yup, this is the 50th review I've written on grouvee, not a huge accomplishment by any means, but one I'm happy with nonetheless.

Anyway, as someone who has never seen any part of the show, but read a few of the Mirage Studios original comics, I can still say I enjoyed the game. The graphics are smooth and crisp, the gameplay is fast and fun, the challenge is definitely there, the game has a lot of positives, and I quite enjoyed the garish aesthetic.

On to the Conz, the storyline is a little lackluster, but paraphrasing what John Carmack said 'story in a game is like story in a porno, it's there but it is not important', so it isn't really the reason why I chose to play the game.

Some of the boss fights are very tedious, and most damning of all in my opinion, there isn't really much room for planning out attacks or sequencing anything. I get it's a beat em up, but at least other Bmup's have some semblance of strategy, or skill required. Over all, as much as I whine, I still thoroughly enjoyed TMNT the arcade game, and it's an instant 8/10 'great experience'. Thank you for liste-...reading and I hope more people play this game.

Preliminary: Whoaaaa I completely forgot my grandparents had this game, so I did play this back in the day! Omg how did I forget about this game. It's all coming back to me so vividly. My cousin was super good at it, tho he was the only one really good at any of the NES games, but this was one of the only NES games I was decent at too. It has that Castlevania type whip, open-world action-adventure elements while also being a good ol action platformer, and some great tunes! Ah! I'm so excited to play this now with a StrategyWiki to reference when I'm confused, since as a kid uh, I just relied on my cousin lol.

The "overworld" segments Look isn't great, but. Well, none of the Look is particularly great, except I suppose for recreating the TNMT characters we all know and love (tho I never really watched it much, it of course had an impact on my life nonetheless). I'm already getting the Konami feel, and sure enough it's a Konami game. Bring me some good ol Goonies/Castlevania open platformer gameplay! (Oh, I should note I am playing the US release since there were minimal changes between the versions and only months apart)

Day 1

Multiple characters you can play as and lots to learn about in this game. But otherwise, a pick up and play action platformer. Hopefully the complexities don't get overwhelming or convoluting. Usually Konami is good about retaining the pick up and play fun.

It's missing some basic niceties like a grabbing onto ladders mid-air, tighter controls, and a better Look, but I'm still having fun. Area 2 overworld has a better Look

Uff the Area 2 swimming part was quite awful, controls weren't great, but I got it on the first try (possibly thanks to a map ha)

The sprite flicker is getting bad in Area 3, why did NES programmers always ignore that and swarm enemies on to the screen. It's starting to get to that too-hard-to-be-fun NES difficulty, but I'm pushing through so far. And the bad mid-jump movement is becoming more and more apparent. There's like a glide or delay in the controls, hard to explain. Oh and the lack of being able to grab on ladder mid-jump. That being said, I am very grateful the items re-spawn when you re-enter a place :-p Some well-placed ones with that. I see you, Konami.

Day 2

The difficulty is really starting to bog this down as I go through Area 5. I wouldn't be able to do Area 4 and on without exploiting savestates, and it often teetered on the un-fun level of difficulty. Dreading the randomization of Area 5, but 2 tunnels down so this last one (of course) must be the one I got stuck with. I sure wish I could grab ladders mid-jump... would've made the first tunnel faster to get out of. Fortunately (and surprisingly) the music kept having new tunes. And it's good that you can smack away most attacks/projectiles.

This final area of Area 6 is not only un-fun difficult, just outright ridiculous, but also ugly. That yellow is just awful, why did they thing that was the Look for the final area? The mini bosses make no sense, like why is just one of the Jetpack dudes a miniboss to unlock moving on, yet I just seconds before that I had been utterly swarmed with the Jetpack dudes in a tight area with almost no way to avoid damage.

Wait... seriously... after all that... the final boss was a joke... incredibly easy. And the ending was woefully lazy, like they didn't even care. They didn't even include credits lol

Look: 7.5/10 Some nice between-Area screens like screenshotted above, but for the most part just functional.

Sound: 8/10 Good tunes, nothing spectacular but stayed good and varied.

Play: 7/10 I love me some action platformer gameplay, and I can forgive that the ridiculous difficulty is really only the latter half of the game, but still... that's a whole half of the game. It lacks some basic niceties one can expect in 89 like mid-jump ladder grabbing etc, but it also has some neat touches like switching between characters.

Feel: 7.5/10 Tho I have nostalgia for this and have fond memories of playing it, it isn't a particularly great action platformer. I think it only sold so well because of its ties to the franchise and how big the NES was getting in the U.S. Plus, it starts out making you think it'll be an approachable Castlevania-like/Konami game.

Attachment: 7.5/10 I doubt I will replay this often because of the high difficulty, but I can continue to enjoy all the way up until the underwater part. Haha. Like I did as a kid :-p Plus, I can't deny I won't forget it again! And will remind my brothers and cousin about it tomorrow when I see them.

Overall: 7.5/10

Completion: Main Story

Preliminary: I doubt this will feel remotely the same without at least one other player and the actual arcade machine, but here goes nothing.

Wow that intro! And the purple colors. And the sound. All are so nice. That being said, I know I've said it a million times before, but brawler's just don't have that "hook" for me that action-adventures, RPGs, and platformers do. Even shmups have earned more of a hook than brawlers. It just feels like their entire purpose is to get coins into the machine, not to truly design levels. However, this one has been forgiving so far (he says on level 1 lol) and fun and feels cinematic like a cartoon so it gave me a drive to keep going and before I knew it I finished the first stage.

Day 1

Nice humor in it like when you fall into the manhole. Feels alive, hard to explain. And the brawling feels more fluid than most its contemporary brawlers, maybe it's just more forgiving and interprets what you wanted the turtle to do. Love April somehow being on the TV screen in the store lol. I would take more screenshots cuz the Look is so comforting and late 80s/90s and good, but not much opportunity to screenshot during a nonstop brawler.

Welp sadly stage 2 started feeling more and more like, well, a brawler. The issue with depth was intentionally used for the boss in the sewer. And the issue where it has to assume which enemy you wanted to prioritize... which it almost always picks the wrong one... when you attack toward 2 enemies in one spot. I finally got through the boss, but the initial excitement was definitely slowing down. maybe if I had a group playing with me...

And as cool as the 3rd Stage music was, meh. Brawlers just can't hold my interest it seems. Moving on.

Look: 8.5/10 Great stuff

Sound: 8/10 Soooo classic arcade-y

Play: 7/10 It's okay. Got old pretty quickly.

Feel: 7.5/10 Nostalgia, franchise-related, and good Look and Sound contribute to this. I just wish it held my interest for longer. Even as a kid I remember we only ever played into the second stage, never that driven to get to the end.

Attachment: 7.5/10 I mean, I certainly wont forget the game. It's a game critical to childhood for sure. And I could see myself replaying it with a group on an actual arcade machine since that always adds a nice layer to brawler games (plus, their level designs are so blatantly made for groups of people, understandably). But as it is, and as I can play it in 2024, easily moving on.

Overall: 7.7/10

Completion: Till the car drove out at me in the 3rd stage haha.

Playtime: ~20 mins

Later this year, Konami will be releasing the Cowabunga Collection of all the classic TMNT games for modern consoles. Also, a new Turtles video game is also coming out, in the popular beat 'em up style of the arcade games. I'm excited for these games, but what I want to call attention to today is the "black sheep" of the TMNT video games. The original game for the NES.

This one, unlike all the others, is a platformer. You play as one of the four Turtles (Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, Michelangelo) as you rescue your Master Splinter and your friend April O'Neil from Shredder. During the action, you can switch back and forth from any of the four Turtles. If one loses all their energy, they are "kidnapped" by the Foot Clan and no longer playable. You can find and rescue them at certain points in the game.

This game is a strange hybrid of the kid friendly TV cartoon and the more adult oriented comic book. Enemies from both series are present in this game. The turtles can find additional weapons like throwing stars and scrolls to add to their arsenal. Pizza gives you energy (but of course). Also, you later can drive around in the party wagon. Cool!

I think where this game gets a bad reputation is the high difficulty. It's very, very hard. Swimming in the dam level is quite challenging the first time you do it, until you realize switching between turtles is the secret about getting through it. Making certain jumps in level 3 can be hair pulling frustrating. And the technodrome is very, very tough. This is Nintendo hard no matter how you slice it.

But, I gravitate towards it more than I do the other two games on the NES. I guess the variety and the challenge is more fun to me. The second game is a very watered down version of the great arcade classic. The third one is a slightly better beat 'em up.

Hopefully, with quality of life improvements coming with the collection, playing the first game won't be as aggravating for people. I think it's better than its reputation makes it out to be. I'm looking forward to revisiting this one again. It's far from perfect, but it's the TMNT on the NES that I like the most.

Platform:

Arcade version.

Graphics/Sound:

The graphics are fine, nothing to complain about, except that the colors sometimes feel a bit oversaturated. The sound is good too.

Gameplay:

It's a simple street brawler, you walk from left to right beating up hordes of enemies until you reach a boss. It features characters you know from either the movies or the series as far as I can see. It can be played with up to 4 player, but we played it with two players.

Difficulty:

Playing it on arcade emulation the difficulty perception is always a bit off since you can keep throwing virtual quarters with just a button click. But still I felt this isn't on the easy side. I died quite a lot. But my main complaint here is that it didn't feel as I really did have a lot of choice. Most of the bosses just deal damage whatever you do. The have no hit recovery when you actually hit them so even if you got them cornered they will eventually just knock you out if the want to, and there is no way to dodge that, at least not with my skills.

It's entertaining to play through that in multiplayer, but I feel it lacks a bit in variety, at least from a gameplay perspective, as there seems no strategy involved.

The original NES TMNT game is so weird and wonky, but also unique and challenging, and I almost like what it offers. The arcade version is a beautiful game and still looks amazing today, and it plays so well with different moves and 4-player simultaneous action. I think the NES port is really well done considering the limitations of the console, and after looking into it, I say it fared better than its computer ports. This game has a clean graphical style with recognizable characters and detailed sprite work.

The music is great, as you would expect from Konami, and faithful to the Turtles theme. Controls are rock solid, and the gameplay is equally solid action. There are plenty of tense boss fights and scenes to keep things engaging. The only criticism I see is that the game is pretty long for just fighting enemies and moving to the right. You literally need to defeat hundreds of enemies in one sitting to beat this game. That can be tedious for some, certainly. Some people are really disappointed in this game, and others would claim its average, maybe above average at best. I say this is quite a good game, one of the better NES games out there.