Reviews from

in the past


Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan is a classic Game Boy side-scroller that captures the spirit of the beloved turtles. While its graphics are simple and gameplay can feel repetitive at times, it offers a satisfying dose of ninja action. You'll battle through familiar foes and environments, switching between the four turtles to utilize their unique weapons. Short and straightforward, it's a nostalgic pick-up for both TMNT fans and those looking for a quick retro challenge.

this game can be beaten in like 30 minutes and feels less engaging than the Magnavox odessy game number 6

This game was to damn short barely even an hour long it was kind of sluggish running i didn't care much for the controls.

They tried so hard to make a fun turtles game on Game Boy. They all fell flat.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan Complete Playthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Xa0_gnzxcg

All things considered: a surprisingly playable and enjoyable little romp. The limitations of the Game Boy are self-evident, but you have nice, discernible sprites for all the characters you'd expect to see across multiple selectable levels. Boss fights are achievable and a complete playthrough could easily be handled on a one hour drive -- a good thing for a portable system. A non-essential entry, but still a pleasant surprise.


For every era of video games, there have always been key things that define those eras, whether it be the titles that had come out around that time, the new type of hardware that had come out and was the hottest thing at the time, and what genre was the most popular and prevalent to the public. For the 80s and 90s, the genre that defined that era would definitely be the platformer, and it is no mystery as to why that is. With games like Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog dominating the market, everyone wanted a shot at making a product on that same level of appeal and quality, resulting in many different games, franchises, and icons being created, with a good amount of those games, franchises, and icons still being relevant and/or beloved to this very day. However, while there were a lot of good platformers that came from this era, there certainly were a lot of mediocre or bad platformers that came out as well, to the point where it was almost like these games were just made in a factory, only providing the essentials, adding nothing more to make the experience more unique, and shipping it out to store shelves for a quick buck. One big example of one of these “factory-like” games is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan.

I have talked about a couple of TMNT games on this website so far, and based on what I have covered so far, I wasn’t all too impressed by what we had gotten here. We started out with an incredibly sloppy first title for the NES, and then shifted over to an arcade game, which, while better in every single way, still falls flat in several other areas, making it a game that I wouldn’t be so eager to come back to in later years. So, now that they had tried their hands at both a console game and an arcade game, I guess Konami figured that they should give the Game Boy a shot, just to make sure they cover all grounds for the rabid TMNT fans begging for more merchandise. So, we ended up getting this game, and it has absolutely nothing that makes it stand out from any other TMNT game so far, or even from any other game at that point. It may not have that many problems on a technical or gameplay perspective, but it is one of the most by-the-numbers, bland, and boring games from this era that I have ever played, even if it is just a TMNT game.

The story is incredibly generic, being pretty much exactly what you would expect from a game from this series from this era, so nothing more to say about that, the graphics are Game Boy graphics, but the sprites are pretty good, being detailed enough for both the turtles and the enemies and bosses you will be facing, the music is pretty good, having plenty of good tunes for being a Game Boy game, and having a good remix of the TMNT theme, the controls are simple enough, having a good jump, yet also having some of the most sluggish movement speed ever, but the levels are short enough, so it is fine, and the gameplay is exactly what you would expect for this title, with little else done to make it stand out from any other game at the time.

The game is your average 2D platformer, where you take control of one of the four turtles, go through a set of five stages, taking out every single enemy that will try to take you down, gather pizza along the way to keep your health bar full to help you out, and take on several stand-out characters from TMNT as bosses that stand in your way. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand that is it. Aside from some hidden minigames that you can find in the game, there is nothing else that this game offers when compared to other platformers at the time. This game is essentially an employee who works at a minimum wage job: it does what it is meant to do, does nothing else past what they are meant to do, and just leaves your mind right after you play it, leaving no lasting impression.

That being said, does that make the game bad? No, not at all. It is certainly a lot better then other licensed games at the time, there are no real problems to be found with the game itself, and if you are just looking for a simple platformer to blast through in a half-hour, there are certainly worse options out there. Not to mention, the game itself isn’t that hard, so it is pretty easy to pick-up and play, with no need to fear about any of that old-school bullshit a lot of games from this era has. It’s just the fact that, if you have played any other platformer of that era, then you won’t be getting anything new out of this one, and if you are someone who is expecting something more from this game… first of all, why would you, and second of all, then you will definitely be better off skipping this one.

Overall, despite being one of the most generic factory-made platformers of this era, the first TMNT game for the Game Boy certainly could have been a lot worse then this, and as a short little distraction, it was an ok distraction. I would recommend it for TMNT fans, as well as fans of this era of games, but again, for those who are wanting something more from these kinds of platformers from this era, then there is nothing for you here. Now, if we can just get a TMNT game that is anymore then just being simply “alright”, that would be great, ok, Konami? This isn’t the part of your career where you became a piece of shit company, so you should know better then this.

Game #345

Fall of the Foot Clan is one of the first TMNT games that the franchise has brought us. And it shows. But it's far from a bad game, considering that it was released in 1990 on a handheld console and thus had to succumb to many technical limitations. The music is memorable and catchy. On the other hand, it can be annoying at some point when the Turtles theme song in 8-bit starts over and over again in the loop. The levels vary between well-designed and dynamic and just a white background. The gameplay consists of pure reaction tests when tyres, mousers, foot soldiers and Roadkill Rodneys are thrown at you. There is no platforming or other gameplay where you have to think. Only in the boss fights should you take a quick look at how best to approach them, as well-known enemies like Beebop, Shredder and co. have to be hit several times and dodged between attacks. The game exudes a lot of Turtles charm with small cutscenes if you dare to get into the zeitgeist of the Gameboy. Unfortunately, the game is also over after a good 15-30 minutes. As a fan of the Ninja Turtles, however, it's definitely worth a quick look.

Pros: Excellent chiptunes (again, those early era Game Boy games had rockin' soundtracks, how'd they keep doing it!?), and not only the tunes, the sound effects are rad as heck too! Sprite-work is also pretty nice, the Turtles have that iconic 8-bit pixel look to them, better than the GB sequel, I'd say, and the gameplay is... well, pretty satisfying, if not a little straightforward. It reminds me a bit of Kung Fu on NES, where you mostly walk straight and hit enemies as they approach you, and just like that game, I find it cathartic. Each turtle has their own weapon, they all play the same, you can duck and throw shurikens, you jump kick, it all works fine. There's even some hidden bonus areas that are decently fun too.

Cons: Despite the character sprites looking good, they are a little large, everything is a little large, and that, unfortunately takes up screen space, and GB doesn't have a lot of screen space (odd how so many early GB games either had incredibly dinky sprites, or like this game, massive ones!) So you don't get much of a heads up with enemies and obstacles coming ahead towards you. Also, single player only, I know it's an odd complaint for a GB game like this, but when it comes to the turtles, there's always the want to play as them all with friends and family.

What it means to me: This was the TMNT game I probably played the most of when I was a kid, it was just the most accessible. A satisfying well made little game that still had that turtle power DNA within it.

A pesar de que el Game Boy original no ha envejecido muy bien, este juego es bastante competente y busca mas una vibra de Mario 2 + la fórmula beat em up de TMNT.

Minor Introduction
Well we are starting off on a rather simple note. Welcome to the eighth review of the TMNT marathon, courtesy of the cowabunga collection. Now we are onto the gameboy trilogy, a strangely interesting trilogy of games, tackling the formula in their own distinct way…with none of them even being a beat’em’up. I’m more interested in the second and third game, but of course we have to do the first game, so what does it have in store for us? Let’s find out!

First Impressions
I am surprised. I was expecting this little game to just be a poor attempt at a TMNT game on an handheld, but what I got is a surprisingly competent installment instead. It doesn’t do anything remarkably well, but it executes them decently enough that I really didn’t regret checking it out. Due to how short and simple the game is, this review’s length will probably reflect that as well.

Gameplay
The gameplay is less a beat’em’up and more of a basic platformer, since every enemy dies in one-shot, minus the bosses. The controls are painfully basic…which is to be expected from a gameboy game. You have a jump, an attack and movement…that’s pretty much it. The only combination you have is a jump attack and that’s about it. In order to compensate for all the enemies dying in one shot and basic controls, the level design is different to reflect the platformer mindset…and is also pretty decent (and a lot more engaging than the usual beat’em’up level). Each level has their unique environment obstacles to jump through and tackle and the boss fights are also pretty decent. The playtime is the shortest of the games so far, not even clocking 25 minutes on my playthrough, so it doesn’t even overstay its welcome. Overall, decent stuff.

Story
The plot is very run-of-the-mill. April kidnapped, turtles rush to rescue her, the usual environments, technodrome climax, krang and shredder beaten, congratulations! Nothing remarkable and it exists solely as an excuse for the game’s existence and nothing else, moving on.

Presentation
The presentation is about what you would expect from a gameboy game of this era. The sprites are decent for the characters and enemies, the animations are basic but good enough to communicate what is happening. Really the most impressive part have to be the background, which actually look pretty good for the era this game was released in. The performance is also smooth and the soundtrack is okay enough. Good job on the presentation side.

Negatives
They all center on three core things: the difficulty, the runtime and…how unremarkable it is. The difficulty doesn’t exist, it is easily the easiest tmnt game and the runtime is ridiculously short. It can combine to make a highly replayable game, but due to how unremarkable it is, I can’t say it will inspire multiple playthroughs.

Final Thoughts
Overall, it is a surprisingly okay installment. Nice level design, gameplay, decent but basic controls, okay bosses, short and sweet playtime. It is very easy though. Pretty impressive for early gameboy, but nothing remarkable outside of that. And I think that “unremarkable” part, in junction with the difficulty and playtime, is why it won’t inspire me to play it more than once. However, due to the playtime, it is atleast worth killing 30 minutes for a quick beat just to get it out of the way. Final rating: 6/10.

Played on January 7th 2023. First GOTX game.

basic and barebones, even for a gameboy game from 1990

Switch Cowabunga Collection

I picked up and completed TMNT: Fall of the Foot Clan for Retro Handhelds’ Retro Bits - #42.

It was a very fun, albeit short, platforming-style game, taking me around 40 minutes (with breaks) to complete. I really enjoyed the graphics, music, pizza, and level design. The controls are a little bit stiff, but still very satisfying.

Technically played via the Cowabunga Collection on Nintendo Switch.

Now here's the kind of game that'll instantly come and very quickly go memory wise - it's those teenage mutant turtle guys who are ninjas and they crave for pizza and they have this rat guy who's their instructor and they're in a never ending fight to stop the Shredder and a bunch of other people who sound vaguely evil and all that.

Yes, it's the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (or Hero Turtles if you just so happened to live in Europe) and boy were they popular back then. And boy were they instantly guaranteed to get everything under the hood like all popular things including - you guessed it, videogames.

Their first foray into Game Boy territory isn't all that bad if slightly aged. It's definitely on the more easier side (although somewhat of a blessing compared to the first NES game) and you'll blast through it all in about half an hour but it's at least an enjoyable half an hour shredding through the enemies (even if there aren't many), watching them jump out from behind to attack you and avoiding all those obstacles.

And even if you sort of forget about the game afterwards, you can always wonder if The Shredder and Kang got vaporized into a milkshake.

Shredder milkshake anyone?

(Completed in TMNT Cowabunga collection on PS5)
I actually think this game is better than Turtles in Time on SNES, obviously the game does not look as good as it was released on the Game Boy compared to the SNES and there are less moves which you can use to defeat the enemies. However, the gameplay did not feel as repetitive and monotonous and this was one of the problems which I had regarding Turtles in Time. Additionally, this game uses the console power to its full ability with the inclusion of cutscenes which shows the developer actually wanted to create a good game rather than simply achieve high sales. Depending on the turltes which you use, it changes the weapon which is admirable as they could have simply used the same turtle since you can't tell the difference due to the graphics being black and white and the turtle which you use it changes the cutscene. Also, its nice that they included the themesong. Overall, I think this game has aged well and even though its short it should definitely be checked out.

you walk forward
you swing sword
sometimes theres a boss that you stunlock and finish in like 10 seconds
do it for like half an hour
thats it thats the game

I guess this is a beat-em-up? I think the closest thing to compare this to would be the 1984 "Ninja Warriors" arcade game, where you're meant to slowly move to the right and methodically attack or dodge the oncoming enemies. It's not inherently terrible, just boring. Some of the spawn points are really irritating too.

Resolvi jogar um game de infancia, lembro que jogava com uma amigo em seu gameboy, pilhas sempre acabavam, bons tempos, fui zerar so agora, quase 20 anos depois, joguinho bom

In my honest opinion, this is a good game to sorta waste your time on. It's extremely easy, simple, and you could beat it in one sitting. Twice, if you're bored. Sure, it's not that big or innovative, but a decent time spender for when you're bored. I actually considered speedrunning this game, but I'm not really built for that kind of gameplay... it was a fun 2 days at least.

honestly i was gonna write this up saying the game was meh but the more i thought about it the game actually is pretty good! music is great, backgrounds look great and the action is fun. not a huge tmnt fan but i liked this so maybe i'll check it out again

6/10

le di 2 estrellas no porque fuera un cancer inoperable

es solo que es demasiado simple, todas las tortugas se sienten igual (se que eso pasa en otros juegos pero aca se nota mas hasta en las animaciones, mueven la mano igual excepto que cambia el arma), los jefes son tambien muy simples y faciles, la musica esta regular, los escenarios no son bellos, solo... ... meh

incluso si esto buscara ser de esos juegos de puntuacion infinita (porque durante mucho tiempo estaras matando enemigos y acumulando puntaje) estaria meh

esto solo te entretendra si estas muy aburrido en una tarde, recien se pone tenso en la parte final

repito, no es que tenga un problema horrible, es solo que no hay nada realmente interesante en esto

A fairly simplistic beat ‘em up that isn’t particularly difficult but also doesn’t overstay its welcome.

Very simple game for the early gameboy. Decent music and controls. Good for younger players, only 5 stages so anyone could plow through this one is about 20 minutes. Decent

Meh
Incredibly mindless, even with the bosses. At least the graphics and music are alright.


It's mega short and really good practice for other games with high emphasis on directional combat priority like Metal Slug or Contra. Fall of the Foot Clan is a quick 2D side-scroller where nearly all enemies die in one hit, boss patterns are extremely basic, and graphics that do a lot with VERY little. It's not going to blow your mind, but if you like the genre it'll make you smile! If you really loved it? Check out the GB Castlevania titles next for a similar structure with slightly elevated difficulty.

Second GOTW finished for 2023. Hearing Turtles In A Half Shell through a GB was super fun, but otherwise quite boring. Basically just walk forward, hit front or back to one-hit kill enemies, then continue to walk forward. Some light jumping here and there. The bosses were at least something, but could be stunned when hit so many could just be stun-locked into oblivion. At least it only took about 30 minutes.

It was one of my first games back in the day. So there might be some childhood/retro feels biasing me. Replaying it every other 2 or 3 years, now on the Retroid Pocket 2+.

Fun game, which gets harder as it proceeds. Even though maybe around an hour long. With todays helpers like having the possibility to create savegames (like in retroarch) make things even easier.

This was absolute nostalgia! I had this game growing up as a kid and I remember playing it a lot and getting to maybe stage 2. The game actually isn't really that hard, it just took patience to move and stop so you don't get hit by flying foot soldiers from off screen. Everything has a pattern and you just need to slow down, learn and take your time. Aside from a very slight weapon length difference, all the turtles play the same for the most part.

The one thing that always stuck out to me about this game was the music. I really love the soundtrack to the game and the sound chip is actually amazing at getting the TMNT theme along just how great the level themes are, even if a few areas repeat the same music, but it still fits and is spread out far enough.

This was such a trill playing this game after sooo many years.