Game Debate #42: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES)

[Reed Rothchild | 9,518]

[Gloves | 11,771]

I really like this game personally, but it's pretty objectively unfair from around mid-game on. Mmmm, a bit hard to rate this one for me. 

[MagusSmurf | 577]

Whatever happens, we have got
Donatello, and they have not.

[WhyNotZoidberg | 585]

7 for me. Super good game.

I had written on NA that if this didn't have the TMNT license and had sold poorly, MetalJesus would have included it in a video and it would be worth $100+ today. It's a very competent action platformer.

[YOURTURN | 1,256]

6/10.

It partially defined my NES collecting/playing days, but was also became a game I never finished. Even when I got to the final level. Despite that, it also tends to be a fun game to play.

[Hammerfestus | 3,833]

I went with 7.  Wasn’t super sure with my rating as it’s been a lot of years since I played more than like 15 minutes into it.  I used to really enjoy it once I got the hang of it.  

[Jeevan | 8,910]

Went with a 9 kuz i love the game!!!  Hard as a kid, hard today, but worth a play  

[Estil | 1,264]

One thing I thought that was really puzzling back in the day (sadly I didn't have my own copy at the time, I could only rent once in awhile) is how it was much harder for the Turtles to swim (Level 2) than Mario.  I mean, didn't Donatello in that one episode say that water was their natural habitat?

[Nintegageo | 582]

I chose 8. It is a good game.

Edited March 25, 2021 by Nintegageo

[Kguillemette | 1,544]

6/10. Solid action/platformer with some very memorable tunes backing it up. Its not Konami's best work though.

[croagunk | 798]

I give it 6/10. It’s tricky sometimes, but it’s a solid game.

[SilverspoonGaming | 332]

This is one of my all time favorite games, but I probably wouldnt be as crazy about it if it wasnt based on the turtles as Im a huge turtle freak.  Instead of beat em up games, they should remake this game with some rpg elements and it could possibly be the best game ever made.

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

Rated it an 8. It's a wonderful game. 

[AstralSoul | 502]

I have it a 6 because I don't love it and I find it really hard but it's not a bad game. It's nostalgic to me and I do like playing it, it's just too difficult for me to love and want to play it more.

[Webhead123 | 675]

7/10

It's actually a pretty solid early title for the NES, only soured by some general buggy-ness, slow-down and rather unfair difficulty in the later stages. Oh...and the unfortunate lack of a multi-player option.

But it was a game I've enjoyed for a long time and one of the first games I got on my NES, actually. While Stage 3 was occasionally obnoxious, the hair-pulling really begins in Stage 4 and 5. I've never gotten further than that.

But it has some pretty respectable graphics for its time and incredibly iconic music.

[JamesRobot | 5,793]

The first Turtles game.  IncrediIncredibly significant if you ask me.  One would have to give it a 10 based on that alone.

[Quest4Nes | 376]

10 minutes ago, JamesRobot said:

The first Turtles game.  IncrediIncredibly significant if you ask me.  One would have to give it a 10 based on that alone.

Rate based on your own personal preferences, NOT historical significance

 

Are people ever going to read the first line.

[Tanooki | 4,932]

I can look beyond the pure concentrated evil spots of the game, like the dam/swimming stage to be fair about it.  I did finished it decades ago, not happening or even close now though.  It's a damn hard game, but it's not an unfair game.  It's good, but definitely NOT great, it has little issues (dam aside) that keep it from greatness.

Web's post an hour before mine just a few up, that nails it.  I hadn't read his until I got this far, and yeah it saved me from typing a re-run. "only soured by some general buggy-ness, slow-down and rather unfair difficulty in the later stages. "  That sums it up perfectly.

Truth be told, I rarely got games from relatives in the day, mostly just was my parents.  My uncle he got me that and Festers Quest one year, finished both, repeatedly in those days, but I did like both a lot, just TMNT better.  I don't own Fester anymore, if I ever bumped into it I'd grab it, but I wouldn't pay for it online as it's just goddamn evil worse than TMNT on difficulty in unfair ways, and the bugs that compound it too.

[Dr. Morbis | 2,088]

Awesome game that I use as a benchmark to tell if someone really is an NES gamer or just some Johnny-come-lately who's playing retro games 'cause it's cool.  The latter like TMNT II and pretty much any other generic beat 'em up infinitely better, but guys who like to delve into original, interesting, difficult-but-fair NES games will prefer the first Turtles game, Bar-none.

[phart010 | 1,707]

8. 

Some parts of the game are epic, like the Technodrome battle, the giant Mouser, the rooftop section

[fox | 1,665]

Prefer the Beat ‘Em Ups, might even prefer Tournament Fighter

Pretty generic platformer, that isn’t the best designed or playing one out there either.

That overworld theme is low key fire.

[PII | 1,884]

One of my Faves and one of a few in my O.G collection that I didn't beat as a young-un.  Fantastic trainer for enemy combat/avoidance.  Much more variety in the game play than meets the eye at an initial glance.  Techno-drome Battle was legendary...

[Webhead123 | 675]

2 hours ago, Dr. Morbis said:

...TMNT II...

Nobody ever seems to talk about it but there's a crippling hit-detection problem in TMNT II that has always prevented me from really enjoying the game, returning to it as an adult. The way it behaves seems like an intentional design-choice rather than a bug because of how precisely consistent it is but it throws the game's flow way off and feels kinda cheaply-unfair. There's a small window (maybe close to a full second) after you land a hit on most enemies where your attacks will always miss. What this does is not only allows enemies the occasional chance to get cheap hits on you but also force you into a "hit, back off, hit, back off" play style that just bogs the game down.

I loved, loved, LOVED the arcade version and my younger self probably overlooked this horrendous problem for the sheer fact that it was Turtles on my NES but today, whenever I hear people praise TMNT II over the first NES game, I wince and grit my teeth and wonder if I'm really the only one who finds it so frustrating to play today.

Thankfully, TMNT III fixes all of that nonsense.

Edited March 26, 2021 by Webhead123

[Estil | 1,264]

7 hours ago, CodysGameRoom said:

Rated it an 8. It's a wonderful game. 

Well I would hope so if you have a Turtle as your icon!

Incidentally my 41st  birthday was last March 22...would you believe on my exact 11th birthday, 30 years ago (I got my very own copy of SMB3 as my main birthday present; score!!) was when the second TMNT movie came out?  No foolin'!  Me and my wife watched that movie and the first on together so that she can experience how exciting it must have been for 11 year old me to see it for the first time, and of course who could forget one of the most iconic pop culture moments of the early 90s?  

You often hear people lament that they were "born in the wrong time period"...well I think in many ways (especially in terms of video game history) I was born at pretty much exactly the right time!  

Edited March 26, 2021 by Estil

[Estil | 1,264]

3 hours ago, Webhead123 said:

Thankfully, TMNT III fixes all of that nonsense.

First time I rented it (again didn't have my own copy of very many NES games back then  ) I was amazed at how the graphics looked.  I couldn't believe they could be like that on the NES.