Finally.
After All These Years.
I Finally Completed it.
I Cant Believe I Actually Got To The Shredder Without a Game Genie When I Was A Kid. Never Beat Him Due to that one hit kill gun of his.

First a quick Dose of "Strategy" for any new players.

The action is only good with two of the turtles. Leo and Don...(the Blue one with swords and the purple one with the stick).
The others are just cannon fodder for the swimming section and the "Technodrome" maze. So, Although the game gives you the Idea that you have four characters Two are nearly useless. The two that are practically useless are so due to lack of range with their tools and lack of strength too. Way Uncool for a turtles game. The pause feature that allows you to cycle through your characters is very quick and glitch free but the screen refresh rate is poor. You can take a hit "un-pausing" without seeing it. Not the best way to travel. Your cannon fodder turtles are as good as wasted. The player is better off travelling with Leo the Blue till something needs an extra hit. Switch out with Don the Purple when you need a foe removed. The Power ups are the only thing that can make the two useless turtles regain any advantage. I suggest the boomerangs. The Boomerangs can be Shared or traded with the other turtles. Plus the boomerangs are about as powerful as Don the Purple's Stick.
The Best Power up is the Scroll (Stronger than Dons Stick) that can only be found in level 4 just after the Swimming Level.
Since You already have your "get around" Turtles with Leo and Don, I suggest giving them both all the boomerangs collected and Give Your Two "Cannon Fodder" Turtles The Scrolls and Saving them As Secret Weapons To Face the Technodrome Boss and The Shredder Boss.
The other Item that is essential to progress to Level 5 is the ROPE. that can only be found in a sewer in Level 4 again.
Finally the Torpedoes are another Item that are needed to clear the road blocks in Level 4. They are again Found in Level 4.
But There is no Hint That You Need To Find Them To Progress Or any Tip on where to find them.
That and That Alone is where I Draw the line with this game. And Refuse to call it anything other than an honorable mention for an attempt at a game.
A save feature or password system would have cleared up allot of flaws this thing had.
But those things are not present. You have to get through the whole game in one sitting.
The thing is well over 2 hours. Maybe even 4 or 5. (Particularly If you have no Idea where to go.) The Traps and re-spawning Foes Are one thing to deal with, BUT the Lack of knowing what to do next with Extreme Difficulty in this relentless onslaught is Where Most folks "Rage Quit" or Turn the game into some cult like religion and slavishly and endure the Sick Torture that this game is. For that and that alone I am willing to give this game a 2 for overall.
BUT.
Because it is apart of a famous franchise??? Many of us Fans suffered together and a few made it beyond the last level.
For me?
After I discovered the one hit kill from the final Boss?
I gave up. (Way back in the 1990's.)
With the save state feature this site and other emulators have made??? This game is now a good 6 overall. Without it?? I give it a 2.
The graphics are good for its time.
The Music is not bad.
The game play is fairly solid considering the lack of mercy.
The Story is Turtles versus the Shredder and the Foot-clan. Free the hostages. Eliminate the Leaders of the Foot. Nothing else seems to come to mind.
The mini bosses is a favourite part due to the lack of warning. But overall the lack of saves or password still stings me to this day.
I cant give this game a 9.
I have to give it a 6.
Good Luck.
This ones a rough one.

Honestly growing up with one of these games as a child was brutal  this review is one that is very well though tout and has some useful information for players out there   I would have to agree about everything you said in this review anyways very nice job

I played Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles In Time back in the arcades and it was awesome, playing it again brought me back in time I love this game I would play it over and over again, I give it a perfect 10

hellno163 :
That is Turtles 4.
This is Turtles 1 for the N.E.S.

Great review,
To be honest I sort of ignore Teen aged mutant ninja turtle games in my youth
mostly because there where much better games available to me at the time.
Also due to the fact I never watched the cartoon much either.