SNES Review 131: Teenage Mutant Hero/Ninja Turtles 4: Turtles in Time

The Teenage Mutant Ninja or for us in the UK Hero Turtles was one of those huge things you just couldn't escape when I was younger. I remember one Christmas they were the in thing to have, to the degree that people were fighting over the figures and some stores were even putting limitations on how many you could buy. I remember my mum bless her took my older brother and cued for hours just to get 4 Turtles related Figures for me for Christmas, she couldn't even get the Turtles and ended up importing American Turtle figures which was actually awesome as they ended up being a little different to my friends figures mostly the fact they had more menacing eyes I guess it was because they were Ninja not heroes. The theme tune to the show was burned into all of our young brains and we would frequently scream out phrases like Turtle Power or Cowabunga, heck I remember doing a dance and singing to Turtle power with 4 friends in a school assembly, I had half a barrel on my back as a shell and was Raphael because he was and still is my favourite. So I think you can see how much the Turtles meant to me, I had played the heck out of the original arcade game, I had the Sinclair Spectrum conversion of that on my shelf so when I found out that there was going to be a SNES game well I was super super excited. OK so I think that's given it away my review today is Turtles in Time. Its one of those games that when I started my attempt to review 150 games I didn't think I would ever review, sure I owned it as a kid and played the living heck out of it but I had swore I wouldn't review anything that I couldn't play on real hardware with a real cartridge I own (I have considered getting an Everdrive for my SNES and using this to review things I don't own but so late in the game that feels kind of like cheating). I had seen this online many times but it was commanding such a high price I couldn't justify grabbing it, It wasn't till a local store got a copy and I managed to talk them down from £40 to £30 that I got my hands on it again. So here we go lets see if I like it as much as I used to back in the day.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV Turtles in Time also known as Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles: IV Turtles in Time (in Europe) was originally an arcade  game produced by Konami and in fact was a sequel to the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) arcade game, and before coming to the SNES and it didn't have a number attached to it. The reason behind the number 4 is because there was a turtles game for the NES which was then followed up by a NES adaption of the Original Turtles arcade machine which went on to be called Teenage Mutant/Ninja Turtles 2 the Arcade game which was followed by another turtles game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project. The Manhattan Project was also a side-scrolling beat-'em-up made by Konami (only released in Japan and America though) The third turtles game features play mechanics similar to the previous game, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game, but it was an original title for the NES not an Arcade port. So for Nintendo gamers at least Turtles in Time was the 4th game, I guess in Europe they could have called it Turtles 3 but maybe they just figured lets not screw around with the title too much or it will only get confusing.

OK so the games story is that Shredder and Krang have stolen the Statue of Liberty, and just to make sure the Turtles are really interested they have also taken there friend April O'Neal hostage, they have done this to basically bait the Turtles so they can draw them out and try to kill them. So your probably wondering where the in time bit of the title comes from? Well that's because (Spoiler follows) when you catch up with him Shredder sends you through a time warp.  This is part of what I think really makes this game ace, the time periods which the turtles end up in are really different, there creative and I think they really help to keep things interesting. Yeah its not the biggest most spectacular plot in the world but its one which fits in well with the characters and makes you feel like your in the world of the show. This is really helped by the fact that the graphics in this game are bright and that everyone looks just like they do in the cartoon. You get to pick which Turtle you are so you can take the game on as your favourite or you can take it in turns to complete it as one turtle and then the next, on top of this there are all the villain characters a fan of the show could hope for, not only are Krang and Shredder present you will also see Beebop and Rocksteady, Baxter Stockman, Metalhead, the Rat King, Leatherhead, and Tokka and Rahzar. This made the young me very happy and you know what it also makes me geek out now when I play it, if there is anyone I could add to the game (as a playable character) it would be Casey Jones as I always thought he was great, but in honesty I cant moan about who is featured at all the game has the perfect cast of characters.

I really like the graphics in this game its not just that they are bright, or that things are correct to the cartoon, its just everything about the games graphics, the backgrounds, the attention to details. Not only are the Turtles done perfectly you also have the awesome option to make the characters look more like they did in the comic books, this is something that they really didn't have to put into the game but they did and its just such a neat little touch for the die hard Turtle fans. Like I have mentioned above the game is just so filled with characters but they are all also brilliant to look at, its great to see  the Turtle's expressions when they get, hit or  shocked,  or flattened, or fall down a hole, etc. I don't believe that graphics make a game but by heck do they help make a good game even better.

This game is not just a pretty looker though it also has some darn good toe tapping tunes which really help go with the tempo and feel of the on screen action and yes they do throw the animated 80's cartoon theme song in there as well. Play the game for awhile and you'll soon find yourself humming bits of tunes in your day to day life which I always take as the sign of a good soundtrack, the fact that it stays with you after your done playing. The boss music is great it has that brilliant frantic feeling to it but well its a shame it gets reused so much, I would have liked to see individual end of level bosses actually have there own themes but this is the smallest of nit picks after all you know if I am mentioning things like this its because I don't have any really deep criticisms to make. The sound effects are good as well you have the usually noises you get when your hitting an enemy or they are hitting you, noises that reflect the fact you have picked up a power up, yelps of pain and I love the Cowabunga the turtles shout when you finish a level.

OK so now its on to the most important part of a game the Gameplay, and I am happy to say that I think the game plays amazingly. The controls are simple but this means that anyone can pick it up and get right into the game withing minutes and the Turtles do exactly what you want how you want and when you want. The main thing is that this game is just darn fun, its full of character handles well and really draws you into its world.The levels are pretty much medium in length but this is a good thing they feel reasonably long but they never out stay there welcome. So you start the game up watch a quick but cool intro and pick your Turtle. You then do what you do in most beat em ups walking from left to right beating the heck out of who ever crosses your path, most of the standard grunts in this are the Foot clans  Foot Soldiers who you will recognise from the show, different coloured members have different weapons and attack patterns but these are the games go to grunts with a sprinkling of robots mousers and things thrown in. The levels have various traps for you to avoid but generally its a case of getting attacked by wave after wave of enemies, one of the neat things is that you can get your enemies to walk into swinging traps and laser beams. After a bit you'll reach a boss, beat the boss and you'll move on to the next level. in some causes its not just a boss its two bosses who you fight together for example Beebop and Rocksteady, the more you play it the more you will get there patterns down and the quicker you'll be able to beat them. Sure it might not be anything to far removed from most of the scrolling beat em ups from the 16bit generation but its one which Konami clearly did with a lot of love and polish and I think that it stands up as one of the best, in fact I would argue the only way to beat this game would be to turn off your SNES plug in a megadrive and put on some Streets of Rage 2.

Part of me just wants to give this game a 10 out of 10, I think its a lot of fun to play, I think it has great replay value and I can very warmly say that I feel super happy to have it back in my collection. I do admit that I have certain biases one of which being that I love this kind of game, I am a huge mark when it comes to side scrolling walk along beat em ups, I am also a massive Turtle fan, so its almost as if this game is made for me. Put simply I am going to give it a 10 out of 10 with the understanding that I have laid out all of my biases and that if your not into the Turtles or into this kind of game then it wont tick all the same boxes for you, but even so I think it is one of the very finest examples of its genre. Now if you want to buy it well as I said my copy cost me £30, its one of the unfortunate parts of being a retro gamer some of the old classics now cost you an arm and a leg, there are copies of this from all regions going for all sorts of prices online so if you see a copy of this for around the £30 price point then dive on it as your sure to see lots of people trying to get figures like £85 even for a loose cart and with it being a license its not likely to end up on compilations or anything like that any time soon. Of course there are other ways it could be sampled but I think we all know what they are by now. OK I have a desire to go get some Pizza so.....Cowabunga!

Megadrive Box art, my love of the Japanese art: Teenage Mutant Ninja/Hero Turtles Tournament Fighters

So I figured I would keep on pumping out posts about Box art mostly because I love it, its a cool mix of art and advertising which I think often does not get the credit it deserves. Now the thing you need to remember is that back when these MegaDrive games were coming out there wasnt the internet like there is today, sure there were a few magazines which you could get information from and the odd TV programme now and then but the front Cover of a game was arguably much more important when it came to selling games.

Recently I have been watching a lot of a programme called Cake Wars with my girlfriend, now you might be wondering how thats relevent but hear me out. In cake wars four teams will be given a topic and they have to make a cake which fits this topic, now as you watch these cakes being made and decorated then even before the judges go near them you will have decided which one you like, which one you hate, which should win, why it should win. You get used to seeing certain things though and hearing certain terms. One of the things you always hear is that the cake must tell a story and there must be a sense of movement (They also say it must be obvious what the cake is made for). This is one of the things that made me think about Video game box art again, I wonderd if the stuff I liekd the most told a story and/or contained a sense of movment.

Well the cover is very obviously for Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles Tournament Fighter, what with the words being on the cover, in fact to my knowledge no game has been released without its title being on the box so thats kind of a given. There is a large Turtle face in this case Raphiel and there is also an image of him clearly fighting with an enemy and the fight does have a good sense of movement. Yet despite all of this 9I find it rather dissapointing, there are after all 4 Turtles and a number of other characters, if something is Turtles related then you kind of expect to see the 4 of them. One more thing I have to add bonus points for though is the Turtle on show being shown with the pure white more serious and dangerous looking eyes I think this being a fighting game thats the kind of right way to go  with the characters as apposed to the more comical cartoon varients.

The American case has the same basic art work but with a red border piece and a white back, it has a few more screenshots but thats because it doesnt have to have the same information on it again and again like the European one does with there being mutliple languages. I basically see these two cases as more or less equal though, there basically slight varients on the same theme. I dont have much to say that I havent said above so lets leave this one here.

Ok so I will off the bat just straight up admit that this cover the Japense one is my favourate cover, it has all 4 Turtles on it and 4 other fighters, you can see the action of Leanardo slashing with his sword and other characters brandisdhing there weapons, its almost like they are going to rush out of the cover and towards you and I think that makes it feel epic. It is not without fault though, the main thing being that the turtles have actual human style cartoon eyes so look a little less menacing than they could, also when you look at the Turtles skin theyve been given these spots of diffrent coloured skin which almost makes them look a bit like little old bald green men.

So I figured that I wanted to do my own Custom cover, basically it is what I would have liked to see be the European cover if it had been up to me. I kept the originals back and spine as I didnt have any issues with either of them, to me they were both classic MegaDrive. I then took the Japanese front cover and made a few alterations, for one I removed the Japense writing but then I made two stylistic changes, for one I gave the Turtles the plain white Styles eyes, but I also smoothed out there skin to remove the ''liver'' spots. So what does everyone think, which is the best cover for this game, which one would have had you pulling it down off the store shelves and taking it to the counter?