Replayed this not only on The Cowabunga Collection but again on a reproduction cart, because my brain is SMOOTH as SHIT for HYPERSTONE HEIST
Modern multiplatform games share a certain sense of unity between versions, often differentiated by performance rather than features. In the 16-bit era, having the "same" game on different consoles usually meant jumping into a radically different experience depending on your preferred platform. Tournament Fighters (which I've reviewed every version of) is an excellent example of this, but so too is TMNT: The Hyperstone Heist, which is ostensibly the Genesis' own version of Turtles in Time. Except it's not. Although it sort of it, but not really, but sometimes it's like it but it's also it's own thing. That kind sounds a little stupid, I mean I think, it's also cool though. Like, it's Turtles in Time but there's a Hyperstone, you know what I mean?
The Hyperstone Heist reuses a lot of elements from Turtles in Time, including some bosses, levels, and just the general design of everything from the Foot soldiers to the Turtles themselves. However, rather than settling for a deeply compromised yet otherwise faithful port of that game, Konami took those elements and went for something more akin to a remix. Take Sewer Surfin. Rather than going through this level on hoverboards, you're on foot, and it's now the first level instead of the third. Or the pirate ship from Turtles in Time, now a ghost ship the Foot have control of, which you board after a hoverboard section on the ocean (similar to the surfing level in Manhattan Project leading the player to the submarine.)
That's not to say The Hyperstone Heist is without anything bespoke, you get to fight Tatsu during a visit to the Foot Clan's dojo among other things, but it's like they used the super baby method to make these things and Hyperstone got all the recessive genes.
It's an anecdotal observation, but back in the earlier days of console gaming, you were either a Nintendo household, or Sega. It was rare for anyone to have the luxury of enjoying both. We had a Sega Genesis, so I had to hang out at a friend's house if I wanted to play Super Nintendo games. It's not like I didn't play my fair share of the SNES version of Turtles in Time, but if I was playing a Ninja Turtles game in the comfort of my own room, it was The Hyperstone Heist. I have just as much nostalgia for this as I do the other Turtles beat-em-ups, but it's also a very different kind of nostalgia, because even then I recognized that it was this chimera of other things that I liked, yet it had a very unique identity despite that. I've always liked that about it. It's why instead of trying to get a SNES and a copy of Turtles in Time I bought a repro of Hyperstone to play on my CRT, because that is what I'm more nostalgic for.
Maybe that bias is playing a factor, but I think The Hyperstone Heist stands up pretty well next to Turtles in Time, an opinion that's been reenforced after replaying all of these games back-to-back twice within the last two years. It feels just as good, the soundtrack remains excellent and in some places benefits from the more grungy sound of the Yamaha YM2612, and though the colors pallets are all around darker, it still exudes the same style and charm of the other Turtles games. Yeah it might be a bit shorter at only five levels (though each level is much longer than what's typical for these games), and one of them features a boss rush (the bosses thankfully aren't that hard), but it's still a really fun game, and easily one of my favorite beat-em-ups. I don't care what anyone thinks, I'll go up to the plate for Hyperstone Heist every single time.
Modern multiplatform games share a certain sense of unity between versions, often differentiated by performance rather than features. In the 16-bit era, having the "same" game on different consoles usually meant jumping into a radically different experience depending on your preferred platform. Tournament Fighters (which I've reviewed every version of) is an excellent example of this, but so too is TMNT: The Hyperstone Heist, which is ostensibly the Genesis' own version of Turtles in Time. Except it's not. Although it sort of it, but not really, but sometimes it's like it but it's also it's own thing. That kind sounds a little stupid, I mean I think, it's also cool though. Like, it's Turtles in Time but there's a Hyperstone, you know what I mean?
The Hyperstone Heist reuses a lot of elements from Turtles in Time, including some bosses, levels, and just the general design of everything from the Foot soldiers to the Turtles themselves. However, rather than settling for a deeply compromised yet otherwise faithful port of that game, Konami took those elements and went for something more akin to a remix. Take Sewer Surfin. Rather than going through this level on hoverboards, you're on foot, and it's now the first level instead of the third. Or the pirate ship from Turtles in Time, now a ghost ship the Foot have control of, which you board after a hoverboard section on the ocean (similar to the surfing level in Manhattan Project leading the player to the submarine.)
That's not to say The Hyperstone Heist is without anything bespoke, you get to fight Tatsu during a visit to the Foot Clan's dojo among other things, but it's like they used the super baby method to make these things and Hyperstone got all the recessive genes.
It's an anecdotal observation, but back in the earlier days of console gaming, you were either a Nintendo household, or Sega. It was rare for anyone to have the luxury of enjoying both. We had a Sega Genesis, so I had to hang out at a friend's house if I wanted to play Super Nintendo games. It's not like I didn't play my fair share of the SNES version of Turtles in Time, but if I was playing a Ninja Turtles game in the comfort of my own room, it was The Hyperstone Heist. I have just as much nostalgia for this as I do the other Turtles beat-em-ups, but it's also a very different kind of nostalgia, because even then I recognized that it was this chimera of other things that I liked, yet it had a very unique identity despite that. I've always liked that about it. It's why instead of trying to get a SNES and a copy of Turtles in Time I bought a repro of Hyperstone to play on my CRT, because that is what I'm more nostalgic for.
Maybe that bias is playing a factor, but I think The Hyperstone Heist stands up pretty well next to Turtles in Time, an opinion that's been reenforced after replaying all of these games back-to-back twice within the last two years. It feels just as good, the soundtrack remains excellent and in some places benefits from the more grungy sound of the Yamaha YM2612, and though the colors pallets are all around darker, it still exudes the same style and charm of the other Turtles games. Yeah it might be a bit shorter at only five levels (though each level is much longer than what's typical for these games), and one of them features a boss rush (the bosses thankfully aren't that hard), but it's still a really fun game, and easily one of my favorite beat-em-ups. I don't care what anyone thinks, I'll go up to the plate for Hyperstone Heist every single time.