Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade)

I’m going to preface this review by saying I actually played through this game several months ago, but am only now getting around to writing this. So hopefully my memory isn’t too hazy.

For those of you who don’t know, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” for arcade machines is a beat ’em up game where you choose your favorite turtle and plow your way through legions of foot soldiers. The arcade game eventually led to the more well known sequel “Turtles in Time” which was released for home consoles via the Super Nintendo.

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” thrives in the simplicity of controls. You have a stick to control movement, a jump button, and an attack button. That is it. That being said there are a variety of attacks each turtle can perform depending on things like jumping and distance from the enemies. This is a great way to bring on new players as a new player can just hit the same button repeatedly and feel like they are accomplishing various actions. That being said, the modern gamer that I am would love some kind of block or dodge button. Obviously from a business standpoint you can understand why there is no defensive button, they wanted to take all of your lunch money at the arcade. This leads to my only “big” criticism of the game, which is difficulty. The game was clearly trying to take your money by making the enemies attacks very hard to avoid while also dealing damage to the .It is actually strange in that for the most part boss battles were the easiest part of the game since the bosses attack patterns were more telegraphed. So once you memorize their movements, the attacks become avoidable. But your average foot soldier loves to throw weapons at you from off screen…

Anyways, the game is a lot of fun overall. It is bound to get repetitive if you play it for a long but the game is short enough you can beat it without getting bored. The art is colorful and the characters are fun and full of life. Any fan of TMNT is bound to enjoy it. Granted I did play this via the cowabunga collection on PS5, so I was granted unlimited quarters. I imagine when you go 50 lives deep in the arcade, you are going to leave the arcade a little less happy and a lot less wealthy.

So where does “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” rank on our lists? Number 1 on the Arcade List! Right above “Jetpac.” Okay it is only a list of three so far but, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” truly is worth a play. As long as you don’t take it seriously and are willing to die, a lot…

Time to Beat: 43 minutes and 49 seconds