Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES video game)

This article is about the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video game released for the NES. For the arcade game and its home conversions, see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (arcade game).
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

The box art was taken from Michael Dooney's cover art for the second printing of the TMNT #4 comic book..[1]
Developer(s) Konami
Publisher(s)
Composer(s) Jun Funahashi
Series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Platform(s) NES, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, MSX, ZX Spectrum, PlayChoice-10
Release date(s)
  • JP May 12, 1989
  • NA June 1989
  • PAL August 17, 1990
Genre(s) Platform action game
Mode(s) Single-player

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles[2] is a side-scrolling platform game for the Nintendo Entertainment System released by Konami (under the Ultra Games imprint in the USA and the equivalent PALCOM brand in Europe/Australia) in 1989. Loosely based on the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series, being released after the show's second season, it is notably one of the first video games based on the property alongside the arcade game (also developed by Konami). which was also released in 1989.

The game received mixed reviews, most notably for its high difficulty level, and among fans and critics, it has been widely considered to be one of the most difficult NES games ever made. Despite this, it was a commercial success, selling over 4 million copies and becoming one of the best-selling titles for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Plot

The Ninja Turtles (Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello) are on a mission to retrieve the Life Transformer Gun from Shredder, a device that could restore their sensei Splinter back to his human form. The Turtles' first objective is to rescue their reporter friend April O'Neil, who is being held captive by Bebop and Rocksteady somewhere in the city. After rescuing April, the turtles must swim underwater to disarm a series of bombs set to destroy a dam, rescue Splinter from the Mecha Turtle, destroy a giant Mouser, find the Technodrome and eventually defeat Shredder.

Gameplay

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a single-player action game where the player can control any of the four turtles. The player starts the game as Leonardo, but can switch to any of the other Turtles at any time by pressing the Start button to access the information screen. The info screen shows a summary of each Turtle's health and whatever special weapon he has obtained, a map grid of the current area (not available inside the final stage), and messages from either Splinter or April. When the player's current character runs out of health, falls into a fatal trap such as a fire pit, or is run over by a Roller Car, he will be captured by the enemy, forcing the player to change into one of the other remaining Turtles. The player loses the game when all four Turtles have been captured. A captured Turtle can be rescued from Stage 3 and onward, though only one Turtle can be freed per stage. There are a total of six stages in the game.

The game begins with an overhead view used for navigating around the mission map, switching to a side view when the player enters a manhole or a building. Enemies can attack the player while exploring in the overhead view; Foot Soldiers, Roller Cars (effectively steam rollers), and in later missions, even aircraft can assault the player. However, the player can strike back with his weapon or, in Stage 3, either missiles or cannon fire from the Party Wagon. Once inside a sewer or a building, the player encounters enemy characters such as Fire Freaks (beings of living fire), additional Foot Soldiers (who jump, kick, and throw shurikens), and Mousers. The player can also acquire weapons and special items, and collect pizza to restore health.

In the second half of Stage 2, the Turtles dive into the Hudson River to find and disarm a total of eight time bombs that have been planted at a dam. In this level, the Turtles must navigate a number of traps, such as electrical currents and electrified seaweed, with a time limit of two minutes and twenty seconds to find and disarm all of them.

A number of items can be picked up during the quest, including single shurikens (throwing stars), triple shurikens (allows the launch of three stars simultaneously in a spreading pattern), boomerangs, and the "Kiai", a scroll that expands into a crescent-shaped beam and inflicts devastating damage on even boss characters. These items are occasionally dropped by enemies. Other items, which can only be found in certain buildings or sewers, include missiles for the Party Wagon in Stage 3 for destroying barricades and other enemy vehicles; ropes for crossing wide gaps between buildings; and an invincibility item shaped like a Turtle's face that supercharges the player for several seconds, making him impervious to attack and able to instantly kill any enemy with a single hit. There are also three kinds of pizza that can be retrieved: a single slice of pizza restores 25% health (two life boxes); a half pizza restores 50% health (four life boxes); and a whole pizza restores the Turtle's entire life gauge. The Turtles can attack either with their default weapons while jumping, walking, or crouching, or use one of the alternate weapons that he has picked up along the way by pressing the Select button to choose one. The aforementioned ropes are used automatically from buildings with the appropriate pipes for making the connection.

Regional differences

The game was released for the Family Computer (or Famicom) in Japan a few months earlier than the American NES version under the title of Geki Kame Ninja Den (激亀忍者伝, which roughly translates to "Legend of the Radical Ninja Turtles"). This was the first T.M.N.T. product released in the country, predating the Japanese dub of both the first film and the animated series, resulting in the unusual name change. Subsequent T.M.N.T. video games released in Japan kept the franchise's original title. While graphics and gameplay are virtually identical to its NES counterpart, the plot underwent a slight change: April O'Neil, who was simply a friend of the Turtles in the American version, is established to be Splinter's daughter in the Famicom version.[3]

The game was released as Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in all European territories due to the series' re-branding in Europe, with the exception of Italy, and was released with a different box in Australia where it also kept the series' original title.

Ports

The game was ported to various home computer platforms in 1990, including the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Atari ST and Amiga. The Spectrum version of the game was number 1 in the UK sales chart from March[4] until August 1991.[5] The DOS version is infamous, as it contains a gap that is impossible to cross without cheating.[6]

It was also released in 2007 on the Wii's Virtual Console. It was released for the Wii in Europe and Australia for 500 points which was later raised to 600 Wii Points. In North America, it was released for Wii on April 2, 2007 for the price of 600 points—100 points more than the average NES game—due to a licensing issue.[7] This is the very first licensed game to appear on the North American and European Virtual Console. Due to licensing issues, it was later removed from the Wii Shop Channel in Japan on January 24, 2012 and in North America and Europe on January 26, 2012.

Reception

Reception
Review scores
PublicationScore
AllGame[8]
Crash80%[9]
GameSpot2.7/10[10]
IGN5.5/10[11]
Nintendo Life[12]
Nintendo Power8.25
Sinclair User94%[13]
Your Sinclair90%[14]

The original NES version was a major success, with over 4 million copies sold. It was one of the best-selling third party NES games. A series of computer ports were developed and rushed out in time for that year's Christmas season, but did not fare nearly as well, commercially or critically. Despite the fact that this game was a success, it got many mixed reviews. The game received criticism for its difficult gameplay, being noted by many fans and critics as one of the most frustrating NES games ever made. However, the computer versions were even harder due to sloppy programming and controls. The PC port notably has an impossible section where the player must jump over a low-hanging ceiling and cannot avoid colliding with it and falling into the sewer (the game however has cheat codes that allow this level to be skipped).

Despite the criticism, the game was received well by the official Nintendo magazine Nintendo Power. The game went on to win their 1989 Game of the Year award.

References

  1. ↑ "Mirage Studios' TMNT Volume 1 #4!". Retrieved 2009-02-04.
  2. ↑ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (激亀忍者伝 Geki Kame Ninjaden)
  3. ↑ "Geki Kame Ninja Den manual scans" (in Japanese).
  4. ↑ http://ysrnry.co.uk/ys63.htm
  5. ↑ http://ysrnry.co.uk/ys68.htm
  6. ↑ "Scary-Crayon reviews... Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles I & II (MS-DOS PC versions)". Scary-crayon.com. Retrieved 2010-06-21.
  7. ↑ Dennis Lee, group manager for Konami. "Konami Talks Virtual Console". IGN. As you know, currently we do not hold the video game license for TMNT, so we had to create a new licensing deal for these titles
  8. ↑ Couper, Chris. "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Review". Allgame. Retrieved December 9, 2012.
  9. ↑ http://www.worldofspectrum.org/showmag.cgi?mag=Crash/Issue84/Pages/Crash8400066.jpg
  10. ↑ Provo, Frank. "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Review". Gamespot. Retrieved December 9, 2012.
  11. ↑ Birnbaum, Mark (April 17, 2007). "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Review". IGN. Retrieved February 26, 2014.
  12. ↑ Calvert, Darren (March 16, 2007). "Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Virtual Console / NES)". Nintendo Life. Retrieved February 26, 2014.
  13. ↑ http://www.worldofspectrum.org/showmag.cgi?mag=SinclairUser/Issue106/Pages/SinclairUser10600015.jpg
  14. ↑ http://ysrnry.co.uk/articles/teenagemutantheroturtles.htm

External links

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