| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | |
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The box art was taken from the cover art for the second print of the TMNT #4 comic book. It was drawn by Michael Dooney.[1] |
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| Developer(s) | Konami |
| Publisher(s) | Konami (JP) Ultra Games (US) Palcom (EU) U.S. Gold |
| Composer(s) | Keizo Nakamura |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo Entertainment System, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, MSX, ZX Spectrum, PlayChoice-10, Virtual Console |
| Release date(s) | Nintendo Entertainment System Virtual Console |
| Genre(s) | Platform action game |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Media/distribution | Cartridge or Floppy disk |
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, released as Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in Europe, and Gekikame Ninja Den (激亀忍者伝, "Fierce Turtle Ninja Legend") in Japan, is a 1989 platform game for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The game was developed by Konami and originally released in Japan through Konami themselves, then in North America through Konami's Ultra Games imprint, followed by a release through the European equivalent, Palcom Software, in PAL regions.
This was the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video game, and is based on the 1987 TV series, which was in its third season at the time of the game's original release, although the art style more resembles the original comic series. The game was ported to various home computer platforms in 1990; the original NES version was ported to Nintendo's PlayChoice-10 arcade system in 1991, and the Wii's Virtual Console service in 2007.
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The gameplay in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles begins with an overhead view used for navigating around the mission map, switching to a side view whenever the Turtle being controlled enters a manhole or a building, similar to Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. 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 Turtle can strike back with his weapon or, in Mission 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. A screen accessed with the Start button shows a summary of each Turtle's health and whatever special weapon he has picked up, a map grid of the current area (not available inside Mission 6, the Technodrome), and messages from either Splinter or April O'Neil. A Turtle who runs out of health, falls into a fatal trap such as a fire pit, or is run over by a Roller Car, is not actually killed; instead, he is captured by the enemy, losing whatever special items he had acquired. Captured Turtles can be rescued starting in Mission 3, though only one Turtle can be freed per level.
In the second half of Mission 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. Should the player fail to find all bombs within the time limit, the game immediately ends.
The stages for the game are as follows, according to the game's instruction manual:
Mission 1: Fifth Avenue/Greenwich Village: The goal is to rescue April O'Neil, who has been kidnapped and is held hostage by Bebop (a mini-boss in one of the sewers) and Rocksteady (the level's final boss).
Mission 2: Hudson River near the Holland Tunnel: After fighting through multiple levels of enemies, the Turtles dive into the river from atop the dam to try and disarm all the explosives before the dam can be blown up.
Mission 3: Wall Street: The Turtles find that their lair has been trashed and Splinter kidnapped. In this mission, the goal is to navigate the streets of New York, using the Party Wagon for transportation, ultimately defeating Mechaturtle and freeing Splinter.
Mission 4: JFK International Airport: Shredder escapes in a helicopter at the end of Mission 3. The goal of Mission 4 is to find the Turtle Blimp to follow him to his secret base somewhere in the city. A Big Mouser capable of firing eye beams and dropping smaller Mousers guards the blimp.
Mission 5: Shredder's Base inside the South Bronx: The Turtles sneak into this base at night, and the compound is patrolled by overhead Searchlight Mechanisms that will dispatch Foot Soldiers to ground level if a Turtle is spotted by one of the beams. The goal here is to locate the Technodrome somewhere underground; in fact, the Technodrome itself is the level's guardian.
Mission 6: The Technodrome: After disabling the Technodrome itself, the Turtles invade to finally track down and put an end to Shredder's operations. Shredder himself confronts the Turtles at the end, possessing a ray gun that can reverse mutations.
A number of items can be picked up during the quest, including shurikens (throwing stars), triple shurikens (allows the launch of three shurikens 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, none of which are dropped by enemies and can only be found lying around in buildings or sewers, include "Anti-Foot Clan Missiles" for the Party Wagon in Mission 3; ropes for crossing wide gaps between buildings; and Mr. Invincibility, a turtle-head icon that supercharges a Turtle 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 standard ninja 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.
The game was ported to various home computer platforms in 1990, including the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum and Amiga. The MS-DOS version is infamous, as it contains a gap that is impossible to cross without cheating.[2]
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. 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.[3] The game's price in Europe and Australia was later raised to 600 Wii Points. This is the very first licensed game to appear on the North American and European Virtual Console.
The original NES version sold extremely well during its release, selling roughly 4 million copies. It is one of the all-time best-selling NES games not made by Nintendo. Various computer conversions were rushed out in time for that year's Christmas season, but did not fare nearly as well, commercially or critically. The game received criticism for its difficult gameplay.
The game received Nintendo Power's 1989 Game of the Year award. However, Nintendo Life's review on the game was not positive, earning only a 3/10.
In 1990, Konami released an arcade game, also called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In 1990, it was ported to the NES as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game, as a follow-up to the original NES game, even though it wasn't a "true" sequel (in terms of gameplay). Instead, the second game had stronger ties to the TV series (including using the cartoon's art style), more straightforward beat 'em up gameplay, and support for 4-player simultaneous play (2 players for the NES version). This new style became the standard for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games for the next few years.
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