Welcome to another edition of Playing With Power. The review article that looks at all things Nintendo Entertainment System. This week I’m looking at what is easily one of the most infamous NES games of all time. One that I’m certain almost everyone who has owned an NES has played at some point or another. Not to mention a game that has one of the most nightmare inducing levels of all time. It’s been a game that has been dissected by reviewers both angry, irate, and beyond. So, since everyone else has dipped their wick into this game, I figure it may as well be my turn to share my thoughts on it. This week, it’s a review of those heroes in a half shell. That’s right, the Teenage Alien… No, that’s not right. It’s the Teenage MUTANT Ninja Turtles.
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1989
PUBLISHER: Ultra Games
GENRE: Action Platformer
If you were a child of the 80’s, then there’s was no beating around the bush. You were a fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They were the biggest phenomenon of the time. The comic book creation of Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, the franchise would spawn one of the most beloved 1980’s cartoon of all time in 1987. The adventures of Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michaelangelo were beloved by every kid, especially me. And a quarter century later, the turtles are still a beloved staple of popular culture. Turtle Power’s popularity spawned animated spinoffs, toys aplenty, movies, and naturally, video games.
Konami would snatch the rights to be the official video game company for both arcade and console Ninja Turtles games in 1989. They first released a beat-em-up for the arcades, which would prove a massive success. Naturally NES owners were waiting for a console port to be on its way. But that wouldn’t happen as soon as they thought. Instead, Konami would release a different TMNT game under their Ultra Games umbrella.
You may recall I mentioned Ultra in my Ad Break #1 article. But if you didn’t, Ultra Games was a video game company created by Konami in the late 80’s. Nintendo of America at the time was very strict when it came to the amount of games released per year. A company could only release a mere eight games within a year. And considering Konami had a rather large library of games they wanted to release stateside, they created Ultra Games as a loophole to Nintendo’s strictness. Ultra folded in 1991 when Nintendo’s limit rule was abolished. They would put the first two of their four NES Turtles games under the Ultra name. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was released in 1989, and would be one of the best selling NES games. Up there with the Mario games in terms of strong sales. But despite that, is it still a solid video game?
COVER STORY
Since the cover has the turtles on it, it’s safe to say that it’s obvious that it was an easy attraction. For a long time though, plenty of people were confused about the cover though because the turtles only wear red bandanas instead of the multiple colors that they do on the show and merchandise. The cover is actually based on a classic cover of the TMNT comic, which they only have red attire. Nonetheless, this is still a really well designed, very eye pleasing cover.
STORY
It seems like just another day for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Leo, Don, Raph, and Mike are enjoying their sewer life, when their friend April O’Neil is once again kidnapped by their nemesis The Shredder. The turtles set out to rescue April, but will rescuing April be the least of their problems? And what other perils are in their way?
GAMEPLAY
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a one player action platformer. You can control each of the four turtles (one at a time) as you progress from level to level in your quest to defeat the evil Shredder. You can switch Turtles at any time by pressing the start button to go to the character select menu. Each turtle has their own specific weapon, Leonardo’s Katana, Raphael’s sais, Donatello’s bo staff, and Michaelangelo’s nunchucks. Some turtles are far better to use than others. For example, Donatello’s staff is the most powerful and has the longest reach, despite its slow attack speed. Alternatively, Raph and Mikey have extremely short range, and their weapons can be extremely weak against most enemies. Naturally, you will most likely want to be super careful as to not lose Donatello on your quest.
The gameplay is broken down into two different styles. One is a top down map where you will move from one area to another. And the other are the side scrolling levels where you will be in for the most part of the game. On the top down areas, you move with the D-Pad, and attack with the B button. On the side scrolling levels, you move with the D-Pad, attack with the B button, and jump with the A button. For being turtles, they can jump extremely hight, but I find that the jump in the game can be difficult to get the hang of, especially in the tighter areas, which we’ll get into shortly
The game is littered with enemies to contend with. You’ll get certain show specific enemies like the Foot Clan, and mousers. But then the game takes some weird routes with very strange enemies like men on fire, crawling eyeballs, robots that shoot their heads off when destroyed, flying manta rays that swoop down at you, among so many others. There is certainly a lot of variety in the enemies in the game, which is a plus. But so many of them may be perhaps a little too unique, even for a game about the Ninja Turtles. You’ll also face many bosses based on classic villains from the show like Bebop, Rocksteady, a giant mouser, the technodrome, and finally the main baddie himself, The Shredder.
The game is broken into several levels. Most are long, with confusing maps to traverse through. Though a few maps are quite linear. Each level has its own gimmick to it. One level will have you go from sewer to sewer to find the warehouse where April is being held hostage. Another level will lead you to a dam you’ll have to battle in (we’ll get more to that in a second). Another stage will have you in the Turtle Party Wagon, blowing up barricades. But you have to find missiles in buildings, as well as rope to cross rooftops. The game offers plenty of variety in its levels and goals. But most of those goals can be quite annoying.
The game does offer you plenty of items besides your basic weapons to fight in this tough journey. There are pizza pickups that you can find that will restore your health (slice, half slice, and full pizzas). Plus, some enemies will drop extra weapons you can find like boomerangs, and shuriken. The best weapon you can find in the game are the scrolls, which can do massive damage to enemies, and becomes a godsend later in the game. You’ll definitely want to give the scrolls to Raphael and Michaelangelo.
The game has quite the plethora of annoying issues. One of the biggest sticking issues though is the jumping. Some times you have to go over a gap to get to the other side. The problem however is that there will almost always be a roof that is a mere inch or two above your head,and you will almost always bump into it, causing you to miss. This is especially annoying in the third level of the game where you will have to do this in sewers, and if you fall into the water once, the current will take you all the way back to the start of the area. This is a major issue that really hurts the game. The sprites of the turtles are a little too big for a game with such narrow areas, meaning that you have to put a lot of faith into every one of your jumps over such annoying areas.
Another legendary problem is that it’s brutally difficult. Not that there’s anything really wrong with a challenge, but this game is easily one of the hardest on the NES. You only have four lives in the four turtles you play as. Each turtle does have their own health bar, which is a plus, but they can run down very quickly in some of the harshest levels. When a turtle is killed, or captured as the game calls it, you won’t be able to get them back until later when they are found in certain areas. You only get a handful of continues, and there is no game save or password system to be found. This is definitely one of those games that will test your mental toughness.
Don’t believe me? Well, you have obviously never encountered… THE DAM!
Oh the Dam level. You were the nightmare fuel of children everywhere. You see, the object of the dam level is to diffuse the eight bombs in the dam. You have a mere two minutes to traverse the somewhat maze-like level. You swim by tapping the A button, but it feels so sluggish to control, not to mention the current can screw with you as well. But not only does a fast timer and annoying swimming cause things to get intense, but you also have hazards like electric barriers, spinning spike wheels, an entire area covered with electric seaweed (which I swear to god is impossible to get through without taking some severe damage), and even seaweed that can kill you on contact. You will always be on your toes with this level, and losing one turtle will send you back to the start, and you sure as hell don’t want to have to deal with this torment all over again. This level is easily the one where you will need to use Raphael and Michaelangelo to do the work for you, since Leo and Don are certainly not turtles you want to weaken as the game gets further on.
Other than the game’s difficulty, and some control annoyances, there really aren’t too many issues when it comes to the likes of hit detection. Not are there any major game breaking glitches. There are some notable annoyances like pizzas in death trap areas, and a bunch of dead end areas that will just cause more damage to your turtles. But those aside, there isn’t too much else to complain about.
GRAPHICS
The game has some solid graphics. Honestly some of the best Konami had brought to the NES at that time. The turtles and the enemies are all well detailed. Not to mention the levels are also very well designed, and each are really well put together. Konami is definitely well known for putting a lot of effort into the graphics of their games, and this is definitely one of their best cases. Everything looks excellent.
MUSIC
I’m just going to say this here. This may honestly be my favorite NES soundtrack. Every song in this game is extremely catchy. From the title screen, the overworld and underworld musics, and the boss musics. Everything has a definite ear worm feel to it. My only really big issue is a lack of the TMNT theme song, though remnants of it still are in the game (the victory tune). I consider the game’s title screen as my all time favorite NES tune ever, that’s how much I love this game’s music. And I’m certain there will be something for anyone in this soundtrack as well.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles isn’t the worst game on the NES. Hell, it’s hardly that bad a game. It just suffers from some annoying controls, and a few poor gameplay decisions, along with a few painful levels.Those issues aside, there is some fun to be found, and a heck of a soundtrack to bob your head to. This is one of those games I played a lot as a kid, and despite the frustration of it, I’ve always enjoyed it somewhat. While the Turtles debut on the NES wasn’t what everyone wanted, nor the best outing for the Turtles on the console, I don’t think this was as bad a game as some more angry and irate people may claim. Though I do certainly see why they would feel the way they do. I’d say if you haven’t played it, go get a pizza, hook up the NES, and give this game a try. It’s not perfect, but it’s still a decent experience.
RATING: Thumbs in the middle