Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Nintendo Entertainment System
Nostalgia Factor:
I could go on and on about how big the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were when I was a kid, but I already did that in my review of the TMNT arcade game. I mentioned the NES game in that review, bringing up how disappointing this game was to a large number of the TMNT fan base. I, for one, didn’t really mind the game. I must have been easily entertained as a kid because a lot of games that get dumped on nowadays I enjoyed back then.
The music was good, the graphics were on point. You could play as all four turtles, with the unique ability to switch them out at any time. You drove the turtle van. You fought Shredder. The game’s story sequences seemed pretty loyal to the source material. Yes, the game was tough and a little bizarre with some of its enemy character choices, but I liked it.
How does it hold up today? Let’s find out.
Story:
This game starts out exactly as you’d think it would: April O’Neill has been kidnapped by the Foot Clan and the Turtles have to rescue her. Wild!
What is surprising, however, is that you save her after the game’s first level. While you are off rescuing April, Shredder has planted underwater bombs to blow up the nearby dam. Why? I don’t know. Because he is Shredder and he’s evil. The Turtles head to the dam (and through a certain infamous swimming segment) to once again save the day. Upon returning to their sewer home, the Turtles find their lair trashed. Splinter has been taken by Shredder and it is up to you to rescue him. After rescuing Splinter, the Turtles head to the turtle blimp and take it to the Foot Clan’s base. The Turtles soon find the Technodrome underground beneath the Foot Clan base, and after fighting their way inside they defeat Shredder, allowing Master Splinter to turn back into a human. I remember this being so cool as a kid. I wanted nothing more in my heart of hearts than for Splinter to turn back into a human on the cartoon, something that he was never able to permanently accomplish. To have that as the reward for beating this game was so awesome to me.
Before the game ends, we get one last pizza joke from April O’Neill because of course we do. Nearly each episode of the cartoon ends with a pizza joke so why would the game be any different?
Gameplay:
This is where the game receives most of its criticism, and not unfairly so. The control scheme is somewhat herky-jerky. The turtles are wild and out of control when you are jumping. Precision jumping from platform to platform is extremely difficult and leads to a lot of untimely falls. Be prepared to get stuck playing the same parts over and over again simply because you can’t nail what should on paper be an easy video game jump.
Enemies pop up out of nowhere and hit you. Enemies respawn after you have killed them and hit you. You’re constantly under fire from every direction almost all game long. This game has a reputation for being difficult, and after five minutes of playing this game you’ll see why. It’s not too horribly unfair once you get the hang of the controls, however.
As mentioned before, you can pause the game and switch back and forth between turtles at pretty much any time you want. This comes in handy if you are low on health using a certain turtle. You can switch over to a different turtle that has full health and play with them for a while. If you find a pizza slice or health upgrade, switch back to the turtle with low health and collect the item. My personal favorite character in this game is Donatello. I’d suggest playing as him most of the time since his weapon is the longest and by far deals the most damage of any of the turtles. I only ever used Raphael and Michelangelo when I absolutely HAD to, or if I needed to use a character that I didn’t mind taking a lot of damage.
Along the way you’ll collect projectile power-ups like ninja stars or scrolls that allow you to shoot a powerful wave magic attack. I always make it my goal when I play to collect as many of these as I can and save them for the final stretch of the Technodrome level. It is incredibly difficult and you need every tiny advantage you can get.
TMNT was a little bit ahead of its time due to the non-linear nature of its level design. Most stages start out from an overhead perspective. You control your turtle on the game map. You can enter buildings, go into sewers, fight foot soldiers, or blast away barricades using your turtle van – once you find it. The basic goal is to find the right path to make it to the end of the stage. There are many different paths you can go, some of them leading to the same place and others leading to dead ends. While I think this is pretty cool, I remember it being a source of frustration for my brother and my friends back in the 80s and 90s because they would get lost, not knowing where to go to make it through the level. I can see where that frustration is coming from. As a kid I had all the proper routes memorized but playing it as an adult I had absolutely no idea where I was supposed to be going. I figured it out eventually though, but not without some trial and error based headaches.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the swimming section attached to the dam stage. I was the only kid I knew who could make it through that part of the game. No one else I knew ever made it through that part. To this day, this stage’s difficulty is the stuff of legend when you go on the internet. To be honest – I still didn’t have much trouble making it through on my most recent playthrough. It takes a few attempts to figure out the optimal path to take, but all in all it didn’t pose a major challenge to me. I think the difficulty of this section of the game is highly overrated, particularly when held up against that final stretch of enemies inside the Technodrome before the big Shredder showdown. Most people never made it that far in the game, however, so I guess that’s understandable.
Graphics:
Maybe this game doesn’t look like much by today’s standards, but I certainly wasn’t complaining back in the day. It looks good for an NES game, if you can look past some of the slowdown and flickering enemies. All the turtles are recognizable, as are their enemies. The in-game cutscenes are nice, in particular the scene where the turtles get a threatening message from Shredder on their television set. I always thought that was so awesome when I was a kid. On the whole, this game hasn’t held up particularly well in the graphic department compared to some other old classics like Casltevania, Ninja Gaiden, or Contra. But that’s okay.
Sound:
“Good” is the word of the day when it comes to this game’s sound. I liked the music, even if it was original music and not pulled from the TV show. That was a little disappointing when I was a kid, but I got over it. The sound effects are good as well. There’s not really much to remark upon here. Like I said: it’s a good sounding game. Not spectacular, but good.
Overall:
I feel as if the nostalgia factor I have with this game is going to save it from getting a lower score than it actually should. If I was sitting down to play this game for the first time today, I am not sure I would like it. If you stripped the TMNT theme away and made this game with generic, original characters, I almost certainly would not have liked it.
The controls are wonky, the difficulty curve is steep, and it is easy to get lost playing through some of this game’s levels. But you know what? I still had a good time with it. This game has so many flaws, and I mean SO MANY flaws. But I still find it to be pretty fun. It almost has to be the nostalgia factor in play here. There’s no good reason for me to like this game, yet I do. That said, I am not sure I can recommend this game to anyone else. I know it is not the best game in the world (I wouldn’t say tit is HORRIBLE though). But it is not for everyone. Certainly younger fans who don’t care at all about the Ninja Turtles probably won’t derive any entertainment from this title.
And that’s okay. I like this game, but that doesn’t mean I don't recognize its flaws. You know what is funny? This game is getting the same score as A Link to the Past, which I just reviewed. That’s certainly a popular gaming opinion, right? Right?
Final Score:
C+
If you liked this game review, please check out some of my other reviews:
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