Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They got really popular thanks to their TV cartoon, and video games soon followed for arcade and home. This is about the NES home version. I bought this game way back in the late 80's, and have seen it on many 'difficult' games lists. In this game you play as all the turtles in their quest to save their friend April, choosing to play any turtle any time you want, they do not share life bars and each have their own weapons. You can also see a limited map on the start screen, which is used for the overworld levels, the first area you will see. You walk on the streets (in broad daylight!) and enter manholes and doors, which take you to a side-view inside the area. This is the platforming part, and where you will spend most of your time. The overworld only serves to connect the side-scrolling parts together. However, upon playing the fighting parts, you soon will realize...

ALL TURTLES ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL
There is one turtle who is the best for all situations. Here is the order as I see it:
Donatello (purple)
Leonardo (blue)
Mike and Raph (orange and red -tied)
Donatello does the most damage, has the most reach (even going through floors and walls to hurt foes) - he is without a doubt the one who should fight the bosses.
Leonardo is not bad, he doesn't have as much reach as Don, but can sometimes poke his katana through walls enough to hurt things. His regular attack also protects him from low flying aireal creatures and jumpers - as he swings it over his head.
Mike and Raph - these guys have the shortest reach, one is better at hitting things low (Mike) one is better at high attacks (Raph)
.
So already, the game is a bit flawed. We have one super turtle, one pretty good one, and two useful in specific situations. Fortunately, there are sub-weapons, which can lend strength to our weaker members.


Depth: 4
Of the sub-weapons, each turtle can have one of your choice, and toggle their main and sub weapon with select button. You just have to find them, some even enemies drop. The ninja scrolls, throwing stars (single or triple) are useful but have an ammo limit. Finding more of the same item will add to the total. The Boomerang item is special, and worth noting if you catch it, no ammo is taken off.
There is a lot of ground to cover, six stages, each with a unique enemy boss (or bosses), and some optional areas for health pick ups. I did see a lot of iconic vehicles and enemies from the comics/tv show, they did a good job overall, but beyond the small optional areas, and rather small maps in platforming, there is not a lot here.


Graphics: 7
I do like the four turtles are well represented in a large character model, and unique weapons. The enemies are also large and well drawn, but suffer some some weak coloring. For instance, a ton of enemies are a messy combination of pale blue and red splotches - the mousers, the hornet like enemies, etc. It just seems sloppy. The large overworld areas are detailed, even if you only have limited interaction with them (go in doors/ manholes - dodge steamroller). The backgrounds in the platforming sections are a bit messy, and sometimes blend in with the the action.

A lot of the things this series is known for are there. The rat master, Splinter is here, as is April O'Neil. The main archvillian, Shredder is here of course. But a few iconic things are a bit off model for me. For instance, one of the first enemies you meet is mini-boss Bebop, a warthog faced man. Sounds pretty easy to recognize, right? Nah, I didn't even notice it was him until the ending told me who it was. Another issue was scale - towards the end, you have to fight the Technodrome - this is a giant globeshaped tank thing. Its supposedly massive, full of 100's of robots and the base of operations for your nemesis. Think Death Star on wheels, ok? This is it in the game...




LOOK AT HOW YOU ARE TALLER THAN ITS TANK TREADS HAH

Foot soldiers keep popping out of the tank if you don't break the door (near the eye), and they don't stop. How many could be in this clown car? 12 all scrunched up?  But oh, get this- after blowing small parts off it, you go inside it and theres an entire level inside!! Even by 8-bit logic its pretty crazy looking. I get this is 8-bit, and no one loves the NES and its limitations more than me, but I think this was a bad call. There is no way they could have represented this behemoth to a believable scale.  Being there are so many strange enemies the ninja turtles fight, I could only imagine ANY other person to fight would have been a better choice here.

Its not all off-model examples. You do fight a Giant Mouser boss and it looks great. The opening cinematic is very well done. The ending, well the ending is really lame. But hey, endings doesn't ruin endings.


Sound: 7
The music sounds nothing like the 80's cartoon, but its still pretty good. One thing I noticed about Konami's line - the music is usually amped up and trying to rock your face. Since the turtles were all about radical cowabunga dude, I felt it fit with the game. While none of the music seeemed particularly great, they did grow on me over time. The overhead map songs, the music for the common side levels - if I heard just a few bars of either, I would know instantly what game they came from.

The sound effects are OK, but again, don't sound like anything from the popular cartoon source. Some of it I expected more. For example, when a turtle is defeated, they shrink to baby turtle size and a whimsical little tune plays. It didn't really sound like I was suffering a setback. You also can acquire scroll sub-weapons that shoot a long wave out. Magic! But using one doesn't make a great whoosh noise or anything like that.

While both are servicable, both background music and sound effects felt they could be put in any game. A big miss for me is not using the TV show theme song for the titles.


Story: 7
Each chapter of the game (6) take place in different locations and have different objectives. You were accomplishing things, and moving forward while fighting several recognizable enemy characters. The first mission is to rescue your reporter friend, April O'Neil, whom we saw kidnapped at the beginning. After you free her you have to get to the top of a large dam, and then jump off it to disarm underwater bombs. Then you get to control the turtle vehicle- which is fun as it has weapons, to rescue someone else. These teenagers are known for their love of pizza, and it is captured here, as the only way to heal an ally, sliced, half or a whole pizza pie. Sadly, the turtles are guttons and do not share. If you have one turtle pick up a whole pie, he does not split it with his brothers, even if he has full health. Watch out for that.


Difficulty: 8
This can be a pretty tough game. It has some tricky jumps in sewer levels that can annoy.  If you fall in the water below, it takes you back out of the area to retry it. The turtles regular jump is very high and fast, while their small jump is not as short as you might like, and slow. One will dodge nearly everything - including a small ledge as you shoot over it. The other can make the jump if positioned just so - but your slow jump leaves you prone to an enemy knocking you in the water.

The aforementioned pizza issue is a problem. As you have all turtles at your disposal to swap out, you cannot have them share - someone has to eat the entire piece offered. This will often lead to at least one of your team with low life. But they do not die, they are captured and held in a location - you can free them there, of course you will have to fight lots of guardians and risk hurting  more of your group. Its generally best to keep them all alive and ignore this diversion.

The 2nd stage's underwater bomb disposal gets a lot of hate. Its tough because the whole area is lined with killer purple seaweed that shocks you (yes), and there is a timer to disable all the bombs. You have to move fast, but not so fast you get a turtle captured and have to start back at the dam. Any disarmed bombs stay disarmed of course, but running through the purple gauntlet is tricky and takes a lot of practice.

Most of the overworld is actually small mazes from stage 3 on, which makes things a grind when you don't know where to go. You have to know which buildings only lead to a pizza slice (after a bunch of enemies are killed), which buildings are where the hostage turtle is kept, or progress towards the boss. I had a Nintendo Power magazine to help me, but if you aren't using a walkthrough, you're going to have to learn for yourself.  Before save states, you also had to beat all this in one go. There is no passwords and no continues if you lose all your turtles.

Addictiveness: 7
Despite the mean difficulty, I still loved this game, and had little trouble coming back to it. You wont beat this without practice. The health juggling between your party takes some getting used to, as does the jumping mechanics, the different sub-weapons, the dang bomb disarming - this game takes a lot of time to master. It only feel unfair a few times though, just enough to give you hope.


Overall: 7.7
This is a difficult game, but one that rewards you with a feeling of accomplishment once you pass it. If you like a challenge, just keep at it, you will persevere! There are a few cheap parts, like the Shredder can be super tough or super easy to beat, and the jumping leaves some to be desired. But its not all bad, its just missing better representation of the turtles for all those Michelangelo and Rapheal fans - but we would get those later in the multiplayer games, which seriously is what a series of 4 crime-busting mutants needs to be anyway.