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[Jobbs]

Stumbled on this article on Readretro.

Welcome to RETRO Regrets, where we take a look at classic games that had potential but, for one reason or another, fell just a bit short of glory. The goal here is to look over what the featured title did wrong, what it could have been, and some alternatives that are worth checking out.

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I find articles like this to be a good read, particularly because I have so many memories tied into this game. That said, I completely disagree with the article.

I had the game as a child. I still remember when I got it -- It was Christmas eve, and in those days we always went over to my grandmother's house and opened some gifts there on Christmas Eve. My grandmother had a sense of humor, and decided to give me a wrapped box of socks. Underneath all the socks, though, was a mouser toy and this game. She knew I was a TMNT fan, like any 8 year old circa 1990, and I was ecstatic.

So ecstatic was I that many particular individual memories from that night are still emblazoned in my head. I remember staring at the box on the way home, wondering why all the turtles had red headbands (like many people my age, I mainly just knew TMNT from the cartoon series and the toys). I remember running to the NES. I remember falling in the water a lot.

In the days and years to come, this game was played a lot before it was eventually beaten. That's just how things were back then. Games were tough, games were obtuse, and resources and information to make it easier weren't always readily available. So, yeah, I did the seaweed thing trying to get to the bombs. I remember that. Most guys my age seem to remember that! I even remember AVGN's single tile jump you have to *walk* over. I remember all of it.

But I never hated the game. I was never even angry at it. I never considered it a bad game. Whenever this game is examined now, it seems to always be a foregone conclusion that it's bad. That the arcade game was better.

I was excited to play the arcade game, sure, like anyone else. Ultimately, though, it didn't take me long to realize that it just wasn't as engaging. It didn't have the same ups and downs, the same challenge. It was fun to bash badguys with your friends, but beating the shit out of rocksteady or shredder never elicited from me the same highs as finding a pizza for my lowest health turtle and bringing him back from the brink, or finding the passage that led to the technodrome, or, yeah, getting to the bombs in time.

 

[Downhome]

I love/loved this game. When it was released it was one of my favorite NES games and I played the heck out of it. I have never understood the hate that it gets. I remember back then I didn't know ANYONE that hated it. All of my friends loved it, we loved playing it. It was only years later when I discovered the internet that I realized that there was a reputation with the game among a large group of gamers. I don't get it.

I have nothing but great memories of it.

 

[BigJonsson]

AVGN nailed it years ago

 

[FaultTolerance]

I played the hell out of this game and even mastered the underwater level where you have to disarm the bombs. It was very difficult, but I did manage to get pretty far.

Never beat it though.

 

[Jobbs]

I played the hell out of this game and even mastered the underwater level where you have to disarm the bombs. It was very difficult, but I did manage to get pretty far.

Never beat it though.

Getting inside the technodrome and not getting much further than that was sort of the barrier for a number of years -- We eventually beat it, though. Weird to think how things used to be -- How beating a game was far from a foregone conclusion. I never beat Mike Tyson as a child, for example (I was able to do it later as an adult).

 

[bobawesome]

This was one of the few NES games we had growing up. Even 5 year old me knew it was terrible.

 

[shuri]

The AVGN, as usual, made a big case of 'problems' with the game that were not as big as they really were. The dude plays a persona and obviously screws up on purpose and makes games look much harder than they are.

tmnt nes was incredible when it came out and the graphics were very distinctive. I remember being impressed by it; the engine felt superior to other action titles available at the time on the NES. It came out during the second or third wave of nes titles and the feeling of the game was amazing.

The game was hard but it was just like that back then. The dam level is incredible easy once you figure out the path to take.

The intro sequence was the shit. I still have the music burned into my head.

I honestly don't remember if the first TMNT arcade game was out at the same time; but konami eventually ported it as TMNT2. The game was so much easier; I could finish it without losing a life

 

[FaultTolerance]

Getting inside the technodrome and not getting much further than that was sort of the barrier for a number of years -- We eventually beat it, though. Weird to think how things used to be -- How beating a game was far from a foregone conclusion. I never beat Mike Tyson as a child, for example (I was able to do it later as an adult).

It's the reverse for me. I was able to beat Tyson as a child, but I couldn't dream of doing it now. My hands start sweating just thinking about it...

 

[Why would you do that?]

As someone who's not a beat-em-up fan, I really liked this game and I still like it more than any subsequent Turtles games. My favorite part of it is the Technodrome fight.

I can consistently beat it up to the area right before the final boss. That area is pretty much impossible... I've never reached the final boss.

It'll be fun to read this article to see another's detailed account of the game.

The intro sequence was the shit. I still have the music burned into my head.

This is totally true. The music made it all the better, too.

 

[G-Fex]

I wish I was good at it. I've enjoyed watching people beat it.

It's probably the only good TMNT action-adventure game that isn't a beat-em up. They all just copped out afterward and became beat-em ups.

 

[Phil S.]

My older brother beat that game way back when. It was exciting seeing parts of the game that were impossible for us to reach or even see before. I kept thinking, "Please don't die. Please don't die."

At the same token, his trademark seems to be beating bad games (subjective and all that, as some folks like the NES original TMNT), as he even 1000/1000'd the 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog. Perhaps TMNT was the start of tradition. hee

EDIT:

I wish I was good at it. I've enjoyed watching people beat it.

It's probably the only good TMNT action-adventure game that isn't a beat-em up. They all just copped out afterward and became beat-em ups.

There was that one Game Boy one which was like a Metroid, I think. It was one of the Turtles saving the others, and as you saved them they became playable.

 

[BigJonsson]

Everyone had the same reaction to TMNT 2 though, "OH MY GOD IT'S THE ARCADE!!!!!"

 

[InfiniteCombo]

I used to be angry at this game, because it was hard. But then I wasn't mad anymore, because the game has so much charm. It's too bad Nintendo de-listed it from their Wii Virtual Console lineup. It would allow me a "get off my lawn" moment when showing off the game to younger family members: "Look, this is what we had to deal with back in my day..."

 

[Mihos]

I remember beating it... but I remember also remember booting it up to play it to show I could beat and failing miserably.

So fuck that game

Spoiler

I love that game

 

[brandonh83]

I could always get to this bigger open city environment with rooftops and stuff beyond the dreaded dam level but never any further than that.

It was a really interesting, unique game. I liked it a lot. Hard as all hell and problematic but very cool.

 

[shuri]

http://youtu.be/znQTfo4uuKY

Awww yiiiiiss.

 

[Jobbs]

http://youtu.be/znQTfo4uuKY

Awww yiiiiiss.

Seriously, one of the greatest game intros ever.

 

[Why would you do that?]

I love the music in this game, but speaking of Turtles NES music, III has the best by far. I used to pester my brother to beat the game with me just so I could hear the credits music. (But then I learned about the Konami code.)

 

[Krejlooc]

I had the IBM DOS version of this game. Many of the problems in the NES version are exasperated in the DOS version, and a lot of the tricks, like using Donatello to easily beat rocksteady, weren't possible in that version.

Many years later, when I played the NES version, I found it to be a cakewalk in comparison.

 

[cheststrongwell]

Man, this game was hard as hell. I could never make it past that top down night level(I think it was night time.)

 

[shuri]

Whoever was doing the music behind those games really had a distinctive 'Konami/ultra' sound.

 

[KaYotiX]

Loved the game as a kid

I eventually got so good at it I could speed run it for friends who never made it past the Dam stage lol.

Haven't touched it in forever but it has a special place in my heart.

 

[G-Fex]

There was that one Game Boy one which was like a Metroid, I think. It was one of the Turtles saving the others, and as you saved them they became playable.

Actually yeah I need to really play through that. It looks so awesome in it's map layout. I hope it's good.

 

[DimmuBurgerKing]

I always loved this game, and I still replay it. I like the "dark" tone and color palette, the challenge, pretty much everything about it. One of the few games my dad recorded me playing on VHS, which I still have!

I don't know what it is about that water level, but I got the hang of it pretty early on as a kid, and it hasn't given me very much trouble as an adult either. So I dunno!

 

[kejigoto]

This was one of the first games I got my NES as a kid that I remember outside of the usual Mario affair and I can safely say I hated it as a child. I was a huge TMNT fan too. I watched the show, had all the action figures and vehicles, ate the cereal, had the other various toys, my life was all about these guys. But this game... Ugh... I would pick it up every so often thinking "Okay this will be the time that I actually fall in love with it." But it never happened.

While the music was great and the graphics were good for the time I hated the level design and over all difficulty of it. It just never gave me that feeling that I was actually in control of one of the Turtles. I never felt like I was truly fighting like a ninja either, just trying to avoid all the stupid stuff that came my way while I blindly wandered through the game wondering what the hell was going on.

Of course there is the infamous underwater stage which I could get through but it took so many tries that shortly after getting through it I just wanted to stop playing. This game just never clicked with me and I never actually beat it because of this.

On the flip side anytime I went to the arcade one of my first stops was always the Turtles beat 'em up which I absolutely loved. There was always a good chance all my money was going into that machine and when I got that for the NES, as well as the subsequent sequels, it felt like the TMNT game I had always wanted.

 

[GuitarAtomik]

I loved the game up until the seaweed part and the open driving part where you were SOL if you ran out of missiles. I always began to hate the shit out of it during that point. That said, I would always restart it again once I died and enjoy the game from the beginning until I reached that point again.

 

[brandonh83]

They made April's boobs hilariously enormous in the Arcade Game for NES.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HStAtPp_Ilk 18:50

 

[BJK]

I could always get to this bigger open city environment with rooftops and stuff beyond the dreaded dam level but never any further than that.

It was a really interesting, unique game. I liked it a lot. Hard as all hell and problematic but very cool.

This. I never knew where to go in the level where you were driving around in the Turtle van. The dam level took some practice, but it was doable.

 

[G-Fex]

They made April's boobs hilariously enormous in the Arcade Game for NES.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HStAtPp_Ilk 18:50

and i'm not seeing what's wrong with this?

 

[DimmuBurgerKing]

The fun thing about the van's missiles, though, for level 3 is if you got to one of the buildings that had 'em, you could always just grab more. Everything in that game respawned. Same with the Scrolls, the subweapon that sends those purple.. energy wave.. things. I used to go back and grab them until each turtle had 99 scrolls. Made Shredder cake.

 

[brandonh83]

and i'm not seeing what's wrong with this?

Nowhere in my post did I say this was wrong. It's as right as rain.

 

[AlexBasch]

Playing this after 2: The Arcade game was really, really difficult.

 

[Jobbs]

The fun thing about the van's missiles, though, for level 3 is if you got to one of the buildings that had 'em, you could always just grab more. Everything in that game respawned. Same with the Scrolls, the subweapon that sends those purple.. energy wave.. things. I used to go back and grab them until each turtle had 99 scrolls. Made Shredder cake.

van was badass.

I remember positive associations with the cutscene showing the turtle getting home to find splinter gone.. because it was the cutscene you saw after disarming the time bombs.

and then shredder delivers a message from the TV somehow, and his hand somehow comes out of the screen as he points at you.

 

[Rival]

I loved this game. It was hard but comparable to a lot of games from that era. I was able to beat it many times. I still have my copy
I also remember being more disappointed in tmnt 2 because it was very downgraded from the actual arcade game.

 

[Ifrit]

I love/loved this game. When it was released it was one of my favorite NES games and I played the heck out of it. I have never understood the hate that it gets. I remember back then I didn't know ANYONE that hated it. All of my friends loved it, we loved playing it. It was only years later when I discovered the internet that I realized that there was a reputation with the game among a large group of gamers. I don't get it.

I have nothing but great memories of it.

Agree 100%, the game is great. Pretty good challenge

You're fucked if you don't bring scrolls to the technodrome though

 

[Measley]

I loved this game.....

Until I played the Arcade game after the first TMNT movie.

 

[Aeana]

You can always find out who actually played this game as a child by how they react to this music. If they dive under the covers and assume the fetal position, then you've got a match.

 

[Lumpy Onion]

I always liked this game. I never owned it but probably rented it like 6 times, yet never even made it to the final stage. Damn challenging and really satisfying when you made progress.

It also had some really meaty Konami music. A lot of funky and truly badass tunes. Although I love the arcade game I think this is overall a better game because it wasn't as much of a quarter muncher by design.

 

[G-Fex]

Nowhere in my post did I say this was wrong. It's as right as rain.

Don should've motorboated

 

[MrCunningham]

AVGN nailed it years ago

His "review" of the game pretty much nailed it for me. Right down to the "you can just walk over it?" moment. Everything he did in that review pretty well summed up every feeling I had for the game when I was a kid.

Though in all honesty, when i played this game back in the day, most of its faults didn't even register with me. I actually kind of liked it until TMNT II on the NES came out. and then I really started to evaluate the first one. Manhattan Project on the NES was fantastic as well.

 

[Krejlooc]

You can always find out who actually played this game as a child by how they react to this music. If they dive under the covers and assume the fetal position, then you've got a match.

I played this game as a kid and this music does nothing for me

Spoiler

because it's not in the dos version

 

[Cormano]

I really liked this game as a kid.

Couldnt beat it though, made it to the technodrome though.

 

[Kagoshima_Luke]

Don should've motorboated

He did. They cut that part for the western release.

 

[Apt101]

I thought it was cool as a kid, really enjoyed the exploration aspects and driving around in the turtle van. Harder than cock though, one of the few NES games I played but never finished.

 

[Jobbs]

I thought it was cool as a kid, really enjoyed the exploration aspects and driving around in the turtle van. Harder than cock though, one of the few NES games I played but never finished.

cock's not always hard!

any of you guys actually remember the ending? if you make it through the hellish technodrome (and the time bombs and all the other hurdles along the way) -- basically what happens is

Spoiler

splinter says thanks and turns into a human. because, you know, that's a thing. shredder was apparently forcing him to maintain his rat form.

funniest damn NES ending ever. at least, one of.

NES games were always about the journey. the journey was its own reward (which is why Rush'n'Attack's relatively elaborate ending stood out so much, but that's another thread).

(edit: I looked it up and R'N'A's ending isn't as elaborate as I remembered it being -- I guess mega man games would be a better example)

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Getting inside the technodrome and not getting much further than that was sort of the barrier for a number of years -- We eventually beat it, though. Weird to think how things used to be -- How beating a game was far from a foregone conclusion. I never beat Mike Tyson as a child, for example (I was able to do it later as an adult).

I totally know what this means too. Although growing up I thought I was good at everything but there were those few games that frustrated and never were beat due to issues like TMNT. In hindsight, some are easier than I remember now as an adult.

 

[DimmuBurgerKing]

You can always find out who actually played this game as a child by how they react to this music. If they dive under the covers and assume the fetal position, then you've got a match.

Was it really that hard for people? My 7-8 year old self overcame it after a couple of tries, no lie. All it takes is correctly timing your A button presses. :S

 

[Skiptastic]

The intro music is pretty awesome, but the music in the overall game was distinctly missing the TMNT Theme Song notes throughout. Holy shit, did TMNT II and III make up for this.

I hated the water level and didn't have patience for much past that. Never beat it. When TMNT II came to the NES, that was my jam. Such a great game, and TMNT III is a forgotten gem on the NES. Took the TMNT II formula and absolutely crushed it.

 

[Maxim726X]

I love/loved this game. When it was released it was one of my favorite NES games and I played the heck out of it. I have never understood the hate that it gets. I remember back then I didn't know ANYONE that hated it. All of my friends loved it, we loved playing it. It was only years later when I discovered the internet that I realized that there was a reputation with the game among a large group of gamers. I don't get it.

I have nothing but great memories of it.

I played the shit out of it too... But let's not pretend that the game wasn't broken. I would love to go back and see how hard it is now, but I remember I couldn't beat it without Game Genie.

 

[MisterM]

I had the Commodore 64 version which makes the NES version look next gen in comparison. I liked it but never got far as it was stupidly difficult.