path is so narrow and pressing the swim button causes the turtle to rise up quite a large amount. Also, the time limit makes careful swimming impossible. The time limit also makes waiting for the electric beams to stop a challenge. It's nearly impossible to make it through without draining the health of one, or likely two, turtles. That is why it is best to save the weakest turtles in this game, Michaelangelo and Raphael, for this level.

The overhead level actually becomes quite a bit of fun when you get to the point where you can drive the party wagon. Walking enemies can be run over and vehicles can be hit with bullets shot out from the wagon. Once you get the missiles, you can destroy enemy vehicles with one hit. It's tempting to just fire away at vehicles with missiles, but there are also blockades that can only be destroyed with missiles. Sadly, the fun overworld driving sections only last for one level, and most of that level is spent going in and out of sewers and buildings searching for missiles and grappling hooks that you will need to get to sections that can't be jumped across. With these sections being platforming sections, the fun of the overhead section is quickly overshadowed.

Alongside the Nintendo Entertainment System version, it was also released for Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Arcade via PlayChoice-10, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, MSX, and ZX Spectrum. Some of these versions have more appealing graphics, but the platforming sections are surprisingly even less responsive. This makes the NES version the best of the bunch, which isn't saying much.

The one bright spot of this game is the music. Even though there are mainly only two musical scores for the overhead and underworld levels, with the exception of some new music in the final level, they are really great and can get stuck in your head well after the game is over. When I was a little girl, I would just stand in place on the overhead map or hang out in an enemy-free part of the sewer just to hear the music.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is probably best summed up as a game with some good ideas that are poorly implemented. Some of the ideas, such as the spin attack powerup would make its way into better Konami games such as Turtles in Time and Hyperstone Heist. Other than the music and the short overhead sections, there's not much to recommend. It would be a mediocre game, but the terrible dam level takes it even lower. Unless you're playing with the emulator functions in Cowabunga Collection, don't bother playing it. Even with the collection, there's really no point playing it unless you want to earn the achievement for doing so.

Final Verdict:
1½ out of 5

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game Review

Arcade Beat 'em Up Mega Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was an arcade game by Konami that was one of the premiere beat 'em ups when it was released in 1989. It still holds up today, especially in the newer releases that have multiplayer support over the internet.

As is common in arcade games, the story is scant, but it does get the job done. The goal of the game is to save your friends from the Foot Clan, then track down the Technodrome to defeat Krang and Shredder. The Nintendo Entertainment System version also adds a level where you have to shut down a weather machine that has been covering New York City with snow and another level where you fight a shogun in a martial arts dojo. 

Alongside the Foot Clan ninjas, Shredder, and Krang, there are also popular villains from the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series, such as Bebop, Rocksteady, and Baxter Stockman. It also includes the lesser-known villain, Tragg the rock soldier. The Nintendo Entertainment System version of the game also includes two bounty hunters created specifically for the game, Shogun and Tora. 

Other than the fighting gameplay which feels responsive and easy to learn, the presentation is what makes this game unforgettable. It has fun character animations, both in the sprites of the turtles and those of the enemies. Two of my favorites are the animation played when one of the turtles falls down a sewer hole and those of the motorcycle-riding Foot Clan ninjas. The Nintendo Entertainment System Version has smaller sprites and simpler backgrounds, but it surprisingly includes most of the animations from the arcade version. The NES version also has two exclusive levels, the aforementioned snow-covered New York City and a level in a dojo. These levels, especially the dojo level, have some fun animations of their own including ninjas jumping up through the floor and the tiger painting that comes to life and fights the turtles. There is some slowdown,  flickering sprites, and only one type of enemy on screen at the same time in the NES version. However, it is really impressive how Konami managed to recognizably replicate the arcade version and add extra levels on such limited hardware. Digital Eclipse's emulation in the Cowabunga Collection is the best way to play the NES version, as it has options to remove most of the flicker and slowdown. 

The chiptune music is great, and it is fun that the catchy opening song is included in a sample that isn't compressed too badly. The voice samples, however, are more heavily compressed. This is fine for the electrocuting robots that channel the Daleks from Doctor Who by saying "do not resist us". The heavily compressed samples for the turtles such as "shell shocked", April's "save me", or Shredder's "tonight I dine on turtle soup" sound quite tinny and aren't as impressive as they once were. The NES version doesn't have any samples and does play a few different level songs as well as those from the NES exclusive levels, but the arcade game's music that is there has transferred quite well to the little grey toaster that could.

The arcade version has support for up to either two or four players playing simultaneously depending on the cabinet. The NES version only has support for up to two players playing simultaneously. The arcade version has unlimited continues. When I was a little girl, I went to an arcade with a pocket full of quarters. I probably paid a good ten dollars in order to get to the end. Like a lot of arcade games of the era, the ending is presented entirely through text. The text is fitting, however, and it has the same tone as the television series on which it was based. The NES version is harder, as continuing in the arcade version continues right where it left off while continuing in the NES version starts from the beginning of the current level. There are also only three continues in the NES version, although this can be changed to ten in the Cowabunga Collection. In the aforementioned collection, there is also a god option that makes the chosen turtle invincible and kills most enemies with one hit.

In addition to the arcade and NES versions, there were also versions for home computers such as Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and DOS. There are a lot of limitations in these versions, and the controls feel a lot stiffer on each, so they aren't really worth playing. The arcade version, either in the arcade or via the emulated versions in the now-unavailable Xbox 360 version or in the Cowabunga Collection, is the best way to play this game. The emulated versions have online play, so if you enjoy multiplayer games, these versions are the way to go.

If you are interested in playing the additional two levels in the NES version, the control is just as responsive as the arcade version, so could be worth playing if you aren't turned off by the limitations of the older hardware. The best way to play the NES version is with the settings that mostly eliminate the flicker and slowdown in the Cowabunga Collection.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game is a bonafide classic that manages to hold up well to modern tastes. The fun animations, great chiptune music, and excellent level design make this one a must-play for Teenage Mutant Turtle fans as well as those who are fans of arcade beat 'em ups. The arcade version is the best version to play, but the NES version is fun if you are interested in the two exclusive levels. The Cowabunga Collection is the best choice to play as it includes both the arcade and NES versions and it sports accurate emulation, online play, and the ability to reduce slowdown and flickering on the NES version.

Final Verdict:

4½ out of 5

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Review

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan Review