Developed by Konami and published by Ultra Games in 1990

Follow me on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/Al82_Retro
Get Great Retro Scene News @ http://www.vintageisthenewold.com

With its 4-way multiplayer action, Konami's TMNT arcade game is one of the best-loved brawlers of all time. The game was ported to various platforms, with various success, and I thought I'd check out the NES version to see how it faired.

Not very well, as it turns out. I understand some NES fans might enjoy this game (as did a lot of the gaming press), but I have to admit, I really didn't like this one bit.

On a technical and graphical level, the game does impress. The game looks as close to the arcade version as you could wish for, given the limitations of the console, and the vast majority of the arcade levels are included, and there's even two wholly original stages exclusive to the NES as well.

Sadly, it's a shame that all the levels are dull, boring slog-fests against legions of identikit Foot Clan drones. Clear the screen of one wave and you'll simply get another, followed by yet more - it's simply filler, designed to pad out the game.

Compounding the general turgidity of the game play is the fact the game makes enemies invincible for several seconds after landing a blow, meaning it's impossible to chain attacks together like the original arcade version. You have to back off and wait for the internal timer to reset before you can hit them again, else you risk getting floored by a counterattack. The way around this is to master the swipe attack (tap B then A quickly), which can take out most regular enemies with a single hit; it makes things simpler, but really boring as well.

I guess it's more technically accomplished than the other 8-bit ports, but TMNT: The Arcade Game on NES simply isn't any fun.

Chapters
00:00 Game start
00:25 Scene 1
04:14 Scene 2
11:30 Scene 3
18:49 Scene 4
13:40 Scene 5
29:20 Scene 6
35:37 Scene 7
45:28 Ending

#tmnt
#NES
#retrogaming