I never found the Dam level all that hard, even as a kid.  But I never beat level three.  I don't think I ever even reached Mecha Turtle at the end of it.  I would usually pretend the long cutscene between levels 2 and 3 was the ending.  Of course, that was because I was a terrible wuss at gaming back then.  I'm surprised at the number of games from that era I actually did beat, Game Genie or not.

I have trouble calling this game bad, really.  The high hopes we all had for a TMNT game skew things both ways.  It's a disappointment, of course, but I've played far worse games.  On the other hand, without the Turtles, this game wouldn't be worthy of note at all.

Oh thank god, I'm not the only one.

The only good thing about this game is that if it is brought up among my brothers and I one of us will immediately quote The Wizard.

"I don't believe this.  I got the scroll weapon and I almost beat Mecha Turtle at level three!"
"You got the scroll weapon?  He's losing his mind."

To make things worse I had this for the PC.  I used to play it on a monochrome monitor.  I preferred to play it at my Dad's office because they had green monochrome screens instead of orange and the green better suited the turtles.  But the game absolutely blows.  The games I got on my Dad's old IBM XT were the first videogames I ever owned.  All of them were licenced titles and all of them SUCKED!  I used to wonder why other kids were so much better at games than me but the truth is they weren't playing unplayable garbage like I was.

Anyone think Bebop looks kind of like Bret Hart in this game?

Well, unless you count April O'Neil and of course the turtles themselves. There have been a number of reiterations of these characters over the years, but I would say in this game they follow the style of the original animated series.

I loved this game as a kid, even though I agree it was very hard. I have very fond memories of it. This, and also Super Pitfall for the NES. Everyone also hates Super Pitfall for some reason, but I loved it.

By the way, HDNet Movies shows The Wizard every now and again. It's on this Sunday morning, as it turns out.

I've always felt that the real shame with this game is that it could have been really good if it had been balanced properly, make the other characters a bit more powerful, reduce or eliminate the dam level, and you could have had a classic. Or just get Beau Bridges and Christian Slater to sell it.

Donatello's greater reach should have been balanced by him doing less damage with his attacks, which also makes sense because his weapon is made out of wood whereas the other turtles use weapons made out of steel. So the steel weapons logically should do more damage, but the downside of course is the shorter range.

I played this game a lot and eventually got pretty darn good at the (damn) dam level.

I remember one level had a jump that you had to make, and if you didn't make it, you'd fall into a pit and die. I usually died here. I think I found a picture of the difficult jump, on the left side of this screen:

http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/140719-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-nes-screenshot-area-3-sewers.gif

I'd hit my head on the upper platform and fall to my doom, about 90% of the time.

One time, and one time only, I got to the end of a level and had to fight the technodrome. That's right, the entire technodrome. It took up the whole screen and it killed me and I knew I'd never beat this game.

http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/140733-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-nes-screenshot-area-5-fighting.gif

Great entry, Mr. Miller.

I played this game quite a bit when I was young. I remember being able to pass the damn level on occasion, but after recently purchasing this on the Virtual Console, I've found that I difficulty passing the first level without losing a turtle.

I have to agree about the music. It's inextricably linked with my enjoyment of this game. Evening turning on the game and watching the intro, with its catchy music, brings a smile to my face, even though I know that a pretty bad game is waiting for me.

So far it seems all the complaints seem to be focused on the difficulty of the game. The graphics, music, etc. is all excellent, though.

I fought all the way to Shredder when I was 10. Maybe I should take another crack at this game. Also, you guys suck at video games, and I am awesome. Forever. 8)

I think the difficulty is often overstated with this game. There are a bunch of cheap moments, like how you have to use trial and error to get through the dam level. But it's really not that hard once you know where to go. Just expect to start over a couple times before you gain that knowledge. Trust me: once you've been inside the Technodrome you'll never complain that the dam is too hard again.


If you don't already have nostagia for the title, it's really hard to recommend to anyone though. Doesn't adhere well to the franchise. Doesn't seem that well balanced. Has many neat ideas, but doesn't seem to really develop them enough. Going with either of the NES sequels is probably a better choice for most people. They aren't as ambitious in some ways but manage to execute much better.

I've seen a few write-ups on this game lately and they always mention the dam level, which I never had any problems with.  The part I could never get past was the level where you're riding around in the Turtle Van and have to shoot the missiles.  I would always run out of missiles and could never find my way out (I think that's what happened anyway, it's been yeeeeears since I've played it). 
I also never understood why all the turtles had the same color bandanas when I saw that box at the store (this was way back when grocery stores were actually good places to rent games). It was a huge revelation when I finally discovered the original Mirage comics. 

Yeah, I always thought the van level was harder.

As a kid I just assumed that Ultra Games just fucked it up.  As a kid it was damn obvious to me that grown-ups don't know kids stuff.  So if I saw an image on merchandise packaging that wasn't right then I assumed it was because those in charge were not familiar enough with the source material to get it right.  Remember that the TMNT toys had no pupils but they clearly did on the cartoon show.  Shredder's action figure is also quite different from how he looks on the show.  I just assumed that most grown ups get this sort of thing wrong so the action figures and tv show were not consistent.  I figured Ultra Games just hired an artist who didn't know the Ninja Turtles from his own ass so he screwed up and gave them all red masks.

I did that a lot as a kid.  I would notice something off and then would try to rationally explain it.  Usually it had solid logic but turned out wrong due to me making BIG assumptions about missing info.

Fun Fact:
Ultra Games was just Konami behind a cheap mask they used to thumb their noses at NoA's 5 games per publisher per year limit.

Just like LJN.

will allow a moment for you to all claw your eyes out at the horrible memories

What was wrong with LJN?

AVGN already descimated TMNT, but really the game isn't that bad. Now go play Aidyn Chronicles and ask yourself...this was the result of 4 years of work?

They published all the stuff that Acclaim didn't want to, largely because they were worse.

If you're worse than Acclaim, you are positively fecal.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit was not without its charms.

How about the game being painfully unfun? Having horrific level design? In many ways looking like a game that was skinned with SOME TMNT related characters? Or maybe the horrendous controls, the overly floaty jumping mechanics, tons of graphical glitches, unbalanced characters, and being overshadowed in every way conceivable by the TMNT ARcade game?

The original TMNT game is worth playing to get a baseline for comparison to everything.  I enjoyed it like a B-Rated movie.

Is it just me or were NES games in general just so much harder than the games of today? Well, for one thing today's games are more likely to have tutorials and in game help and stuff that helps make things easier and you don't really see that in the old NES games. Also, the NES controls were clunkier and it made it harder to do precision jumps onto the tiny platforms they expected you to land on. Then there were games like Contra which gave you only 3 lives and expected you to survive through the whole game with just that.

I only needed one. I'm making such a smug face right now.

This thread has inspired me to try to beat TMNT; I'll report back with my findings!

I liked T & C Surf Designs and The Punisher. I'm not saying they were anything great, but there are definitely worse games on the NES... like the one featured in this article! Sorry about that, but it is my opinion. I own TMNT and I agree, it was a pretty poorly designed game even by NES standards.

I'm replaying TMNT right now. I breezed through the dam, much like I did when I was like 9 years old. Deal with it  :cool;

If you can beat Contra with one life I'm sure TMNT will be a piece of cake for you.

TMNT is much harder; I'm getting my face melted off in the technodrome right now :\

Yeah the technodrome is extremely hard. If I recall though, the final battle isn't that difficult. (Yes i beat the game back when it first came out, even then I didn't like it but I was such a big TMNT fan I tortured myself until the end)