Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game



A 1989 Beat'Em Up by Konami based on the four adolescent ninjitsu-trained humanoid reptilians created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird... more specifically, the 1987 cartoon. As the title suggests, this game was released in the arcades, though only as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Several ports renamed it Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game to disambiguate it from the first console game [the Famicom version kept the original name, as its version of the previous game was renamed Geki Kame Ninja Den (Fierce Turtle Ninja Legend)].

The plot is fairly simple: the four eponymous Turtles--Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael--must rescue their news reporter friend April O'Neil, and later their beloved Master Splinter, from the clutches of the Shredder and the Foot Clan. The action takes the Turtles from New York to Dimension X, where after saving their friends, the quartet heads into the Technodrome to defeat Krang and then the Shredder himself.

The arcade version of this game was a milestone in the genre. Up to four players could play, and the Turtles varied a little from each other in terms of attack range and speed. Donatello possesses excellent range with his bo staff, but hits the slowest. Michelangelo and Raphael hit the fastest, but their weapons--the nunchaku and sais respectively--provide limited range. Team leader Leonardo hits with average speed and range using his katanas.

There were several ports of this game. The Nintendo Entertainment System version featured downgraded graphics and audio, and allowed only up to two players (obviously since the NES's hardware wasn't exactly arcade quality), but it did add two new stages and swapped the second fight vs. Rocksteady and Bebop with a fight against Baxter Stockman in his fly form, making it the best port one could find of the game until the arcade version was rereleased in 2007 for Xbox Live Arcade. The computer ports varied greatly in quality, from passable to underwhelming.

In 2021, Tribute Games (a company made up of many former Ubisoft employees who were the masterminds behind Scott Pilgrim Versus the World and Streets of Rage IV) announced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, which seems to be a remake of this game with a better engine and graphics with cartoonish cutscenes in the style of the 1987 cartoon. See the trailer here.


 * Absurdly Spacious Sewer: One stage is such, but considering the source material...
 * Adaptation Expansion: To compensate for the downgraded graphics and the lack of 4-Player support, the NES version adds two new stages and replaces the Rocksteady and Bebop dual boss battle with a fight against Baxter's fly form.
 * American Kirby Is Hardcore: Averted, surprisingly. See the USA box art on the top page? That same cover was used for the EU and JAP version of the game.
 * Aside Glance: On the NES version, each of the Turtles have this in their standing poses.
 * Big No: The same exact one is uttered by some of the bosses when are defeated, such as Rocksteady and Bebop.
 * Burning Building Rescue: The first stage is the Channel 6 News building set ablaze, where your mission is to save April.
 * Canon Foreigner: Tora the Wolfman and Shogun Warrior in the NES version.
 * Cherry Tapping: The safest way to defeat most any enemy in the game, be it lowly foot soldier or boss, is to jump kick him, then jump kick away before he can recover from the hit. The jump kick does little damage, but its high mobility generally trumps the more powerful standard attacks which nearly guarantee taking damage in return.
 * Color-Coded Multiplayer/Competitive Balance: Given its source material, does it need to be said.
 * Leonardo - Jack of All Stats.
 * Donatello - Mighty Glacier.
 * Michelangelo - Lightning Bruiser.
 * Raphael - Fragile Speedster.
 * Convection, Schmonvection: That burning building doesn't seem to actually be doing any harm to anyone. In fact, you can walk until you're chest deep in the flames with no ill effects.
 * Damsel in Distress: April. In Stage 1, she is in danger of being grilled to perfection. After beating the stage boss Rocksteady, Shredder swoops out of nowhere and kidnaps April.
 * Dual Boss: Rocksteady and Bebop in the arcade version.
 * The End - or Is It?: The epilogue, which gushes about how the Technodrome has been destroyed, notes that Shredder may have survived.
 * Konami Code: You better bet this got used!
 * Market-Based Title: The arcade game itself was simply titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. When it was ported to the NES, it was retitled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game to distinguish it from the earlier unrelated NES game while in the same time making it clear to players that it was based on the arcade game. The Famicom version had no such issue, since the Famicom version of the first NES game actually had a different title in Japanese.
 * Nintendo Hard: The arcade version, and unapologetically so, with an interesting twist: aside from the difficulty dipswitch, this game features a sort of Dynamic Difficulty involving the enemy count that kicks in depending on several factors, including how many people are playing in the game, and--chiefly in one-player mode--whether or not the player has died/continued. Beating any level without losing a life will make the subsequent level much tougher (in that you have many more enemies to contend with in each wave), and dying at all will reset the soldier count to an easier level. Also, some bosses (namely the Dual Boss with Rocksteady and Bebop, and the final battle with Shredder) will have more health if you reach them without dying.
 * Now bear in mind that, by default, your life bar can take on average about 3-8 hits before you die, depending on what it is that damaged you, and the original arcade game settings allow for one life per credit. The Xbox Live Arcade version gives you 20 lives. Nintendo Hard indeed.
 * One-Hit Kill: Shredder possesses an anti-mutagen beam that can revert your Turtle back into a regular turtle if hit, resulting in an instant life loss. Possibly the cutest One-Hit Kill ever.
 * Palette Swap: Much like the Turtles themselves, the Foot Soldiers are color-coded to indicate their weapons of choice. Bosses on critical health will flash red or yellow via "Konami seizure time", except Baxter Stockman who will rather flash red only when he gets hit.
 * Pinball Scoring: Only in the Famicom version of the game. The others allot you exactly one point per defeated enemy.
 * Product Placement: The NES version featured some instances of the Pizza Hut logo in-game, as well as Pizza Hut coupons in the manual.
 * Smooch of Victory: April gives one to the Turtle with the highest score when she is rescued.
 * Turns Red: Possibly the Trope Codifier, for the genre at least.
 * The helicopter enemies had a variation in turning green, upon getting hit.
 * Unique Enemy: The NES version has three unique enemies in a single stage. The Shogun's stage had Robot Gorilla Ninjas, Robot Scorpions and Robot Tigers that come to life out of door paintings. There are also snowman-disguised robots in Stage 4.
 * X-Ray Sparks: The Turtles suffer this effect when zapped by Roadkill Rodneys and laser cannons.