Post by: Halbred on June 15, 2011, 03:01:35 PM
The worst game featuring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/extralife/26827
Some of you may have fond memories of this 1989 NES title featuring everyone's favorite heroes in a half-shell. You may actually remember enjoying it, but rest assured, it is a horrible game. Need proof? It’s readily available on the Virtual Console for 600 Wii Points. Because I’m a whore for the franchise, I actually bought a partially-sealed copy at a comic shop a few months ago for $20. I don’t even have a working NES, and I already have it on Virtual Console! However, I’ll never play that cartridge—I bought it just to have it (the cover art is spectacular).
What about the game itself? The best comparison I can draw is to Castlevania, in that, most of the time, you wander through side-scrolling stages duking it out with enemies who usually have nothing to do with the old comics. I remember Mousers, but I don’t remember guys made of fire or balloons that drop torpedoes. The game is actually divided fairly evenly between side-scrolling brawls and overhead map-questing. Every level consists of a whole lot of overworld navigation, in which the turtles wander between buildings and manhole covers and try to find the level's exit. In one stage, you get to drive the Turtle Van around, and you use missiles found in side-scrolling sections to blow up barriers. In another stage, you have to both find and use tightropes in side-scrolling sections to find the final boss. In yet another level, you have to find the Technodrome, which appears at random in one of the side-scrolling sections. And then there’s the dam level.
Bebop and Rocksteady are the only recognizable characters in the game from the 1980's animated series.It is absolutely horrible, and occurs so early in the game that you may never get past it. For one level and one level only, you must navigate a treacherous swimming section while battling: an unforgiving time limit; invisible, but very strong, ocean currents; highly-damaging electrical coral and traps; and a scavenger hunt for bombs. It is one of the most poorly-designed levels in gaming, and it's a miracle I can still muscle-memory play my way through it today without losing a turtle.
Oh, that’s one of the nice things about the game: you basically have four life bars, because you can switch between all four turtles at any time. Unfortunately, three of them are essentially useless. Leonardo, Michaelangelo, and Raphael have short-range weapons that aren't very powerful. Donatello has a gigantic staff that decimates everything it comes in contact with — especially bosses. Thus, you end up using the other turtles only when Donatello is low on health, and any pizza you find (which restores health) usually goes to him. Should one of your turtles “die,” they can be rescued starting on Level 3, though you can only free one turtle per level. Thankfully, the game hands out subweapons like candy, including ninja stars and a wave-like attack that is fairly powerful. Often, these subweapons are more desirable than the default weapons of Leo, Mike, or Raph.
Welcome to hell, population YOU.Despite the game’s high production values (looks great for an NES game and has catchy music) it just has too many gameplay problems to be worth your time. It features slowdown, the occasional instance of freezing, enemies that respawn the second you scroll back, the world’s most useless grid-based map, and insufferable difficulty. I can’t recommend this game to any but the hardest of the hardcore TMNT fans, as every subsequent video game in the franchise is far superior—especially its three direct sequels.
Post by: UltimatePartyBear on June 15, 2011, 03:50:00 PM
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.
Post by: Shaymin on June 15, 2011, 06:27:12 PM
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.
Oh thank god, I'm not the only one.
Post by: Ian Sane on June 15, 2011, 07:19:42 PM
"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?
Post by: Chozo Ghost on June 15, 2011, 09:06:22 PM
Bebop and Rocksteady are the only recognizable characters in the game from the 1980's animated series.
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.
Post by: yoshi1001 on June 15, 2011, 10:15:29 PM
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."
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.
Post by: Chozo Ghost on June 15, 2011, 10:46:51 PM
Post by: Nemo on June 16, 2011, 01:19:46 AM
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)
Post by: Retro Deckades on June 16, 2011, 01:34:34 AM
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.
Post by: Chozo Ghost on June 16, 2011, 02:42:34 AM
Post by: S-U-P-E-R on June 16, 2011, 01:15:17 PM
Post by: ejamer on June 16, 2011, 02:00:35 PM
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.
Post by: Cyrian on June 16, 2011, 02:57:09 PM
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.
Post by: MegaByte on June 16, 2011, 02:58:15 PM
Post by: Ian Sane on June 16, 2011, 06:22:12 PM
I also never understood why all the turtles had the same color bandanas when I saw that box at the store
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.
Post by: UltimatePartyBear on June 16, 2011, 06:29:35 PM
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.
Post by: Shaymin on June 16, 2011, 06:59:50 PM
/me will allow a moment for you to all claw your eyes out at the horrible memories
Post by: Mop it up on June 19, 2011, 04:23:28 PM
Post by: ThePerm on June 19, 2011, 05:51:27 PM
Post by: Shaymin on June 20, 2011, 06:07:17 PM
What was wrong with LJN?
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.
Post by: UltimatePartyBear on June 20, 2011, 06:29:06 PM
What was wrong with LJN?
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.
Post by: GoldenPhoenix on June 20, 2011, 08:14:21 PM
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.
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?
Post by: Ceric on June 21, 2011, 11:53:54 AM
Post by: Chozo Ghost on June 21, 2011, 08:03:48 PM
Post by: S-U-P-E-R on June 21, 2011, 10:38:00 PM
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!
Post by: Mop it up on June 22, 2011, 12:00:42 AM
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.What was wrong with LJN?
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.
Post by: S-U-P-E-R on June 22, 2011, 12:11:33 AM
Post by: Chozo Ghost on June 22, 2011, 12:56:44 AM
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!
If you can beat Contra with one life I'm sure TMNT will be a piece of cake for you.
Post by: S-U-P-E-R on June 22, 2011, 12:58:25 AM
Post by: GoldenPhoenix on June 22, 2011, 04:33:30 AM
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)
