Let’s take a trip down memory lane and play the OG home console TMNT NES game. This game gets a lot of hate, but does it deserve it? Some might disagree… let’s take a deep dive and disarm those bombs!
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – NES Retrospective
Let’s take a trip down memory lane and play the OG home console TMNT NES game. This game gets a lot of hate, but does it deserve it? Some might disagree… let’s take a deep dive and disarm those bombs!
Lol
The challenge was real. My brother and I teamed up and beat the game with just Michael alive and at 2 bars of health
I was always a fan of this one. I was definitely bothered it wasn't closer to the tv show when I was a kid and back in the day I remember feeling like the coolest kid in the world when I got TMNT 2 for my birthday so I preferred the beat em ups then but today, yeah I'm with you. I still like both 2 and 3 but they're definitely repetitive while this one offers fun challenge and changes things up along the way.
Beat-em ups tend to age the worst. You really have to be craving that specific gameplay loop to enjoy it, otherwise you’ll quit as soon as it gets boring.The first turtles game does have mechanical flaws, such as delayed inputs (sluggish controls) either by slowdown or just the weird learning curve to time your jumps. I can’t say that I enjoy playing it again as an adult, but it is on my to do list before I die, or see my kids go to college.
I really enjoy this game. I've finished it several times and it does provide a good challenge. I have one subtle gripe with this game that on the surface seems insignificant, but would've made this game far better in my humble opinion. If the enemies did not have invincibility frames. I-frames are the reason that Don is so far out in front of the other turtles in terms of power because his slow speed doesn't become a factor when the enemy can't be damaged. The enemy post hit invincibility lasts approximately one second. This essentially gimps the turtles that were meant to be faster, so everyone except Don! If you could dispatch a foot soldier with two quick swipes in rapid succession before he started getting all flippy dippy and jumping around, that would be amazing. If you could smack up chainsaw dude with a couple whacks before the dude could move, that would be awesome. My point being, the DPS loss these turtles suffer due to the I-frames makes their speed practically obsolete. Had they made that subtle change, we would've remember this game and the other three turtles way more fondly. Fun video 😀
LOL losing our virginity making us better at playing games haha.
I like the fact that you give your honest opinion about these games instead of just parroting the most popular YouTubers like most game reviewers. I often wonder if they ever actually even play the games they review? Anyway, subbed! Very good content man, keep it up!
This is the game of nightmares…the dam level is all I have to say. They had no mercy with NES games back in the day, you had a finite amount of lives that after depleting make you start over. If you lost an essential Turtle…or THE essential Turtle (Donatello) you were f'd. He had the only weapon that allowed you to cheat essentially with fights like Rocksteady just hitting downwards while he jumps into your hits. When you are stuck with Raphael and Michelangelo, you might as well restart…and that can be as early as just after the dam level.
Really, it's not that bad. And the underwater dam level, once you've completed that once or twice, you can do it every time, all the time. Hell, after a few tries, you can do it taking minimal damage.
This might be a dumb question but I always wondered why all the turtles have a red bandana on the cartridge art. I know in the original comic they were all red. It’s just weird that when playing the game they all have there separate colors but show them all with red on the cartridge.
Played the beat-em-up version first. Then got this one some time later. Was immensely disappointed but still played the crap out of it. I don't remember why. Maybe just because it was there? Anyway. The music just popped into my head out of now where a few months ago. I vaguely remember the AVGN video on this but still found myself wondering if people enjoyed this game anyway. I mean, it wasn't all bad.
I never got past the bomb part!!!! ÀAAAHHHH!!!🖕🖕🖕🖕
I know all americans are totally screwed
Anyone who owned the game on release never said it was bad to begin with. It has poor controls and the enemy respawning sucked but this game was in everyones house on release n we loved it😂forget about kids who started 10 years later on more advanced hardwares opinions, those are obsolete.
Hahahahah. That crusty old sports illustrated!
I loved this game as a kid I actually beat it too.
This game is tough as nails. Was never able to beat the 3rd level and that stupid sewer jump. The controls were terrible and even worse now after replaying on the Cowabunga collection.
The first three levels are pretty easy. It's once you get into the city after the water level that the game gets hard.
For the time it was good, hard as nails especially the underwater timed level, but still good
I never knew people disliked this game until YouTube. I still love it.
This was always my favorite Turtles game. I was never a huge fan of the beat’em ups, because they were better played with friends, and I didn’t always have people around to play with. I liked adventure, and got it with this game. I beat it several times as a teenager, and then a couple more times years later as an adult. I never found the game to be all that difficult, nor have I ever understood why so many people hated it. It will always have a special place in my heart, along with its amazing music.
I played Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – NES on Nintendo ds when I was teenager during high school year. I bought this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles bootleg NES GBA at Toy Kingdom on SM City Lucena in 2009. It really difficult than arcade TMNT but it's fun to play for me. 🙂
Thank you for your video. Before you start reading, please understand that I do like and appreciate your video, even though I disagree.
After playing the arcade game at a local liquor store as a kid (why did they put arcade games in liquor stores?!), we had high hopes for this NES release. My parents didn't buy us games, and I don't think renting games was a thing yet, and if it was I didn't know anything about it. Anyway, my neighbor got this game, and we were like, "What the Hell is this?" We hated it for not even resembling the arcade game we loved. We played it a lot because we didn't have access to many games. I actually beat it on original hardware as a kid.
The AVGN video is pretty spot on. Basically, the dam level determines whether or not you have a chance – it's so annoying and hard that it's not fun at all in my opinion. You're 'The Ninja Turtles', and you're swimming awkwardly while being electrocuted and disarming bombs that are just sitting there. Totally unsatisfying gameplay in my opinion. After than, good luck, and farm the scroll weapon where you can exploit the games respawn mechanics (I forget the places, but there are a couple). Get maximum scrolls for all turtles.
Having played this game A LOT, I can speak to all the turtles having a unique weapon: Donatello is the best, Leonardo is acceptable, and the other two suck. The problem isn't the core idea, which seems cool, it's that the enemies/enemy design just make a longer range the only real tangible advantage. The jump mechanic is actually nice, how you can time the length of your jump, but the game does some super cheap things with it, also as covered by the AVGN.
The music is pretty standard bad early NES music, but hey, this is a licensed game right? At least use the theme song. That first level music sounds like something for little kids, more appropriate for a Bubsy game or something. The rest is uh, not memorable to say the least. And the enemies… I'll always remember the enemies from the good games, but uh, when I occasionally fire this one up as an adult, I'm always like, "Oh yeah, that thing… it's a fire guy who has fire chicken legs come off it… and that other thing, what is it?" The enemies with the exception of the bosses make zero sense in this game.
This is a bad game. Not as bad as Dinowarz, which was a game I regrettably bought. But it is still bad, and it is 'that bad' in my opinion. I still like and appreciate your video.
I remember beating TMNT on NES back in 2020. Took me 20+ years but I managed to win. I take it over the 2 NES sequels. It's tough yet beatable like Ninja Gaiden or Silver Surfer.
I tried this game out not too long ago expecting nothing that good, but just started loving it more and more as I played.It’s an underrated gem for me
Yes… it is really that bad!
this game is a blast, and its one of those games that is in every retro game store for under $10
Like Simon's Quest this is much more enjoyable with the corresponding issue of Nintendo Power by your side… and a bowl of Ninja Turtle cereal.
Both James and Mike has pointed out that they actually like the game(For the most part) 😛
I'm more of an obscure NES game fan.. I like the odd ones like Deadly Towers and Whomp 'Em 😉 a lot of that has to do with nostalgia too, I grew up with a lot of games so the popular ones got as much attention as a lot of more uncommon games. Loved the original TMNT it was awesome, and one of my very first games. TMNT was one of my favorite things as a kid, the toys, cartoons, and the games!
Personally I have always loved that game… Definitely helped me build my skills back then as a player…
Gunsmoke
My 2 games as a kid also were SMB3 and TMNT. All the other games we had growing up were like tetris, Dr mario and The olympics one with the step pad… forgot what it was called. Anyways yeah this game was hard for me as a kid. I remember the first time i beat the dam and i was like man i hope thats it….. NOPE. lol I think the farthest i ever made it as a kid was the technodrome but died before ever getting to shredder.
I never hated this game as a 6-7 year old like a lot of people seemed to….
I've always liked this game as a kid. Only got to stage 4 once though. There are some tricks that make the game easier, like being able to walk across 1 tile gaps. The game actually tries to teach you that. Of course we didn't have the internet back then to look these things up lol.
Never owned this one myself but friends had it so i played it plenty. Could get past the dam but not much farther as I recall. For nintendo hard mine was Ghosts 'n Goblins when I was around 6 by that christmas afternoon I was back to super mario. Loved the humor 6:55 liked and subbed
No, its not.
Early in the Nerd’s career, he picked on games that were popular, rather than ones that were necessarily bad. The schtick was how frustrated someone could get with old video games, especially if they were hard. It was probably with Jekyll and Hyde that he pivoted to mainly bad games.
It became evident to me a few years back that most games that were "NES hard" were primarilly because I went to them from the simple gameplay of 2600 titles. I was an impatient child during the NES era and was usually playing the games like I was going for a speedrun. I didn't bother things like timing or patterns back then, and tried to brute force all progress. I was only completing a game back then if it had fairly generous health drops, or I could find an infinite lives code for my Game Genie.
Nice channel to randomly show up on my home page. Thanks Algo
Why does everyone hate this game? It was awesome!
I'm playing this while watching! Dam good video. New Sub! Keep em coming!
but the guy on youtube said its bad, that automatically means its bad and anyone who says otherwise is wrong, that's how it works
Aaah…I get it. The game the two games that hit me the most are Contra and Ninja Gaiden. I loved Ninja Gaiden so much that even though I got my Genesis on Christmas of 1989 I still couldn't put it down. I connected my new Sega Genesis up and went right back to playing Ninja Gaiden that Christmas Eve night. That's how hooked I was. 😉
Addendum- I like what I saw. Kind of like when your girl puts it in a ponytail and rides. Good stuff man. Subbed.