Replayed on the Cowabunga Collection in multiplayer, along with a single-player run of the NES port.
One of the earliest memories I have is of my mother setting me on the kitchen counter and then running to the other room to grab the phone. I was left unattended only for a few precious moments, but it was enough for me to pull a couple of very sharp knives out of the butcher block and begin clanging them together right in front of my face.
"What are you doing!?" I remember my mom yelling as she came back in the room.
"I'mma Ninja Turtle!" I shouted back.
Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game was made for kids like me, who were dangerously obsessed with the brand, and who had parents negligent enough to drop them off at the arcade with a roll of quarters while they went shopping as they were to leave them near a set of butcher knives. This wasn't just any arcade game, it was the arcade game, and I was there on a mandate to kick shell. I must kick shell.
This might be the most prolific cabinet I've ever seen in my life. Every pizza place, movie theater, and dedicated arcade from my childhood had one. I didn't have to go very far if I wanted to play it, and I've probably dumped a grotesque amount of my mom's money into these cabinets over the years. It's even easier to play it now days thanks to its rerelease on the Cowabunga Collection, or via MAME, both of which allow you to drop quarters without having to dive into your pocket, a veritable "cowabunga button." This also allows you to effective side-step the game's difficulty, which is entirely based around draining you of all your money. Bosses take cheap shots, enemies jump in from off screen to catch you mid-attack, and stage hazards pop in without warning to bleed you of your health and change. That's just the way these things were built, and if someone told me they hated this game for any of those reasons, I'd find that entirely fair. I recognize that my history with this game runs deep, I'm willing to cut it more slack than what most would find reasonable.
I can't say the same about the NES version, which is so rotten that it breaks through the veneer of nostalgia like a sledgehammer. Back in 1990, this game served a function, it was the end result of the dark transaction you made to play Ninja Turtles in the comfort of your own home. Fluid controls, graphics, and sound were traded for leisure. You can't pull off combos because foot soldiers are able to recover a millisecond after taking a hit and pop you in the face, the turtles all move like tanks, and the clumsy controls and overall poor design ends up making the game more difficult than its arcade counterpart. No one in their right mind preferred this port, they tolerated it, and considering how easy it is today to play the arcade original at home, the NES Ninja Turtles only has worth as a curiosity of a bygone era.
I'm giving Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game a solid 4/5, and the NES Ninja Turtles 2 like, a 1. Cowabungo .
One of the earliest memories I have is of my mother setting me on the kitchen counter and then running to the other room to grab the phone. I was left unattended only for a few precious moments, but it was enough for me to pull a couple of very sharp knives out of the butcher block and begin clanging them together right in front of my face.
"What are you doing!?" I remember my mom yelling as she came back in the room.
"I'mma Ninja Turtle!" I shouted back.
Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game was made for kids like me, who were dangerously obsessed with the brand, and who had parents negligent enough to drop them off at the arcade with a roll of quarters while they went shopping as they were to leave them near a set of butcher knives. This wasn't just any arcade game, it was the arcade game, and I was there on a mandate to kick shell. I must kick shell.
This might be the most prolific cabinet I've ever seen in my life. Every pizza place, movie theater, and dedicated arcade from my childhood had one. I didn't have to go very far if I wanted to play it, and I've probably dumped a grotesque amount of my mom's money into these cabinets over the years. It's even easier to play it now days thanks to its rerelease on the Cowabunga Collection, or via MAME, both of which allow you to drop quarters without having to dive into your pocket, a veritable "cowabunga button." This also allows you to effective side-step the game's difficulty, which is entirely based around draining you of all your money. Bosses take cheap shots, enemies jump in from off screen to catch you mid-attack, and stage hazards pop in without warning to bleed you of your health and change. That's just the way these things were built, and if someone told me they hated this game for any of those reasons, I'd find that entirely fair. I recognize that my history with this game runs deep, I'm willing to cut it more slack than what most would find reasonable.
I can't say the same about the NES version, which is so rotten that it breaks through the veneer of nostalgia like a sledgehammer. Back in 1990, this game served a function, it was the end result of the dark transaction you made to play Ninja Turtles in the comfort of your own home. Fluid controls, graphics, and sound were traded for leisure. You can't pull off combos because foot soldiers are able to recover a millisecond after taking a hit and pop you in the face, the turtles all move like tanks, and the clumsy controls and overall poor design ends up making the game more difficult than its arcade counterpart. No one in their right mind preferred this port, they tolerated it, and considering how easy it is today to play the arcade original at home, the NES Ninja Turtles only has worth as a curiosity of a bygone era.
I'm giving Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game a solid 4/5, and the NES Ninja Turtles 2 like, a 1. Cowabungo .