Children of the 90s please! Please calm down…stop screaming! I know I know…this game defined your childhood, yada yada…However, let me give the readers who for some reason have no clue as to who the Turtles are…a clue.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles began as a comic book(a much more violent and disturbing comic book) and became extremely successful and popular due to a self-titled morning cartoon show. Like everything else in the 90s it had to have not only a television show, but a board game, t-shirts, jewelry, a series of video games, and spin-off toys guaranteed to catapult a child from excitement to tears on Christmas morning.
There were a few different games, but today we are reviewing the arcade port of the Turtles in Time “episode.” So let’s take a journey with a few pizza eating turtles, through time!
Storyline
After a hard day of training, chowing down on pizza, exchanging hilarious quips and whatever else New Yorkers do. The Turtles sit down to watch catch their favorite news anchor on television. Before their very eyes Krang (who now has wings) makes off with the entire statue of liberty! Shredder immediately takes credit for it and the TMNT team is off to catch him. They eventually catch up to Shredder and seemingly defeat him. However he has one last trick up his sleeve. It’s all been a trap!
Uh…thanks Admiral “after the fact.” Anyway, he opens a portal in time and slings the Turtles into it. The TMNT team must fight their way through different time periods in order to get back to present day New York!
Cast of Characters
The playable characters are Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael. April O’neil and Master Splinter makes an appearance as well as several villains from the show.
GAMEPLAY
The infamous screen toss! The controls are great, extremely fluid. If you want to sling your swords around you can do that, somebody comes up from behind? BAM! Kick to the chin while you still face the other way. Oh that bad guy’s getting on your nerves? Sling him into the screen! The controls for this gameplay are amazing. Very inventive for its time period. Not to mention it’s a giant mess of four player, beat-em up, Turtle-ey goodness!
Graphics
The graphics are great for the time. The backgrounds are simple but well done. The picture up there clearly shows the Empire State Building lit up as it is at night. That’s a nice touch to add to the great animation that’s going on. It really looks just like the cartoon show, and that’s really what you need when creating a game like this, and for the techies-
Raster graphics
Horizontal orientation
Resolution: 288×224 pixels
Refresh rate: 60.00 Hz
2048 colors
MUSIC
The music is great. Why? Because it’s the music from the actual television show, changed to reflect the period of time that you are playing in at the time!
The Test Of Time
Sit down around the SNES and play this little ditty. Seriously you will have some of the most fun ever. Side-scrollers are oft forgotten in this generation, which is sad because they were some of the greatest games to play. Especially the 4 player beat-em ups. Yes it’s very fun to snipe your friend in the head on HALO, but teaming up with him to take down Shredder is even more fun! Wave after wave of enemies through different time periods, as well as different difficulty levels will keep you busy for some time.
Final Score
Five stars! Great controls, cool comic book storyline, multi-player, and you can throw people into the screen! How cool is that? Unfortunately if it were released today I don’t think it would get a chance. Ah such is life. If you get a chance get this game and play with a friend!
Thanks for reading!
Sincerely,
Brian Bell-Wiseguy Industries
Wiseguy Industries Media 