Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - The Arcade Game

After the success of the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game released for the NES, Konami was fast to produce a new game with the green heroes. This time they developed it for coin-operated machines. It was a simple side-scrolling brawl game in the style of Final Fight and Ninja Gaiden. Besides that this kind of game was becoming more and more popular, the graphic capabilities of the arcade machines allowed the characters to look as nice as the ones from the animated series. That made the game much more commercial and attractive, especially for cartoon fans. There were versions of machines that could support two or even up to four players, each playing with a different turtle. The game was released in 1989, in the same year and under the same name as the first game. Since the first game was already ported to other platforms, the ports of the arcade game had different names, like TMNT, TMNT 2 or Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, and usually with the subtitle The Arcade Game. This caused lot of confusion since the two different games had the same or similar names.

Just like in the first TMNT game, April has been kidnapped and you are going on a rescue mission, afterwards you'll have to save Splinter, and in the end attack the Technodrome itself. The majority of the enemies are Foot Clan ninjas carrying different weapons. Different levels include building interiors, streets, sewers, a weapons factory and the Technodrome. All level bosses are characters from the cartoon series: Bebop and Rocksteady, Baxter Stockman, Lieutenant Granitor, General Traag, Krang and finally Shredder. The Turtles can perform different kinds of attacks by pressing only one fire button. The attacks change automatically as you keep hitting the enemies multiple times; the turtles can also attack while jumping. Raphael’s and Michelangelo’s attacks are faster and shorter, Donatelo’s attacks are longer and slower while Leonardo is somewhere in between. However, those differences are now barely important, unlike in the first game. During the levels there may be things like road signs and water hydrants that you can hit and use on your behalf. Also, you may see some funny comments in certain situations.

The DOS version came out in 1991 and 1992, depending on the release. Graphic are up to the standards for the time; everything looks nice and even cut-scenes pictures are included. The scrolling of the screen is different, with screen-scrolling in segments when you reach the right edge of the screen. The only technical drawback is the lack of background music, which does lower the impression. Game controls are easy and now you are able to perform all the moves and jumping in addition to only one fire button, which requires minimal adaptation. All the levels and almost all the enemies and dangers from the arcade version are included, as well as the multiplayer option.

Besides the music, this conversion is missing something to be more than just a short term amount of fun. Enemies are acting too simply – most of the time you can just stand holding the fire button and watch enemies getting hit. If you are playing with your friend and can watch each others back, the game becomes too easy. Beside bosses, the only real danger are the enemies that can fire at you or throw their weapons. When they are close to you, they are much less dangerous. You can always keep on performing the flying kick if you feel there are too many of them around. This lack of challenge makes the game less entertaining. Also, another difference from the original version is that there is no temporary invulnerability. You can get hit while you are already suffering another hit or while you are knocked down. This may reduce a lot of your energy sometimes, which increases the hardness of the game a little, but is also very irritating.

This game will surely be interesting to the lovers of “beat ‘em up” games and turtle fans. Despite being easy and repetitive, the game is entertaining enough to play a few times, especially with a friend. Now for the first time on DOS you can play with the turtles focusing only on busting some Foot Clan asses. Fans of the cartoon series will surely enjoy it for a while.



If you don’t have joysticks, both players can play on keyboard.

Right keyboard set is Numpad and right Shift as the fire.

Left keyboard set are the letters: Q, W, E, A, D, Z, X, C and letter B as the fire.

Press up+fire to jump. Hold fire and up to keep jumping and hitting. Press left or right + up + fire key to jump and perform a flying kick.



Game is cracked. When asked for password, just enter any four digits and then choose the game settings.